Cribox burn

[Wimbles]

It's been a few years since we've had a cribber but our new lad does it which is fine and we're starting some treatment with him to see if we can help decrease it.

There are a couple of posts he's obsessed with and was basically pulling them out of the ground so I applied some cribox to them last week.

Well my big lad must have decided that cribox wasn't that horrid as he managed to rub on the post and coat all one side of his face with it.

When I looked at it closely it had burnt all his hair and top layer of skin off and it's very sore and hot.

Called the vet and she's told me to bathe it with warm hibiscrub water to get the substance off and then put some of the Flamazine I already have on it but I was just wondering if anyone's ever heard of this happening before?

I know it's not particularly nice stuff but we used Cribox with a previous horse and he used to get it everywhere but we never had this problem. I'm wondering if it possibly got hot in the sun.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

It's probably more to do with the determination of your new ned to crib! Cribox is strong enough tasting to be a mild irritant so if your ned has determinedly ignored the nasty taste and got on with the business of cribbing, then he's probably got too much on his skin. I'm sure you know that cribbing is a stereotypical activity common in horses that are forced into a management/lifestyle that doesn't allow them to be horses. It's the only way they can cope with the unnatural life they are forced to lead and it is believed that it produces endorphins in the brain. Now he's with you and presumably has much happier, horse-friendly management he will probably lessen the amount that he does it but he may do it for ever because of the "happy" feeling that the endorphins create. The thinking these days is to create a more natural lifestyle for stereotypies rather than try to stop the action. I understand that you want to keep your fence posts but would it be possible to erect a special fence post just for him to crib on? Leave it un-Criboxed and cut down on the Cribox you put on the neighbouring posts. If it gets too bad, you could maybe electric fence round the posts that need to be protected. Glad he's got such an understanding new mum - good luck xxx

 

[Wimbles]

Thanks for replying, having re-read my post it doesn't make it very clear but it was actually another horse (who actually used to crib a bit but has now stopped completely!!) rather than the new cribber that got burnt, dopey git that he is!

The flamazine seems to have done the trick and it's cleared up nicely so he's just a bit bald now.

New boy is yet another ex racer we've got that has LOTS of issues, lets just hope we can get him sorted before he becomes another "lifer" here lol!

I hear what you're saying about a preferred post. We had another racer here that did his tendon and when he was on box rest we erected a metal bar just back from the stable door that he could go at on as much as he liked. It didn't give him any problems, well was a bit harder to get meat on, and he was much happier being allowed to do it than when restricted.

I'm a firm believer of "what they do in their spare time is up to them" as long as all avenues of why they're doing it, i.e ulcers etc, have been looked into and that it's not making them colic.