# What do you do when a goat chokes?



## Donna1982 (Jun 14, 2011)

While Addie was on the stand tonight she started choking on her feed. At first I thought she had pain in her udder but soon seen she could not swallow. She kept making a sound like she was trying to throw up. I jump up and rubbed her throat and then ran to get Eric to help hold her. By the time we got out there (less then a minute ) she was fine.


So what do you do if a goat is choking? I hope this never happens again, but if it does I want to make sure I'm prepared. This scared me half to death.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

My mini donk had a very scary choking episode. It's so scary! Just remember that they can still breathe...not like humans. My farrier told me if it happens again, grab a hose and stick it in their mouth and run a slow, gentle, stream of water into the mouth for a few seconds. You don't want them to breathe in the water so you have to be careful.
Also, now I dampen her pellets a bit and I put a couple rocks in the bowl to keep her from wolfing it down. When I was researching this I read that once they choke they are more prone to do it again.


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## andabigmac (Jan 10, 2011)

I lost my little buckling last year to this. It is so scary. We tried the Heimlich and reaching down his throat. Neither worked but it was a piece of corn cob and it was wedged tight. I would say if Addie Girl does it again and is passing air and able to cough, let her be so she can work it out herself. If not you can possibly use the Heimlich maneuver like they use on bloated goats. Here's a website. They also say you can tube them to push the object to the stomach. http://www.esgpip.org/PDF/Technical bulletin No.31.pdf I'm sorry she scared you like that.  I'm REALLY glad she's okay though.


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