Swallowing Problem

[BudE]

I mostly just lurk around here but I had a strange experience I wanted to share and see if anybody has had anything similar happen. I have an 18 month old bull that ate good Thursday morning but by evening couldn't swallow. He was spitting out his drool and couldn't swallow at all. No problem breathing and general didn't act bad at all. Had the vet out Friday morning and he tubed him suspecting something lodged in his throat. He tubed easily with no resistence and after about 15 minutes he still couldn't swallow. Vet was stumped and recommended I take him to the University Vet Clinic (Illinois). The one concern he had was rabies. I guess losing the ability to swallow is a sign of rabies and we've had a outbreak in this area. So I loaded him up and took him to the Vet Clinic (45 min. ride). My vet had called ahead and let them know what was going on and his treatments so we went straight to the exam room. They put 5 gallons of water in front of him and he drank it straight down and asked for more. No problems swallowing at all. They kept him for the weekend to make sure he didn't relapse and he did fine. He's back home eating and drinking normally. One of those deals your happy he's OK but mad that no real cause was found.
The Vets at the clinic think maybe the tube dislodged something but it took a little while for his throat to stop having spasms.
BudE

 

[Beefy]

my guess is that the tube dislodged somethign as well, OR he was getting better anyway and the swelling from something was going back down. he may have eaten somethign abrasive that caused the swelling but not actually had anything stuck in his throat. Rabies would have also been another concern of mine but i assume your vets ruled that one out.

i had a horse that had a similar thing happen to her. we never figured out what was going on but we thought she either had something lodged in her throat (vet couldnt tube her because her larynx was swollen shut he said), something abrasive causing the swelling, rabies, got kicked in the neck causing swelling, or ate something poisonous that was nerve specific and thereby caused the swelling of the larynx. blood test showed elevated liver enzymes that supported the "soemthing poisonous" theory.

edit, i forgot to mention that she would sip water constantly and we treated her with dexamethazone as a last resort to help the swelling and she got better almost over night.