Disastrous day - Some questions about choke and feeding haylage

kellybee

kellybee

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Tonight I brought Ollie in to tack up for a hack, threw some hay over his door whilst I skipped out the stables and turned around to find him gulping and tensing his neck. He had choke pretty bad - to the point where he was hacking up green snotty fluid within 5 minutes, and sweating heavily. He got down on the floor and as I pulled my phone out of my pocket to ring the vet I managed to drop it in his water bucket *sigh*, *dont panic*. Thankfully my BF was already on his way but I can't think of a worse time for my phone to be dead - we have our own land and as such I was completely alone.

Thankfully, he decided being on the floor wasn't any more comfortable than being up on his feet and he was only down for a minute or two. So, whilst walking him round the yard waiting for Dan it cleared but this isn't the first time it's happened. I've had him since December, and last time was towards the end of winter. I think it's the dry hay (I usually wet it in a very large bucket to flush out the dust), but I'm wondering can Choke be recurrent in some horses? I wanted to put him on haylage this winter after a hard time keeping weight on him last year.

What are the chances of him getting it again on haylage? Can you wet haylage?? Or should it be fed straight from the bale? In 25yrs of owniing horses I've never used it before!
 
I'm sorry to hear this, I think haylage would be better if he'd done it twice in less than a year!

my mare got choke about 5 or 6 years ago from some dusty had that was left in a stable that I had her in just to change her rug, so I always make sure I feed her good quality hay now! if it seems a bit dusty I will soak it just in case

and about 2 years ago she got the worst choke ever when a friend of mine fed her for me, I can only assume that she didn't wet the food enough and it got wedged in her throat, she was so bad, I honestly believe she was minutes away from death, muscles shaking violently! so now I make sure that she has a mash type feed, allen and page soaked feed but really sloppy!

I've never fed haylage as a main feed, only used if its really cold for some extra calories but I don't think you'd need to wet it, its very moist anyway!
 
Thanks, i feed it to my boss's two horses every day, but sometimes its almost sticky so i did wonder! Much appreciated thanks :)
 
im sure its find sticky, as long as its fully soaked it will be fine as theres no dry bits to choke on! I like to make it more soup like, but I do put high fi in it too, so need to make sure that's really damp too!!
 
Ps: my hay is coarse and not generally dusty at all, but my appy had a cough a few winters ago so i always wet my hay out of habit more than anything. Except tonight it was only a handful to keep him occupied whilst i skipped the ponies out
 
It isn't pleasant is it. Our old TB seems to do this if fed certain feedstuffs. My pony did this a lot when I first got him as well (many moons ago!). Essentially he is/was a pig when it comes to food and especially hay. He used to generally choke on hay more than anything else. I think once you know what the general cause is it's a lot easier - don't give him too much at once. Introduce it slowly. It does sound like he's gobbling more than he should at once - maybe put it in a haynet instead (unless you'd already done that?!). they do generally clear it themselves and, with feed that you know is going to soften I don't tend to get worried too much.
 
First thing to do is have his teeth checked - if they are sharp then that can be a cause of them choking as they don't chew properly.
Any chaff/hard feed make sure that you damp it down well and same for any dusty hay.
Otherwise if he is choking repeatedly then have the vet come and see whats going on as they can have problems with their throat which makes them more prone so it can be worth scoping them.
 
mine choked yesterday too, thankfully only minor and was fine after about 10mins but its horrible to watch - i don't have much to offer as mine has only done it a couple of times and always with feed, despite it always being on the damp-wet side! didn't even know they could get it with hay - always thought it was when they bolted their feeds. but as others i would advise getting teeth done - one time when mine choked quite bad the vet put her on some sort of anti b i think incase she'd scratched the lining of her throat or something
 
I have to double net my hay, never feed mollichop and ensure feed is very wet and ( not soaked night before ) since a strict regime I have not had any further problems.
 
re teeth - my mare started choking a month or so back and she was doing it several times a week on a variety of things, she had her teeth done and she stopped right away. I'm very paranoid about choke as I nearly lost Roo last year as she had a very bad choke and ended up with aspiration pneumonia.
 
Thanks guys, the dentist is already booked for i think the 15th august. Will ask the vet if he needs antibiotics tomorrow too. He does tend to bolt his feeds but has soaked grass nuts with a mug of micronised linseed and i always make sure its mushy.
 
kellybee said:
Thanks guys, the dentist is already booked for i think the 15th august. Will ask the vet if he needs antibiotics tomorrow too. He does tend to bolt his feeds but has soaked grass nuts with a mug of micronised linseed and i always make sure its mushy.
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We found that our elderly cob choked if she didn't have enough chaff with her soaked grassnuts.
 
Thankfully it seems to just be his hay. He troughs down his feed if i feed in the field - my shetland will steal it otherwise but i tend to feed in the stables as a result and its never happened with feed so not too worried about that, more his winter forage
 
kerrieberry2 said:
im sure its find sticky, as long as its fully soaked it will be fine as theres no dry bits to choke on! I like to make it more soup like, but I do put high fi in it too, so need to make sure that's really damp too!!
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Oops, i meant the haylage can be sticky!
 
Sorry to hear your horse choked, it is such a frightening thing to happen.

You could try feeding your hay/haylage in an Eliminet, it has really small holes and it's really hard for them to get at the hay, so it takes them longer to eat and they can't bolt their food.

KM Elite now do a copy of the Eliminet, which is very good and slightly cheaper. x
 
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