Re: Choke and Pelleted feeds

["Keith and Anna" <desautels@cnetco.com>]

My mother had a mare at her place for breeding, and the owner was paying the
feed bill and providing the feed. She was being fed alfalfa pellets also.
One night my mom heard strange noises coming from the barn area. When she
went out to investigate, that mare had all the symptoms of a horse choking.
She ran back to the house to call the vet and before the vet even got there
the horse was dead.  After calling the owner of the horse(who seemed to be
very understanding) She paid for an autopsy to make sure what the cause was.
It appears that the mare had not  been cared for well in her early years and
had a bad case of  worms at one time that caused extreme damage to her
intestinal tract. The mare had a 14 day old foal at her side. The vet
speculates that the foaling caused or was at least partially responsible for
a blood clot that led to the intestinal tract shutting down and not
absorbing the nutrients etc.  There was no pellets stuck in the esophagus or
other evidence of choke just the symptoms.  I would say that this is
extremely rare, because i have never heard of it occuring before or after
this one mare, but thats just an experince My family has run across
involving pelleted feeds.
Anna and Keith and all out critters In Northern New Mexico
(horses) Hobo(the old man) Shy Ann (the Mule)
Lizzy (momma) and Lightning (baby)
(Basenjis) Lady Queen of the house, and
her two sons George and Iceman and finally
Lilly (the prairie dog)




> Beet pulp pellets aren't the only pellets that can cause the choking
> symptoms described by Diane.  Several years ago I had a mare who became
> impacted in the same way while eating alfalfa pellets.  I called my vet,
he
> diagnosed it over the phone, told me to wait 1/2 hour and if she hadn't
> cleared the problem, he'd be over to help her out.  She got lucky and
> cleared them herself.  I haven't fed and pelleted food dry ever since as
my
> vet said that some horses just can't eat pellets.
>



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