New filly had mild choke

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Pinky94

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I got my filly in today for a few hours,(she's out 24/7) as her paddock is having the tractor in there to sort out the fencing. gave her a small double netted haynet, she'd been in about 5 mins and started chewing the air, stretching her neck right out, yawning & generally really fussy with her mouth. After reading a few threads on here re choke I recognised the signs of choke and ran my hands down the underside of her jaw & down her neck. Quickly found a blockage in her throat, and started massaging it which cleared it very quickly which turned out to be a small ball of hay. No disharge from nose or mouth and she seems fine in herself. Don't want to go putting hay on the floor for her as she will take bigger mouthfuls? Will keep a close eye on her for the next few days. What can I do to prevent her choking again? She is on no hard feed or anything, and only has a small amount of hay when she comes in for a few hours a couple times a month.


cute picture of the little lady
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How old is she ? if she is a baby she might be changing her teeth and have some pain. Sounds like she didn't bother to chew the hay.
 
ok thanks for the suggestions, next time she comes in i'll soak & feed from the floor. I've only had her a month, so have been letting her settle in properly, will be getting an edt out soon as my mini is due a check up. :)
 
My 4 year old mare had choke last week and we had to get the vet out. It was very distressing to watch but I don't think they are actually as uncomfortable as it looks (at least that's what I'm telling myself!). I've only owned her less than 3 months and it has happened 3 times in that time, although the previous times it has passed fairly quickly. The vet gave my mare an anti inflammatory injection and an injection to prevent any pneumonia, as well as a few sachets of Bute. Keep an eye on her for the next few days, hopefully it was just a one off. However if it continues to happen then it may need looking into, apparently if they keep choking it can cause scar tissue which then makes it more likely to happen again. Every time it's happened to my mare she's been eating off the floor so I don't think this will make a difference. My vet advised me to soak her hay and cubes to lessen the risk of it getting lodged in the throat. You could also buy 2 small holed haynets and double them up if you haven't already. It's all about really slowing them down and making sure they have water available before feed. My mare is so greedy, I'm hoping that's the problem. And of course like others have said, teeth checked. But fingers crossed it won't happen again, it's not very nice!
 
My gelding had choke as a yearling, it cleared before the vet arrived as I was able to massage the throat and get him to take some water. Interestingly his mother had an episode the same week on her own yard.

I now soak everything and it has never recurred. His teeth are perfectly fine.
 
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