Hiccups!

   I am pretty sure not every horse owner gets to experience hiccups in horses. Most times when I ask my friends, trainers, farriers, or even vets, if they have ever seen a horse with hiccups they reply "No!" I can tell you right now that I have seen hiccups in horses.. Well to be more specific... In Udex. Since rollkur damaged his esophagus pretty bad, when it comes to the respiratory area of him, he can do a lot of things most horses can't do. Burping in horses was declared "impossible" but ah, my rollkur horse does in deed burp. He has big, loud, man burps! I have known a few other horses that can burp, not from rollkur but from being that is the way they are! In a way, I am happy he has since then developed his talent for burping. I guess I do never have to worry about colic in that area, since he can just burp up the acids!
     -However, back to hiccups!!- I won't forget when I saw him hiccuping for the first time. It was a normal warm sunny day and I had took him in from the paddock to give his usual white -then yellow/brown from arena sand and dirt- a shampooing! I had tied him up, groomed him, finished bathing him, and while he was drying I thought I would give him a bit to eat as well. I got my bucket full of his feed and held it while he happily, -and greedily!- munched away!! He did eat that one kilo of pellets up awfully fast I was thinking. So around five minutes of him eating his grain I was back to grooming him before I would put his fly sheet on and turn him out again. While I was grooming him he would pause, put his head alll the way up in the air as high as he could, flip his upper lip up, and then go back to standing quiet. I did think this was a little interesting since this was very unlike Udex to be displaying this behavior. I thought it was probably just from the bubbles on the floor from the shampoo that I had rinsed of his legs causing him to be confused as to what the smell was. After this smelling session he did something that mortified me! He lunged forward, curled his neck in, and made a very short, high pitched sound, almost like an "EEE". Along with the "EEE" sound, I heard a "thummmmp-thump" sound as well. Being the paranoid owner I listened for gut sounds, checked his gums, and waited a few minutes. Every few seconds he would repeat the process of lunging forward, eein'g, curling his neck in, and that thump thump sound. In between he would lift his lip up and burp very loudly.
    I still didn't think that this behavior was normal, so I got the owner of the barn right away and asked if he had ever seen anything like it. He told me to take Udex to the arena and free run him, just to be on the safe side. Udex was going along like normal. Showing his fancy trot off, cantering, stopping at the windows to see his friends, and of course, whinnying to them! After about thirty minutes in the arena, I took him out and slowly the strange behavior stopped. I watched him about an hour afterwards just to make sure nothing serious was going on!!!
    That night I turned him out, but the entire drive home I was so afraid I was going to get a call saying something along the lines of Udex was found dead outside. I could not eat I was so worried about him!! I suddenly remembered about that great technology of today and immediately went online to try and search of what this strange behavior could mean! I was relieved when I came across something called thumps... aka equine hiccups! There could be a few reasons horses get the thumps. Low on calcium, eating too quickly, and also a not too good esophagus. I give Udex a mineral/vitamin biscuit everyday, so I was quite sure he was not low on calcium, I did however know that Udex gulped down his food faster then usual and that his esophagus isn't in best condition. I was so happy to hear it was just hiccups! All that worrying for nothing!!
   Since then I have started feeding him more slowly, but even with him slowly consuming his grain they still happen every now and then. I just hang out with him and keep him company until they finally die off, and then continue what we were doing. The hiccups are all part of dealing with an ex-rollkur horse!
   The other day it was raining, windy, and bitter outside. I decided to keep Udex in on a day like that, since the horses do like to kick and run and the mud was perfect consistency to slip and fall, and possibly hurt themselves. Anyways, I came to feed him his grain like usual. When I did he ate like normal, and well, got the hiccups. He kept on eating while he had the hiccups and started to choke!! I took him out of his stall and he stood with his head down, and dropping thick saliva out of his mouth, while having the hiccups going on. Lucky for him I know horse anatomy and what to do when a horse is choking! I dislodged the stuck pellets and immediately he was back to normal. This choking due to hiccups session did open my eyes to a new possibility of what can happen when he continues eating while hiccuping. Since then I have been even more careful that he eats more slow!! Maybe I will buy a special grain dish for him so he can't eat fast enough to either hiccup, OR choke!
   So I wrote about hiccups today for several reasons! The first being if someone else had a horse hiccuping, but no idea as to what it was can find this and get a good look at hiccuping! There is not too much info about thumps on the net. The second reason I wrote this was to help people become more aware of the cruel effects rollkur remains to have on the horse, even after he is done with his rollkur training! The third reason being that I think I would like to look back on this and laugh again at how scared I was the first day he got hiccups! Since then I have become much more relaxed about the entire ordeal, and can even giggle at the silliness of it all! I have to bring my camera and catch it on video one day, because it is pretty cute to see a hiccuping horse!