[Gpdd] HEALTH - Hay and poked eyes

[warmbreath at comcast.net]

I am skeptical about a hay ball or hay rack or anything that puts hay at eye 
level. A swinging or rolling appliance makes me especially nervous cause it 
can come on the piggy suddenly hay stick first.  The major cause of eye 
pokes is bad hay. And most of it is, by that I mean it has some to many 
strands that are stiff and not supple. So I go thru every bit of hay that 
Sammy gets and put it on the floor of his cage and kind of smooth it out to 
be sure nothing is sticking up.  The only hay I ever got that never had a 
problem was when I bought it by the bale at the feed store. Everything 
packaged has stiff stuff in it, and if any one can tell me a brand where 
this isn't the case please post it. I have had it with the West coast Sweet 
Meadow, Oxbow, and of course Kaytee, With Kaytee I throw away about half, or 
compost it. Besides that the piggies cant eat the stiff stuff, its just 
junk, usually overripe as you can tell from completely mature seed heads, it 
wouldn't even get fed to horses, and they package it for our tiny babies.

So Sammy gets his hay by the handful checked before it goes in and after, by 
now he's used to me rummaging in his hay while he wants to dive in, but I am 
just compelled.to check the hay. His older adopted bro, Manny the Boar had 
an eye ulcer when I checked him into the vet with his sudden pneumonia, and 
I couldn't even see it. So that's why I'm so protective. Sorry to disagree, 
this is just my experience with hay. Sandy and Shipwreck Sam