Please share your experiences with choke in foals

[targetsmom]

Our one month old colt, Rusty, choked last Thursday and ended up in the hospital. The vet was unable to resolve the blockage with a nasal tube and flushing, so off to Tufts we went about midnight. The good news is that the blockage freed itself on the trailer ride!!! But he stayed there over the weekend on IV antibiotics and just came home Monday. He seems to be doing fine, but I have some questions:

1. I wonder how common this is in foals? I ran into someone Sunday with a 5 week old foal that had just choked.

2. I have no idea what he could have choked on - unless it was the pelleted bedding that I soak until it turns to sawdust. Any ideas?

3. He and his dam are now confined to our backyard - an area with low grass and no weeds - and if he is stalled, NO BEDDING!! Also he has to be muzzled while mom eats, as he can't get hay or grain for 2 weeks. The no bedding thing has led me to try to "housebreak" the mare and she is very cooperative. Just before I feed her, I turn her (and the foal) into our sand ring which has some great "pee spots". She pees, comes back in and eats. While she eats - and he is muzzled - I put down bedding over any pee spots (the colt isn't learning as fast!) and then sweep everything up and cart it away before I remove the muzzle. Very easy to clean that stall!!! But any other ideas about confinement after choke are very welcome.

4. If you had a foal choke, did you have any long term effects?

5. And the big question: what can be done to lessen the chance of choke in a foal???

Rusty was already very friendly and now is a real "pocket pet". He tolerates the muzzle, oral meds every 8 hours, and having his temp taken daily like a trouper!!

Thanks!

 

[Tab]

Doesn't it figure! When you take every precaution too! The one thing I do not look forward to. My foals always had a wad of something in their mouths. Straw, hair, dirt. There were many times when I had to pull stuff out of their mouths. I wish I could offer some advice, but mostly I'm so glad that it went through on the trailer ride and it seems to be ok! He will probably recover just fine. I wouldn't know where to start in house training a horse.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

I had a 3 week old foal choke on a dry manure ball, rushed him to the vet, they couldn't dislodge it with a nasal tube (they didn't have one small enough to go down!), so he went to a small animal clinic where they put him under and used a endoscopy to pick it apart until they could push it into the stomach. He got a round of antibiotics as a prevention. He was fine after that, about 2 weeks later he did it again, not sure what it was that time, but he managed to resolve it on his own by the time we put him in the trailer to head to New Bolton Center. They did a bunch of x-rays, and tests on him and determined that unlike most foals instead of only "tasting" everything, he was trying to swallow it. There advice was to keep him and his mom on pasture 24/7. That worked like a charm, no more choking, and I didn't have to worry about bedding or any little thing he could swallow! He was fine by the time he was weaned, it was just something in his development that was "off" and he outgrew it. He was a redbag birth, and I do always wonder if that was the cause of him trying to swallow, instead of just tasting like "normal" foals do. He was on another round of antibiotics, he never had any ill effects from the choking episodes, developed into a normal healthy horse, and no issues choking ever again! He is owned by a friend of mine now, so I keep close tabs on him. He hasn't had any other health issues, other than learning to love a syringe of applesauce!

Out of 8 years of foals, that's the first and only time I've ever had it happen.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

I'm told many foals choke on a ball of mom's poo, unfortunately. My elderly Arab choked several times and my vet thought at first it must have been on a wad of hay he couldn't chew properly and then tried to swallow but when it came out his nose it was actually his senior feed. He couldn't grind it up properly anymore so when he swallowed it got caught in a large ball in his throat and wouldn't slide down. If I wetted his senior feed to the point of being soup (which we did in the future) then he had no problems. I think with proper aftercare and time for the body to resolve the inflammation most horses are probably fine. It's one with repeated choke you worry about as that can lead to scarring which will further constrict the esophagus and lead to even more choking. Just keep him far away from any possible source of choke for several weeks and give the body time to heal.

Leia

 

[FoRebel]

We just had a 3 week old foal choke last weekend. The vet gave him oxcytocin and tubed him... Didn't work so we waited a couple hours to see if the blockage dislodged itself. Nope, sedated and tubed him again... Worked that time. Still had effects of choke the next day... Vet gave him more oxcytocin. Sunday, the foal choked again. Vet came out, gave oxcytocin and it worked without the tubing. This is the first time we've had this happen though. We're all thinking that the foal is or was eating either dried poop or shavings. So we just are extra vigilant on cleaning his stall and keeping just straw in there. When he's let outside, he's out where there's no poop, sand, weeds, etc to be sure that we're being as cautious as possible.

