Mouldy hay?

[Cait_lin]

Panicking. I noticed some weird patch of hay in the pigs' cage and when I picked it up it was all stuck together and partially white, with white spots. My brain thought maybe they did a calcium pee on it but it was completely dry. I broke it up a bit and a bunch of dust came off of it. That clump of hay was not there before and none of my bags of hay seem mouldy (about to check them again) but I don't want to risk the piggies getting sick from mould. What should I do?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Just get rid of the hay if it is going mouldy.
Definitely check the other bags.
Check how you are storing the hay. You don’t really want it stored in plastic bags if the room is warm/in sunlight as it’ll sweat and promote mould

 

[Cait_lin]

Air purifier's on and I've vacuumed the part of the cage I found this in. Checked their hay box, checked all of the bags of hay and I can't see any more mould. I've looked at my bag of Oxbow and my bags of Hay Box and it's definitely looks and feels like the Hay Box hay, I just don't know if it was from the Orchard or Timothy.

 

[Cait_lin]

Just get rid of the hay if it is going mouldy.
Definitely check the other bags.
Check how you are storing the hay. You don’t really want it stored in plastic bags if the room is warm/in sunlight as it’ll sweat and promote mould

That's the problem, I don't know which bag it came from, just the brand. One of the bags has only been open about 5 days, the other even less than that. There's no other mould in any of the bags, is it possible that something happened while the hay was in the cage to allow mould to grow?
Usually I store the hay in their original plastic bags and keep the plastic bags inside of the box they came in. But these new bags didn't come in a box so they might be getting too much sunlight. I didn't know that could promote mould, I will definitely find a better way of storing them, thank you

 

[Betsy]

Give the hay a good sniff. It should smell sweet like honey. Your nose is very good at picking up any sour or "off" smells.

 

[Cait_lin]

Give the hay a good sniff. It should smell sweet like honey. Your nose is very good at picking up any sour or "off" smells.

All the hay smells the same as when it arrived earlier this week. But the mouldy hay also had a sweet smell to it so now I don't know. I don't know if there's a way to disinfect the part of the fleece that had the mouldy hay on it or if I need to just swap out the whole liner. I'm being a right pain right now, I just hate that I might have hurt them by not noticing the hay sooner.

 

[Piggies&buns]

If the other bags seem to be ok then to be honest i would perhaps just continue to feed it unless and until you find any more.

You won’t have hurt them, they are unlikely to have eaten any of it.
You can change the fleece if you want to, but there may not be anything to be concerned about if you decide to leave it.

 

[Claire W]

I once had a bag of mouldy hay and there’s no mistaking the smell I really wouldn’t worry. You won’t have hurt them. ‘If’ the bit of hay in the cage was mouldy, they wouldn’t have eaten it. I’d just carry on using the bag of hay and bin it ‘if’ you find anymore x

 

[Cait_lin]

If the other bags seem to be ok then to be honest i would perhaps just continue to feed it unless and until you find any more.

You won’t have hurt them, they are unlikely to have eaten any of it.
You can change the fleece if you want to, but there may not be anything to be concerned about if you decide to leave it.

Thank you so much
I've emptied out the hay box that was next to the mouldy hay, replaced it with a different hay box and filled it with the hay that I know for sure is fine. I've swept up most of the hay around that area and moved the hay box so that it's sitting on top of the spot where I found the clump of hay, just in case the boys decided to go sniffing around that area. I've emptied the good bag of hay into the cardboard box it came in and left the lid slightly open so it can breathe. I'll definitely be getting some sort of bins or tubs for any hay that doesn't come with a box. I'll keep an eye on the hay and chuck it if I see any sign of mould

 

[Cait_lin]

I once had a bag of mouldy hay and there’s no mistaking the smell I really wouldn’t worry. You won’t have hurt them. ‘If’ the bit of hay in the cage was mouldy, they wouldn’t have eaten it. I’d just carry on using the bag of hay and bin it ‘if’ you find anymore x

Thank you so much. My head was just convinced they were going to get sick and I got a bit worked up. I was crying and said to Pumpkin "I don't want you to die", while he just looked back at me like ?
They seem totally chill, they're just happy that they've got some fresh hay