horse choke... what did u do.

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nikkinoo

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In all my horsie years (25+). Dont want to give my age away. I have never seen a horse having choke untill recently where there has been 2 on our yard. I dont mean just some food stuck and a cough and they cleared it. I mean a blockage with the saliva/feed mix coming bk out of nose.
Just wondering what your experiences are with dealing with it,
Did u have to call vet. Or did horse clear it themselves.
How long did they have the nose dribble for?
 
call the vet. Mine did it once and vet said that 50% recover themselves, the other 50% she spends all night helping. You don't know which it is going to be.
 
My young horse (just turning 4) has choked a couple of times. Once on his feed and once on a small piece of apple. Very scary with green yuck coming out of his nose. I tried to get him to clear it (about 10 minutes) and just as I was about to call the vet on both occasions, he cleared it himself.
I was aware that it does not affect his breathing unlike humans but it is distressing for all. He was teething at the time. I then had the vet out and there was no detectable problems.
Since then I have watered his food and added 3 large stones to his feed bowl to slow him down. Touch wood it hasn't happened since.
 
I called the vet and regretted it terribly
He arrived without working equipment over sedated my baby horse so he couldnt stand up, shoved a tube up one nostril and broke a blood vessel which made a puddle of blood down that nostril about two feet across on the floor.
As that didnt work he then tried the other nostril and made that bleed badly poor baby was desperately trying to breathe and struggling and snoring through the blood it looked like a slaughter house
He then announced that he normally would wait for the horse to clear it itself and for all this stupidity/incompetence I was charged over £150
OH and I spent the next 5 hours holding him up while the sedation wore off and that is no mean feat with half a ton of baby horse
Vet seemed to think that it would clear itself after all that and to call him back the next day if it didnt and left us to it It took two hours for the bleeding to stop dripping although his nose was bleeding for several days after just enough to crust over his nostril.
I would call a vet after about half an hour now but not that one
 
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I guess it is more useful to post ways to avoid choke.
I ensure my hard feeds are very well watered - like soup ! I also like to let nuts soak up some fluid and soften up before i feed them.
I also make sure the horse can eat undisturbed and quietly without being bothered by others, in my mares case she will bolt her feed if she thinks other horses will get it off her !
Also make sure their teeth are ok so they can chew their feeds properly.
 
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It's always difficult when it is your own horse as well - dealt with it several times on the riding school yard, then when Rosie came back up to norfolk she choked about 4 days after arriving and I just panicked (mainly as she went the whole hog)!

I tend the massage the gullet and down the neck the moment the horse starts choking and this normally gets it clear before it starts coming back up through the nose. If it has got to that stage then it is a case of seeing how it goes, but if still retching after 10 mins then the vet gets a call. They normally recommend stripping out any vaguely edible bed and replacing with cardboard or the like (if you have a horse like mine that eats new shavings), removing hay, making up slops with FF or bran, but if weather and facilities allow they normally recommend turning out to grass as it helps all the stuck feed drain out and stimulates the gullet back into normal peristalsis.
 
Gingersmum said:
I guess it is more useful to post ways to avoid choke.
I ensure my hard feeds are very well watered - like soup ! I also like to let nuts soak up some fluid and soften up before i feed them.
I also make sure the horse can eat undisturbed and quietly without being bothered by others, in my mares case she will bolt her feed if she thinks other horses will get it off her !
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree with this statement I always soak feeds and never feed dry nuts of any kind but we once transported a horse for someone who choked on his hay in the lorry so we now travel everything without hay.
Young lad above was a greedy monkey and snatched a mouthful of nuts out of the bucket while I was walking to the tap for water. I now take water to the feeds not the feeds to the water. You learn something every day with horses
 
Yeah vet was called on one horse as he was sweating and clearly in distress. He was tubed and flushed, he still had some remnents coming out the next day.
I phoned vet on the other one and after speaking to them they were happy to let this particular horse clear it themselves, if im not happy in morning then they will come out. I have just checked on her and she has still got bits coming out, she is alert and not distressed. Just looking sorry 4 herself. Will check her again in hour or so.
 
