Is this choke?

S

sophiebailey

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 March 2011
Messages
1,212
Visit site
The past couple of times I've fed Bailey (he has a handful of chaff with his supplements in) I've noticed him doing a strange thing. He will have almost finish his dinner and then make a really big gulping motion two or three times, with his neck straightening and shortening with the gulp.

Each time I've seen him do it I massage his gullet straight away an he's always fine immediately afterwards, no coughing, no dribbling, very occasionally a little food will come back out but we're talking minuscule amounts.

Does this sound like some sort of mild choke? Or is it perhaps an indicator of something more sinister? His chaff is watered to help 'absorb' then supplements etc, should I perhaps make it sloppy and very watery?

Would appreciate some words of wisdom if anyone's seen their horses do something similar :) bailey had full blown choke last year (vet visit etc) and this looks nothing like that hence my confusion :o

Sophie xx
 
Sounds like what my sister's cob does which the vet says is a mild choke. We've had to stop feeding chaff as no matter how sloppy he does this. His teeth etc are fine.
We feed a scoop of sugar beet and any hard feed he needs mixed in that and doesn't have any problems with that
 
Would sugar beet have any negative diet impacts? Never fed it to my boy before, he is a very good do-er and already a bit chubby lol. he's currently on sugar/molasses free chaff to lower his lami risk xx
 
sophiebailey said:
Would sugar beet have any negative diet impacts? Never fed it to my boy before, he is a very good do-er and already a bit chubby lol. he's currently on sugar/molasses free chaff to lower his lami risk xx
Click to expand...

no - my sister's cob is a very good doer, just make sure you get the unmollassed stuff and then it's pretty fibre and water only
 
I would maybe swap the chaff for some basic high fibre cubes or grass nuts that you can then add some water to.
 
sounds like it could be. It might be worth having his teeth checked (sorry for the suggestion if they have been recently!) and trying to damp it down even more, or maybe switching to some high fibre cubes which can be soaked into a kind of mash?
 
Does sound like a mild choke, sugar beet could be a good choice but even un-mollassed sugar beet does still have more calories than most chaffs, eg speedibeet has 12 Mj DE per kg, hifi unmollassed has 8.5 Mj DE per kg, but if you're only feeding a small amount it shouldn't make that much difference to your fatty.
I also have a fatty and know how hard it can be to keep the weight off!
 
Definitely sounds like mild choke.

As said above, well damped feed, allow chaff time to absorb the water, pouring hot water on and leaving for 30 mins will soften the chaff well or alternatively feed unmolassed sugarbeet.

above and if he is inclined to wolf his food down place a brick or a salt block in his feed bin so he can't at so fast.
 
Was he tubed when he had proper choke as this could have damaged his throat a little so it feels to him like he is choking I have one that does that will go off by himself and stand with his head down gulp a little and sometimes roll but has only done it since a vet tubed him for choke and made him bleed very badly from his nose both nostrils which made him unable to breath at all and panicked him so now if anything is a little dry he does the gulping ans stands with his head down
He is fed grass nuts well soaked and sloppy alfa oil or unmolassed beet and fast fibre depending on his weight
 
Thanks everyone for the fab suggestions, am taking a flask of hot water to really soak his dinner down tonight, and will be visiting the feed store this week to see what I can get that's soakable but won't put weight on him xxx
 
sophiebailey said:
The past couple of times I've fed Bailey (he has a handful of chaff with his supplements in) I've noticed him doing a strange thing. He will have almost finish his dinner and then make a really big gulping motion two or three times, with his neck straightening and shortening with the gulp.

Each time I've seen him do it I massage his gullet straight away an he's always fine immediately afterwards, no coughing, no dribbling, very occasionally a little food will come back out but we're talking minuscule amounts.

Does this sound like some sort of mild choke? Or is it perhaps an indicator of something more sinister? His chaff is watered to help 'absorb' then supplements etc, should I perhaps make it sloppy and very watery?

Would appreciate some words of wisdom if anyone's seen their horses do something similar :) bailey had full blown choke last year (vet visit etc) and this looks nothing like that hence my confusion :o

Sophie xx
Click to expand...
Does seem like it to me. One of my liveries had this a few weeks back. Food pouring down the nostrils too. We massaged the neck continuously till it passed
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top