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[RC] choke - Alice YovichThe other morning my mare had a spot of choke. It wasn't major, just had a moment where I could tell she had something stuck. She coughed a few times and then drank some water and then spewed feed, mucous, etc, out of her nostrils. It probably was a 5 min. episode, but felt like years as my daughter and I stood there watching her in discomfort. I had fed her thesame food, in the same way I always do. I feed her senior (even though she's not) with a supplement called Nature's Essentials (purina) and I wet the whole thing down to make a mash so that they get their supplements. Sometimes I make it very soupy, like at rides b/c my daughter's pony doesn't drink well on the trail and I'm trying to hydrate. This day, it was just moist. She snapped right out of it, finished her breakfast (which I turned into soup) and we went on a trail ride (not a good ride either, but that's another story). The next day (yesterday) the same thing happened, only I wasn't there and my friend who fed called me all frantic and told me the same story. She wouldn't finish her feed yesterday though, but I think it was b/c the pony was loose and trying to come after her while she finished. On Sat. Joe was on his lead rope and she was safe. But, she did end up eating another 1/2 scoop of senior dry about an hour later, outside the fence, so I think the reason she wouldn't finish was b/c she knew she was being stocked. Last night, she was fine. As far as the conditions in which they live: they are in a 2 acre pasture together. The pony is dominant, but not mean. They eat about the same amount of food and it's not a problem (usually) to feed him and then feed her. Sometimes she'll lose a bit of feed, but mostly they do OK. She doesn't hurry to eat that I can tell nor does he. In fact, both times she choked, he was still eating his grain when it happened. The vet is coming tomorrow for something else, and I'm going to talk with him about it. I wanted to discuss her stifle anyway, so I figure what a great opportunity to do both. My friend and I both think that the supplement might be gummy when wet and causing her the problem, like peanut butter stuck in our throats. I discontinued it and asked them to just make a soup of senior for her this am. I'll go out tomorrow myself to make sure that she's eating OK and be there when the vet comes. Is there anything that would cause a horse to start this problem out of the blue? Once didn't worry me, but twice does. Nothing has changed that I can tell. she's not showing clinical signs of anything and she was great on the trail Sat. Obviously, I'm a little worried, but don't want to get myself too riled up over nothing.
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