We just discovered our almost 5yr. old stallion is cribbing. What, if anything, is a proven, safe method of stopping this horrible habit? Also what are the known causes? Though he is not under fleshed, he has been unable to put on the weight we would like him to, and he looks "ganted" in the flanks.
Anonymous Posted From: 65.31.99.87
Posted on Thursday, July 01, 2004 - 11:09 pm:
Well, we have a few horses who are "cribbers". In many cases cribbing is associated with boredom. Perhaps your horse needs a ball to play with, or more turnout/exercise. With other horses, boredom is not the case, we have a 28 year old gelding who has cribbed from the beginning. He has no front teeth, from the cribbing, so he has a hard time keeping on weight, because he is forced to gum his food. With him, to prevent cribbing, we put a cribbing strap on, a collar that is tightly placed around the throat latch. This doesn't strangle them, it cuts airflow through the air pipe that they use to crib. The horse has no reperatory problem with the cribbing strap. Might I also suggest a Miricle Collar, or something along those lines.
There is quite a lot going on here with feeding antacids to horses who crib/windsuck. The theory is that - in many cases - this vice is pre-disposed to by stomach acidity which air swallowing eases. Doesn't work on all horses - and is far less successful if the horse has been cribbing for a long time, but if he's just started it could be worth trying.
I would try it in association with the cribbing collar - keep up the antacids for several weeks and then try removing the cribbing collar to see if he resumes cribbing. The early 'trials' involved using a human antacid (do you have Rennies' over there?) Obviously you'd need to give around 8-10 times the human dose.
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