We came to the barn in the morning, something was defiantly wrong. Delilah was in some kind of distress. she was breathing fine, but she had not finished her supper from last night and her, usually empty, water bucket was half full. She was stretching out her neck, while opening and closing her mouth. Her mouth and nostrils were driping with saliva and a watery green material that looked like partially dissolved food. There was a significant amount of this green, foamy saliva on the stall floor and walls. We called our vet and described the symptoms and he said she was suffering from choke. And he’d be right out.

What exactly is choke and what causes it? Basically, choke is when partially chewed food gets wadded up and stuck in the Esophagus. The Horse coughs excessively, trying to shift the mass of undigested food in its esophagus. Saliva and particles of food and grass drip from the nostrils, since the horse is unable to swallow. Our vet says that depending on where the obstruction is, you may or may not be able to see a lump from the outside.

A number of factors can lead to a choke. The biggest is when a horse does not chew its feed completely, due to dental problems, such as missing or painful teeth, sharp points, etc. Choke is most often found in older horses and ponies.

Horse that have a habit of eating too quickly and swallowing before food is chewed properly develope choke. This,we believe is what caused the problem in our horse. While less of a problem, some horses do not  not produce enough saliva to wet food properly when eating.

A partial obstruction of the esophagus due to tumor, or scarring from old injuries can cause a blockage of food.  Our vet says this is the least likely cause of choke, but should be mentioned.

In our case, the vet surmised that  Delilah’a choke was probably caused because she eats very quickly. 

As soon as you suspect your horse is choking, remove all feed and hay, so she can’t eat anything else, adding to the problem. Call the vet immediately. Our vet likes to wait about an hour, hoping that the blockage may move on its own. But if you know your horse has been choking since yesterday, it is best to have it taken care of right away.

While you’re waiting for the vet, encourage the horse to stand quietly, with his head down. This will lessen the chance that anything he coughs up will find it’s way into his trachea and lungs and possibly cause aspiration pneumonia, a complication that sometimes arises after a choke has cleared.

After a quick check up, our vet tranquilized LiLi and filled his buckets with cool water. He explained his treatment and the use of a nasogastric Tube to soften the food mass. This is when the veterinarian inserts a tube in the horses nostril and passes it through the sinuses. The tube will go into the esophagus by passing the back of the throat to get to the blockage.

He said that when treating choke, the vet’s objective is to clear the obstruction from the esophagus. He does this by passing a tube through the horse’s nostril and down into the esophagus, to the point of the obstruction.

The vet then flushes water into the tube and siphons it back out again. This usually has to be done many times, sometimes taking two or more buckets of water. Each time, a bit more of the matted food is washed away and the mass gets smaller.

This can be an extremely messy operation, especially if the horse is coughing and shaking its’ head around, as LiLi did in spite of being sedated. Wet food matter was everywhere.

By carefully working the tube back and forth in the esophagus, the vet moved the obstruction down into the stomach and cleared the choke. He explained that care has to be taken that the esophagus is not damaged or ruptured in the process. He said that the presence of blood in the tube would show a rupture.

There are a number of ways in which the horse owner can help prevent a choke. Here are the tips our vet gave us after treating Delilah:

Wetting the feed down, helps with chewing and digestion. Most impotantly, though, it slows down eating time.

After a few days, he said to place one or more large rocks in the feeder so that she has to pick around them to get to her grain.

Another thing he said was very important was to give her as much turnout time as possible, so she can graze between meals, which may make her eat her grain more slowly.

By using one or more of the above techniques, you should be able to successfully prevent choke in your herd.