Help!! New very skinny TB with unexpected vices

kirstyl

kirstyl

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A week ago, I bought a 7yr TB ex racing gelding from a contact. He is in an extremely poor state having wintered out and obviously not had anywhere near enough feed, rugs or shelter. He is however, absolutely delightful! The nicest nature, very polite and moves nicely. When he has returned to a better weight and condition, it is my aim to bring him as an allrounder and enjoy him! I did have him vetted (2 stage) which he passed.
Unfortunately he has now started cribbing, not a lot and definitely seems to be related to feed - you can't blame him wondering where next meal is coming from. I do have the option to send him back but considering the state he was in when he came, I would have to very tough to do that. So have decided with the help of friends on the yard to keep him. I'm hoping that once he is into more of a routine and knows that food is available he will crib less. Any advice would be appreciated. Also from anyone who has used Settlex or similar and what sort of results you have had.
Thank you!
 
Have you had his teeth done? My boy chewed everything in site when I first bought him, and I thought 'great, he cribs', he was even turned out but was making a meal of the trees. However once I had his teeth done he was absolutely fine and didn't do it any more...
 
When I first bought my TB she used to eat her bed and walked round her stable a lot. However once she settled in she stopped doing this and how she's in a normal routine.

You could give him his feed 3 times a day so he doesn't spend all day waiting for it. Make sure he always has access to hay/haylidge too.

Also try feeding him hay from the floor rather than a net, my TB prefers this and seems more settled when she doesn't have to eat from a net.
 
I would have him scoped for ulcers - very common in ex-racers and considering he cribs and is in poor condition, high chance that he has them. You may be able to claim on insurance if he is covered.

what are you feeding him? I would make sure he had a high fibre low starch/sugar diet and absolutely nothing that can irritate the stomach such as garlic, apples, cider vinegar etc.

Has he been wormed etc? You might want to start him on something like NAF pink powder or GH restore to kick start his digestive system. And for the moment I would feed him lots of small feeds and give him constant access to forage.

I would also have his teeth looked at - you can tell how frequently he cribs from his teeth and normally you need a dentist every 6 months as they do tend to wear their teeth down.

Good luck - sounds as though he is lucky to have found you.
 
i cant think of anything better than all the suggestions already made! definitley check for ulcers.

if you really cant stop him doing it then get a miracle collar, my tb did it for years and the only thing that stopped him was a tight miracle collar - leave it off for an hour or so a day though so they can really relax.
 
Only suggest collar if you absoloutley cant stop them from doing it because it becomes such a habbit, because having a collar on is better than colic, bad teeth and therefore not keeping the weight on..it hated seeing it on my loan horse but i tried taking it off and he coliced within a day.
 
If cribbing is a health issue, use any means you can to avoid him being ill. Including a miracle collar. The metal ones are horrid and rarely work anyway unless stupidly tight.
If he cribs due to habit, then try to break it. But cribbing isn't the end of the world! Good luck with him. x
 
I used to have two ex eventers that cribbed during feeds, and after they'd been given a treat, and only in the stable. Didn't do it when eating hay or grass. Is yours the same?

One of them needed something to grab on, to suck, but the other horse would crib without needing anything to suck on - He put his head out, pursed his lips together and sucked in. The vets said it was unusual, and thought he probably used to be a crib biter, and measures to stop him made him develop his own method of cribbing to evade collars or bitter sprays.

I put anti-crib bitter spray onto the door of the horse who cribbed normally, but he'd try to find something else to suck on, like the window sill or the hay bar.

TBH I didn't worry about it much, as neither horse ever showed any ill effects. Neither horse ever colic'd. I'd always mention it to the dentist, but both horses teeth were always ok. They were both good doers and maintained a good weight.
 
Cribbing can also be a reaction to any cereal in feed and of course cereal can also upset stomach ulcers if he happens to have them, which he very likely could have. Best to avoid feeds with grain in them. Also if he is poor, you may find his temperament will alter if you feed him up too much. Far better to give ad lib hay or hayledge till you have had him a while and get to know him more, then feed him up for condition gradually.

You could also have a worm count done and feed him something like sugar beet, nuts, vitamins & minerals.
 

I've been through this twice, once with a rescued TB and more recently rescued WB.
WB we suspected ulcers, terrible weaving and head nodding, skinny, nervous..
firstly had teeth done, they were terrible.
secondly tried feeding build up mixes, bluechip etc.. but it didn't seem to work.
Eventually turned him out for 6 months (properly rugged this time) and it was summer.. brought in for 2 feeds a day (no cereal at all), including pink powder which really made a difference.
Although he had been wormed, a 5 day wormer really helped too. Now he is back stabled and has ad-lib haylage at all times and all his vices are gone, infact hes learnt that he can leave the haynet alone for a while! It took a good 8 months to get him feeling happy and healthy.
Also use magnitude calmer, its not a miracle cure, but it does do something and stops him stressing weight off. hasn't changed his personality :-)
 
Most horses that have this vice very rarely give it up completely, even if they are turned out as they can usually find something to lock onto. ( have one at our yard that lives out and cribs on fence posts)

However no horse is perfect and if your horse can maintain a good weight and remains the nice person that you say he is, then you will just have to 'manage' the vice as best you can. Give the horse a chance.
 
