# Products to prevent windsucking?



## Mlini (30 August 2011)

My new horse windsucks  Can anybody recommend products to put on his stable door to prevent this?

_I think_ he does it when he is bored!! I have put cribox on EVERY fence post in the field and put him in with a mare for some company - this has stopped it in the field. 

He does it in the stable when he isn't getting any attention and when he has finished his food (hard feed). I have introduced a likit, which keeps him occupied for a whole 5 minutes!!  And he has ad-lib haylage when stabled. 

I put cribox on the stable door but it seems to wear off quite quickly and he just tries chew the side of the door casing instead!! I can't put cribox on the sides of the door because they are brand new stables and the YO will moan about them looking scruffy with brown stuff everywhere!! 

Is there anything other than cribox that is good for detering windsucking/crib-biting?


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## Little Squirrel (30 August 2011)

A line of electric fence across the top of the door with the battery outside will soon stop him. It's much much more effective than any collar, paste or spray!!


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## kittykatcat (30 August 2011)

Have you tried an anti-acid product? Some horses do in in response to pain...i'd keep him off the sugary starchy feeds, feed ad lib hay/haylage (like you're doing!) and keep him out as much as poss if he doesn't do it in the field!

I think Feedmark have some good products...


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## BigRed (30 August 2011)

Try a stable mirror.


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## jaye1780 (30 August 2011)

feed high fibre diet, anti acid supplement - lots to choose from and as much turn out as possible  My new boy came as a windsucker and hasnt done it once since this management. Good luck x


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## Box_Of_Frogs (31 August 2011)

Today's more compassionate approach says don't try to stop stereotypical behaviours. Windsucking is triggered in the first instance by poor managament. This can be lack of turnout, lack of company, wrong diet, long periods without fibre such as hay going into his belly (essential for a trickle feeder like the horse). The end result is stress, like the old pictures of polar bears in zoos endlessly pacing, pacing, pacing and quietly going mad with the need for the lifestyle that thousands of years of evolution has shaped their body to need. After a while, a desperate horse will find relief in a stereotypical behaviour, be it weaving, box walking, windsucking, self mutilation, whatever. These behaviours release endorphins in the horse's brain, happy hormones which allow him to tolerate the poor management better. If you try to artificialyl stop these behaviours, then you run the risk of making the horse worse or beginning new stereotypical behaviours or developing serious health problems. If you can get the horse into a management routine that mimics a natural lifestyle as closely as possible, then the behaviour should gradually lessen. It will probably never go completely in the same way that human addictions never go away completely. Have some compassion for him rather than strapping lumps of metal round his neck or electric fencing across the top of his door. Go the electric fencing route and I can guarantee he will find a different way of windsucking or he'll start box walking or weaving.


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## competitiondiva (31 August 2011)

Totally agree with above, but the flip of the coin if you don't try to prevent them doing it, is that the horse then has a higher risk of colic attacks! So the best way for both horse and owner is to try to take away the 'need' to do it rather than prevent him doing it.  I used to have one, years ago and she had to wear a collar, she also had the electric tape on the door, but I used to hate the fact she couldn't look out at the yard over the door with this.  I had to do the above as part of our acceptance on the livery yard (only yard that accepted her). But also she never suffered from colic! 

As said above try to mimic as natural an environment as possible, and when you look at that stables aren't natural.  It's likely the horse developed the habit from the fact it was stabled for long periods, hence every time it is now stabled it will revert.  By giving adlib hay you are doing about as much as you can within that environment.  If your set up allows, is there a barn to use instead, and have a horse in there with him.  Or american barn style stables without the top section so that it can mutually groom over the wall with a pal?  You could also try stable mirrors? 

I would also try using an antacid in his diet, incase this is causing/leading to the behaviour.


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## annaellie (31 August 2011)

I tried everything for one of my mares from all the potions that was on the Market at the time to the collar. When she came to the equine college with me they  made me put up the weaving grill and the filler, she then began on a little edge on stable and in feild and started to box walk .
I was recommended to put Vaseline on the edges and then put extra hot chilli on ap she would not do it anymore, she licked it off. I just resigned to the fact that she was always going to do it  
She was never a fan of TO she prefered human contact and was very sensitive to feeds as she would come out in hives with a lot of feeds 
Yes she was a colicy mare which me and vet thought was due to cribbing and windsucking  but she had a major colic attack one day and when they opened her up she had a strangulated hernia that leahursts thoughts were it had been like that for years as there was a lot of intestine rotted away  
It's hard work to change them and I have seen some horses either not do it as much or stop but not every horse. My mare was well established when I bought her


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## Mlini (31 August 2011)

Thanks for the advice everyone!! 

