choking cow

[jdcarnathan]

I was out feeding the cows a handful of apple's. Split them in half, one of the cows got to eating to fast and started to choke. Puking up water and peeing from the exertion to get it up. I went in to get a rope to get ready to tie her up and run my arm in her mouth. But when I got out, now saliva, no coughing, and wanted some more cubes and ate them with no problem, just a slight cough afterwards for a second. I think that's from an irritated esophagus. Checked on her, and had her running a little to get some exertion to see if she was still blocked and.had no problems. I think she is in the clear. What do yall folks think. Oh yeah. Happy new years.

[lakeportfarms]

These things always happen on holidays and Sunday night... I think she'll be ok. We've had several choke on apples and they'll cough up saliva and start to bloat. Once we had to use a trocar to keep her from dying. Unfortunately for us we have 300 apple trees in our orchard and it's going to happen. We've been lucky so far. If she's stopped coughing up the saliva and is now eating she's going to be ok. Happy New Year.

[carragheendexters]

Pretty scary stuff isn't it? I had a cow do the same on pellets last year. She was being gluttonous and gulped them down before anyone else could get any. She choked, just like your cow and lakeportfarms, lots of coughing, gagging, green gunk (Lucerne /alfalfa pellets) going everywhere, and bloating before my eyes, increasing in size every breath she took. I also raced off to get a halter and trocar, I thought she would be dead by the time I got back, but no, she was still coughing and spluttering, but her belly had gone down to normal. It took her a while to settle totally but all was OK. She is one of my favourites and I thought I was going to lose her, there was no time to get the vet out (they are only 15 minutes away) she would have been dead.

One good thing, once the choking episode is over, all is well.

Just a suggestion, maybe you could cut the apples into smaller pieces. Lakeportfarms, not much you could do about your apples is there, other than dig them out.

regards Louise

[lakeportfarms]

Louise, fortunately all of our incidents (and yours) turned out ok.  It's a pretty nerve wracking thing!  

We like the orchard, it provides shade all summer during our daily pasture rotations in small strips, but hold our breath all fall.  We do have some areas without the apple trees and we run the Dexters there as much as possible and let our Highlands in the orchard part.  For some reason, perhaps their size or something, the Highlands seem to be less prone to choke.  The good thing is our trees are all pretty mature and so now the branches are mostly out of their reach.  When they are ready to fall from the trees they have softened quite a bit. 

Jdcarnathan, I forgot to mention in my prior post, keep a good eye on her for the next few days, as there is the chance she aspirated some of the apple chunks while she was having trouble clearing the saliva and coughing it up.  It can cause a respiratory infection and you know where that can lead.  The chance is small but it is there.  So watch for lethargic behavior and if she shows some check her temperature.  If it develops I'd call a vet and describe what happened.  They will probably give her a shot of Draxxin and have you follow up with another 4 days later or so.

[jdcarnathan]

Thanks folks. I should have quartered not halved them. Crazy. Wouldn't you know my 11 month old would do it with a soft carrot when I got in the house. Luckily I could scoop it out with my finger. Scratched her poor little throat but it's better than the alternative.

P.s. I didn't see a chance of rain today forcasted. Guess it was a freak pouring storm.

[lakeportfarms]

Wow, you had an eventful evening, happy your 11 month old is ok!   A trocar is not recommended there   And I thought that our choke incidents with the cows were inconvenient because they always happened on late Sunday night and national holidays.  Our vet has been a saint a couple of times in those events.
 
Joking aside it's not the size of the chunks that is an issue it is the shape of the chunk and the gorging of the food that leads to choke most of the time.  So a half apple should be fine, just wait until they chew it down fully before they get another chunk.

Sometimes a mildly stiff (think  garden hose) 5/8" or so polyurethane tube that is used for clearing bloat can be used to help push the object down to the rumen.  You have to be very careful or it can damage the esophagus, so it's not the first thing you do.  Watch and look for bloat, move them to where further steps can be taken if necessary.  It's better that they're standing and moving around if it happens, don't let them lie down.  

[zephyrhillsusan]

A friend had a cow choke on an alfalfa cube (everything turned out well). We also had a pig nearly choke on a corn cob ( we had eaten the kernels off of it), and I had visions of me having to do the Heimlich maneuver and mouth-to-mouth respiration on a pig! Ever since those two incidents, I have been so paranoid about choking that I cut apples in quarters and then into about three pieces each quarter. I'm sure that's overkill, and it won't stop choking from greediness, but since we usually hand-feed apples, it helps there. If we feed alfalfa cubes as treats, I break them into little pieces that are small enough for the calves to handle. I learned from you all here to soak the cubes when I use them as feed. (And our pigs never got corn cobs again!)

I know you can't prevent every accident or foresee every predicament animals can get themselves into, but it's that "grandmother instinct" kicking in, I guess. Those of you who are gp's know what I mean! Did you know that statistics show that children are safer (have fewer accidents) with their gp's than with their parents? It must be because we've learned from all the things that happened to our kids. Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread. I appreciate you all sharing your experiences and advice here so we and our animals can all benefit!

[hollydzie]

Susan that is so funny, the thought of you doing the Heimlich and mouth to mouth on a pig. I used to work for a small animal vet, and well we did do mouth to mouth from time to time, but never on a PIG...LOL

Holly

[zephyrhillsusan]

Holly, I was able to laugh at the picture, myself, once the corn cob was safely dispensed with! And I was laughing partly from relief that it was just a mental picture and not reality. I'm a nurse and once had to resuscitate a baby I delivered at the top of a spiral staircase in a student apartment in Africa. You do what you have to do in an emergency, but snout-to-snout on a pig is NOT on my bucket list! LOL

[jdcarnathan]

Well all is well at our house currently. The cow seems like nothing ever happened. And thr youngin is out there burning the carpets up crawling around. Crazy night. This will prolly make me even more anal retentive about our bovines. O well. They are family too!