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Horse Choking

One of the horses that lives in my backyard choked this morning. And since I keep meeting horse people who don't know that this is a thing, I took the opportunity to make a short educational video. The good news about choking in horses is it very rarely blocks their airway, so it's not an immediate emergency like choking in humans or some other animals. My horse once choked for about 14 hours (the vet decided from my description over the phone that it was only a partial obstruction & she could wait for assistance until the following morning, instead of having an emergency vet visit. She's fine). How do you know a horse is choking? They look kindof like this. Often they can be very upset, & exhibit symptoms similar to colic (pacing, pawing, lying down/rolling, sweating, looking worried). What you'll see in choke that's different from colic is neck spasms like what's shown in this video & coughing (often accompanied by a beautiful mixture of saliva/snot/whatever the horse was recently eating). Fun fact: if anyone ever tells you that they've seen a horse throw up (and that horse wasn't in the middle of dying horribly from a ruptured stomach), what they witnessed was probably a choking horse. What do you do for a choking horse? Immediately remove all food (including hay) & water. If the horse tries to eat its bedding, move it to an area with no bedding. You can sometimes help an obstruction move along by gently massaging the bottom of the horses neck, head to chest. Sometimes you can feel or see a lump somewhere along there. Often you can't... may times the obstruction is farther down where the esophagus enters the chest, where you won't be able to feel anything. Most cases of choke resolve on their own. Sometimes, though, it requires veterinary intervention. If your horse was eating beet pulp, hay cubes that weren't completely soaked in water, or large treats like carrots or apples, there's a pretty good chance that the lump isn't going anywhere on its own. Usually, if the choke is going to clear, it'll do so in 20-30 minutes. If your horse has been choking for more than an hour, call your vet. If you have any questions, doubts, or need advice, call your vet. Have I mentioned that you should call your vet? Do that. After a choke, your horse is at risk of aspiration pneumonia. Check their temperature for a few days, & keep an eye out for other symptoms, like lethargy, anorexia... basically, if your horse starts acting weird after a choking incident, call your vet. Horses are also more prone to choking just after they've done it. That esophagus is gonna be irritated & inflamed. Don't feed hay for at least a day or so, then soak hay for awhile after that. Don't feed beet pulp, oats, or hay cubes for the first couple days after. Feed only pellets that can be soaked into a slurry. How long the liquid diet continues depends on your vet & your best judgement. If you want to be super safe, soak all feed from here on out. Each successive occurrence of choke can cause scar tissue in the esophagus, or pockets where the muscles have stretched out & are inclined to accumulate an abnormal amount of food. IOW, the more times a horse chokes, the more likely he's going to do it again. Hero, the horse in this video, has a history of choke, though he hasn't done it in well over a year. And don't worry... Hero's fine. :} He was back to normal in about 20 minutes... though we will, of course, be keeping an eye out for any signs of pneumonia.