Horse Choking on Something?

Barbara F · Grand Prix

Horse Choking on Something?

prospect · Advanced

That is so scary - I am glad he is okay.

We took my younger son's pony to a show at RCRA - young pony - and put her in the stall. We didn't check the feed bin in the stall and there was some crunch in there - she had never had crunch before.

All of a sudden you could see she was choking and it was stuck in her throat. Luckily Ian Roberts happened to walk by and started massaging the neck - we were just in panic mod but he was so cool about it.

Scary indeed - my son was just beside himself. But she was okay.

Diamond_Jubilee · Well Schooled

We've had a horse that has choked on his grain (just high fat/high fibre pellets), which luckly we found him in distress as it was a large barn and we were going stall to stall feeding, but for some reason we had to go back and we found him choking. We ran to get a syringe and filled it with water to get the blockage out. He was fine after that, but it was scarey! I have heard later that using a syringe of water is not the best thing to do, but it worked for him and when you are in panic mode you will do almost anything to help an animal out.

Queenrider · Advanced

Horses will choke on any dry food (pellets, hay cubes) as well as carrots. Massage will work and sometimes sticking a hose in their mouth or a syringe to add gentle water flow will help as well. If it is still stuck then you had better call the vet. Do not wait until their throat is all swollen!

kschmittendorf · Well Schooled

We recently had two horses choke at our barn. One severly and the other, my own, not as bad. You need to call the vet ASAP. They will sedate the horse to help relax the muscles and hopefully promote clearing the blockage. They may also need to tube the horse and try to suction the blockage out, just like you would syphon gasoline out of a tank. Not a pretty site and extremely dangerous for the horse. Luckily for the first horse we had two alert people, another saw the horse spew green stuff out his nostrils and just let him keep walking out to the field, and we have a vet in the barn next door. The second horse, my own, the very same person did nothing about. Just called me to tell me something serious was wrong and left him in his stall. Nice....

Fizziologie · Yearling

Most horses who choke show obvious distress, which is one of the main signs. However, when my horse choked (on soaked beet pulp - the vet laughed) she kept coughing and spitting saliva as she couldn't swallow it. Her choke was not at all tight and broke up quickly and easily when the vet tubed her. One of the biggest concerns with choke is the aspiration of feed/saliva.

A poorly chewed carrot could choke a horse, but sounds like it might have gotten stuck between a molar and the cheek or similar location at the back of the mouth and he was trying to dislodge it.