Thank you so much everybody! It's really great to know there are so many supportive people out there.
He is having ad lib haylage which he is enjoying and his feed is split into three. He's having conditioning cubes, alpha a oil and speedibeet following professional advice from vet and feed specialist. He doesn't crib in field and stands happily tied up so it is not a continual problem. His teeth are being seen to next week and am sure there will be issues. He is also booked into see physio next week.
He is delightful and I'm sure worth the effort! His coat is shining after just one week of feed, grooming, warmth and stabling. He has unfortunately lost all muscle on his topline, which is going to take some time to return. He is easily 16.1 and only measured 511kg on weigh tape yesterday. Poor little man
 
Thank you for your support!

He is having three feeds a day of conditioning cubes, alpha a oil and speedibeet and adlib haylage. I wormed him last week.

Dentist is booked. Have spoken to my vet today. We are going to give him a chance to settle on new yard and get used to having food, and then review if he needs scoping or if we try him on a supplement.

Have brought on several TBs but none in the state this poor boy is in
 
I would definitely give him a course of pink powder or GH restore which is what we did with our rescue. Its about £12 for a tub/bottle and kick starts the hind gut and really does make a difference to the way they process feed i.e. they are able to make better use of the feed so you arent feeding for nothing.

Sounds like you are doing everything right. I think you will find that once you get some fat onto him, the muscle and topline will be much easier to develop.
 
i think what your doing is fine and youl soon see a difference when he gets into a routine, i think there is abit of confusion theses days as to what is what, cribbing is where the horse requires to grab something with his teeth to gulp in air and windsucking is where the horses doesnt need anything and just gulps in air, its very likley hes got gastric ulcars, so if his condition doesnt improve get him scoped to check and treat then the difference will be immense.
 
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OP, please don't go down the collar route..........

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Intrigued as to why not...?

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Because they do cause terrible poll pressure for the horse. Unfortunately though, in some cases it is a case of being cruel to be kind. I have seen some horses cribbing/windsucking all day long rather than eat grass/hay etc and they just literally waste away. And some relatively young horses (say early to mid-teens) with teeth so worn down that they cant chew food properly. It is very sad to see. Management can only do so much, the behaviour is usually so ingrained.
 
Understand about the extra poll pressure but it sure beats a horse cribbing away all day or a yard full of copy cats [or horses rather!].

Sorry, only coming from an owner of a chronic cribber\windsucker. I tried taking his collar off [which he's worn most of his life with no cribbing due to this]as I hated it also. Worked for a couple of weeks,and then one day he chewed his door once and the cribbing/windsucking habit started all over again
frown.gif
He doesn't stress or loseweight or anything detrimental from cribbing, but I hate it and it's more than my life's worth if any of the other horses which are top show horses on our yard copy him also :s
So the collar is his only choice sadly! Would be at a loss without it.

Luckily the top of our fence rails are are electric wired round the top, so he gets a break from wearing it in the field during the day at least as nothing for him to grab
smile.gif
 

Feedmark ran a joint project with Lincoln University after
Michael Peace and his wife Susi came up with a theory that rather than being stress related, wind-sucking could possibly be due to a problem horses have in digestion. They'd noticed years before that wind-sucking horses kept on limestone soils tended to wind-suck less than if they were kept on clay soils for example. They decided to try feeding Rennie (the human antacid treatment for indigestion) to a wind sucking horse they owned at the time. They gave the horse 6 Rennie tablets after his feed and his wind sucking decreased. The results were amazing albeit in just a one horse trial. So simple, yet nobody had come up with it in years of research. They went to De Montfort University with their idea who carried out an extensive trial on 100 horses and the results proved to be significant. This has changed the whole direction of research into wind-sucking in horses.
The research showed that horses fed cereal-based diets were far more likely to suffer from excess stomach acid than those fed forage-based diets. Have a look at Feedmark's website under Settlex to find out more.
 
[ QUOTE ]
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OP, please don't go down the collar route..........

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Intrigued as to why not...?

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Behaviour such as cribbing, windsucking and often weaving are done as some sort of stress relief - and I worry that preventing them physically from being able to exhibit this behaviour leads to a whole set of other problems.

Obviously in the extreme, where management is not working, then something has to be done, I agree. But extreme cases are in the minority - and it's unusual to come across a severe case.
 
Fergus was one of those cases, he started because of boredom and being very underweight, we think, then it became a habit, he does it everywhere, he will eat a mouthfull of hay or feed then grab on to something and crib every other mouthfull. in the field he will not eat grass, he always found something even with electric wire. in the stable if he cant use the door he twists his neck to use the bars between the stables. he has a cereal and mollasses free feed. some research has suggested that many competition horses do it for stress relief. i let him have it off for an hour or so each day to relax his jaw/poll and because its his way of chilling out i think! but as i said, he coliced when i left it off all day.
 
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