Mag suffers choke

Right now I'm sitting in a chair in front of our stall and Mag is inside, blanketed, but trembling still from stress/sedation. The donkey keeps walking up to him to nuzzle him and he is finally feeling good enough to grouch at her for her freedom.

He keeps touching my shoulder over the stall door and nickering, "Let me out"

The hoof trimmer was supposed to arrive at 6. At 4 I looked out my window and saw Mag repeatedly yawning and chewing, but with a lazy look on his face. Something was probably caught in his throat, it looked like haylage.

I called them to the paddock eventually to wash their legs of mud (as I'd promised the lady, their hooves would be able to be found at the ends of their legs today).

To reward them for coming, I tossed a handful of beet pulp pellets over the paddock floor, for them to search for and eat individually. I have done this several times. Neither Mag nor Bellis are too food motivated, so it's not a problem to give them a few pellets of beet pulp without soaking. After all, isn't it a myth that you must soak it first?

Mag started to "colic" but I know the difference now.
 
Mag wanted to lie down on our brick driveway. He wouldn't take his nose off the ground, foam kept coming out of his mouth, and out of his nose came clear fluid in large bubbles.

The farrier arrived and stayed with me the entire time. She'd never seen choke, this was my third time.  

I'd seen this before, with Mara, from hay she'd eaten too fast. I'd' seen it before when I gave partially soaked beet pulp to a greedy mare. In her case she aspirated and nearly died.

He spasmed and trembled, and groaned and eventually the groans became high pitched whines of pain. I hate that sound.

I remembered what the vet said for Mara, massage the esophagus. I did so. For over an hour I encouraged him to swallow, and I also took over his ears in ear massage. Normally I can touch his ears, but not do much more. But today I could do whatever I pleased, and I gave him deep ear massages. My trimmer said it's an acupuncture point, I said it was something I learned in TTEAM, and that since he's allowing it, it must help.

He was burning hot from exertion and trembling so I put a blanket on him. The farrier said it was too much, that he'd suffer Kreislaufkollaps (a very funny term for foreigners - in German it means fainting, but it literally means circulatory failure which would imply death, but no). She told me that's what happens to endurance horses. What, they FAINT?

From time to time Mag would start panting. The donkey, in a stall to keep her from breaking free, was beside herself with worry about Mag. I eventually went and got her so she could be with him.

After trying to get two other vets, the third one finally arrived, just as Mag started to feel better, of course.

His nose was off the ground, he wasn't looking inward any longer, the excretions slowed and the spasms stopped.  I immediately relaxed and tried to get the farrier to calm down too - she was still in panic mode.

After looking around himself, Mag took a nap right there. Apparently the pain had worn him out.

After examining, the vet said she recommends tubing. I said "No, why!?" She recited her vet school training an said that it's crucial.

During Mara's tubing she'd flung J against the wall and then he'd fallen under her hooves as she'd struggled. So I put a helmet on.

But Mag, drugged and twitched, did not fight. Maybe it was the endoscopies.

Just as with Mara, the tubing didn't have any profound result but it may have helped.

The vet said Mag's teeth are fine, that is the most critical thing to check for these cases. She also told us that she'd seen a horse die from choke, but it wasn't beet pulp, it was carrot slices. The lesson being don't slice up carrots or a horse might forget to chew. Hm.

The vet requested his passport and she said there is no indication yet of whether Mag is intended for slaughter for human consumption or not. I said, "As an American I'm disgusted that you ask this. But I understand you must." So I signed my name under "Not for food" and the vet stamped and signed.

The vet and the farrier both told me that unsoaked beet pulp will expand in the esophagus and cause choke. What! The farrier said I should put a beet pulp pellet in my mouth, it won't even be possible to chew because it will take all the saliva away.

Is there anything out there that a horse won't choke on? I feel pretty safe with pasture grazing, but anything's possible.

Based on my experience now, I won't be feeding the pellets as snacks anymore. I'm not sure if it was the haylage or the pellets, maybe it was both. Interestingly, despite the haylage being softer than hay, I'd seen spit-out bits of it on the ground the last couple days.

The farrier stayed the entire 2.5 hours and held Mag's head in her arms as he slept off the drug. Wish I had a photo of that. But when he finally started to wake up, she took pics of herself and Mag. She said she loves him and would want him if she were looking. I told her if I die she can have him.

















He had to be stalled three long hours so he wouldn't eat anything.


Bellis stayed as close as she could get those hours. I stayed too.