Ridecamp: Re: [RC] beet pulp - choke

> In 40 years of horse ownership, I have had two cases of choke - both on
beet
> pulp, soaked well.  In 20 years of large amimal veterinary experience, my
> husband has had only 5 or 6 cases of choke, all but two were on beet pulp.
> I feed it, but I am careful to keep the horses from wolfing it down.  I
have
> just three horses and I feed out of ground feeders and stay right there to
> keep them from fighting over it and gulping it.  In my experience, it is
> more likely to cause choke than other foods I have fed my horses.

Gosh, I've yet to have one choke on wet beet pulp, but have treated
innumerable chokes from other feedstuffs.  The most common ones I've treated
have been the small alfalfa pellets (not soaked), followed by dry hay and
hay fines.  Ranking third in my experience has been dry bran, followed by
commercial grain products.  I personally lost a mare to an aspiration
pneumonia following her pigging out on alfalfa hay fines in a two-horse
trailer manger, many years ago, and I had a choke (thankfully mild) just the
other day on just plain Equine Senior.  The worst clinical case I ever
treated was on plain ol' grass hay--took us nearly three days of sedation,
anti-inflamatories, IV fluids, and repeated attempts to pass a stomach tube
to get it cleared, and took the horse several weeks to truly recover, but he
did.

Heidi


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