Rubbed my horses throat/neck from side to side as otherwise I was fighting a wall of muscle, he coughed up what the offending mouthful was, and promptly started chewing it and that was that..
Rubbing the throat up and down just doesn't work as the muscles go into spasm, hence side to side seems to work really well (you really have to rub hard too). (Though in my horses case he'd just bitten off more than he could chew and it got stuck on the way down - dampened ready grass - he hadn't actually inhaled it)

Edited to add, method used may work in both cases.
 
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As I said you now need to soak and make feed up sloppy and add a couple of big stones/rocks.
How old is she ? As quite often it tends to be the younger ones. I found lots of helpful info on the internet. Hopefully its a one off as recurrent choke can cause long term damage.
 
I know someone who told me about a teenage boy on their yard who's horse had choke because he'd given him a dry feed and didn't understand what it was so thought it was funny till someone pointed out how serious it was and got the YM. Apparently the YM turned a hose on and put it in the horses mouth. Not sure if that is an ok thing to do as I've never actually seen a horse choke but it apparently worked and the horse was fine.
Is that an ok thing to do? Sorry if that's a totally stupid question, if it were me I'd have got the vet out straight away because tbh I wouldn't know how to help the horse. I like this thread as it's quite informative on how to help till the vet arrives :)
 
She is 13yrs old and it was all because she ripped a bag of feed that some1 had left outside her stable. It was only feed she had not the bag. I jigsaw pieced it back together to check.
Thats interesting about the hosepipe. Any body know if thats ok to do?
 
When the Old Cob choked, twice, we managed to get it through with massaging her throat. The second time it happened, we thought we may have to get the vet, as it took a while to clear. We make sure that she gets more fibre in a very wet tea these days, which seems to help her to avoid it.
 
Mine has choked a few times. Twice I was able to clear it by massage & keeping her moving. The third hadn't resolved itself after 30 mins so the vet was called. It always looks worse than it is so try not to panic.
 
I have automatically damped feeds for years and didn't have any choke until this summer allowed one pony to eat his alfalfa nuts and balancer dry. He choked and it was v distressing (for both of us) i could not clear it and phoned vet for advice. A friend arrived and agressively massaged/thumped throat much harder than I did and dislodged blockage. It was about 30 mins total. We were all v relieved and will always damp feed in future.
I would advise against using hose if there is any possibility the food causing blockage could swell further making problem worse.
 
My horse has had choke three times (each time caused by grabbing a load of hay before I could stop him). Each time I have rung the vet and each time they told me NOT to rub the neck area as it can damage muscles etc and instead to walk him as fast as I can until it clears. If it diesnt clear they would come out. It has taken between 10-15 mins each time, and he was heaving and bringing Up loads of snot and phlegm. It's hard because he doesn't want to walk so I got a friend to help. As soon as he's recovered he is back to normal straight away.
 
A youngster I had got choke fairly regularly when first back on haylage for the winter. She'd stop eating and start wretching. I always massaged her throat and it seemed to clear after 5 or 10 mins. Never needed to call a vet but then I would have if I thought things weren't easing.
 
One of ours suffered choke last year. The only time it has ever happened. We syringed water down her throat until she managed to swallow it down. Took about 3 big syringes to help lubricate it and move it and it has never happened again since. Possibly not the best thing to do, but in her case it worked.
Think you have to assess each case. Some will require vet intervention and others, like ours, a bit of common sense.
 
My girl choked last year when it was only me in the yard! Such a scary experience!! There was nothing I could do, I called the emergency vet, but by the time they called back, about 10 mins later my mare had stopped choking and just looked a bit shell shocked! The vet said that was her second call that night!! And often by the time they call back or get to the animal the choking has usually stopped!!
It was hay my mare choked on!!
 
My girl choked one day on pony nuts, she was normally fed them with loads of chaff but the girl who owned the two horses Ethel wad out with gave her a few handfuls of nuts while her horses ate their feed. I wasn't there at the time but got a call from my now boss explaining what had happened, I went straight over and she had called the vet who said to give it half an hour and if she still hadn't cleared it then he'd come out. She had what looked like pony nut soup pouring out of her nose and mouth and looked like she was being sick. Eventually it suddenly stopped and she started munching on the grass. I dont feed her pony nuts anymore and make sure everyone knows not to and why not!
 
