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I was feeding some alfalfa pellets as a treat and he choked. The barn owner got a hose into his mouth and my horse started coughing and got the material out through his mouth and nose.

Obviously I won't be giving him any dry food again.

My horse just had his teeth floated. I am wondering why this happened. That was not the first time I gave him those pellets.

We've had a few episodes over the years, and it usually had something to do with the horse being very hungry, taking big bites, and trying to swallow without chewing enough.

kande50 wrote:We've had a few episodes over the years, and it usually had something to do with the horse being very hungry, taking big bites, and trying to swallow without chewing enough.

That was not the case here.

Too dry? Little boring story. About a week ago, I was eating this new nutritious product I bought. It was dried broccali florets. I ate too many at a time and they got stuck somewhere in my esophagus. It was horrible and even painful. Each time I swallowed it hurt. I tried to throw up, but that wouldn't work. I tried to sip some water, and boy did swallowing even a little bit of water hurt. Eventually, with multiple small sips, the compacted broccoli passed down. I would guess a similar thing happened to your horse. It may just be one of those things and he could eat the pellets again and not have a problem. I wouldn't do it though unless they were moistened.

Glad he had help right away.

I won't feed dry hay pellets because of this risk.

I'm not a vet - but using a hose to dislodge the blockage possibly could cause a problem with water getting into the lungs. My old guy started choking on his grain and his carrots. I started to add water to his grain and the problem went away, and no more carrots. I had the vet/dentist check his teeth and she said they are excellent and that wasn't why he is having trouble chewing, his is more of an old age issue. What I have one when he was getting something stuck was to massage the area to relax the muscles which luckily the 2 times it happened, helped.

The tooth floating might have something to do with your recent episode. Could be his mouth just feel different and he's chewing different with the new feel.

Yeah I later read that using water might not be the best thing. It mainly seemed to trigger coughing which somehow dislodged the food in the esophagus.

We are several days out and he is fine so I don't think he aspirated anything.

That's great news and he's one lucky horse you were there to react to his choke.

Hayburner wrote:That's great news and he's one lucky horse you were there to react to his choke.

I caused the choke by treating him with pellets! He wouldn't have choked if I wasn't there.

I am very glad he is ok. Im sure it was scary like hell!

But the hose is a bad idea as aspiration is very real.

I also suspect maybe the teeth float changed his bite just enough to do this...but I too would be careful.