Another scare

Last night I fed Shaun when suddenly, he stopped eating. It wasn't just a stop, he froze. Then he started coughing, his neck got rock hard and he began to choke. I ran down to the house, called the vet and he said to massage his throat, and it sometimes breaks it up. My daughter, Amanda and I ran back up and by then, great gobs of fluid were pouring out of his nose and mouth. He was dripping in sweat, and struggling to breath between swallowing. Amanda ran back down to the house, called the vet and we waited while Shaun went down hill very quickly. By the time the vet arrived, he was in very bad shape. The doctor gave a sedative, and we tried to tube him to move whatever was blocking his throat. The sedative hadn't taken ehim ffect, and Shaun fought us, slug ugly, thick green gobs in my hair, in my eye, down my shirt...the vet was trying to hold him but he couldn't and hole the hose. He ordered Amanda over to hold the hose in his nose, while we both held an ear and I bit one. Pressure on the ear helps calm a horse, did you know that? It was not long until the sedative suddenly hit, and the vet pumped at least three gallons of water into Shaun. Soon, he was breathing, his head hung low, and it got very quiet. We were all covered in green goo and standing in stunned silence, waiting to see if Shaun would be ok, or not. The vet hosed Shaun off while I moved him around.

I'm starting to realize just how Shaun ended up in a kill pen...I think. He has always done this swallowing thing, and I've told vets about it. He didn't do it while they were there, so they didn't know what it was. I think this boy just may tend to choke. It's ok, I'll just give him a nice, green slurry and never give him dry grain again. We will see how he does on hay this winter. So far he seems ok with it, but he's mostly on pasture grass right now. Just have to see how we work this out. He may have scar tissue from multiple choke episodes, he may not be able to just eat hay. That makes him a hard keeper, and that makes him a non desireable horse to have around for most folks. We'll just have to see what I need to do, as things come up.