What to feed after Choke?

[DappleDown]

This is a question for those who have had a horse with choke:

We had to get the vet out - choke. Vet tubed, no feed 24 hours, then ok to allow her out to graze.

From what was removed via the tube vet thinks she wasn't chewing the pellets in her coarse feed (he did ask, but I've not noticed that she's a particularly fast eater).

Our Equine Dentist was already booked in for a visit for all the horses (for the day after) and she did have an issue re sharp teeth, now attended to and all good.

Vet said to feed soaked Luzerne pellets and soaked Sugar Beet, but horse pushes it around with her nose and says not 'on your nelly' - she refuses to eat the stuff.

I've tried feeding the soaked Luzerne pellets and soaked Sugar Beet together, then each on their own, with grated apple - even with a few chopped up Mint leaves. Horse still says 'Yuk!' (she likes her molassed mint lick though, but a lick of that is an occasional treat).

I'm guessing it is because she doesn't like slurpy feed, but I'm at a loss of what to try to tempt her to tuck in.
Vet said she is now allowed Hay, so I am now steaming a small amount for her for overnight (she is in at night, out in the day).

Those of you that have been through this - what worked for you?

Thanks for reading and any suggestions.

 

[bonny]

Just carried on as before, there is every chance that it was an isolated incident and not feeding for 24 hours and changing a horses diet seems a bit unnecessary to me after one episode of choke.

 

[BlackRider]

I was told turn out as much as possible, and to feed normal foods, but wetter than usual.

(if you feed a pellet I'd leave it to soften first)

If still not eating I'd try something like veteran vitality which is a soft feed and has extra herbs to try and make it appetising.

 

[JillA]

Always feed some sort of chop with pellets of any kind (unless they are soaked) - that way they chew rather than swallow. Grazeon chop is nice smelling soft dried grass, not many refuse that. One of mine had a couple of episodes of choke, turned out my so called helper fed pellets on their own - and lied about it. Didn't happen when he had chop added, although I can see why soaked feeds is recommended to begin with, the throat will be sore and bruised.

 

[DappleDown]

I forgot to add - she had been living out 24/7 (with the other horses) since we got her three months ago. Their regime changed 3 weeks ago, so she has only been recieving a (small) hard feed for the past 3 weeks since coming in at night.

The others all have the same meal (Hi-Fi and a coarse mix) that she was getting prior to the choke, and thankfully all are fine.

*I may try soaking some of the coarse mix overnight, check that the pellets dissolve, and add a little of that to the slurp mix?

Thank you for your suggestions, all welcome.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I just fed the same feed but wetter but my horse choked on hay and I have now worked out he only did it when it was fed in the field, I think because my other horse chases him off the food he was trying to stuff as much as he could in his mouth, so I only use small holed haynets in the field now and it's not happened since.

I also agree with feeding a chaff with any feed as it encourages them to chew properly so minimising the chance of them choking, I also use graze on its just chopped dried grass.

 

[Wagtail]

I've never changed the feed, but I have made it much wetter. Spearmint is really good to get them to eat. I certainly wouldn't have starved the horse for 24 hours. If anything this would make things worse as the horse is more likely to bolt its food.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

The worst choke we have had was an elderly mare whose feed was soaked grassnuts, with only a small amount of chaff. We increased the chaff and it didn't happen again. Otherwise it seems that it can happen when the feed is too dry, especially if they are rushing.

I don't understand your vet's thinking, OP. I certainly wouldn't starve the horse for 24 hrs.

 

[JillA]

I don't understand your vet's thinking, OP. I certainly wouldn't starve the horse for 24 hrs.

I suspect that might be because he thought the passage might be inflamed. I'd let the horse decide if it felt too sore to eat or if it was happy enough to eat some soft forage or grass - starvation can all too easily predispose to gastric ulcers.

 

[DappleDown]

The worst choke we have had was an elderly mare whose feed was soaked grassnuts, with only a small amount of chaff. We increased the chaff and it didn't happen again. Otherwise it seems that it can happen when the feed is too dry, especially if they are rushing........

Thanks Pearlsasinger. I've made a note re adding a bit more Hi-Fi to our horses feed.

With regard to my girl's future meals, no mention of it being ok to feed her Hi-Fi in her feeds again was made by the vet (I'll ask), so I was unsure about adding any in again.

Are horses really more prone to Choke having had it once (to my knowledge).
If so, why?

 

[[59851]]

I am looking after a pony prone to choke and have just tried the new Spillers fibre mash - pony gobbles it up, it's apple flavoured and smells amazing!

 

[Wagtail]

Some are more prone to it, others will only ever have it the once. I have a horse here that chokes very often. She has learned to recognise when it is coming on and spits out anything in her mouth and waits until the food moves down. She is better if fed a really wet feed before she tucks into her hay or haylage. After that she's fine. I've had another horse that was fine unless the haylage was a certain type, and another that had an isolated case and nothing before or since. This was due to bolting some grass chop.

