Repeating coughing after choke,

[Hoof_Prints]

Hi hope you can offer some advice, it's a bit tricky as it's not my pony although he's sort of under my care, so I don't have much say on having vets out etc.

He is a 7 year old native type pony, about 13hh ish, maybe smaller and only lightly ridden. I had brought him in for my friend and gave him his food as normal (speedibeet and a plain chaff). I noticed he'd stopped eating and then he coughed and all the saliva poured out of his nose and mouth... it cleared in 30 mins of retching and coughing . I've kept his feed really wet and tried slow down his hay eating with a haylage net but he is a typical greedy native ! He will cough every day now, he didn't before the choke episode. He is also drinking a lot of water, I think he has a painful throat and is drinking to soothe it, I'm worried there is some damage caused and that is causing these "mini chokes" an coughing episodes, he will struggle to swallow and cough up bits of chewed up hay.

Owner had not seen it herself, I do the feed time routine and last thing I want is something happening that could have been prevented ! What would you do? I can call the vet if need be but owner is reluctant as it doesn't look "terrible" . I bought him some syrup to syringe down to help with coughs and irritation which stops him for a while.

are there any common after-effects of choke? I was wondering if there could be an infection
Thanks

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Yes, choke can cause an infection/pneumonia, so I would recommend getting a vet to look at the horse. But actually I wonder if his teeth are the problem, really. The vet will be abe to advise.

 

[Amicus]

Completely agree with Pearlsasinger. Might it be worth videoing it (if you've a clever phone handy camera) to show his owner as sometimes seeing something s more convincing.

 

[AnShanDan]

One of my horses had an episode of choke a few months ago, vet did come out as it was 11pm when it was noticed and he was distressed.

He seemed to recover OK but had a persistent mild cough, had antibiotics in case it was an infection but they made no difference, had ventipulmin for a couple of weeks, helped a bit but still coughed in the morning and a couple of times when started into work. It eventually gradually disappeared and he is fine now. I think it was an asthmatic type reaction to some inhaled material from the time of the choke which slowly got better.

 

[shergar]

Hi hope you can offer some advice, it's a bit tricky as it's not my pony although he's sort of under my care, so I don't have much say on having vets out etc.

He is a 7 year old native type pony, about 13hh ish, maybe smaller and only lightly ridden. I had brought him in for my friend and gave him his food as normal (speedibeet and a plain chaff). I noticed he'd stopped eating and then he coughed and all the saliva poured out of his nose and mouth... it cleared in 30 mins of retching and coughing . I've kept his feed really wet and tried slow down his hay eating with a haylage net but he is a typical greedy native ! He will cough every day now, he didn't before the choke episode. He is also drinking a lot of water, I think he has a painful throat and is drinking to soothe it, I'm worried there is some damage caused and that is causing these "mini chokes" an coughing episodes, he will struggle to swallow and cough up bits of chewed up hay.

Owner had not seen it herself, I do the feed time routine and last thing I want is something happening that could have been prevented ! What would you do? I can call the vet if need be but owner is reluctant as it doesn't look "terrible" . I bought him some syrup to syringe down to help with coughs and irritation which stops him for a while.

are there any common after-effects of choke? I was wondering if there could be an infection
Thanks

We have a native who was coughing two lots of antibiotics made no difference,she started to choke on her feed ,so the vet came with a scope ,he said she had a partial paralysis on the right side of her larynx ,with new medication no improvement ,the horse then stopped eating she wanted food but could not swallow her throat was so sore the vet came back scoped again ,the horse had almost lost her airway,she had to have a tracheotomy , on route to the equine hospital the next morning an abscess in her airway burst. The horse had the tube in for eleven days it was removed the day she came home and fully closed in two weeks. If your friends horse still has choke when eating and a sore throat please ask her to get a vet . Our horse is lucky to be alive .