Bookmark this site!Choke
Having gone through this with my mare I thought that I would write a little about it.
Choke is quite a common ailment in the equine world but like any other, one which we don’t want to have to witness at first hand.
My day started like any other day apart from having my foot in plaster from a stupid accident. I had asked my son to feed the horses for me as it was difficult to get to them in my state. I told him exactly what to give them and where the feed was kept.
A little later I looked into the field and thought my girl was behaving strangely. She loves her food and has her head down grazing all day. I couldn’t put my finger on why I thought she wasn’t right but looking back although she was still eating she was lifting her head and just looking around her from time to time.
I checked her again and saw what looked like strings coming from her nose. I knew my instinct was right that she wasn’t well and decided to catch her.
She was very unhappy and normally would give me the run around especially as I had a bright purple plaster cast on but she let me get right to her.
She still had strings of saliva coming from her nose and I knew then it could be choke.
I shouted my son and asked how she was when he had fed her and he said she was perfectly fine. He then asked me if I had changed my horse feed to which alarm bells went off in my head.
That morning he had gone to feed them as requested and had looked in the feed bins and thought the horse food was goat food so had looked in another feed bin and found horse nuts and gave them those. Those horse nuts were in fact unsoaked sugar beet.
I immediately rang my vet who came out and after sedating her and giving her an spasmolytic injection put a tube up her nose and into her oesophagus were she then proceeded to flush her out. I remember that this process seemed to take a long time.
I was then given painkillers and anti biotics to give her in sloppy feeds over the next week.
Thankfully within a couple of days she was back to normal but a valuable lesson was learnt both by myself and son.
Choke –the symptoms:
The horse may appear to be having difficulty when swallowing
Coughing may occur as they try to clear the blockage
Stretching of the head and neck because of the uncomfortable feelings they are experiencing.
Saliva coming from both the nostrils and mouth.
Treatment:
Seek veterinary advice immediately. A horse may rupture it’s oesophagus if not attended to and this can be fatal.
Normally the vet will sedate and give an spasmolytic injection. Sometimes once the horse is quite and relaxed the blockage will pass.
If nothing happens then the vet may decide to tube the horse and pass fluid down the tube to flush out the blockage.
Once cleared the horse should be given sloppy feeds to allow any swelling to disperse.
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Choke was published by The Horse Scene on 08 Jul, 2008. © All rights reserved. You may download and print this article for personal or non-profit use only. Please feel free to link to this article.
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08 Jul, 2008 (Edited 08 Jul, 2008)
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