On February 18, 2009 we had to make the extremely difficult decision to euthanize Fantacy and two of our other horses. We acquired haylage on February 5th and were promised it was safe for horses. Perhaps they didn't know, and we certainly should have researched it ourselves. Our girls became extremely ill on the 16th and could not be saved despite our vet's best efforts. The diagnosis: botulism, a bacteria which they ingested via the haylage. Please research botulism and haylage, and think twice before you feed anything but good clean grass hay to your horses. Botulism is most often fatal, and in the case of our girls, no amount of money or extent of treatment would have saved them. Losing these girls has been extremely devastating, as anyone could imagine. There will always be a hole in our hearts, but if we can use our experience to help educate others and spread awareness, perhaps the girls' deaths won't be in vain.
Click here for a very good webpage regarding botulism.