 

[disneyhorse]

Unfortunately, foals choke on just about anything.

I had a three-week-old foal choke on some Timothy hay. Just hay that mom was eating, he ate too much and it got stuck in his esophagus and he was choking green foam... off to the hospital he went.

It was flushed out.

Long term effects... well with the bit of scar tissue in there they recommended a lifetime of pelleted hay and no long-stem hay.

Unfortunately he colicked and was euthanized at three months old so never found out how that played out.

Andrea

 

[valshingle]

I had a filly choke on her mom's manure at 6 days of age. Raced to the local vet. He couldn't resolve it with his equipment so we raced to a more extensive equine hospital. They sedated her and resolved it after intubating her. She was put on antibiotics and wore a muzzle for 3-4 days, except to nurse.

She had no more problems until she developed colitis X at 4 years of age when 10 months pregnant. She developed laminitis in all four feet and had to be euthanized. I don't know if there is a correlation there.

 

[Katiean]

My Dusty choked on grain when he was about 3-4 weeks old. He would gobble the grain down and choked. I rubbed his throat with downward motion and it cleared. He ate much slower after that and to this day he eats his grain slower. No choke since.

 

[SampleMM]

I have never had a horse choke but it sounds very scary. I know that my junior stallion cannot be on the pelleted bedding, even with it totally wetted down and fluffed up. I wonder if the smell is intriguing to him?

Does anyone think there could be a greater chance of choke when feeding a pelleted form? That is the conclusion, I was drawing so I switched back to a coarse type feed.

 

[Make A Wish Miniatures]

I had a three week old colt choke on Moms poop this year.The vet had no luck with putting a tube down the colt . She ended up giving him I V fluids and Heavily sedating him. She also gave him Oxytocin. I left him in the stall and set up panels outside the stall so the mare could see him I slept in the barn and milked the mare during the night. By early the next morning I tried letting the colt nurse and he was fine. Then we kept him on Naxcell for ten days as a precaution .He is doing fine now. The vet had told me if he wasn't fine by morning then He would be going to a Hospital. While he was sedated We had him lying on blankets with his head down . Our Vet stayed here from 10 pm until 1 am. I am not sure why it seems like all the little emergencies happen after hours.

 

[targetsmom]

Thanks for sharing !! It sure looks like 3-4 weeks is a critical time for choke - before the foals get teeth. And it also looks like there isn't much one can do to totally prevent it if they can choke on poop.

Anyway, Rusty is doing great but is being a real pest. He was friendly to start with and now he won't let me get far enough way from him to take a picture. I am also happy to report that the housebreaking so going so well that not only does the mare pee when I let her out, now Rusty does too!!! Very easy to clean stall, but I do like to see them on bedding not plain mats.

 

[Joanne]

We have had foals choke on mom's dried poop over the years. The first time we did call a vet. No help there, but a large vet bill.

After that we just let them slowly get it out. You do see green slime coming from their mouth and nose until they dislodge it. With normal nursing it gets soft and goes down. They look awful and you feel terrible watching them, but it has worked it self out. The mom's bags may get hard until they are nursing normally again. Never lost one when it has happened. Fortunatly this has not happened often.

 

[Katiean]

I have never had a horse choke but it sounds very scary. I know that my junior stallion cannot be on the pelleted bedding, even with it totally wetted down and fluffed up. I wonder if the smell is intriguing to him?

Does anyone think there could be a greater chance of choke when feeding a pelleted form? That is the conclusion, I was drawing so I switched back to a coarse type feed.

IMO, it would be easier to free a pelleted feed as it will break apart upon getting wet. Where a hand full of a mixed grain will just stay a hand full of grain. It was a grain feed that my colt choaked on. The only feeds (besides hay) I buy now are pelleted feed and beat pulp (I feed the beat pulp wet).

 

[Make A Wish Miniatures]

The reason Our Vet told me not to let the foal nurse ,was that he wasn't getting any milk. It was pouring out his nose and also going into his lungs.Then you have to worry about pneumonia. When I called the vet she had told me to give banamine and wait 40 minutes. After that did not work she came out and tried tubing.