Can a horse have a choke tendancy?

[shandy84]

I got Kira 2-3 weeks ago, within that time she has choked seriously twice, once on a straw bed and once on a bowl of simple hi fi. We have also had a few minor attacks within that with hay and feed etc. I have now taken to wetting down everything that she eats and she is on a shavings bed.

It just struck me that she seems to do it so much, is it common to have some horses that seem to suffer from regular bouts or is she just clever ;)

[Soot]

Unfortunately some horses do have a tendancy -- Lucy can't have carrots or apples as she doesn't seem to be able to eat them without choking, regardless of how well you cut them! I know another horses who has some scar tissues in his throat from an infection that causes choke ...

I think the most common is teeth though, which is easy to sort out!

[Mehitabel]

have you had her teeth looked at?

[blues mum]

blue has done it twice, with no reason I can find.
I keep a squeezy sports bottle full of water at all times now, seems to wash away whatever is causing it.
yes I would say he has a tendency to choke, but never on when fed, have just gone to field and found him like it

[montys helper]

my horse choked once and it was a bloody scary thing i tell you but it happened just once n it was a time i forgot to add water to his feed, iv never forgot since. id seek some advice for your vet.x

[alanalovesfinn]

a horse at my yard used to choke alot and once he choked so badly that the food was actually coming out of his nose. obviously the vet was called and he found out that the horse's oesophagus (sp?) actually narrowed from about 1/4 of the way down and this is why he kept choking. if you are worried i would get it checked out :)

[eml]

Yes we have one that has been scoped etc and nothing found. She is now on a special diet but still chokes on grass or hay occasionally. Vets think it is a neurological problem, the brain just fails to give the swallow reflex instructions from time to time.

[Razzledazzle]

I had a shire x cob that managed to have 2 quite bad chokes in the first 2 weeks I had him. He was on the same feed as his previous home ..so not as though he wasn't used to hi fi lite and his previous owner said he hadn't done it before. I damped down his chaff and he never did it again.

[Zingy]

One of mine does it on a regular basis unless I'm very careful. It's always with dry food or food that hasn't been soaked into a complete mush. He's fine with carrots, grass, hay and chop, just unsoaked hard feed of any type will set him off. He never used to do it, but choked badly one day. After that he was prone to it when he decided his teeth needed doing (though they barely needed anything doing to them). Now he'll just do it any time. I assume it's due to scar tissue that's built up.

[laceyfreckle]

i agree with getting teeth checked, also damp down feed such as Hi-Fi.

Another thing i heard but i don't know first hand how effective it is is to put a large smooth stone in the bottom of the feed bowl so she can't dive into the hi-fi with such big mouthfuls.

Not sure about the hay.

[shandy84]

Thankyou guys, all feed is moist and dentist is booked, just wanted to stop her killing my EDT :D so have tried to handle her a bit before so she'll be easier for him.