Choke

[eventerbabe]

Kez had his second episode of choke in two years last week. The first episode in 2024 cleared itself. This recent episode was awful. Saliva pouring from his mouth, snot from his nose. Obviously an emergency vet call out. I suspect he got a large meadownut stuck. I’m now soaking them to a mash.

It’s not something on 30+ years of horse ownership that I’ve had to deal with. Do you have a choke “kit”? Or do you do what I do and just panic and call the vet?!

 

[Trewsers]

When Chloe got choke back in 2013 I rang the vet for advice - we were living down in England and it was one of the unreal times we were snowed in! The vet was very good and reassuring and said if things didn't improve after a couple of hours monitoring then somehow he would get to me. At the time we were living in an extremely remote area two miles down an unmade road. He did say he would walk to us if need be! However, at the time I seem to remember staying with her and after a couple of hours things did go back to normal. It was horrible though, I remember talking to the vet and being instructed to massage her neck / throat. Sure he told me to remove her water bucket as well. I have no clue why she got it because they always got their teeth checked every three months rather than six due to old age. After that though I was wary of certain foods for a while and in later years Chloe lived off Spillers Senior Super mash.

 

[Jessey]

Jess choked several times over the years because she would eat too fast mostly, I found wet feeds better, but not too wet or she’d try drinking them and that would make her choke too. I also found a bigger bucket diameter helped, so the feed was spread thinner on the bottom so she couldn’t take huge gob fulls!

I never had any emergency kit, but I always watched her eat bucket feed and at the slightest sign, took the feed away and often as long as she didn’t keep putting more food on top of what was stuck, it would normally resolve on its own. Massaging the throat can help get things moving too.

Here is a link to a sheet written by a vet for what to look for and do.