Had my first scare!

[O So]

I had my first scare tonight. I went out and gave the boys a mini carrot, actually 2 of them each. I gave Pippin his, then gave O So his. Waited a few seconds and when I though Pippin was ready for his second one, I tried to give it to him. I bunch of slobber came out of his mouth with brown gunk. Then pretty soon pieces of the carrot came out too. I gave O So the other carrots and when I went to look at Pippin, he was scooping up the carrot that fell out of his mouth. So I didn't think much of it and went back to my cooking in the house. I looked out and could see Pippin with nose to the ground, trying to paw at his mouth. That is what it looked like. He was on the porch so I went out and got ahold of his upper and lower jaw to try to open his mouth to see what was in there. I had his mouth open, head was up and tongue was kind of going back a bit to try to make sure nothing went down his throat. ( that is what it kind of looked like, hopefully you can picture that.) That is when he kind of stiffened up and looked like he was going to either have a spasm or pass out. I let go of him real quick and grabbed his neck and body to help hold him up so he wouldn't fall. ( Remember we are on the porch, there is a step that he had to go back down to get on flat ground, so that helped with his imbalance.) Once on flat ground and head back in normal position, he came out of it and seemed to be breathing fine. Again, he started to paw at the ground and his nose. I went and got hubby. ( during this whole process, everytime I went in and out of the house he would do a little winnie. Normally he doesn't winnie every time, just once. It was like a cry for help)

Hubby came and we got Pippin by himself. We both tried to look in his mouth and didn't see anything. Hubby asked me to go get a carrot and he gave it to Pippin. Pippin ate it right up, little slobbery, but nothing like the first time. Then he went around looking for grass to graze on. Not pawing or anything. So I figured I would go get some hay and see what he did with that. He started munching away like nothing had over happened!

It scared the you know what out of me. I thought he was going have a siezer or he couldn't breath or something. He seems fine now though. I am going to keep an eye on him tonight and the tomorrow. If he still wants to paw at the ground in the morning, I will call my vet out. I don't think it is going to come to that though, since he has gone back to being normal.

I think maybe, just maybe, even though that carrot was a small one, it got lodged or went somewhere it shouldn't have and he had a hard time getting it dislodged. He was fine until I gave him the carrot. And here I buy the mini carrots to hopefully make sure they are a good size for the boys!

 

[Sandy B]

Sounds like an episode of choke. They will keep their head low and outstretched. Then they do this weird spasm deal and gab a bit. They will drool a lot too and thick globs of slime come up. You are lucky it cleared itself up. I have had two chokes- a full sized mare, that resolved before vet got here and then a 3 day old full sided foal who choked on his momma's poop. The vet was needed to clear that choke up and then 5 days worth of antibiotic shots followed to prevent pneumonia.

 

[LittleRibbie]

Kim, reading your post makes me still shiver. Exact same thing w/skillet about 5 yrs. ago but at the time I didnt know what he ate or what was in his mouth.I actually thought he was going to die in my arms and there wasnt anything I could do...the look in Skillets eyes like he was just pleading for help. it ended up being the pit of a mango. vet didnt get here for 30 minutes...he said when he got here that they had recently lost another mini b/c of a mango pit. This one was actually stuck in his jaw so he wasnt actually going to not be able to not breath but if it had worked its way out then was swallowed and stuck he may not have made it. It happened again w/a mango and a different horse a couple years later but this time I was able to reach in and feel around while hubby called vet...same thing, rubbing nose on the ground, almost kneeling on front legs, slobbering. Luckily when I put my hand in S'mores kept his mouth open and was just listless standing there. I was actually able to see it between his 2 teeth..put my hand in again and the minute I touched it it cracked in 1/2 and fell out.

I have to think that it was a chunk of that carrot that was stuck more in his teeth..the more he pawed and rubbed his face the more it broke in to pieces...but if he almost passed out from lack of oxygen maybe it was further down his throat. Im probably wrong but I dont think horses have the reflex to send that carrot back up...I would think you would just have to hope and pray it goes down.Im glad he's o.k.and Im sorry you had to go thru it.

 

[wingnut]

How scary! I would have been crying too....if that helps you feel any better {{{ hugs }}}

If nothing else, your posts helps me in that I know what to look for if I ever see one of my girls behaving similarly.