I call the vet after around 2 - 3 mins (allowing for horse clearing it on its own) - but literally only a few mins only.
Then massage throat & possibly a couple of slaps if can locate the affected area & then keep the animal moving, sometimes a quick trot will help clear blockage but allow to stop to cough when horse wants to.

Often the choke will clear by the time the vet has arrived, leaving trembling owner & dribbling horse....
 
When I was 14 I had a loan ponywho choked on chaff, I'd never seen it before and it was all running out his nose and he was very distressed. I ran to the yo house as only me and my dad there and I never forget it because she came out and gave him an injection and he stopped almost immediately, I have no idea what she gave him or what she could have possibly had to hand for choke. This was 20 odd years ago but still puzzles me when I think of it. Never thought to ask at the time.
 
Did ring the vet, but actually we massages her throat, walked her around and kept her moving to help it clear. It did clear, she started drinking and eating normally, and we didn't need the vet.
For a few days afterl she got soft foods and temp checked.

It was literally half a handful of dry hi-fi that she'd nicked out of a bucket that did it. Stupid hoover horse.
 
Most people don't see choke, which is good, I've seen it twice however in two different horses, first one was worse, green gunk streaming out her nose, owner spoke to an experienced friend and they managed to clear it (not that I'd recommend it) and the second I recognised the symptoms and the vet was called, that mare wasn't as bad and the vet didn't do anything but tell us to put her out! Not a nice thing to witness tho!
 
I have only dealt with choke twice, both times I have managed to clear the blockage with rough immediate massage. Once food starts coming out of the nose the vet is needed asap.
 
I've only seen it once in similar time frame with horses as the OP. I called vet immediately then massaged throat and walked him round briskly, he cleared it (coughed up a load of what looked like sick) then started trying to eat grass and was 100% fine - so I called vet back and cancelled.
Not something I'd mess about with on my own for an extended period given the distress he was in.
 
Update.... Checked on her last nite and she was ok, nothing coming out and she was just looking really sad. Went in this morning and she had all bits of feed that had come out overnite and was down stable wall.
She is much brighter even tried her usual trick of biting her headcollar as i tried to put it on. I took her for a walk and on vets advice allowed her to graze, which she was happy to (i only allowed her a few mouthfuls), i then took her back to offer her water as she hadnt drunk overnite, then took her back for more grass.
u can see she is sore but has started drinking. Had to go to work now but have arranged 4 some 1 to walk her out and let her graze. Vets have advised a course of antibiotics.
 
My mare choked whilst being scanned by the repo vet. He said she would clear it in an hour or two and if she didn't then call our regular vet.
She didn't improve and by the time our regular vet was able to get there she was struggling to breath. He didn't want to tube her because he was worried about putting more liquid into her lungs as she was already crackling away. He treated with massage and buscopan which did help her improve.
We stayed really late with her and when we got back the next morning she was very ill with crackling all down her lungs and extremely exhausted. The vet came back and did tube her then and got a lot of the blockage cleared but couldn't clear it all. Tubing her saved her life because initially she wouldn't swallow the tube and it kept going into her lungs. The amount of fluid that came out her lungs was scary and absolutly saved her life.
The vet got most of it cleared, gave more buscopan and we kept an eye on her for another few hours but by mid-afternoon it was obvious she wasn't going to clear the blockage and she was exhausted so we made the decision to take her to the Dick Vets. It was a couple of hours drive and by the time we got there she had cleared the blockage but she had an aspiration pneumonia going.
She spent a week in the dick vets on various anti-biotics and diuretics to clear fluid from her lungs.
If it wasn't for our vet initially giving antibiotics on the evening she choked and sending us to the Dick Vets when he did then she would be dead.

Generally for a choke now I would give it 10-15 minutes to clear and then I would have a vet out right away. It's not worth the risk of them deteriorating to wait.
 
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