Hey,

Does anyone here have a horse that chokes?  My horse choked on me tonight.  It is the 4th time in 3 years he has done this.  Granted tonight I am the cause, I did not cut he apple into little - and I mean little - bite size bits, just gave it to him in a slice and he choked on my again.  The first time was on his pellets, the alfalfa cubes and now an apple.  From the first time, which was the pellets I have always feed everything to him wet.  His food soaks at least an hour before he gets it.  This is the 2nd time the vet has had to tube him to unlodge the food.  I have always heard horses could choke, but even though I have been around a lot of horses in my life I had never actually seen it happen.  I buy a horse and I get to witness it first hand, 4 times!  Poor baby will have to apple sauce from now on.   

Sherrie

 

 Sorry to hear about that Sherrie.  For that to happen so often is unusual, I think.  It's happened to my horse twice over the years.  I think it was because he used to scarf his food down too quickly. Now he eats more slowly because he's ancient and doesn't have much in the way of teeth.  We feed him soaked alfalfa pellets with his Safe Choice in a kind of green slop which he loves and provides him with the fibre he can no longer get from hay.

I've never seen one choke on a piece of apple.  It must have just got wedged the wrong way.  Your  poor guy, I hope he likes apple sauce!

I hope so, too, because that is all he will get with apples now is apple sauce!  I have an onion chopper that I am going to take to the barn.  His apples will be so chopped up from now on that it might as well be apple sauce.  My vet actually said the best treats to give horses with a choke issue is baby carrots, so that is what it will be from now on. 

Lil' C does scarf his food down.  I used to put river stones in his ground feeder, but he started dumping it over and eating fast off the ground.  So now I make a 'plate' out of hay and pour his food on the hay.  It does slow him down nicely, but he still doesn't chew all the way before he swallows, that is why the apple choked him tonight.  

A friend of mine lives at the barn and our horses are 'friends'.  She called an our ago and said that when she went and check on Lil' C that he was hanging over the fence with her horse.  Their conversation.. "Bo, man I was freaking out!  I couldn't get it to come up and I couldn't get it to go down!'  Mom was rubbing and rubbing, I rolled and rolled nothing was working.  Then here came that truck that man that sticks me with these tiny pointy things every time he sees me.  Yup he stuck me and THEN he ran these tubes down my nose!  It was horrible, I shook my head, coughed, but it worked.  I am okay, but I will chew my food tomorrow!"

Sherrie  

 

Is he up to date on his teeth? 

It might be a good idea to have him scoped so they can see what's going on in there.

I recall hearing that once a horse chokes he is more susceptible to choking again. Since you've had 4 choking sessions with your horse I suspect that more will occur. You're on the right track--cutting everything up and slowing him down while eating his meals--but I'm surprised that the vet did not suggest an exploratory scoping of his esophagus, like BHK noted. Maybe the vet knows that it's just a matter of the horse gulping his food. Did you ask the vet what you can do to lessen the choking episodes? That's what I'd do.

Yeah, the vet knows why he does it because he gulps his food and doesn't chew it properly.  Yesterday's choke was my fault.  I gave him to much apple in to big of pieces at one time.  We did talk about scoping him, but not seriously because of his eating habits.  As I said, with his normal feed it is all given wet, not soupy but wet and I feed him on a plate of hay so that he has to pick around the hay to get to his feed. 

And to the other poster.  He had his teeth floated last week by a certified equine dentist that has been doing his teeth for 3 years now.  His teeth are floated every year.  They were in such good shape this year that it took very little time to correct them this year. 

Sherrie  

 

SZabinski:

I feed him on a plate of hay so that he has to pick around the hay to get to his feed.  

Almost every horse will occasionally choke. But if your horse has a history of choking I'd spring for the vet to scope him. He may have developed scar tissue that now makes it harder to swallow even under normal conditions. I'd also stop giving him solid or semi-solid treats and soak his grain in warm water to make a soupy mash that will not stick together as a hard to swallow bolus if he's gulping his feed. Also consider adding at least two tablespoons of plain table salt (non-iodized) to his grain mash. That will send him immediately to the water trough after eating.