 

[AnnaC]

Oh Kim, so sorry you and Pip had to go through this! Always remember to slice all carrots and apples, however small they may be, before offering them to horses. The saliva in the mouth can make the smooth peel/skin of the offering very slippery, and make it difficult for the horse to get this slippery object between its teeth to crunch up. Here we always cut apples into eight segmants and carrots lengthwise into quarters to give the horses plenty of 'flat' sides to get their teeth into. Any long carrot slices are then cut down to slightly smaller segments more suitable to the size of a mini mouth. A lot of folks will offer a whole carrot to their horse for the horse to bite off a segment, but again the horse is left with a small piece of carrot in its mouth with slippery sides, making it difficult to get hold of. A horse seen 'rolling' a piece of carrot around in its mouth is having difficulty in getting it trapped between its teeth to take that first bite.

In a similar fashion, a lot of dogs over the years have fatally choked when leaping up to catch a wet/sloppered on rubber/smooth type of ball. The ball slips past the teeth and lodges way down in the dogs throat cutting off its beathing with fatal results, as the owners are unable to get their fingers far enough into the throat to retrieve the ball!

Pippin might just have been unlucky because you may have sliced the carrot before offering it, but there may be others reading this who do not realise the danger of offering uncut apples and carrots to their horses.

Hope the lovely Pippin will be ok from now on with one of his favourite treats.

Anna

 

[LittleRibbie]

good to know Anna as I always just bite off a small piece..leaving no flat sides

 

[shadowpaints]

i read this thread the day it was posted, and though 'huh im glad i have never had one choke..' ha yeah i spoke too soon! went out to clip our 2 and a half month old colt today and low and be hold, green yuck coming from his nose and mouth, head down.. coughing i thought CRAP choke!

luckily it resolved on its own in about 45 minutes, but whew i was worried!!

glad i had read this thread before it happened!

 

[Contessa]

I had the exact same thing happen to a mare of mine about 4 years ago. Last year a visitor showed up with some in her pocket. Before I realized what she was feeding, another one choked! Luckily in both cases the horse worked it up and out. The problem is those little ready to eat carrots, they are too smooth and slick. I will never feed those to my minis again. I buy full size carrots and hand cut them into 2-3 inch sticks every evening for them. They have edges on them that make it easier for the horse to handle in their mouth.

 

[O So]

I had the exact same thing happen to a mare of mine about 4 years ago. Last year a visitor showed up with some in her pocket. Before I realized what she was feeding, another one choked! Luckily in both cases the horse worked it up and out. The problem is those little ready to eat carrots, they are too smooth and slick. I will never feed those to my minis again. I buy full size carrots and hand cut them into 2-3 inch sticks every evening for them. They have edges on them that make it easier for the horse to handle in their mouth.

Never thought about how slick they are. They pretty slick, I sometimes have a hard time getting them out of the bag. I will buy normal carrots and cut them from now on!

Just a little update.

Today I observed Pippin for most of the day. He eats, plays, drinks, and breaths fine. Only thing he is doing is opening his mouth ( not yawning) and moving it far over to the left, then right. He may do this once, sometimes twice and then he is back to normal. Tonight I haltered him and had hubby shine I flash light in his mouth while I tried to open it. There was a bunch of saliva and gunk in it. I really couldn't see anything. I decided to carefully flush his mouth out with the hose. Quiet a bit of gunk ( chewed hay and saliva) came out. I then tried to look in his mouth. The best I could see is a little more gunk and some of his teeth. They looked fine from what I could tell.

I am going to keep an eye on him tomorrow and if he is still doing that mouth movement side to side, I am going to make an appt. with my vet. I may call him tomorrow just to let him know what Pippin is doing, to see if he thinks it may be more of a pressing issue.

With what I described above, has any of your horses that choked, done this mouth movement for a while afterwards? Oh, and I did put my finger in his mouth and ran it up and down as far as I could and couldn't feel anything like a bump or swelling or anything. That and Pippins face is fine as far a swelling. Sorry for the kind of mixed up writing, These things come to me as I go! LOL

 

[LittleRibbie]

no, as soon as object was removed Skillet was right back to eatting grass