These are the steps I have taken so far:

- High-fibre, low starch diet
- Turned out for as long as possible, With his new girlfriend!!! (a lovely Friesian mare) 
- Ad-lib haylage when stabled - in nets to keep him occupied 
- Cribox!!  - has to be on his stable door as they are BRAND NEW stables and YO wouldn't be very happy if he chewed them down!! And on all fence posts so he doesn't chew them down too 

I will look into anti-acid supplements.

I think, for the short while he has been with me, he is becoming a happier horse.. And hopefully with all these adjustments to his lifestyle it should make a difference  - I hate trying to prevent him doing it BUT I can't have him wreck the stable door and fencing, can I?


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## FanyDuChamp (31 August 2011)

My lad is a wind sucker, though not a cribber. He is also very prone to acidy stomach so is on Coligone to help balance his gut and is on very hi-fi diet with as little as possible starch, which can really send him loopy. It has not cured him 100% but he is much better and only sucks when excited or stressed. I have found that the more his life stays stable and his routine is stuck to the happier he is, which in turn means much less wind sucking.
FDC


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## kirstyl (31 August 2011)

My horse is an exracer. I bought him from a field as a walking skeleton, so wasn't aware that he cribs and also weaves occasionally too.  Having read an awful lot about it (it was never my intention to buy a cribber but once I'd got him, he wasn't going back!), I have gone down the 'compassionate' route. The field is completely enclosed with electric fencing so he doesn't crib there at all. In the stable (he's in during the day and out at night at the moment) he has adlib hay to occupy him and fill him up. The door has a metal edge, and also he does crib on it from time to time, he doesn't do any damage.  I strongly feel that by stopping them doing such an established and addictive habit, you are going to stress them more and encourage other vices and possibly induce colic etc. On the plus side with my horse, he is extremely friendly and well mannered and has been fantastic to retrain.  We all have our little foibles (sp?) don't we, and cribbing is his.


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## mainpower (31 August 2011)

I had an exracer who windsucked really badly, didn't grasp anything, hooked his jaw over surfaces and gulped away. Just wanted to make a couple of points... I was advised to not feed haylage as it can be a bit acidy for them, but to feed ad-lib middle grade hay. Also, when he went into his stable to have some hay on the floor as well as in a net, so he could satisfy his hunger at his own pace, and then feed at a slower pace from the net. I also fed hay before breakfast to buffer his tummy against acid, and a small amount of hay before riding him.


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## fburton (31 August 2011)

competitiondiva said:



			Totally agree with above, but the flip of the coin if you don't try to prevent them doing it, is that the horse then has a higher risk of colic attacks! So the best way for both horse and owner is to try to take away the 'need' to do it rather than prevent him doing it.  I used to have one, years ago and she had to wear a collar, she also had the electric tape on the door, but I used to hate the fact she couldn't look out at the yard over the door with this.  I had to do the above as part of our acceptance on the livery yard (only yard that accepted her). But also she never suffered from colic!
		
Click to expand...

Totally agree with trying to 'take away the need', i.e. addressing the underlying cause.

For a long time it was assumed that cribbing/windsucking causes colic due to the horse swallowing air into the stomach. It turns out that horses _don't_ swallow air when they windsuck - they just move it around in the upper tracts, and that's what makes the 'gulping' sound. Cause and effect now appears to be: digestive imbalances, often due to a too-grain-rich diet, and resulting gut acidity are what leads to a) ulcers and (sometimes) colic, and b) stereotypical behaviour. Rebalancing pH with antacids helps to prevent all these things. At least, that's the current thinking.


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## tashasudz (1 September 2011)

my mare does the same, she has a miracle collar on but she still tries to do it and cribs also her stable has been done up so their is nothing for her to do it on except the door but i tried crib stop spray amd that hasnt worked and i feel bad about her wearing that collar so im in the same situation :/


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