Meg got choke last night

[fairhill]

Why is it that horses know when you're feeling rough, and decide to make it ten times worse for you?

I'd spent yesterday afternoon puking up and was feeling rotten so thought I'd have a quick visit to the stables. I've had to keep Megan out of her stable block for a week whilst a suspected strangles case was investigated, so thought I'd take her feed into the field and just check her over.

Half way through eating it she started choking. Her neck went into spasms, and she was rolling a lot

I managed to get her up the field, and got her in the school whilst another livery got the YO for me. It's 15 years since I've had a horse with choke, so I couldn't really remember how to clear it

but YO knows her stuff

Thankfully the strangles horse had had the all clear from the vet earlier that day, so Meg was able to go into her stable where she proceeded to feel very sorry for herself. We rang the vet, who said to give her a bucket of water to drink and leave her in overnight without any food. I stayed with her for an hour, and there was a quite a lot of gas

, but no real movement from either end, so the blockage must have moved down as it didn't appear through her nose

She was very pleased to see me, and her haynet, this morning and seems none the worse for her ordeal

On the other hand, I still feel rotten, and am thoroughly fed up of morning, afternoon and evening sickness

 

[scotsmare]

Poor you - choke can be quite scary! My youngster went through a phase of getting it last summer (too much of a rush to eat her food) and it's not pleasant. Hope you're feeling better soon....

 

[Nickijem]

Choke is so scary - My horse got it last year just three weeks after I'd bought him. I had never witnessed choke before so I was scared to death, especially as I'd lost my previous horse to colic only 3 months before!
Anyway Jerry was fine after about 10 mins - he was calmly grazing while I was still shaking!
I'm sure Meg will be fine and be no worse for wear. There is a very slight danger that they can get pneumonia after choke (so I was told) so keep a careful eye on her but I'm sure she'll be fine.

 

[fairhill]

Thanks

I think Meg was rushing her feed because the other mares were interested in her dinner too

I won't be feeding in the field again, thats for sure

 

[Colleen_Miss_Tom]

Very scary indeed, Missy had it a few months back , Not nice to watch at all , I just massaged her throat and the underside of her neck . Finally came around , but did take feed out of her stable for the rest of the day .

From now on she has very sloppy feed .

Hope you get better soon x

 

[fairhill]

[ QUOTE ]

Anyway Jerry was fine after about 10 mins - he was calmly grazing while I was still shaking!
I'm sure Meg will be fine and be no worse for wear. There is a very slight danger that they can get pneumonia after choke (so I was told) so keep a careful eye on her but I'm sure she'll be fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

The vet reckoned most horses clear themselves after 20 minutes. I've not heard about pneumonia before, so will watch out for that.
She's tucked up in her stable today with YO keeping a careful watch on her and hopefully can go back out tomorrow. The weather's awful here anyway, so at least she picked a good time to stay in and isn't missing the sunshine

 

[fairhill]

I was gently massaging her neck, but YO whacked it and it seemed to do the trick. I think I'm going to make soup for her tea tonight

[ QUOTE ]
Hope you get better soon x

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks

 

[Faro]

One of my oldies got choke a couple of weeks ago (even though her feed is soaked beet and soaked nuts). In her case it didn't seem to be severe, but she was coughing for the best part of an hour afterwards. Then all seemed fine.

The next evening she seemed a little bit out of sorts (not able to put my finger on it) and when I put her food down she was totally off her food. So decided to call the vet the next day.

Vet came out and examined her thoroughly and came to the same conclusion that I had - in that she had probably damaged (scratched or grazed) the oesophagus and was finding it uncomfortable to eat. A dose of bute and some penicillin to prevent infection seemed to do the trick perfectly well and from then on she has been fine.

What I did learn was that pneumonia (thought I'd mention this, as somebody mentioned it above) can be caused if the "obstruction" gets into the trachea (windpipe) and from there on into the lungs. This is why a vet attending a choke case should listen to the lung sounds to make sure that all is well. (I hadn't known about the potential for pneumonia before either!).

Fairhill, I do hope Meg continues to be okay.

 

[Kenzo]

Indeed its not a very nice, one of our horses suffered from cholk, horses can't be sick but will produce huge amounts of mucus and saliva which comes out of there mouth and down through the nose to try and clear the blockage, many horses have to be very lightly sedated/twitched so you can pipe either their nose or throat to flush the food down (obviously depending on what exactly you think your horse is choking from) if it is a build up of grass etc then this usually works.

However because our vet twitched our horse, which caused him to panic, rear up, which then clonked the vet over head with the wooden twitch which (must of been very painful, he then landed on his toe (ouch double whammy!) and it cleared its self with all the commotion!

The poor vet was screaming blue murder and hopping around like he was on hot coal!....the horse just was just turned away, carried on grazing like nothing had happened!

One of those days I'll never forget.