i had a horrible shock last night, alfie had a bad case of choke!

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alfirules

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well, last night i went to put a raincoat on alfie and i gave him a little handful of happy hoof and all of a sudden he stopped and his whole back dropped, his hind legs dropped and went underneath him, he made a scary groaning/squealing noise and then went forward and looked like he was trying to be sick. he kept repeating this every couple of minutes and his eyes looked dull and like he wasnt there.

it was horrible to watch, i honestly thought he was dying,
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i frantically rang the vets and they told me to ring another number and i didnt have anything to write it down so i rang my friend who was down on the yard (i was up in the field) and she phoned the vets for me and we had to wait for them to ring back meanwhile i was crying my eyes out!

so anyway, the vet said it sounded like choke and said he would be on his way. when he arrived alfie soon got better and decided to gallop off!!

i managed to catch him and get him into the yard and the vet said that choke usually clears itself up within 1/2 hour and he listened to his chest and he said he should be fine. so i have given him anti inflammitories (sp) in sloppy speedi beet, and he is staying on wet food from now on. im not ever feeding him any sort of chaff again.

alfie had a slight bit of choke a few days ago, but he just did it once and went back to normal again, so i didnt worry too much about it. the vet said it was just bad luck that he has had it twice in one week but if he gets it again he will have to go to the vets and have tests done as he may have some problems in his oesophagus.

sorry for the long post, just thought id tell you all about it as i had never heard much about choke before and i had no idea what to do!!

thanks for reading!
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It's awful isn't it?? Amy had it once, years ago when I first got her.

I rang the vet in an awful panic telling him that she was dying and that he had to come out very quickly. His response was less than sympathetic - 'if it's that bad, she'll be dead before I get there!'

He then proceeded to tell me what to do, to calm down, and to never feed mollichop again.

She recovered very quickly and I never fed mollichop again!
 
it was so scary, when the vet finally phoned back i was crying down the phone telling him to get here really quick. i was also crying in alfie's mane telling him i loved him cos i thought i was losing him,
frown.gif
.

i never want a shock like that again.

but i am glad to say that he is back to his normal self again munching on his grass. the vet told me i dont need to feed him and that he'd be fine on nice sullucent (sp) grass, but the reason he is fed is because he has to go on a starvation paddock where he gets little nutrients otherwise he gets very fat. so i feed him seaweed to give him the vits and minerals he needs.
 
Oh I know. The first time you see full blown choke it IS very scary to watch but take consolation that it is usually nothing serious and looks worse for us than it is for the horse.

I'm the same though - I haven't fed feed dry for years because of it - and this really does seem to help.
 
This has happened to my horse with carrots, fortunately the first time I was at a yard with an experienced yard owner and he syrringed vegetable oil down his throat which cleared it. Now that we have moved to a quiet yard I always keep oil in the tack room and a big syrringe and if it happens I just stay calm now and deal with it.
 
I'm glad he's ok now. It's such a horrid thing to see. My pony had it years ago because of a carrot. I was told that if it happens again to try to get their head as low as possible to encourage the offending object to move back up into the mouth.
 
poor you, horrid when you have a scare like that!! i had my horses for 9yrs and 4yrs with no probs then they both got choke within a week of each other even though they were both fed different feeds!! my vet advised massaging the blockage if it is visible to help reduce it and i found this works!!
 
My old mare had choke a couple of times last year, both times involved the vet coming and piping her (not a nice experience for anyone) - the second time my vet referred her and had her 'scoped at Peter Greens. Turns out there was a slight swelling in her throat but nothing more than that and as long as I fed her feed "the consistency of baby food" she would be fine.
She hates it though and eye's up my other horses feed no end!
She did however get choke this year when she ate lawn mowings that had been chucked in the field, not very helpful...
 
Fudge had bad choke, even had gastric juices coming down his nose, and he was making these horrible noises. Luckily my vet only lives ten minutes away. Needless to say I no longer put whole carrots into his feed bowl.
 
It is really horrid. Mine had choke through eating grass nuts (been feeding for a couple of years, no trouble). I could tell immediately he was in trouble, he started to give little anxious neighs, which didn't come out very loud and kept trying to swallow.

Called vet who said it was very common, 50% cure themselves, the other 50% she spends the whole night treating!

He was OK as by the time she got there he was just starting to look brighter (she obviously left it the recommended 1/2 hour to get there).
 
thanks for your comments everyone, it has cheered me up to hear that it is quite common and that i am not the only one that found it so shocking!

its odd as well because alfie has been on this type of feed for about 3 years, and i have never had any problems. and he didnt even eat it particularly quick. i am not taking any risks with giving him chaff, he is having speedi beet or bran mash from now on, as recommended by my vet.

but on the brightside, i always find these experiences very educational and useful for the future. i know what to do now if it happens again.
 
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