grass hay

[Celeste Comfort <cccomfort@yahoo.com>]

This is really weird, but has anyone ever had their
horse develop inflamed gums from grass hay?  My two
horse and a friends started on a all grass hay diet
about 6 months ago, and all four had inflamed gums
that the vet says is a result of the grass hay having
small hairs that get under the gums and irritated it. 
At first when we first notice it, he said that we
should brush their teeth a few times a week and as
time went by they should get used to the hay and and
the inflammation would go away.  Did it for a month
and all was well. Anyway I check my new girl day
before yesterday because she looked like she sored her
lips on something, and sure enough she had inflamed
gums again and had rubbed her top and bottom lip raw. 
So I checked the rest of the gang, and they had it
again to.  Now I took her to the vet again, and he
says the same thing, but he also said maybe they would
never get used to it and I would have to brush their
teeth everyday as long as we were on the grass hay. 
He also thought that she had hurt her lips by trying
to rub off the stuff that was stuck under her gums.  I
don't know about that.  This is one big drag!  My
girls look at me like I've lost my mind if you think
your going to stick that thing in my mouth!!
Not only is it stressing them, but I'm a mess when we
get through to.  The barn that I'm at only feeds
alfalfa and grass hay, so I'm kinda stuck.  I really
don't want to go back to alfalfa, but brushing my
girls teeth everyday doesn't look to good either.  I
also wonder if the front teeth are looking so bad,
what's going on with the back teeth?  There's no way
I'm going to be able to brush those!  I'm just about
at wits end with all this, you think your doing
something good and you end up make another problem. 
Thanks for listening.
Celeste
(still brushing teeth) 

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