Youngster repetitively choking

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maria.s

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Hi everyone,

I am looking for someone who had a similar experience with repetitive choking incidents.

My horse is a rising 3, 17 hand warmblood which I have owned since September. A little while after purchasing him I noticed minor choke episodes that resolved within 5 - 10 minutes. He recently has had a more severe and scary episode that lasted 2 hours but could luckily be resolved with help from the vet over the phone. He is living out in the field where I feed him extra hard feed. He used to get only Suregrow and has also been on grass nuts since a few months. He has choked on just Suregrow before (??) and also on grass nuts dry and completely soaked as well. He has been checked by the vet / teeth are fine etc. All the obvious is fine.

Before starting further investigations I am looking for someone who has had an actual similar experience (not just opinions please!) and has been in this situation. I work professionally with horses, not a novice - No nasty/bitchy comments please.

Thank you,

Maria
 
I have had a similar experience with my horse (IDx rising 9). The thing with my horse however is that he gorges on his feed. He literally attacks his feed - mouth wide open grabbing the biggest mouthful he can get into his mouth before he's even swallowed the previous mouthful. Don't know if this will help in your case but I have found that giving him haylage (or hay) before his feed (so he's not as hungry) then putting the feed in a hang over door feeder as well as putting in big carrots (sliced lengthways) has helped.

Never used grassnuts before but mine gets scoop of sloppy speedibeet, a small half scoop mollichaff calmer and Pro Hoof (he's a fat horse on a permanent diet).

Good luck with your youngster - it is pretty scary when they choke!
 
My youngster used to do this and I still have to be careful with her. Luckily her choking episodes were soon over with but still a worry. What I do now is make her short feed very sloppy, I feed grass nuts and speedy beet. I also add a Stubbs scoop of grass chop. She hasn't choked for months now. It doesn't matter what feed it was she used to try and eat it too fast after being under fed in her last home. I also tried feeding from ground level but she seems to be better chest height. They are all different so it is a bit trial and error. The vet said they can grow out of it too. Mine never chokes on her hay but some do.
 
Mine did this as a 4 year old. Bloody terrified me!

She did it about 4 times quite close together and never since. I think she was coming in hungry and bolting her haylage. She has never choked on hard feed.

I started making sure her haylage was in a small holed net not the floor to slow her down. Then her routine changed for winter and it was no longer an issue. She has never done it since (she's 11 this year) and I stopped using hay nets about a year later.

Each time it cleared without intervention but we did have the vet on the phone a couple of times.
 
I had a horse prone to choke. Food had to be given well soaked (so at least 10 mins prior to feeding) and then water added to make it sloppy.
 
Daughters youngster choked several times as a three/four -year old and it turned out to be her teeth. They have alot going on with their teeth at that age and it's worth having another look.
 
I had a horse who was already a bit prone to choke who suddenly started to choke frequently. The cause in her case seemed to be connected to a tree pollen allergy she developed.

For two months every year for several years she was prone to both choke and asthma. Use of a steroid inhaler controlled the asthma and reduced the choke episodes.

That's almost certainly a very rare case, but I thought I'd mention it just in case!
 
One of my youngsters was prone to choke, my French vet recommended putting a big stone in the feed bowl to slow up eating - CB's are real pigs when it comes to food!! I did notice my Highland Pony got mild choke from dry nuts. I don't feed anything dry, all feeds have very wet s/b and babies get carrots cut into small pieces.
 
Thank you so much everyone for your genuine replies. It clearly happens more often than I thought!

If anyone else has anything, keep replying Xx
 
Magnetic Sparrow said:
For two months every year for several years she was prone to both choke and asthma. Use of a steroid inhaler controlled the asthma and reduced the choke episodes.

That's almost certainly a very rare case, but I thought I'd mention it just in case!
Click to expand...

Which months were the worst? This is interesting to know! Thanks for sharing
 
lelly said:
What I do now is make her short feed very sloppy, I feed grass nuts and speedy beet. I also add a Stubbs scoop of grass chop. She hasn't choked for months now. It doesn't matter what feed it was she used to try and eat it too fast after being under fed in her last home. I also tried feeding from ground level but she seems to be better chest height. They are all different so it is a bit trial and error. The vet said they can grow out of it too. Mine never chokes on her hay but some do.
Click to expand...

Did she choke on the grass nuts? Do you soak them completely sloppy now or just slightly? I find mine take very long to work properly. Thanks
 
maria.s said:
Did she choke on the grass nuts? Do you soak them completely sloppy now or just slightly? I find mine take very long to work properly. Thanks
Click to expand...
I soak with the beet overnight but in the summer I do both together for about an hour before feeding. She did choke on grass nuts that's why I make them very sloppy now. I also didn't add chaff which I do now.
 
Mine is prone to this. But since I’ve switched him to haylage and soaked Fast Fibre he’s been fine.
I was only thinking this morning that I haven’t heard him cough badly for quite some time.
And it’s made my life easier not having to soak hay. The FF is very quick to soak as well.
 
My vet mentioned after the last choke my horse had that sometimes a repetitive choker is found to have an Oesophageal Diverticulum. He did say it was very rare however!
 
maria.s said:
Did she choke on the grass nuts? Do you soak them completely sloppy now or just slightly? I find mine take very long to work properly. Thanks
Click to expand...

I'd be tempted to soak over night. I've left mine in a bucket in a metalbin in field over night before. Or using boiling water speeds up. I'd query as living out and there isn't a huge amount of roughage left, that is maybe bolting feed. Is feeding hay in the field an option? Or as someone suggested hay / haylage fed before bucket feed.
 
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