FloridaHorseman:

Almost every horse will occasionally choke. But if your horse has a history of choking I'd spring for the vet to scope him. He may have developed scar tissue that now makes it harder to swallow even under normal conditions. I'd also stop giving him solid or semi-solid treats and soak his grain in warm water to make a soupy mash that will not stick together as a hard to swallow bolus if he's gulping his feed. Also consider adding at least two tablespoons of plain table salt (non-iodized) to his grain mash. That will send him immediately to the water trough after eating.

SZabinski:

and I feed him on a plate of hay so that he has to pick around the hay to get to his feed. 

That's not a bad idea but what's under the hay? If it's just the ground, he may suck up dirt in addition to the tiny individual grains of feed they always seek out. That adds to the risk of sand or impaction colic. 

I really think your horse needs to be on a soupy mash. That way you know the grain is completely done expanding or cannot expand enough to cause choke in a horse that seems to prone to it. Good luck. ~FH 

This ^^^

BoyleHeightsKid:

FloridaHorseman:

Almost every horse will occasionally choke. But if your horse has a history of choking I'd spring for the vet to scope him. He may have developed scar tissue that now makes it harder to swallow even under normal conditions. I'd also stop giving him solid or semi-solid treats and soak his grain in warm water to make a soupy mash that will not stick together as a hard to swallow bolus if he's gulping his feed. Also consider adding at least two tablespoons of plain table salt (non-iodized) to his grain mash. That will send him immediately to the water trough after eating.

SZabinski:

and I feed him on a plate of hay so that he has to pick around the hay to get to his feed. 

That's not a bad idea but what's under the hay? If it's just the ground, he may suck up dirt in addition to the tiny individual grains of feed they always seek out. That adds to the risk of sand or impaction colic. 

I really think your horse needs to be on a soupy mash. That way you know the grain is completely done expanding or cannot expand enough to cause choke in a horse that seems to prone to it. Good luck. ~FH 

This ^^^

Ditto

FH,

Thank you for your posting.  Lil' C is fed alfalfa cubes, beet pulp, and pellets.  All wet.  His feed soaks at least one/two hours before he is feed.  It is not a soup consistency, but it is pretty wet and soft.  This has been his routine since the first choke 3 years ago, and he is never choked on his actual feed again since I started this practice.  I hand feed him the apple slice that caused this choke on Tuesday.  It was an expensive lesson for me.  As I said he will get apple sauce or close to it for treats from now on.  He is a faster eater that wolfs his food down.  My vet and I talked about scoping him to check out his throat, but we both know what his eating habit are and my vet feels it is just his lack of chewing that is causing it.  Even though we both know this, I am thinking seriously about scoping him just to see. 

I started the hay 'plate' because he started dumping all his feed out to get around the river stones that I had in ground feeder and then he was eating it off the ground.  I stack a big pile of hay up and pour his food on to it.  The hay plate is pretty dense and the food doesn't leak through to the ground.  It has worked out well.  He is eating in a postion that nature intended and he is not wasting any of his food by spilling or eating it off the ground.   

The salt idea sounds like a good plan.  He does have a salt block, will the extra salt cause any issues?  I live in SC and it gets very hot and humid here so I provide salt for him all the time.  He also is a big water drinker.  The old saying you can lead a horse to water, but can't make him drink doesn't apply to my horse.  Any time I take him to his water bucket and wiggle my hand in it he will take a drink!  For some reason I love that and find it endearing! 

Sherrie

 

It does sound like the choke was a singular event with the apple and you're managing his condition very well. The additional salt (non-iodized) shouldn't present any issues. It's virtually impossible for a horse to drink too much water. If you add salt to his feed he may go to the mineral block a little less though. Just don't start thinking because the block starts lasting longer that he isn't getting enough salt and add more to the feed to compensate. Again, 2 tablespoons per feed buck should suffice to ensure he stays salt balanced. ~FH

I have a horse that has choked 4 times so far.  I have not had him tubed however it has worked so far to follow my vets orders.  Since I have more than one horse my vet said he may be having muscle spasms when he eats because of all of the competition that goes on with other horses around at feeding time. (Before I got him he was on a farm by himself with no other horses for about 7 years)  So he suggested I pull him out of the paddock and away from the others, feed him low to the ground which is their natural position to eat in and soak his food.  So far he has done much better.  This last time he choked was my fault.  We were about to have a severe storm and I cheated and did not soak his feed (Seminole Feed - Wellness Senior which has several herbs in it that aid in digestion - awesome feed).  Naturally I paid the price by cheating but I won't do it again.