Recurrent choking causes?

If a nasogastric tube was inserted during his colics, the inner walls of the esophagus may have been damaged and scarred.

Or it is possible that he has a disturbance of neuromuscular (affects nerves and muscles) functions that regulate fuctions throughout the entire digestive tract. Peristalsis is the wavelike constricting and shortening of muscles in the walls of the digestive tract that keeps contents moving through (motility). Ineffective spasmodic contractions or absence of peristalsis can serve to obstruct movement of content through the tract, and in other cases, spasms and excessive peristalsis produce hypermotility, moving content through too rapidly. Both colics and choke could be related to a neuromuscular disorder affecting the Gi tract. The valve (cardiac sphincter muscle) regulating food passage from the esophagus into the stomach might also be impaired.

Anatomic abnormalities such as strictures, or damaged lining from prior chokes or other injuries as from ingestion of toxins, etc. might also leave scars and constricted areas within the passageway. Infections or other inflammations, exposure to gastric acids, or mechanical damage from nasogastric intubation during a colic, or from endoscopic exams, and so on can also damage and thicken the walls to narrow the passageway inside of the esophagus. Tumors or other abnormal growths might also be causes.

So, it could be from any number of causes, and the vet will have to investigate to rule out or confirm potential causes. I hope it turns out to be minor and treatable.

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Add......................... It isn't advisable to massage the neck when a horse is choking. Without medical management to control spasms and inflammation, the risk of rupturing the esophagus is high. If the cardiac sphincter is constricted and failing to relax as is often the case, and you are forcibly massaging feed toward it, the risk of rupturing the esophagus is that much greater. When a horse chokes, he should rest with the head lowered until the vet arrives to provide medical treatment and possibly perform a lavage. Every episode of choke should be considered to be a potential medical emergency.

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Add 2.................. Another thing to consider is that because his larynx is prolapsed, the epiglottis may not function effectively to close it off during swallowing, and this puts him at greater risk for aspiration of food and saliva into the windpipe (trachea) every time he swallows. .

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Add per Zephania....................... YA restricts length of answers, and in order to add more to an already lengthy answer, content that is the least relevent to the question has to be removed. It's a necessary "evil" that is just that simple. My personal experiences with horses (mine or others) with choke includes those that were never definitively diagnosed for cause through scopes, surgical interventions, or necropsies. I've never owned a horse who choked more than once, and those and most others I've experienced were mild feed impactions that resolved within hours. With a couple exceptions, the deaths following choke in horses I've known died without necropsy and some were associated with colics from various obstructions farther along in the digestive tract. I recall at least one with necrotic esophageal lesions diagnosed via endoscopy prior to death, and one who was necropsied after the esophagus was ruptured.

Personal experiences are not scientific evidence. You have the right to act as you wish despite what the equine research has established only because horses are property under the law, and accountability in veterinary practice reflects that. As for arrogance, you posted unqualified advice to ignore and act against established management protocol that prohibits massaging of the throat/esophagus during choke based on the opinion of one vet in one unresolved case.

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Calling dangerous and unqualified advice dangerous and unqualified is not rude when it represents well validated scientific fact. You are not a medical professional, and whether you like it or not, you are not qualified to dispense medical advice based on what your vet told you to do with your horse.

It is contraindicated to apply esophageal massage during choke. It renders no benefit, and at the least, it can aggravate the horse further. It can initiate spasms in irritable tissue, or exacerbate existing spasms. If a distended area of impaction of any consistency is manipulated by massage, damage to the esophageal lining is known to result, with potential for tissue necrosis and rupture of the esophagus, not to mention that it also multiplies the risk of aspiration and secondary pneumonia.

It is you, not I, who is advising to perform tissue manipulation in the absence of medical management.

It could be to do with the the larynx - and the only help for that might be a hobday operation. Very big and recovery is a long one, but well worth it, and your horse is not very old, so it could be worth it. Only your vet will be able to tell.

It could also be that he has nerve damage somewhere in his throat or neck, either it is constricted or something else has gone wrong.

Until then, never leave him alone when he is eating, stand slightly away to let him eat in peace, but be ready to step in and massage his gullet (the under surface of his neck where the food goes down) upwards. This is vital, as a horse cannot vomit, but continuous massage upwards toward the mouth will help shift it.

The only other thing I can think of is to feed chaff with all his feeds, this will mean that he HAS to chew his food properly, and perhaps get him scoped to see if there is an obstruction or any of the above.

