Choking in horse

Colleen_Miss_Tom

Colleen_Miss_Tom

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Not long in from Feeding Geegees , Was just brushing up the barn when I heard coughing and went and looking into missys stable and she was standing at the back of the stable , with her head lowered and looked to be gasping , she had bubbling saliva coming out of her nose and mouth . I didnt know what to do at first
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... Felt for any lumps in her throat and first reaction was to slap her back
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and rub at her throat to dislodge anything that might have been stuck , watched her which was horrible , The other livery was there luckly and asked her to come have a look , we watched her and she eventually brought up more saliva with bits of mix in it
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.

Stayed another 20 mins and watched her , took out the majority of her hard feed for the night , she seemed ok when I left , will check on her in an hours time .

What do you do if your horse chokes ??
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Made me feel totally useless and was scared to say the least
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try to keep her calm and keep her head low. i always call the vet, tbh, unless it clears in less than 10 mins. if you've got any sedalin around, give her a bit of that, if you really really don't want to call the vet.
it can cause pneumonia if they aspirate any bits of food into their lungs, so i'd keep a close eye on her for a day or two.
 
It did clear pretty quickly I would say 10 mins , she went back to eating her hard feed ..... She wasnt her bubbly self but perked up enough for me to know that she was ok if you know what I mean ?? I was going to call the vet but she seemed to come around again , Going out shortly to check on her again so will see how she is then .

She was relatively calm and kept her head low herself anyways which obviously helped .

Will update when I see her again .
Thanks x
 
You did right feeling for a lump, if it is present massage it. Keep the horse calm which might require walking.

I personally would take away all feed (including hay) for the night, the horse likely damaged her throat which could cause a reoccurance of choke. I would have personally called the vet -
 
Please get the vet to check it out as my pony had a choke 5 yrs ago and we lost her to pneumonia even though she was treated by the vet. It is very rare from them to die apparently he had only had 2 in 30 yrs of being a vet
 
It is a really scary thing isn't it! It happened to my horse not long after I'd bought him. He looked awful with green saliva coming out from his nose and mouth.
After a few minutes he was fine and went back to grazing normally. I spoke to my friend's son who was a vet who said if it cleared quickly not to worry as I wasn't sure whether I should call the vet or not. He said it usually looks much worse than it is.
 
You have had a warning from the events this evening.

In future feed NO dry food at all, make sure all feeds are very sloppy and well soaked. Your horse will be more vulnerable for the next couple of days as the throat will be sore.
 
It does depend on how bad it is - my old mare got it really badly once, and couldn't clear it herself so we called the vet. He had to sedate her and stick a tube down. But her son just had a mild bout once, cleared it himself in a few minutes so i didn't call the vet. I do always damp his feed now but think it was also because he bolted his feed.
 
i syringe oil down their throats when they are choking and feel for the lump.

i was told to do this by my vet and it seems to work.

i always feed sopping wet feeds though and try not to feed chaff to any youngsters i know are teething as chaff seems to enhance the chances.

i call the vet when i find it to inform them and if still doing it 5 mins later i call them out
 
Well came back from the yard around 10 , took out all of her hay even though she was acting just as normal , she had been drinking which I think is a good sign , and was having a wee when I arrived , has pooed all fine that way .

Rang my vet while I was out and explained to them how she was and what had happened etc .

She was her normal self again , So vet going to come out tomorrow morning and possibly adminster some antibiotics to be on the safe side .
For now Im happier with her to not see the vet tonight .
Vet will be out first thing in the morning to check on her .

The_watcher I was thinking this after it happened , from now on she will be getting sloppy food , I normally like any of my horses that I have had to have wet/moist food but its typical when you dont thats when an incident is going to occur .


To be honest I dont think she had enough to cause any damage , But I will like I said have the vet check it out .
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It is always best to speak to the vet - if they do not think it is necessary they will tell. When I owned my own horses I would call the vet and be like this is what I see what should we do, they were very responsive to it. I had the I will leave in 5 minutes, to the if it is not better in 3 days call me back. Now with the race horses you called the vet, for anything and if it was an emergency they were there in 3 minutes, if it was not they were there in 10.

Choke can cause damage very easily - it really would not take a lot for it to do so. If it happens badly or more than once, you can end up having to starve a horse for a week to let it heal properly, which is a royal pain and not very fun for the horse.

The way I look at it, you can spend a hundred pounds or so tomorrow to have the horse looked at, if it is fine GREAT, but if it is not you will be saving yourself a thousand dollar vet bill when it gets worse.
 
GTs I understand what you are saying , She is fine like I said had the vet out with her this morning and she is fine , She looked fine before she even came out, but as my vet knows me pretty well , she left it up to me whether or not to come out .

Her temp was normal and her lungs sounded fine , her throat didnt didnt seem to be bothering her , and her nose wasnt running, she was more interested in trying to get to the feedbin , was not impressed when she didnt get any hardfeed and kept wondering into the corner where her corner unit is .

Overall vet was happy just to let her be , I knew from my second visit last night that she was ok but I know it is better to be safe than sorry .

Panic over .
 
vicki_krystal, you absolutely mustn't syringe oil in them, honestly. i used to do this (as recommended by vet years ago) but when my youngster had choke a few months ago and i got the vet out and mentioned that i'd tried to syringe oil down and failed (she wasn't having any of it) the vet was very relieved... the blockage in the oesophagus can stop the oil going to the their stomach, and if so it can go into their lungs (they can breathe okay when they have choke, so the airway obv isn't obstructed.) oil in the lungs is invariable fatal and there's nothing the vets can do for it, i was told.
 
I have always assumed (wrongly, apparently) that everyone on here reads the Horse & Hound magazine every week. There was a very good article about choking and how to treat it in this week's issue.

I strongly recommend taking this mag. as it covers so many subjects which most of the 'help!' questions on here relate to!!!
 
Please don’t syringe anything down !!!
If it goes down the right way it may well help shift thing, but if it goes into the lungs you could kill your horse.
 
I agree with the_watcher..... do not feed dry feeds at all..... one of my horses had choke once, after munching through his dinner of mix and dry chaff!!! and ultimately started to choke, luckily I managed to clear it by rubbing the throat.... but since that day, none of my horses have dry feed!
 
[ QUOTE ]
I have always assumed (wrongly, apparently) that everyone on here reads the Horse & Hound magazine every week. There was a very good article about choking and how to treat it in this week's issue.

I strongly recommend taking this mag. as it covers so many subjects which most of the 'help!' questions on here relate to!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Shock horror I dont get the horse and hound every time
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But I will have a look
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