Dusty Hay. Any suggestions?

[MoxieMeadows]

So when we moved, I pretty much just stuffed most of Moxie’s hay into bags. Well most of it got all crunched and dusty.

Whenever I give her hay or she goes to eat it she starts to sneeze(she’s perfectly normal/healthy otherwise). So I started shaking out her hay before I gave it to her and misting it a bit, and removing it and adding new hay every few hours if she hasn’t eaten it already. It dramatically reduced her sneezing which I’m so relieved and happy about!

But there are still the odd sneezes now and again when she eats her hay, and it honestly freaks me out. I have a mini panic attack that she could be choking(I don’t know why, it’s a sneeze for goodness sake!), and I’ll come running, no matter the time, it could be 3 in the morning. Does anybody have any tips on getting rid of the dust on the hay? If I can’t get the dust to go away I’m just going to have to deal with my loses and replace it all. Which I have no problem about, but I’d hate to see all that hay go to waste. (It is a lot of hay, almost 2 bales worth.)

Well, thank you all in advance for the opinions!

[hportland]

Hmm, what you could do is take the bag of hay and shake it in a sideways rocking motion very well. That could help the hay go to the bottom? But it sounds like what you’re doing will work the best (shaking and misting it). What you could also do is, whenever you refill her hay supply, take the trough/bowl/whatever you use and just let it settle somewhere that she can’t get to it from. Putting it down by her is what is stirring up the dust, so you could just let it sit for a minute away from her.
Good luck!

[MoxieMeadows]

Thanks hportland.

[Author]

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