Sunday, January 31, 2021

Darkness Can Hide Danger

 In the winter our normal feeding times end up happening in the dark most days. This can present some challenges because even with a flashlight we aren't seeing as well as we would during the light of day.

The other day we almost missed some fox tails in the bales of hay we were feeding our horses. Some animals like cattle (cows) and most goats are fine with fox tails, but horses are pretty "picky" and their mouths are sensitive.

This is a reminder to check over the hay each day before passing the food around. The last bale was fine, but fox tails are extremely difficult to prevent entirely while growing the hay and may be missed during the baling process.

Once the horse gets the fox tails, they may not eat as quickly as usual or they may stop eating all together. The fox tails can prick their gums or tongue causing pain and keep them from wanting to eat at all. An additional issue with this is that even if they only get one serving of hay with fox tails, if the fox tails remain in their gums or tongue (unnoticed by the owner) they might continue not eating for days on end. So keep an eye open.

Here's a picture of the hay we found with fox tails. Can you see them?



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