 |
RE: [RC] [Guest] advice needed on choked horse - Ridecamp Moderatorspiritwood@xxxxxxxxx" <spiritwood@xxxxxxxxx> Hi Jessica, As an owner of many well-loved older horses, I can tell you that a choking horse can happen at anytime to any horse, regardless of age, but is a more common occurance with the geriatric group. Since I've dealt with old horses for so long, I got used to feeding all my horses a wet, soupy feed. This works great for endurance horses and even potential endurance horses. If all they eat is soupy food, they are the first to dive in on a ride when you really want to push the fluids as much as possible. All my horses are fed this way, from my semi-retired 100 mile horse, to my not yet weaned youngster and the yearlings. I have had three instances of choking horses in the last 10 years using this method. The first was my (at that time 39 year old quarter horse who ate so slowly that his food(Equine Sr) just soaked up all the water and became a large dryish mass that he choked on since he produced so little saliva to help it along. Veterinary intervention called in. Next was my yearling who thought if he spilled grain in the stall, he should eat all the spill plus all the shavings that had even a whiff of grain on them. (He did produce enough drool to sink a battleship so he finally got the choke down before vet arrived, making me look like a looney as the vet arrives to find him looking very content). The third time was after a training ride, another rider's horse didn't finish her beet pulp mixture and she asked if she could offer it to my (older) guy. I thought it would be allright but once again the beet pulp had soaked up all the water and become dry. Horse choked while eating the second handfull. My own fault since an endurance horse just coming in from a loop or in this case a training ride is already somewhat dehydrated. This horse was able to get the choke down with the help of lots of massaging the lump in his neck, and dribbling water down to help from an electrolyte syringe(not recommended). I have had no other choking cases and the horses really seem to like the fact that now that it is cold outside, they get warm water in their feed. Yummy! Hope this helps, and I don't think your horse needs to be isolated either, just tell him he is now the "soup nazi" of the horse world(Seinfeld character),and moniter him when eating. Always make sure he has access to all the water that he wants.Best of luck! See ya' Becky =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|