Sorry no pictures! We found a vet who does coggins that's only ten minutes away so we loaded Faran up to go get his blood drawn. He loaded on the trailer in fifteen minutes or so which is awesome! Such a good boy. He did it on his own too, we didn't have to force him. The bad thing is that we were feeding him handfuls of dry hay pellets as a reward.... bad move!! I should have known better. I feed him hay pellets with minerals everyday, but I soak them and feed from the ground...
So when we got to the vet, ten minutes away, he started trying to swallow and we immediately knew what was wrong. We unloaded him just as he started draining saliva out of his mouth and nose. If you've never seen a horse choke... it's gross! I was worried because the vet we went to doesn't do anything with horses except draw blood for coggins, but luckily their new vet (co-owner) is an equine vet!! Yay! He even had all of the stuff in his truck because he said he still worked on horses for his in-laws or some family with a horse farm (I was too distracted to really listen so I don't remember for sure) even though the clinic only does small animals (they are too busy to try to take on equine patients). So he sedated Faran, stuck the tube up his nose and cleared the obstruction. He said it was a small obstruction and we cleared it quickly, so he should be totally fine now. Regardless I'm going to keep a close eye on him. I'm also going to do some research on after care, because I don't know when I should feed him again or if I should let him drink or what. Right now he's in the round pen letting the sedation wear off where the other boys can't bother him. I've only ever seen one horse choke (the horse belonged to someone else), so I don't really have much experience with it. I recognized the symptoms immediately, but I don't know the aftercare. So if you know anything about choke, comments are welcome.
So yeah that turned out more stressful and expensive than I was expecting, but he did get his blood drawn for the coggins so at least that's done. I'm just happy he's okay. I was on the verge of a panic attack before I found out there was an equine vet there! :) We have family visiting for the holidays at the end of the week, so I may be scarce a while, but I'll make sure to update on Faran in a couple of days.
P.S. Oh I almost forgot, his rain rot appears to be gone already! Yay! I'll check really well later when I have some latex gloves. The MTG is still stinky lol.
P.P.S. Faran is grazing out in the round pen so he's awake and seems fine. :D
Phew! That sounds really scary. I've never seen a horse choke, and I hope I never do. I'm glad you had the care right there when you needed it!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the company and have a great Christmas!
Whewww! Glad that turned out ok. Must have been scary for sure. Is Faran going on a road trip? Just curious why he is getting a coggins. Oh and him loading up on his own???? Heck Ya! Way to go big boy!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Faran is okay and was able to receive prompt medical attention! Regarding aftercare, are you able to call the vet and ask him? I know it's ok to offer water, but not sure how soon to offer food. General aftercare is to feed small amounts of food soaked, which you were already doing. I'd see if you can call the vet tomorrow and see what he recommends.
ReplyDeleteAnd yay for healing rain rot! :)
It's actually the law to have a current coggins on them... we just skipped a year due to finances. Now that we're in our new house and things are getting better we're trying to get caught back up on some things we had to let slide for a while.
ReplyDeleteThe vet acted like because we caught it so quickly and it was so small that there wasn't anything in particular we needed to do as aftercare except for soaking his pellets and watching him for side effects such as aspiration pneumonia. He was very confident that Faran would be totally fine, but I like to be prepared for the worst just in case. Thank you guys!
Oh and as of this morning he still seems perfectly normal. :)
So, so scary. I'm glad it was caught and treated early and that he seems to be doing well.
ReplyDeleteOh, I didn't realize that. For us it is only required if transporting out of state.
ReplyDeleteReally? I might have to look it up then. Maybe I've been told wrong my whole life lol. I'm fairly certain you have to have it no matter what here though. I know you have to have one to transport (in or out of state), to compete and to sell one.... It was my understanding if I was ever caught off property without one I could get fined.... which means even just walking him down the road without one (even though that's highly unlikely I would get caught). I'll do some research and see if that's still true. Regardless it's cheap so I'll probably continue to get one yearly anyway. :)
ReplyDeletei'm tearing up now as i read this again because right now mara is in the midst of her second choking incident this weekend, and the vet was here yesterday and today, and we still have no idea, after tubing her.
ReplyDeletei hate to see her standing another night with no dinner, no pasture, no stall, even, (she'd eat the bedding).
i hate to see an animal in agony, having colic symptoms, groaning in pain, due to choke. i've been through choke before, a serious aspiration case, but not with my own horse. and now she's on day 2.
tomorrow i'll try to get my regular vet to do an endoscopy because i want to know what the heck it is.
i'll blog about it later this week - i've already written the posts - my poor husband was trampled by mara as we tubed her. apparently twitching mara is not such a good idea.
the worst thing is not knowing. oh, and the sleepless night which i'll have again tonight, with nightmares when i do sleep.
i'm thankful my husband is ok after that. in 8 years my husband has never been injured by a horse, and tonight was just awful. i thought for sure he'd need to go to the hospital as i saw him lying underneath her feet. ugh.
That's horrible Lytha!!! I'm so glad your husband is okay... It's so scary ending up underneath them.. I still think about when I fell under Chrome in December. I hope he was not injured at all. Being stepped on is so painful.
ReplyDeletePoor Mara... you can't blame her really. After seeing Faran choke I can imagine how much pain she was in and how scared she was. I hope she is okay. I'll come by your blog and catch up as soon as I can. Sorry I've been absent recently. I'll keep you all in my thoughts...