I feed a mix of TC senior with TC 30% supplement. Last night, my 5 yo OTTB choked for the first time (I’ve had him for about 6 months). We just added the 30% this week, so he may not be used to the amount of food plus the dry texture of the pellets.
He resolved the choke himself in about 15 min, but it was extremely scary!
He had pneumonia as a youngster on the track, so this makes me much more cautious as I know pneumonia can be a result of choke.
Just wanted some advice for preventing another episode! I know I can wet his food down with water and put some softball sized stone in his feed tub. Anything else? Thanks ya’ll!
I no longer EVER feed pellets of any kind without first covering them in water and soaking for several minutes. It will prevent future choke as well as get some extra water into them. The process of pelleting horse food makes some of the pellets Rock Hard so it’s just a preventative that I’ve decided to use for all pellets.
I add water to all my feed, too. It’s cheap insurance. I make sure all horses have regular dental care. I also keep ace and banamine on hand.
Most horses young horses I’ve owned or cared for have choked on hay at some point as a weanling/yearling. They’ve all been minor and resolved on their own. I think they sometimes just have to learn the hard way that you have to chew your food before you swallow!
I have one that chokes easily. I spread her feed out in an old water trough so she can’t get a big mouthful. Also have a few round rocks in there to slow her down.
1lb of TC 30 is not a large volume. How are you divying up the feed? 1lb of TC30 is about 3c. If you’re dividing the total feed in half, then 1.5c mixed in with, I’m going to assuming, maybe 1-2lb of the Sr (otherwise I’d assume you were feeding 5-6+lb of the Sr or you wouldn’t be adding in the 30), is really not significant in terms of changing the whole texture. So, no, I really wouldn’t blame it on the pellets.
But regardless of what caused it, or what you think caused it, dumping water in there is the first go-to.
I echo all the other posters. Enough horses have choked here that I now soak all 11 horses’ feed every time. Since I began doing that we have not had a single episode of choke.
An equal amount of water in the feed in works well, but prepared for really sloppy looking feed bins. :rolleyes: :lol:
Thanks everyone! I will just go ahead with the mush feed, hopefully we won’t have to go through that again 
You should give banamine for a few days to ward off residual swelling in the esophagus which can cause another choke.
I found that feeding on the ground (feed tub) helped our choker…
feed from ground level + add water+ remove any stressors (if fed in the field with others, spread their feeders FAR apart)
Thought I’d chime in to say that I’ve seen TC 30% cause more than 1 horse to choke (and yes…100% positive that’s what it was). Switched feeds and never had another problem. Even wetting it was not enough…it had to be mush to go down easily, which became way too much of a hassle when other options were available.
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Ill throw it out there that when you feed 30% the chances you are feeding a large volume of grain is slim, and sometimes when you don’t feed a lot they inhale it and forget to chew. So, I’d wet it…always good to add water to the diet anywho.
I’m betting that its the dry beet pulp base of the senior. Adding water is a good idea.
[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7140714]
I’m betting that its the dry beet pulp base of the senior. Adding water is a good idea.[/QUOTE]
Both the TC Senior and Complete have been extremely clumpy lately (hot weather?). I have to break up large and smaller chunks by hand everyday. If you or whomever is feeding your horse is not breaking up those clumps, that’s where I’d place my money on the cause of your horse’s choke.
There was another thread recently where the barn owner wanted the horse owner to switch to a different feed because of the large clumps in TC Senior and that it would only get worse in the cold weather. It’s so bad, even now, I’ve broken a large plastic scoop traying to dig this stuff out of the aluminum trash cans.
Wish TC would do something about it. At $25.00/bag one would hope for better QC.
[QUOTE=rcloisonne;7140919]
Both the TC Senior and Complete have been extremely clumpy lately (hot weather?). I have to break up large and smaller chunks by hand everyday. If you or whomever is feeding your horse is not breaking up those clumps, that’s where I’d place my money on the cause of your horse’s choke.
There was another thread recently where the barn owner wanted the horse owner to switch to a different feed because of the large clumps in TC Senior and that it would only get worse in the cold weather. It’s so bad, even now, I’ve broken a large plastic scoop traying to dig this stuff out of the aluminum trash cans.
Wish TC would do something about it. At $25.00/bag one would hope for better QC.[/QUOTE]
The Senior has added oil, which is sticky. What would you suggest they do to make less sticky oil? TC is a great quality feed. I’d deal with a little bit of breaking up clumps to have a high quality feed available versus a convenient feed that was crap.
FWIW, if you continue to have choke issues, look further into the issue.
I have a three yo TB filly who had several chokes last year that she resolved on her own. I blamed it on how eager she ate tried to slow her down.
This winter, she had a very bad choke on TC Senior that did not resolve. The barn didn’t know what a choke was or looked like, so she was choked for about 24 hours before the vet was out to clear it. My vet thought it felt weird, and asked that I have her worked up further, and we discovered that she had an internal pigeon fever abscess that was pressing on her esophagus and partially obstructing it, which was leading to the repeated choke episodes.
We had to treat her with some pretty heavy hitter antibiotics for a long period of time to clear the infection, but if we’d not paid attention to the chokes (or if the abscess hadn’t been in the location to cause the chokes) the abscess might have burst internally and killed the horse.
I realize you’ve only had a single episode, and you have a grain change to blame it on, but do keep in mind that sometimes it’s not a simple problem.
[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;7141384]
The Senior has added oil, which is sticky. What would you suggest they do to make less sticky oil? TC is a great quality feed. I’d deal with a little bit of breaking up clumps to have a high quality feed available versus a convenient feed that was crap.[/QUOTE]
Wow, who pee’d on your Cherios? I know it’s a high quality product. I’m feeding it to my horses, aren’t I? :rolleyes:
However, I’m thinking of switching to another high quality, high fat feed from Poulin Grain. It’s called EQUI-PRO® Pro-Max 12% Pellet. It’s 12% protein and 12% fat. No clumping at all. The only product the sell that is clumpy is their Fibre Max which has 14% fat. They clearly mark on the bag it should be fed wetted down. All of these feeds are less than $20/bag.
http://www.poulingrain.com/product_details.php?product_id=51&category_id=3
Simkie, we did have subsequent choke episode, recently. But this time it was from eating hay. Had the vet out to look at his teeth and she didn’t find anything obvious. Thought I’d come back and read through this thread, and it may be worth looking further into the issue, based on your experience. I can’t imagine not being able to feed hay all winter, just for the boredom aspect of living indoors at night. I bought one of those NibbleNets for him, but I may end up camping out the first night we try to use it :eek:
Choke just plain sucks, I was really hoping we could find an answer, but maybe we just need to delve a little deeper…
