Re: RC: choke

[Bette Lamore <woa@stormnet.com>]

Hi Barbara
We have a 28 year old gelding who wolfs down his oler horse pellets.
Choke is a semiannual event at our ranch. The first time it happened
with hay, I freaked and called the vet. Watery snot coming out both
nostril-- I hadn't a clue what it was. The vet said something had gone
down the wrong way. He gave him a tranq and said to keep him quiet and
to take all food away, just allow water, until it cleared up. It did in
a couple of hours, slowly but surely. The most important thing is to
calm the horse down so that he does not panic--- I can't imagine a tube
doing much to help the situation and have never heard of a vet doing
that, but perhaps your case was far more severe than mine have been. My
friend's horse choked and they tranqued her at Alamo Pintado and
immediately put her on antibiotic as some of the matter had gone into
the lungs and they were worried about pneumonia. Several thousand
dollars later she was OK but this was an extreme case.
Most times if you calm the horse down and give him access to water, he
will come out of it--- at least my gelding does.
Bette

"guest@endurance.net" wrote:
> 
> Barbara Marcius run2fast@neo.rr.com
> Hey Folks,
> Have dilligently tried to search the archives on this subject to no avail.  Would any of you who have experienced this horror please e-mail me privately in case this has already been covered?
> Here's the sad story.  7 year old Arab gelding choked for the first time last Thursday pm.  In 28 years of owning horses, I've never seen this, and never want to again. Had the vet out for a 2 hour visit.  Said it was the worst case he'd ever seen in his career.  Tubed him repeatedly till his nose was bleeding.  Said we'd pretty much gotten it all, that he would be just fine.  Well, he's not.  This vet is VERY hard to get ahold of, and still hasn't returned my calls, because "it's not an emergency". The gelding acts like he's 80 years old, very lethargic, wants not a whole lot to do with wet grain, only wants wet alfalfa, and not eating tons of that either. This is normally a very busy alert horse.  Anyone have a clue if this is just normal after such an event?  C'mon guys, the vet said no big deal, start riding him as usual.  Gut feeling says no way.  Any comments from you ridecampers?  This is very scary stuff.
> Barbara
> 
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-- 
Bette Lamore
Whispering Oaks Arabians, Home of 16.2hh TLA Halynov	
(Yes, really 16.2!)
http://www.arabiansporthorse.com