Choke - first experience last night! Will it lead to anything?

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shmoo

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Hi,

Exactly as thread title. Horsey was fine one moment, scarfed some hay then just stood with a thousand yard stare. Then began the dribbling, tongue came out the side of her mouth, looked like she was heaving, hacked up a hay ball. I fished around and pulled out some more hay-goo.

I was immediately on the phone to the vet, and the upshot was she was fine.

I've never seen this before and it frightened me half to death, then left me not knowing what to feel because she seemed perfectly alright within half an hour?

Do these episodes lead to anything? I have no idea and need experienced advice.

Having a bad run of it at the moment...

Thanks V much :)
 
Your horse will probably have a sore throat for a few days - but that should be it.

When were his teeth last done??
 
Most cases of choke are better within 1/2 an hour, then the horse is back to normal. It can happen again, but dont worry about it.
 
Teeth - She isn't quite due yet, but I was going to call today on the advice of the vet. She said they sometimes won't chew properly if their teeth are sharp.

Guess I'll notch it up to experience..
 
shmoo said:
Teeth - She isn't quite due yet, but I was going to call today on the advice of the vet. She said they sometimes won't chew properly if their teeth are sharp.

Guess I'll notch it up to experience..
Click to expand...

Yes, definitely worth bringing the appointment forward.
 
It can be very frightening for those watching but choke is usually not serious for the horse. You did the right thing checking with your vet but it is quite rare that the horse actually needs a vet visit. If the horse hasn't had teeth done for a while it might be worth booking the dentist soon but actually I think horses probably have short choke episodes while no-one's watching more often than we think. Your horse will be fine now.
 
Choke is scary my horse had it when he was very young, luckily vet was with us within 15 minutes, might be worth getting the horses teeth checked sometimes it can be caused by not being able to chew food properly, eating dry hay can sometimes cause it with some horses.
 
Don't worry, as others have said most return to normal and most try stuffing themselves again fairly quickly.

I have seen a lot over the years. One was an habitual choker and I went to great lengths to keep him safe. His feed was always sloppy, not nuts unless soaked well and it was fed in a very large flat feeder with huge smooth stones put in with the feed. He had to push the stones around to nibble at the feed that was very thinly spread over the base of the feeder. This prevented him stuffing all of his face into a deep bucket and taking the biggest mouthful manageable - his favourite trick and if allowed to do this he would just swallow and choke.

Hay was well soaked and double netted, haylage double netted. He lived until he was 28 but probably choked 6 plus times a year. Rarely needed vet attention, but was tubed a very times.

A very recent episode was with a older gutsy mare, who grabbed a mouthful of dry hay off a big bale as she came through the barn and then screamed to another horse as she began chewing it. Whole lot went the wrong way and turned into protracted vet job. Good hour of tubing, anti b's and a rather off colour horse for a day or two.

My advice to anyone with a choker, or any horse that is prone to be a quicker feeder or anxious feeding around other horses, would be to never bucket feed in close proximity of one another, in the field. This can cause competitive feeding and result in the food being swallowed too quickly.
 
Our horse choked many years ago and has never choked again since, wolfed his food down and got stuck had to get the vet out to clear the blockage was fine bar a sore throat
 
Also watch out for any signs of a cough, as they choke they produce extra 'spit' and fluid to help clear the obstruction, and some of this can end up in the lungs and cause a bit of an infection. So if there's any coughing or nasty looking phlegm then you might need some antibiotics xxx
 
Same thing happened to my boy, he was fine after but I now wet his hay and dinner to make sure it doesn't expand when swallowed.
 
Choke is very scary. My old mare had two episodes this winter. first one cleared itself, the second needed an out of hours call out and tubing. On the second occasion she was producing huge amounts of slobber, the floor was swimming in mucus. She had to have painkillers, anti inflams and anti bios's.

We put hers down to the fact that she seems to be going down the pecking order and rushed her food for fear of it being swiped. As a precaution she is now fed separately to the others and her food is now soaked to a mush.
 
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