choking during transport

[sallydm@rmci.net (Sally Miller)]

Sally Spangler had asked how the rescuer relieved the choke.  The vet
inserted a clear tube (like one they used when tube worming a horse) and
tried and tried to clear the choke with water.  This gelding was stopped up
from just past his lungs to his gut.  The choke was a bad choke - scared
the beegeebers out of me!  I don't know why it happened and why he kept
eating to "stop" himself up the whooooole way.  His lead was long enough so
that he could put his head down past level, but not all the way to the
floor (for obvious reasons).

I guess it can just happen - I know have choked on my own spit before...


P.S.  A lot of folks have been asking me if the horse was eating fed cubes
or loose hay.  It was loose hay.  (And at that time it was alfalfa, before
I learned that grass hay is so much better for the endurance athlete).

Sally


From: Sally Spangler <stepnout@swva.net>
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: Re: choking during transport
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19980608224029.00689d40@swva.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I'd like to know a bit more about the choking while trailering episode, as
well as the technique that relieved it (Heimlich for horses?).  Was this an
instance of a large wad of hay lodging midway down the esophagus, or
something else?  What did your rescuer do for the gelding?  Anyone know if
such events are at all common?

I like feeding my mare in transit simply because she needs the calories.
Hate to have to stop now...or is there some food less choke-prone I could
offer from a hay bag?  I have a stock trailer and hang a bag in front of her
nose, out of reach of her forefeet.

Sally in Floyd, VA (stepnout@swva.net)