Question
I own two horses, both normally fed soaked beet pulp shreds mixed into their textured feed. Recently, a neighbor fed the horses for me without soaking the beet pulp. The mare choked, the gelding didn’t. The mare is a scoffer, while the gelding is a grazer. This made me wonder whether there was a relationship between choke and speed of feed consumption. Is there?
Answer
What is a “scoffer”? A horse described as a scoffer eats voraciously or devours greedily. A horse or pony may scoff up or scoff down its feed. The Oxford English Dictionary provides this example sentence from 1979: Should the farmer wish to supplement the rations of his cattle or sheep in bad weather then he must stand guard over the feeding trough to stop the horses scoffing the lot.
Etymology aside, horsemen and veterinarians have long believed there is an association between choking and bolting, a behavior in which horses plow through their meals gluttonously, as your mare does.
When a wad of half-chewed feed becomes wedged in a horse’s esophagus, nearby muscles may contract, locking the wad in place and triggering the horse to gurgle, cough, and spill saliva. Nasal discharge that includes fragments of feed is a typical sign of choke. A choking horse may also stretch its neck, shake its head, and show signs of discomfort or distress, such as sweating and pawing.
Because your mare bolts her feed, she might have been especially susceptible to choke, regardless of what she was eating at the time of the occurrence. Horses can choke on nearly any feedstuff: pelleted or textured feed, forage pellets and cubes, beet pulp mash and pellets, and hay. One of the worst episodes of choke witnessed by a Kentucky Equine Research nutritionist involved hay. On the other hand, you describe your gelding as a “grazer,” which I take to mean he’s more laid-back at mealtimes, may be a more methodical chewer, and thus less likely to choke.
In addition to eating behavior, poor teeth can be a factor in choke. Because horses with neglected teeth, especially molars, cannot adequately grind feedstuffs into small pieces, horses attempt to swallow half-chewed mouthfuls of feed, potentially resulting in choke. An annual dental examination with appropriate correction of any problems keeps teeth in serviceable condition.
Finally, horses that experience multiple episodes of choke may accumulate scar tissue in the esophagus, narrowing the esophageal pathway and increasing the likelihood of successive occurrences. Now that your mare has choked, be especially cautious of her feeding management in the future.
Wetting feedstuffs, as you were doing with beet pulp, helps prevent choke. Strategies designed to slow consumption may also help dodge further choke episodes.
Choking should be considered a veterinary emergency, and a veterinarian should be called anytime choke is suspected.
