Oh, and thank you! That is EXTREMELY nice to know. At this point every diagnostic is a pinch, and a week of me doing extra instacart runs, so it’s good to know that it covers both bases.
Someone recommended Triple Crown Natural Balance Timothy Hay Cubes to
me for my horse, who cannot have hay right now. They are significantly smaller and softer than regular hay cubes and do not use a binder. I don’t remember seeing anything above about them. They’ve been incredibly helpful for me. Thank you again to whomever recommended them.
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Any improvement with netting the hay?
It’s been a lotta years since my horse was quietly choking with frequency, but what I recall about that period was that she was a very careful eater. I figured that she’d dealt with it long enough that she knew what worked and what didn’t to “manage.” It doesn’t seem to be a stretch to say a horse might be less interested in hay if eating it is causing discomfort going down. They’re no dummies, they figure it out when something feels bad.
Hiatal hernia in horses does seem QUITE rare–that paper is apparently the first report in literature, and was published in 2020. It might not be a bad idea to print & bring with you to your appointment, so everyone is on the same page.
It is really interesting that it was reported in a Friesian. Is there any chance at all your horse is part Friesian? Non Friesians can certainly have weird swallowing disorders, too, but if she might have some Friesian blood, that does seem like it would raise some eyebrows.
Once you have the imaging, it wouldn’t be very costly to send it out for review to whoever is super interested in swallowing stuff. Another set of eyeballs (esp without having to haul the horse anywhere new!) can be really useful.
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In reading all of this, I also think it’s somehow hay related. It sounds like you’ve tried different hays, but if it’s also choke-related, my thought was what if you found the softest hay you could and then steamed it? That seems like it would make it more similar to grass, which she doesn’t seem to have a problem with.
Maybe try soaking hay to start and see if that helps? But I’ve seen hay come out of the steamer and it looks so much nicer (softer) than hay that is soaked. Or soak in hot water, if available.
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Just because it hasn’t been written about doesn’t make it as rare as we think it may be. Years ago I had a cat with what at first looked like a herpes lesion on her nose. Yup, fine, she’s out of a herpes barn. Then it went bonkers and got huge. The biopsy came back as a bovine sarcoid - almost unheard of in cats. In the following years I have come to learn of 2 other cats with bovine sarcoids, and possibly a third (but I’m not sure they ever biopsied), within 100km of me.
Hoofbeats - sometimes it is a zebra 
Yeah, not at all saying that it’s not the answer because it’s rare, but with only one case in the literature, it may be helpful to take that paper with, so the vets are aware it happens, that it’s been described, and they’re familiar with the imaging needed to “see” it.
I can’t even count how many times I’ve had vets or physicians miss something “obvious” because they weren’t considering a particular issue, or maybe fully aware of the possibility. So much of finding that needle in the haystack is being open to the idea and actually looking.
So help em out by providing the lit 
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So true. I’ve diagnosed a lot of stuff playing Dr Google, printed out the articles, and been “that client”. My small animal vet thankfully sees it as a great thing. I caught a 8 year old ”scar” that became melanoma despite three vets thinking it was a 1/100 chance and other oddities.
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All good points.
To me, she looks EXACTLY like what she was advertised as: Clyde x Hackney cross. She’s basically a black and white clyde that maxed out at 15.3. No sign of any skin issues under her feathers or anything else that hints at Friesian. Trots like a hackney when she’s excited. And they definitely bred something small to her mother to get her size down. She does have GORGEOUS hair, but it’s mostly straight (tail wavy), and I attribute that to the natural “unmanaged Clyde” fashion.
I have mentioned the hernia idea to my vet in passing. I think vet is more suspicious of a movement issue. I will definitely ask that the x-rays be sent to me this time, though. Usually they just go in her file.
Good to know, thank you for sharing!
Given the quantity of hay that she’d have to consume over the winter, I’m ABSOLUTELY buying a steamer if we rule out any physical issues. It’s going to suck for my pocket book, but it’s the one thing I can think of that would be better than our current course (soaking).
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It might also be worth a short trial on chopped hay. We had one with choke issues that did really well on the Standlee product. It’s not cheap, but it saves significant labor over steaming/soaking/complete feed.
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Is her parentage verified though? Is she registered? Or are her sire and dam registered?
If her parentage isn’t a truly for sure known entity it may be useful to communicate that to your team, so they’re not ruling out breed specific issues based solely on “clyde x hackney.”
I’d try this first. Can cobble a chopper together for 50 bucks if you already have a weed whip.
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They’re aware that she was a meat horse. I just booked her at NBC today. Apparently they do a CT scan, not radiographs, for the barium swallow. I asked for clarification, waiting to get an email back. I’m still gonna have an x-ray her hind gut to check the sand issue, wondering if it would be redundant to also x-ray chest/neck.
Is there a tutorial on this lol?
Trash can with round snap on lid. Cut a circle in the lid big enough to fit head of weed whip (can put a slot if you don’t want to remove the guard).
Hay in can, whip head in can, lid on, weed whip chops the hay.
Not elegant but it’s cheap if you wanted to try it. If it works, dedicated leaf mulchers do an ok job of chopping hay.
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