HELP ~ CHOKE

[Nancy G]

:no: A friend called and they have a mini at the vets. They say she has some hay etc blocked in her throat & it won`t come up and it won`t go down. The vet told them that if it did come out, there would be scar tissue and they would have a lot of trouble in the future. Has anyone had a horse that chocked & still later, led a normal life? The vet says the mare should be put down. They called to & wanted to know what I thought!! I have never had this so didn`t have any advice. Figured with the many forum members, maybe someone can offer some advice. Thanks so much.

 

[CharmedMinis]

I had a big mare that choked many many times throughout her life.

Sometimes the blockage was harder to remove than other times, but my vets always got the blockage out.

The worst time, she couldn't eat hay for a month after, just soaked grain. But then she was back to normal.

She never had any lasting effects.

I guess I'm not understanding why they aren't able to get the blockage out???

They should be able to heavily sedate or anesthetize the mare and go in with a tube or even and endoscope and flush the blockage.

:

 

[Hosscrazy]

Yes, I have a 2 different horses (both minis) choke and both times they were fine. They swallowed tangerines that fell from my tree and the tangerines got stuck in their throats. Both times I called the vet who talked me through the process- massaging their throats and getting them to drink water (sweetened with molasses to encourage them).

I'm also not understanding why they are not able to move the obstruction by tubing. Another choice would be to surgically remove the obstruction.

Liz R.

 

[KanoasDestiny]

Here's a good site that has a little bit of information on what you are talking about. Did you know there is a difference of Horse Choke and Horse Choking? This article describes it. But I didn't read anywhere where it said that the best thing to do is put the horse down.

http://www.mini-horse.org/health_care_choking.html

 

[hobbyhorse23]

Yes, my Arab chokes on his pellets and I was able to get a lot of help off of this forum.

: Most horses apparently do it on hay but both vets who treated my horse each time confirmed that he appeared to have only pellets stuck in his throat. They had a lot of difficulty getting the first blockage cleared as it was really stuck tight and the second time was almost as bad just because of the scar tissue from the first time. Choke isn't a good thing, that's for sure. In my guy's case the solution was that all of his food has to be really soaked for the rest of his life. He's 29 and can't masticate it well enough anymore so he swallows lumps of pellets which then get stuck. When it's made soupy there are no lumps and he doesn't choke.

Hay can be a problem for a horse that chokes because it is rough and the stalks can irritate and inflame the scarred area of the esophagous, causing it to swell and narrow and cause another choke episode. The vets ought to be able to clear the blockage by surgery if nothing else but the horse's future may be questionable if it's that bad an episode. The longer the blockage sits there, the worse the damage will be.

Leia

 

[Erica]

Yes -

My 20 yr old mare last year chocked soon after foaling. I usually don't feed my mares that foal grain for at least several hours after foaling, well she foaled at 3pm and feeding was at 4 usually, so she was nickering and I gave just a Handful litterally..............she was excitiing and next I knew nastly slime coming out of her nose and coughing ext........

I at first tried to flush the mouth with water from a 60cc syringe, with really no progression - of course she had already had some banamine after foaling, but in a few hours gave her another shot of it. During this time I was also massaging the neck to - thinking I might could break it up. She wasn't in dire stress, choking looks horrible, slime dripping down from the mouth and even out the nose, and you can tell when they cough they are trying to cough something up.

With horses the airway is not blocked when choking, so I watched her for a while, (on camera at the house and up with her both) she seemed to be progressing.........but then not really, so I ended up loading her up in the trailer over to my vets late late that night. Sedated her mildy, passed the tube down and it just so happened she tried to gag and let the tube pass very easily to where it needed to be - she passed the lodge of stuff and was fine. The problem with chocking is they can aspirate and cause pnemonia if let untreated too long.

Now she was SORE for a while..........I even soaked her Equine Sr. (which she didn't like) and soaked alfafa processed and beet pulp. She didn't eat "good" for a while..........but I think once the soreness got over with she started back fine and dandy. She also had a sort of "rattle" to her in breathing/coughing ext......just from all the fluid for a while.

All that said she is wonderful now - and is due to foal May of this year. She hasn't had any choking experiences so to speak, she of course due to her age is on lots of Equine Sr - so I am not sure just how much hay she really eats (she has a round bale out 24/7).

There were two times, this winter, when I went up to the barn LATE, and she was down eating hay with the other mares, and instead of running up to me like normal she just stood there and was staggering when trying to walk, almost like drunk. I had to push her up to the barn to check on her, put in a stall, no eating of feed ext.......yet no colic signs, but I still gave Banamine to her, she was passing poop ext. I put her under camera both times and by next morning it was if nothing had happened.

The second time this happened I called my vet and he said she probably got excitied or startled down at the hay bale and in the excitied almost "mimicked" her choking, thinking herself that she might have - that several horses that have chocked do that too.

But she is a fat, healthy, happy, 21 year old mare who is big as a barrel and a wonderful mother.

 

[FFFoxyGal]

I usually don't feed my mares that foal grain for at least several hours after foaling

OK,...how long after foaling would it be safe to give Foxy her grain,.....I was planning on soaking some of her grain in warm water after with some mollasses for her,..would that be a no-no too.

Thank you for posting that,..cause this is somthing else that I was completely UNAWARE of,...Soooo much to learn.

:

 

[crazyovergracie]

Gosh, I wouldn't think putting the horse down was the answer. Are they not trying to remove the obstruction? With antinflammatory & pain drugs irritagtion can be maintained & large scarring might be controllable. We had an arab to have what our vet called an "esophogeal choke" (probably mispelled) last spring. It was very severe ! If let untreated for very long he would have perished and quickly, but our vet sedated him and ran a NGl tube down where she flushed & flushed & flushed. He was very sore afterward of-course and had to be fed mashes, etc. but fter a week or so he was completely fine and has never had any trouble since then. Some horses after a choke the vet explained will be more prone to it from then on.. but it's managable. Hope something can be done for your friend's horse.

 

[nootka]

My old mare, Gramma, choked very badly when she would have been about 23 years old. The vet could not dislodge it either way. I found her choking at about 9 in the morning. By the time I got her loaded up to take to the clinic and arrived there, it was about 1 in the afternoon. They got the choke dislodged about half an hour later.

What they did was give me antibiotics and advice to only feed her very watered down feed for several weeks to avoid irritating the already inflamed esophagus. Gramma was just fine and that was over 7 years ago.

She was choking for over four hours and still made it through fine.

Liz M.

 

[Nancy G]

Thanks everyone. I have forwarded the information to Brad. I talked to him just a bit ago and they are going to pick the mare up from the vets tomorrow, bring her home & try to find more informationa and possibly a new vet. I will check back again to see if there are more replies to forward to them. Thanks!!

 

[troshla1]

I had a month old Haflinger filly choke. The vet couldn't get the tube to budge the grass that was logded. He gave her a muscle relaxer and in a few hours she managed to dislodge he wad all by herself.

 

[Nancy G]

:no: They had the mare put down today.

When Brad called yesterday, I thought the choke had just happened but have since found out, she choked last Saturday. So sad. The family is taking it very hard. They loved this little mare so much. Wish I had know sooner, so we could have helped them somehow. Thanks so much for all the posts. I`m glad to have the information for my records and I`m sure others will be too!.