A Choke And A Warning For Your Horses

Choke. It’s a word no horse person wants to hear, let alone experience. But almost two weeks ago it happened to my mare. The first sign was the salivating. It looked like the mare was foaming at the mouth. After a closer look I realized she wasn’t able to swallow and there was saliva coming out both her nose and mouth.  I knew she was choking, and I knew there wasn’t much I could do but wait it out.

 

Image from stablemade.com

Horses don’t choke like humans do. When humans choke it’s an obstruction of the airways, but when horses choke it’s an obstruction of the esophagus. A horse can still breath when choking, but the obstruction can still cause significant issues such as aspiration pneumonia in the food ends up in the airway.

I have heard a lot of advice given towards choke over the years. Veterinarians can use a nasogastric tube to try and dislodge the obstruction. They may also decide to give the horse a sedative. But the most common advice I’ve heard is to wait it out, remove food and water, and if it doesn’t clear up quickly, rinse the mouth out with water (but don’t pour the water down her throat). This was the advice my veterinarian gave when I called him to go over the situation.

Since the mare was pretty quiet and relaxed I tried not to worry too much. I rinsed out her mouth a few times and waited with her for it to pass. I waited quite a while. It seemed like a very long time had passed before the nasal discharge started to include some food particles. At that point, I felt a little relieved, the obstruction had to be breaking up. It took some more time but when she finally screamed at me for food, I knew she was feeling better.

So what caused her choke? It was the pelleted feed I had been giving her. The choke came on right after she had eaten and the food particles that finally came out were from the pellets.

Image from http://www.understanding-horse-nutrition.com

I have long heard the danger of feeding horses pelleted feeds. Google ‘horse choke’ and you will find all sorts of stories of chokes involving pellets. From working with veterinarians to talking with horsey friends, every story I heard of choke had involved pellets. In fact, there was a time I swore I would never feed them. But along came Argo and his very picky eating and inability to keep weight on. He agreed to eat pellets and the ones I fed kept the weight on fairly well. I gave in.

After that choke though, I will never feed pellets again. The horses have been switched over to a textured feed and neither one of them has had a problem eating it. I also made sure to get their teeth floated again, in case that was contributing to the problem.

Pellets can safely be fed if soaked ahead of time. But make sure everything is mashed up before feeding. Choke is not something you or your horse want to deal with. Please consider this a warning and re-evaluate your feeding program to avoid a similar problem.

 

A Homecoming…

For far too long now this Argosgirl has been living away from her Argo.

After ten years of being able to look out of my bedroom window and see Argo in his paddock, I had to move him elsewhere when I moved. It was a forced separation due to the circumstances but now, my silly old horse and I are reunited!

How nice it is to walk outside and see these faces!

I should be clear, I was still able to see Argo whenever I wanted, it just involved having to drive to him instead of walking out of the house.

I am incredibly lucky to have some outstanding friends, and one in particular generously allowed Argo to live on her farm and gave him the greatest care imaginable.  She always gave him everything I could hope for and never got upset if I showed up at 9 o’clock at night, causing her dogs to bark, just so I could spend a few minutes with Argo. For what she did for both myself and Argo, I will be forever in debt to her.

And yet, as great as it was, I desperately needed to have Argo living with me again. For those of you with horses, you may understand how I felt. There’s a connection that you just can’t do without.

So last night, a few weeks after we moved into our new place with some extra land, a trailer pulled in the driveway, and Argo came home to me once more.

This time I had yet another incredible friend help out by sending her mare to keep Argo company. The two have quickly become best buddies and by the time I finally stopped checking on them last night, they behaved as if they had been here forever.

It is amazing to come home to horses again. I come home from work knowing I get walk over to the paddock and have a quick visit with horses and I know that I can spend as much time with them as I please. If I have errands to run I don’t have to forsake seeing Argo because he is right outside my door.

With Argo here I finally, after more than a year and a half apart, feel at home.

Website Wednesday: Uncle Mo

Normally Website Wednesday is dedicated to an outdoors site – something that involves fishing, cycling, hiking and other outdoor activities. This week’s website is a little different…it’s a website devoted to a racehorse.

Yes, www.unclemo.com is the place to go for all things Uncle Mo.

Happy Birthday Argo!

Argo - Taken Winter 2011

Today is a very special day – it is Argo’s 24th Birthday!

The gray thoroughbred horse running circles in his stall and screaming in protest of confinement that winter day in 1997 was not the horse I was expecting to see. At the time I was competing on the hunter/jumper circuit and was looking for a new horse. My coach had arranged a try-out for two horses at a nearby farm – one horse was for me to try and the other was being tried for a friend. I was sure the placid, unexciting bay horse quietly munching on his hay was the one I was supposed to ride. For some reason I had been on a kick of riding quiet horses and while that was probably smart, it was beginning to bore me. The gray, however, drew my eye – not only was he high-strung and excitable, he was exactly my idea of a beautiful horse. When the bay was tacked up I gathered my riding stuff only to be told ‘This isn’t yours, you’re trying the gray one’.

Missing The Days Of 20 Kids

Yesterday I was enjoying the sunshine and the milder temperatures when I drove by a horse farm and saw a foal running circles around its mother. And I felt a pang. It wasn’t that long ago that I routinely spent this time of the year sleeping during the day and sitting in a freezing cold barn all night waiting for foals to be born. And while the job has its downsides, seeing that foal reminded me of the positives.

Foaling/Night Watch is not the easiest of jobs.  Starting in January you spend most of your time just trying to stay warm and stay awake. I know some people in this job who sit in a heated room and snooze, getting up periodically to check on the mares and see if anything’s happening. I was always too paranoid to fall into that routine. My responsibility was to the mares, to make sure I didn’t miss anything that would put them or the foal in harm’s way. Because of this I spent most of my time sitting on a chair outside of the stall of the mare who looked closest to foaling.  It was the best way to listen for any different sounds and keep an eye on things.It taught me what the mare’s routine was and how she behaved, and when things changed I knew to pay closer attention.