Choke horses feed help

[Shettie]

I have a new horse who lives out 24/7, after a kick is now on norodine.

Last night we put the norodine in some happy hoof and horse got choke. Added some calm and condition this morning and made it very wet and horse choked again.

Does anyone have any advise on feeds to help? Horse needs the norodine but worried about choking again. Vet is coming back out to see her but thought I'd ask if anyone has any ideas

 

[Herpesas]

It's quite common for horses to choke again within 48hours of the original epsiode so I wouldn't worry too much. Can you syringe the norodine in water straight into his mouth and then give him a feed straight after? Make sure the feed is sloppy with water to try and encourage the horse to slow down, feed him away from other horses in an environment where he is relaxed. I usually feed really sloppy fast fibre or speedi beet for the first few days after a choke episode (my horse gets it frequently in Autumn).

 

[weebarney]

i find its the chaff that they usually choke on so just try mixing with meds with some sugar beet or something similar rather than stuff that needs chewing.

 

[AmyMay]

I had a horse who used to choke. After a particularly bad episode I ensured all hard feed was soaked for at least 12 hours, and the feed generally fed like soup. Never choked again.

I would also ensure that I fed his hard feed before hay when coming in from the field in the winter.

 

[AdorableAlice]

I had a welsh cob that choked for fun, I managed it by doing the following:-

Use a huge flat bottomed bowl - one of those massive trugs is ideal, or feed from a clean floor, spreading the feed over a large area.

Put a number of very large smooth round stones in bowl, then spinkle a tiny amount of food on the base of the bowl and around the stones. The horse then has to pick small amounts at a time, as he licked the bits up I added another handful until the meal was finished. Time consuming and frustrating but it worked and prevented that awful sight of a distressed horse. My lad used to produce a high pitched scream of pain.

My horse was just a greedy feeder, if he had a normal bucket where he could shove his nose in and take a large mouthful he would just swallow, no chewing at all. I did keep the feed moist, but this was before the days of the soaked complete feeds and he was a hunter, so his base diet was old fashioned bran, oats, chaff and sugarbeet.

They will often choke again after a first episode, they will be sore especially if they were tubed. Personally I would not feed anything other than haylage or soaked hay for 24 hours after a choke session.

 

[oscarwild]

Have a horse who chokes regularly. Well she did until I changed her feed. She is now fed on speedibeet and barley (also very sloppy fed) Barley fed due to a liver issue. It was chaff that makes her choke. So vet advised we removed the chaff from her feed. Ran out of barley and a friend gave me a handful of chaff for one night (feed was sloopy) and she choked again. So I would try feeding the horse speedibeet very sloopy and see how you get on. But you could mix the antibiotics with some water and syringe down her throat.

 

[Horseyjen!]

Do you know when the horse last had his teeth checked as thats usually wlways the reason for choking. I have had two that choke as soon as there teeth needed doing but very wet feeds seemed to help.