Advise on choke

[welshies]

My poor baby shire choked last night! Luckily i arrived while it was happening but don't know how long it had been going on. I called the vet straight away, wasn't sure if it was a bee sting in him mouth at first as it was so bizzare and the scaryest thing i have ever seen and don't want to go through it again (even scareier when he went in him stable and lay down)! He managed to recover after about 20 mins just before the vet arrived. She gave him a buscopan injection just to be on the safe side and look his temperature, which was up. I stayed with him for about an hour after and he seemed ok just sleepy, and was nibbling at the grass. I wnet back late last night to check him and he seemed fine, just very clingy, and he had eaten his dinner (sugarbeet and just grass). My mom went to sort them this moring and he was lay down and it took her ages to get him up, and he was still very hot. He was also very reluctant to leave the other horses. mmy question is do you think the drowseyness (he is a big sleepy dope anyway) is due to the injection? and is there anything esle i should do? in all the years around horse i have never experienced this. Help much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Brandy]

Full on choke is the scariest thing in the world, one of mine had it years ago now and has had a couple of minor incidents since then which have panicked me.

I'm not sure if the injection would make him drowsy, maybe he's just knackered/traumatised?

Sorry not much help but know how scary it can be.

 

[kerilli]

it's a nightmare, one of mine managed to have it three weeks running. i'm not sure whether yesterday's buscopan would be that long-lasting in effect, might be worth chatting to your vet about it just in case.
i'd give him very sloppy feeds from now on, i give mine soupy feeds and she's not had it for years now.

 

[sonjafoers]

Hi, sorry to hear about your horse. It really is horrible to see isn't it and just as scary for us as it is for them.

My old horse had choke twice & was tubed by the vet both times, and after each episode he was very quite & off colour for a few days. However he never had any injections so I'm not sure what the effect of that would be, I would ring the vet as kerilli says because you need to just check it out.

Other than that the advice to me was to always feed very wet feed, and never to feed hay without soaking it.

 

[Sarah1]

I suppose the buscopan could still be in his system but whetehr it would still be causing side effects I'm not sure - he could perhaps have had a bit of a reaction to it maybe? Might be worth ringing the vet just to check in with them so they are aware?
Just as an add on - some vets will recommend lungeing a horse with choke, pushing them straight into a fast trot can sometimes dislodge the blockage. Never done it with one of mine tho (only had an old pony choke once anyway).