Comments on: Horse Choking

By: Elli

Elli — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 19:30:06 +0000

I have a mare who scoffs her feed and chokes. She only does it when she is fed hay or chaff, even though she grazes all day.
When the choke occurs we get one of the extra large syringes that you get from the vets or feed store and squirt water down her throat (as if you were giving her a worming treatment). Has worked every time.

By: Tina

Tina — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 08:20:56 +0000

I had my horse choke, well I believe it was choke. She wouldn’t eat and was standing with her head down and kept making this swallowing sound repeatedly. I checked inside the mouth and could see some chewed hay at the back of the throat. After calling the vet I went back out and began to massage what felt like a lump in the neck down from the throat line. I think I managed to dislodge the obstruction because she stopped making the swallowing sound. I recalled the vet with the update as she had began eating again, the vet didn’t think it was choke but I know there was something stuck in there making her uneasy and unable to continue eating. Very scary indeed.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 08:50:12 +0000

When our horse was choking we put a hose down his throat and turned on the water full blast. This dislodged the hey that was stuck and saved him. Very scary ordeal.

By: Krystyn

Krystyn — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:10:30 +0000

If your horse is actively choking and you encourage that much movement (trotting and such) won’t that cause the horse to aspirate if the matter doesn’t move?

By: Channon

Channon — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:42:22 +0000

My horse choked just a few hours ago on his grain. He is an older horse and after an hour and a half, the vet and i had little success of completely dislodging the mass. I hope he makes it through the night. Thanks to the website and the other comments I was able to diagnose what was wrong with my horse quickly. I have had this horse (as well as others) for 23 years (since I was 8) and have never had a horse choke before. I hope I don’t ever have to witness this again; its an awful experience for the horse, especially if the mass is not dislodged. Pray for Nicky, please.

By: gaither

gaither — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:52:02 +0000

my vet suggested getting the horse to trot or to load her in and out of our trailer or to get her to jump across something, usually the creek bank, to use the upward motion to dislodge the clump. if you see them drink water w/no problem you’re home free! also lost one years ago that aspirated.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:32:39 +0000

My horse chocked last night. Luckily I was able to get it resolved within a couple minutes. All I did was keep her calm, and massage her throat. I could hear where the blockage was. All it took was a massage, and remaining calm (myself and the horse). A little more information would be helpful as to what to do if you can’t go to the vet and the vet can’t come to you right away.

By: bob

bob — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:21:27 +0000

after having encounters with a choking horse i have learnt these measures.
how to prevent….
dont give youre horse hay in the horse float if you are going down a bumpy road.
inspect your hay and look out for chokeable items such as dusty hay or hay with clumps in it.
sighns of a choking horse…
coughing and mucas/snot being discharged from the nostral aera.
what to do.. CALL THE VET
DONT let your horse lay down and get him/her at a trot and continue to massage the throat and back into a trot. my experiance took me about 2 hours
follow the vets advice and after the event hose down the horse

By: Tammy

Tammy — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:03:53 +0000

My horse choked not to long ago. I had to wait for and hour for the vet. While I was waiting I kept the horse calm and massaged her throat to help break up the mass. However, it was so far down that it would have been impossible to remove mechanically. A hose at a trickle into the nose and down the throat helps. However, use caution, you could get it in the lungs. Don’t leave the hose in to long. You only want to break up the mass. Let the water run back out of the nose/mouth. Be careful not to drown them with to much water.

By: kate

kate — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:45:04 +0000

I appreciate the suggestion that you call a Vet to deal with many horse situations, but many of us do not have a Vet that will come out to deal with emergency situations. If it is during office hours, my Vet usually tells me to bring the horse in and they can take a look. At times, this is just not possible for me or safe for the horse. We really do need more information on how we can help our horses at home.