My horse had choke

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horseluver4eva

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so last night my mare was in a really bad way, and had been for 2 hours ( i didnt know). i had left earlier on after i had gave her her feed which includes a good bit of chaff and alpha beet. then my friends realised how bad she was and told me she had been coughing non stop for 2 hours. so i rang the vet but by the time he had came it had thankfully passed. but he gave her an injection to stop the esophagus spasming again. Anyway ive just found out she had choke. is there anyway i could prevent this in the future? do you think it could of been the chaff, as i didnt soak it much because i add it to alpha beet which was quite watery? should i give her a rest from riding her? and do you think i should soak her hay?( i did after what happened) thank you
 
Our boy got choke once, thankfully while we were there, and the YO helped us, he got over it and thankfully we didn't have to get the vet out. I would definitely make sure her feeds are wet enough (although not swimming!), and we always stay up the yard 5-10mins extra until he's finished eating his hard feed so we know he's not choking on it.
We were warned at the time that it is something some horses are prone to, but 4-5 years on and we haven't had another episode (touch wood!) we always keep a large syringe handy just in case (and always take one with us when we go to shows etc), but so far have only had to use it on a friends horse who choked on a carrot (again thankfully we managed to sort it fairly quickly).
We have never bothered with soaking hay, just nice damp feeds :) Good luck, and don't worry too much, its fairly common.
 
Thankyou, she did eat her feed fairly quickly as we had been to a show. i mucked out filled her haynets and she had her feed whilst doing that. just hope it doesnt happen again as shes never had it before. what do you use the syringe for?
 
Was YO's idea- syringe water down their throats to help clear the blockage and wash it all down- has worked for us and saves vet callout! (obviously wouldn't work for a huge blockage though)
 
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