Re: RC: Re: Re: choke

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated Wed, 11 Apr 2001  3:55:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "Claudia Provin" <provincmk@fanninelectric.com> writes:

<< I don't know if this would help in all cases, but I had a stallion who used
to choke now and then---my vet said to pour one teaspoon of water down his
ear.    This would cause him to shake his head, hard, and had a good chance
of dislodging the choke.  >>  

While this might work for a horse that simply gets a wad of feed stuck in his pharynx, in most chokes, there is an actual blockage in the esophagus.  The horse cannot dislodge the blockage upward--it needs to be either sufficiently moistened to allow the contractions of the esophagus to pass the blockage on down to the stomach, or physically assisted to go down with a stomach tube, or both.  Most of these horses have muscle spasms in the neck already from the severe discomfort, and I'd think that such a procedure would really be adding insult to injury.

Heidi