Persistent choke

golddustsara

golddustsara

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 June 2007
Messages
2,746
Location
Hampshire
Visit site
A few weeks ago when I moved D down to his new winter paddock he started to have mild episodes of choke. At first I thought his reluctance to eat was down to him being stuffed but I realised he was suffering from choke as his head was on the floor and he was making hicupping sounds.

Apart from moving to the winter field, the only thing that changed in his feed was the addition of Hi-Fi lite. Previously I had been feeding Molichaff. I took the chaff out for a few days, replacing it with a small amount of fibrebeet - borrowed from my lovely field buddy - and he seemed fine. I slowly introduced the chaff in small quantities and moved him onto winter feed (fast fibre & ride and relax) - he seemed fine. I also had his teeth checked but there was nothing to worry about on that front. The dentist couldn't find any reason why he would choke... But he's started choking again.

He's always had his food like a porridge, so the chaff isn't dry. He also doesn't bolt his food and is fine with hay and grass.

I'm taking him to the vets to be checked out on Monday but I'm puzzled as to why this is occurring. Could it be the chaff? Perhaps something is going on in his oesophagus?

Anyone else had experience of persistent choke?
 
Last edited:
Is the bucket on the ground when he is fed? Mine started to suffer when I started to feed from a hook on bucket
 
My sister's cob does this - he can't have chaff at all and we have to be careful with his hay/haylage.

He has a prolapsed larynx and this seems to be connected as it started around the same time. Might be worth considering but I would be speaking to a vet about it.

In the meantime I wouldn't feed anymore of the chaff he's choking on, maybe go back to the old stuff until he's been checked over
 
mynutmeg said:
My sister's cob does this - he can't have chaff at all and we have to be careful with his hay/haylage.

He has a prolapsed larynx and this seems to be connected as it started around the same time.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, thank you. Vet is going to give him an endoscopy on Monday, so hopefully that will shed some light on it all.
 
I am relieved u r getting the vet out, be very vigilant-we lost our mare to this, it turned out she had a frozen larynx and infected guttural pouch as well as a stuck epiglottis. The endoscope should shed some light on what's going on. I hope that they can help and hopefully fix the problem. I feel for you choke can be a total nightmare. Sending out GOOD vibes for u and yours x
 
My mare had a choke problem for about a year (getting worse). We never found out what it was - she was 'scoped a couple of times by different vets with different practices and they couldn't find a reason. She would choke on anything and everything - hay was out of the question for her by the end, she had choked on grass, and also Fast Fibre made like slop. We only never got to the bottom of it because she died from (un-related) colic. She was a very strange mare, though!

Good that you're getting it looked into, though. Good luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top