Tips for avoiding choke in older horses please.

marmalade76

marmalade76

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Last night I think my 21yo ex polo mare had a touch of choke. I usually just pop the bowls in the stables and leave them to eat in peace so this may have happened before, I've no way of knowing. For some reason I stayed in her stable last night. She stopped eating and stood completely still. Did a big swallow, drooled a fair bit, did another big swallow then after about 30 seconds carried on eating.

I have no idea what her teeth are like but was told they were all upto date. Looking at the length of fibre in her poo, I don't think she chews all that well but doesn't eat particularly greedily - whilst keen, I wouldn't say she bolts her food. I was told she's a good doer (she's an argi import, not a TB), maybe compared to TB polo ponies but not what I'd call a good doer (as someone who's had several natives) so she needs some bucket feed.

She had been in for about 45 minutes and had had a slice of hay beforehand. He feed was a handful of Speedibeet which covered the bottom of her bowl once soaked, a Stubbs scoop of Dengie ulcer light, a cup of balancer and half a cup of micronised linseed plus a sliced apple & carrot. It was wetted with the water in the beet so not sloppy, just damp.

Should I change anything? Adding more water will probably be a good start. The ulcer light has grass and alfalfa pellets in it, not a huge amount but they're a lot harder than regular cubes and it's often recommended that grass nuts are soaked. It's also quite long/coarse chaff. Would it be better to change it for a softer chaff and/or one without pellets?

My only previous experience of choke was with an old boy with missing teeth, it was a vet job and fairly traumatic so want to makes sure I don't end up in that situation! Cheers :)
 
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My Louis used to choke regularly mainly when he came in from the field so I used to wet the net that was in the stable and I never gave him his bucket feed until he had eaten a bit of hay.

He also did it in the field once when I put dry loose hay in the field, I think he ate too quick because my other horse was also in the field.

So I put it down to him just being hungry so I split the hay up so he had a few small haynets through the day, I always soaked it and put it in a small hole net as well.
 
Pinkvboots said:
My Louis used to choke regularly mainly when he came in from the field so I used to wet the net that was in the stable and I never gave him his bucket feed until he had eaten a bit of hay.

He also did it in the field once when I put dry loose hay in the field, I think he ate too quick because my other horse was also in the field.

So I put it down to him just being hungry so I split the hay up so he had a few small haynets through the day, I always soaked it and put it in a small hole net as well.
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She did have a slice of hay before dinner. The hay in the field thing makes sense so will try to avoid that if I can.
 
Start with getting her teeth checked, then soak feed more.
I have dealt with serious choke twice, bothe times in youngsters, the 2nd one had a vet visit to cover for aspiration pneumonia the first one recovered much better.
 
Interestingly was thinking the other day. I feed and do odd jobs whilst the horse eats his feed. I can remember years ago (1992) going to look at a horse to buy and they were feeding quite early. My mother asked why and the guy said so they’d know if anything had choke. That said current horse had mild choke from hay a couple of months back. Don’t know why for sure. Vet checked as was due to go to away show and dentist check up as well. Hope yours is fine now.
 
My oldie choked 2014, vet said it may never happen again but to avoid he had his feed soaked into a mash for the rest of his life, I must have tried every mash on the market plus just soaking any cubes/pellets into a mash
 
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