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Post by gabbygator on May 14, 2011 12:27:50 GMT -5
my new horse had the surgery for roaring.... I'm not sure of when, but I'm assuming when he was on the track... the good thing is that he no longer roars.  the bad thing is that now he chokes when he eats, and stuff comes out his nose.... the color of it depends on what he's been eating :-) if it's grass, the gunk is green, grain, the gunk is brown.... it's gross! people who first meet him see the stuff coming out of his nose and automatically think he's sick..... and we won't discuss what his water buckets look like every day  anyone out there have any experience w/this issue and have any advice on anything I can do to help him out??  |
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Post by animaldoc on May 15, 2011 21:25:46 GMT -5
Sooooo...did this start right after the tieback, or years later?
How long have you had him and how long has he done this?
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Post by gabbygator on May 16, 2011 5:28:38 GMT -5
I'm not sure when it started, I've only had him about three months now, he was a rescue, and all I know is that he had the surgery for roaring and "now he displaces his soft palette and chokes on his food"
he also seems to choke when he's ridden, coughs and coughs and coughs, so we're trying to find a bit that might help alleviate that....
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Post by BoyleHeightsKid on May 16, 2011 5:53:25 GMT -5
Is he up to date on his teeth? If he's not able to grind his food properly that could cause it. You need to really watch him as he could aspirate his food which could cause a respiratory infection. Has he been scoped? I doubt the surgery for roaring has anything to do with it.
One of our exracers, lovethekey, had a gelding that was diagnosed with Megaesophagus which is very rare in horses. Basically the elasticity in his esophagus was shot so it was hard for him to eat like a normal horse. They were able to manage this by soaking his feed and putting his bucket up high so it was easier for to swallow. He was also fed soaked hay cubes instread of hay. He seemed to be fine on grass. That seemed to do work great for him.
FWIW, he had been seem by a couple of vets and scoped once, but was finally diagnosed with this after she took him to New Bolton after her vets weren't able to help him.
I'm sure the choking is what's causing him to cough when he's being ridden. A different bit isn't going to do anything for that.
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Post by jenarby on May 16, 2011 11:47:00 GMT -5
I've known of a few who have had bad surgeries or that pulled through after years. You might think about going to a pelleted feed and also giving a hay replacer instead of hay. Soaking feed also seems to help. When riding you can try a flipper bit which is used on the racetrack but it doesn't always help. If he's a good horse to ride, I'm sure you'll find what works best for him. If not, you might consider retiring him altogether. It's a tough call but mostly depends on what you are willing to deal with and how he handles it.
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Post by gabbygator on May 16, 2011 12:01:34 GMT -5
we do (mostly) wet his food.......... I soak his hay stretcher then add the dry grain, and mix, so it's soft but not soupy...and I feed it in a high mounted corner feeder.... hay is fed from a bag... chokes even out on the grass so ....
he's a nice moving horse, only 8 so I would hate to have to retire him now at such a young age... I'll look into the flipper bit and see if that helps any......
thanks for the suggestions!!
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Post by BoyleHeightsKid on May 16, 2011 12:06:03 GMT -5
I would first find out why he's choking before anything else.
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Post by jenarby on May 16, 2011 12:11:05 GMT -5
BHK, most likely due to the surgery. If they tied back too tightly or if the tie back slipped he could be choking because of it. The other option would be to have him scoped to be sure everything is okay form when he had the surgery.
Gabby, added to that you can put on a figure 8 noseband when you ride. If he's blowing feed/grass/hay out his nose that it was probably a botched surgery.
I sold a horse to a family member that belonged to a trainer friend. Not knowing anything about the surgery. The horse was DEAD quiet coming off the track. Went right to foxhunting and jumping, no issues. But he did the exact same thing your horse does. With some dietary changes and tack rearrangements he is still going strong in the hunt field. However, he still pushes gunk through his nose and his riders always come back with it on their shirts or breeches. Because he's such a nice horse, they just deal...and the horse is more than happy to do his job.
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Post by BoyleHeightsKid on May 16, 2011 12:57:39 GMT -5
Ah okay Jen...thanks for that info!
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Post by gabbygator on May 16, 2011 13:14:00 GMT -5
jenarby~~~ thanks for the advice, will add a figure 8 and see what might happen... and yes, can't do anything around him without one of his "hacks" landing on me somewhere but he does go quietly so I'd really like to figure it out and try to make his job easier for him to do!! |
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Post by gabbygator on May 17, 2011 5:34:00 GMT -5
so... tried him in a Myler bit w/ a port to try to alleviate any pressure on the tongue, it didn't help at all, so we're going to call the vet out and see if something "real" is going on...........
other than the coughing issue he's a REALLY good boy-- this guy came in starved, all skin and bones, we put about 250# on him and are assuming that he hasn't been ridden since last fall, he's been really quiet, no longeing, just get on and go~~~ I'm really hoping that whatever is going on is minor!!!
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Post by animaldoc on May 17, 2011 13:04:24 GMT -5
You definitely need to see the vet - there are so many possibilities that it's impossible to tell over the internet....
Depending on the timeframe this could be related to the surgery being too far open as jen said, he could have another problem now (like entrapping his epiglottis). He could have nerve damage frmo the surgery (if it happened pretty much immediately postop) or he could have something like EPM that has caused those same problems.....
Definitely needs to be worked up to figure out what's going on - then you'll have more information to decide what to do with him...
rachael
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