Cribbing - when does it become unsustainable?

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ironhorse

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I have an 8yo quarter horse that has cribbed since we bought him as a 2yo - it really only became apparent when he was backed, and the trainers' regime probably didn't help, but that's another story.
After a few false starts with vets that refused to believe there was anything wrong with him he was scoped and treated for ulcers. I changed his diet to fibre based (alfalfa chaff, linseed and thunder brooks balancers)and management to ad lib hay and more turnout he improved in condition and generally in attitude - although he needed careful management at shows - but continued to crib.
Throughout this time he was often not quite right soundness wise - never enough to really demand a lameness work up and some small changes to shoeing or physio treatment often improved matters for a while.
In October 2015 he was finally diagnosed with hind leg PSD and bone bruising - this was treated with shockwave and tildren and he came back into work.
We're at a new yard which has 24/7 turnout in summer and he has looked amazing since moving there but still cribs - paddocks are electric fenced but he can get at the fence posts on one side of the paddock and continues to crib on these.
This summer he went lame again - the vet was mystified as he had made such a good recovery, and after further remedial shoeing, hock injections and osphos, he's been on field rest since mid summer.
We'll soon have the vet back out to re-assess but as he can spend several hours a day cribbing, leaning backwards as he sucks the air in, i'm not convinced that even if he is sound, he will stay that way.
Worth mentioning that in the early years he did wear a collar but still managed to crib unless it was so tight he could hardly breathe.
Just feel that there's not much more we can do and I'm setting myself up for more heartbreak, and the horse for more lameness and pain.
Anyone else got experiences with cribbers and lameness? Sorry for the long post!
 
No, sorry - I've not owned a cribber myself, but have looked after several. None of them had lameness related to the cribbing.

Could the lameness be coming from something else? It's not unusual for horses to have setbacks with lameness, often pain in one area causes them to compensate in another area - when one area is sorted, the other then falls over so it feels like one thing after another. A horse with a long history of being 'not quite right' I would suspect has found ways to make his life easier, which may not be the most bio-mechanically helpful.

What's his conformation like?
 
Upright hocks :(
Foot balance has now been addressed with remedial shoeing all round, although I'm aware it's a long process. SI was medicated last October and vet/physio are happy that is no longer and issue.
The referral vets who did the MRI and found the bone bruising thought it might have re-occurred or not healed fully. Not convinced we have the cash or the will to repeat the MRI.
Just thinking that the cribbing must place additional strain on the hindlegs.
 
FfionWinnie said:
Have you considered PSSM. Very common in QHs, both type 1 which has a hair test and type 2 which until recently was a muscle biopsy diagnosis.
Click to expand...

This would be my first stop. Type one test is pretty cheap around £40 and you can do it yourself, vet not needed. Type 2 test I think for those in UK is, or shortly will be, blood on a card sent to the US. (or muscle biopsy of course)

Many symptoms finally lead to a diagnosis of PSSM. With a QH I would have it tested anyway just to be sure.
 
If your really concerned about the cribbing, there is an electric shock collar you can buy.

I'm sure plenty of people think they are horrible, but if your desperate could be worth a try?
 
It might be that cribbing serves as some form of release from discomfort, so he does it when he's feeling uncomfortable? An excellent way to stop crib biting is just to electric fence the rest of your field. You can buy plastic hooks to screw into the top of fence posts and then run a strand of electric wire/ tape through, which can either be hooked up to the battery or to the rest of the electric round the field. If you don't mind the expense (which won't be much) and the time it takes to do it (depending on the size of the field it is a bit time consuming!) then it is a very, very effective way of stopping crib biting. My sister's gelding is a chronic crib biter but this has broken the habit because he has nothing to do it on!
 
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