Once a horse has choked once, he may choke again, even repetitively as yours has, for some time. The esophagus can get scraped up, especially if a vet has come out to push the choke down into the stomach.

My vet suggested gentle massage of the choke. It does work, as you've seen, and done gently does less damage than leaving the choke in place does. If the choke is soft/mushy, massage it. If it is rock hard or causes him pain, don't. This is what the vet told me to do with my horse. I trust my vet; the horse was fine.

I suggest switching from chaff to a pelleted hay and soaking that pellet to mush. Then add more water to make it soupy. He'll slurp it down, it will slow his eating and go down more easily for him. Feed small meals more often. (I'm not familiar with chaff; I'm told it's chopped hay. A pellet would be more a ground hay.) This will ease his feeding and allow the esophagus to heal.

I definitely recommend consulting your own vet for this. Good luck with him!

gallop, hun. My advice is based on multiple experiences with choke and the sound advice of a qualified, well respected vet. What is your advice based on? Humans are not the same as horses. Big words don't change that.

edit: reading on the internet, huh? Truly, you are not qualified to condemn qualified vets, any more than you are qualified to condemn a doctor.

Eschew obfuscation.

edit: Gallop, you are a retired nurse with delusions of grandeur. You are not now and never have been a qualified veterinary anything. Reading studies on the internet no more qualifies you to condemn veterinary advice than it would qualify me to begin nursing.

This questioner asked for others' experiences. These are mine. What are yours?

edit: Gallop, I see you've edited out your arrogant comments about my advice and my vets. I find that intellectually dishonest. For the record, my comments to you were in response to some pretty rude remarks you made.

You're no doubt better educated than a commercial airline pilot too, but that doesn't mean I'd get in a jetliner you were flying! Your specialties are not veterinary; a year as an intern, even if full time, does not qualify you as anything veterinary. Human medicine and vet medicine are miles apart.

Nurses are not doctors, though they may hold a doctoral degree. I wouldn't come to the best nurse in the world for my own health issues; I'd consult a doctor. Same with horses. I wouldn't take my horse to an equine nurse; I'd take him to an equine veterinary doctor. Nurses in both areas are wonderful people and provide many valuable services, but you go to a doctor.

Vets in your extended family did not answer the question, you did. Vets in my immediate family did not answer the question; I did.

As you've managed to spend paragraphs on your human nursing career, but not a word on your own experience with equine choke, I assume you have NONE. Just reading articles off the internet.

edit: I realized length would be your excuse. When you delete something rude, honesty requires noting that.

Now you're saying that following the advice of a licensed, respected equine veterinarian - a board certified internal medicine specialist at that - is only legal because I'm treating my horse as property? By extension, I'm abusing it? And my vet as well?

And that sharing that experience with this board is somehow arrogant?

No, Gallop. The arrogance is in an arm chair quarterback thinking she is better than a vet and is the final arbiter of veterinary medicine.

Either one can influence the other, and in fact one usually does end up promoting the other. Depression and anxiety are very commonly comorbid, meaning they occur together at the same time. It is actually more common for anxiety and depression to occur together than it is for someone to have just depression or just anxiety. Depression can cause anxiety because when a person is depressed, everything feels hopeless and sad. They feel like the future is worthless, there is nothing worth living for, they are useless, etc. That is anxiety-provoking because the person starts to worry about the future. Will they ever get better? Will there ever be hope? Will anyone ever love them, or will they be sad and alone forever? All of those worries build up and it ends up making the person very anxious, which may snowball into an entirely separate anxiety disorder. On the other hand, anxiety can also cause depression. Being anxious is depressing in itself, because anxiety tends to be all-consuming and very controlling. Anxiety is insidious, it infects every thought you have and every move you make. It can alter a person's life, making them not leave the house, not hang out with friends, not enjoy the things they used to, all because they are afraid of one thing or another. You can see how being afraid of everything all the time would be depressing and cause someone to develop depression. There is also a biochemical link between the two. Both anxiety and depression are believed to be caused by a decrease in the neurotransmitter serotonin. Since they are both believed to be caused by a drop in the same neurotransmitter, it makes sense that they would happen together. I hope that helps!

not too sure, my sisters horse had it, the reason she got it is because when she was eating her feed there were lots of other horses around her (in a different field) and bolted her food down, we have to make sure her feed is wet, her hay is soaked and don't feed her carrots because she chokes when she has them.