 

[DappleDown]

I am looking after a pony prone to choke and have just tried the new Spillers fibre mash - pony gobbles it up, it's apple flavoured and smells amazing!

I'm liking the sound of that - will look it up - thanks!

 

[Horsekaren]

My boy choked earlier on in the year, he was fed a small amount of Dengi Hi Fi molasses free and started to choke. Luckily after about 20 mins and a lot of neck rubbing it dislodged.
He gathered his thoughts and had a drink of water and then went back to munching his hay which I was advised was fine for him to do and I kept an eye on him.
After that I now only feed Fast Fibre and hay... sometimes if the Fast Fibre is a bit to sloppy he takes a mouth full of hay and sloshes it together in his mouth.

He has never had choke since... in my opinion I don't think they are prone I think its more about how hungry / greedy they are. When this happened to my boy it was the first time I was introducing a bit of hard feed having had him on a hay only diet.... I think the excitement was to much he woofed it down to fast.

Thanks Pearlsasinger. I've made a note re adding a bit more Hi-Fi to our horses feed.

With regard to my girl's future meals, no mention of it being ok to feed her Hi-Fi in her feeds again was made by the vet (I'll ask), so I was unsure about adding any in again.

Are horses really more prone to Choke having had it once (to my knowledge).
If so, why?

 

[windand rain]

mine always have soaked nuts anything with pellets in is soaked for about 15 minutes before it is fed. I only had one choke very badly as she snatched a mouthful of pony nuts on the way to the tap for soaking I thought she was going to die, the vet was worse than useless, he tubed her didnt have the relevant equipment with him, failed to clear i,t broke a blood vessel while tubing her so swapped it over the the other nostril and did the same she was drowning in her own blood by the time he left and still choking. Didnt help he over dosed her with sedative so we had to hold her up for 5 hours when it was supposed to be a short acting one. Needless to say We didnt have him back. She did survive just but is still prone to choking so always has wet food and is not allowed unsoaked nuts of any kind

 

[DappleDown]

mine always have soaked nuts anything with pellets in is soaked for about 15 minutes before it is fed. I only had one choke very badly as she snatched a mouthful of pony nuts on the way to the tap for soaking I thought she was going to die, the vet was worse than useless, he tubed her didnt have the relevant equipment with him, failed to clear i,t broke a blood vessel while tubing her so swapped it over the the other nostril and did the same she was drowning in her own blood by the time he left and still choking. Didnt help he over dosed her with sedative so we had to hold her up for 5 hours when it was supposed to be a short acting one. Needless to say We didnt have him back. She did survive just but is still prone to choking so always has wet food and is not allowed unsoaked nuts of any kind

Whoa... Sorry to read that. Virtual hugs xoxoxox

Do you feed hay now (if so, wet or dry)? And do you add any Hi-Fi (or similar) to her hard feeds?

Mine is due to come in and be fed within the next hour... will keep this thread updated with progress...


...isn't it a fine line between being aware and getting it right, and fussing too much.

 

[Zero00000]

Fed the same,
Was advised no carrots, apples or dry hay.
Otherwise to feed fine
(Fed sloppy feeds all the time anyway as elderly)

 

[Kat]

Mine choked eating hay so I didn't make any changes to her hard feed afterwards, but turned out at first. She's a fussy eater and won't touch "slop". She will eat speedibeet if it isn't too sloppy and is mixed with chaff. She won't eat fast fibre or fibre beet though. She loves copra though even if it is made up quite sloppy and will eat it on its own at a push but prefers it with chaff.

 

[Lammy]

Mine choked about a month ago after she bolted her hard feed. No vet needed as she passed it herself within 5 minutes but I do now make sure her feed is very wet. I have also been putting two (large-ish) rubber balls in her feed bowl which really slows her down! She has to nose them around so she can get to the hard feed. It worked for my aunts greedy labradors and it seems to be working for her

 

[sunnyone]

Rather than balls to move around you could try large stones. Worked for ours.

 

[Fruitcake]

Is it the consistency of the feed that she doesn't like or the fact that she's been used to a tasty coarse mix and isn't keen on the unmollassed stuff?

My horse's all love soaked lucerne pellets and sugar beet but it's what they've been used to. I imagine a horse used to coarse mix might turn their nose up at it. Just a thought but maybe you could try a tasty pellet equivalent to the coarse mix and soak that into a mush.

 

[npage123]

Have you tried serving the soaked lucerne pellets and Speedibeet hot rather than cold? It smells much nicer when hot.

Or you could try Fibrebeet - one feed instead two containing lucerne en speedibeet, as long as your horse will be ok with oatfeed.

Some horses don't cope very well with lucerne based feeds. I think it's a case of trial an error.

If you could find a good base feed that he likes, feed only a little bit of that, and add an all-round good minerals/vitamins supplement, then you won't need to feed as much 'hard feed' at all as the grazing and hay (or haylage if you're lucky) provides the majority of feed needed for horses.