Best Feed for Choke

[Meredith_Clark]

I have 2 horses who have been having issues with choke and I’m trying to make changes to prevent it as much as possible !

Hershey is an 18 year old OTTB with good teeth who has a massive choke in Feb. the vet thought we might have to take him in for surgical removal it was so bad. We’ve been very careful with him but unfortunately he choked again tonight (was able to pass it with Ace and some TLC)

Baby Gravy is a 9 year old OTSB who I adopted a 3 months ago. He will not eat anything soaked and was having little chokes constantly (never needed a vet to come out thankfully )

Both horses were getting Purina Impact Professional pellets. I switched Baby G to Nutrena senior because it’s soft but he’ll only eat it un- soaked. Is this going to get me into trouble eventually with choke ?

Does anyone recommend a feed that is good for horses with a tendency to choke that won’t eat it soaked ?

And just to add- the horses are up to date on dentals , they eat in ground feeders and Hershey’s was also wetter tonight when he choked.

[SusanO]

Unless the pellets are soaked to mush sometimes they are the culprit. Back when I boarded ( and bought my own ration balancer) the barn was feeding pellets that had a lot of molasses in them. They kept having horses choke on them. The old country vet suggested among other things - adding oats so the horses chewed what they were eating and not just swallow things whole. That helped somewhat’

But once they choke the first time their throat gets irritated and that makes them more susceptible to a second choke. I would be soaking things for a while.

[Texarkana]

I have two prone to choke, one of which was hospitalized for it. Both do fine with soaked Triple Crown Senior. When I say “soaked,” that’s a bit of a misnomer. I add water from the hose then bring the horses inside to eat; it only sits a few minutes.

[JB]

what size feed container?

25g livestock feeders - low and wide - with large rocks, and feed scattered, should prevent e more than crumbs in the mouth at one time. I would make sure they can’t grab a mouthful, no matter how much falls out

Horses choke on pellets, textured, and extruded feeds. But unsoaked, textured and extruded feed is somewhat less likely to cause choke than straight pellets, but some textured feeds also have some pellets.

It’s also worth having them scoped to see what’s going on down there - their esophagus conformation may be the root of the problem. If that’s the case, they need their feed scattered far and wide so there’s never much in their mouth at once.

[Amy3996]

My first horse was a chronic choker. It ended up that he couldn’t have any pelleted feed, so we switched him to well-soaked Triple Crown Senior. It’s a softer textured feed that he seemed to do really well with.

For your one who doesn’t eat soaked feed - a livestock feeder with the grain scattered may be helpful. You can also put large smooth rocks in there so pony has to slow down and move the rocks to get to the feed.

[lenapesadie]

My horse choked twice as a youngster. I won’t let him have anything but soaked feed.

I tried a feeder similar to

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/8008275638309614391?q=slow+feeder+horse+bucket&client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=414&bih=697&tbs=cat:6990,pdtr0:4568435|4568436,vw:l,init_ar:SgVKAwjONkoMUgoI8-qWAiD06pYC,ss:44&prmd=sivn&sxsrf=ALeKk02CX_MQtoKlGHv2LUuKE_f96P6Axg:1627875400869&prds=num:1,of:1,eto:8598901851083953192_0,prmr:1,cs:1

Only useful if your horse is getting a small amount of grain per feeding

[PNWjumper]

I have one horse who has choked several times. Always on pelleted feeds. So now I give her the same amount of rolled oats as I do whatever pelleted feed I want to get her…I put both in my scoop, mix it up best I can, and then spread it across a large feed pan in her stall (or spread it on the floor for her dinner where there are no pills that I’m worried about her not getting).

[trubandloki]

Lots of great answers here.

I just want to add that what one horse chokes on might be no problem for the next. In other words, there is no blanket answer to this question.

I once dealt with a horse that would choke on anything that was a tiny pellet (not the rabbit pellet size, that smaller pellet size) or the small round pieces. The slightly bigger pellet or the nuggets were fine for this horse.

@Texarkana makes a good point too. Soaked feed does not have to be a slurry wet mess. It just has to be wet enough to break the pellets down.

[JB]

@trubandloki

Soaked feed does not have to be a slurry wet mess. It just has to be wet enough to break the pellets down.

This can be tricky territory without more detail. You can break the pellets down into a “paste” - enough water to make them not pellets, but not enough to keep them wet enough for the duration of their consumption.

[trubandloki]

@JB

This can be tricky territory without more detail.

Very valid point!
What works for one might not work for another.

The above mentioned horse would not be able to eat a dry powder without choking on it.