Horse choking

Question
My horse choked on Wed. 01/26 and it was quite severe. The vet came out and ran a tube up his nose and it took awhile to get it cleared out. He is very old, probably in his 30's, and is on senior feed and beet pulp.. He was coughing alot yesterday Thurs 01/27 and has not been drinking water. The vet came back out and ran the tube up again and gave him an IV with something in it that is suppose to make him want to drink water. However, he still hasn't drank anything and won't eat this morning.. We have put some apple mixture in his water to sweeten it but still nothing.. The vet mentioned that the treatment last night was pretty much our last option.  Just trying to do everything possible to save him. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated..

Answer
Hi Denise,

Thank you for your question and I'm so very sorry for your horse's ideal.  Choke can be scary for a horse, and discourage an older horse from eating or drinking...if it's not the choke itself, it could be the pain that comes from tubing a horse.  First of all I would discourage you from flavoring your horse's water right now.  Horses are very fussy drinkers and a change in taste will put them off...so although the idea is a great one to disguise taste (especially on the road) it might worsen the problem right now.  The best ingredients for encouraging your horse to drink are either loose salt added to the food (start with 1/8 cup per day), or electrolytes (which are not alot unlike the salt).  Clumpy loose salt in grain may also discourage your horse from eating so I suggest that if you are feeding beet pulp, add the loose salt to the water and let it dissolve and then add your beet pulp to the water and let it soak up all the salty water.  I would also suggest that you soak your horse's senior feed before feeding it...these senior feeds often contain fiber sources that expand quickly in contact with saliva and worsen the chances of a horse choking.  If the feed has expanded prior to eating then the risk of choke decreases.  Right now I think your best chances of eating and drinking is to soak feed in water (hay, grain, beet pulp).  This will soften food and make it easier for him to swallow and will allow water intake in the form of soaked food until he begins drinking. To encourage intake right now when it is critical, perhaps you can add molasses to the soaked feed to stimulate consumption. Also, make sure the water he has available is not freezing cold...cold water discourages drinking and horses like water at about 10-15 degrees celsius.  

Further down the line you may want to ensure his teeth are in the best condition possible for his
age, and perhaps look at changing ration ingredients to accommodate his age.  For now soak feed, add salt and perhaps sweeten the feed to encourage intake.

Best of luck, I hope he is better soon.

Thanks, Corlena