| New research, to be presented at BEVA congress
this September, conducted by the WALTHAM–initiated
Laminitis Consortium, indicates that soaking hay in
summer temperature tap water may allow water-soluble
carbohydrates (WSC) to be leached more effectively,
than from winter temperature tap water, making it
safer to feed to horses and ponies prone to laminitis.
The study supports research carried out last year
that suggested hay soaking in winter tap water may
be an unreliable method.
The Laminitis Consortium comprises world-leading equine
veterinary, nutrition and research experts interested
in collaborating on the important topic of laminitis.
It includes the authors of this work: Dr Annette Longland
of Equine Livestock and Nutrition Services (ELNS),
Dr Pat Harris of the WALTHAM® Equine Studies Group
and Clare Barfoot of SPILLERS® .
It is now well known that feeding forage containing
high levels of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) may
lead to laminitis. Many owners of laminitis-prone
horses and ponies soak their hay in an attempt to
reduce its WSC content, which ideally, it has been
recommended, should be below 10% to make it safe to
feed. However, using cold water can result in a high
variability of leaching among different hays, rendering
the method unreliable in terms of making hay safer
for laminitics.
This work examined several different hay soaking regimens
using four different types of hay. The hay was soaked
at varying initial temperatures (8,16 or 49oC), over
different timescales (1, 3, or 16 hours) and using
a variety of soaking methods. The conclusion was that
soaking hay in water at a temperature of around 16°C
for a period of 16 hours resulted in the greatest
and most consistent loss of WSC. However, even then
the average loss was generally less than 50% of the
original WSC. Some hays in the UK contain more than
200g of WSC per kg of hay, so as pointed out by Clare
Barfoot:
“Despite this exciting new research soaking
hay should always be seen as an additional safeguard
when it comes to feeding laminitis-prone horses and
ponies. It’s crucial to have your hay analysed
before feeding it to an animal at high risk of laminitis
and you should always choose hay with the lowest WSC
content you can find. If in doubt use a forage replacer
to ensure you know exactly what you are providing.”
The Laminitis Consortium is continuing its work in
this area and hopes to be able to identify further
practices that will be of greater benefit to the horse
owner faced with hay of unknown WSC content.
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