My horse has just started wood chewing help!

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Uniique

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Hi
I have a 10yr tb x wb who is stabled at night and turned out during the day. He is turned out with his companion, an 11hh pony! He has a big haylage net and a feed at night. He has been on the same diet for at least 6 months and has suddenly started very destructive wood chewing. He is chewing any wood surface put in front of him! He has never done this before. His teeth are done yearly and arent due till oct/nov. It could be bordeom related but it is constant chewing!! I rode him this morning, dimounted by the fence and within seconds he was persistantly taking large chunks from the fence (i had just dismounted, is it really bordom!)? He has wooden post and tension wire fencing in his field, im nto sure whether he is chewing in the field so im going to have alook around tonight. I know that it could be deficency related (but nothing has changed in at least 6 months) also, can anyone recommend a nutrional supplement that could help. I know i could use cribox and such but it does get messy, time consuming and expensive. Any ideas as to why it has started so suddenly.
Thanks Sam
 
Whilst the hard feed and fibre to are feeding may not have changed, the nutritional makeup of the local grass may have done so. This may also be an indicator of boredom, tooth problems, a precurser to windsucking...

The list is endless.

I would start by reviewing the vit/min content of the diet and increasing dietry fibre, as well as assessing the environment for any cuases of stree that you may not have noticed
 
I would give your Dentist a ring. In the wild horses chew trees etc to grind their teeth down. Domesticated horses tend to live in grassy fields and dont have the variety of things available to do this, hence chewing wood. You may need the Dentist now rather than later.
 
Check him for ulcers, it can make them chew wood. One of mine had them and would even eat the rafters of his stable, and when I got his diet sorted, he stopped overnight. The manic nature of your horse's eating makes me very suspicious and his diet change six months ago could be the cause and have taken the months since to work up to something serious causing him real pain. Does he react if you do up the girth on the right hand side? Another clue if so.
 
Another vote for possible ulcers. If he's standing overnight in his stable for hours without anything to eat, (i.e. he's woofed his haynet - and this is perfectly possible - my cob Norm can get through a large haynet in a couple of hours) then the act of not eating fibrous matter over a period of time causes stomach acid to rise and hence they will then chew anything to create saliva which negates the acid in the digestive tract.

I got a lovely natural herbal blend called Ulcer Relief from a company called Equinatural (www.equinatural.co.uk). It was only about £20 and I couldn't believe the difference in him within literally a few days - its got some soothing herbs in it which must have really taken away his acid discomfort. Now I give him 2 haynets each night but double netted to make him take hours over eating them. I tie them at opposite ends of his stable to keep him moving between the two, and I also give him a treat ball with lo-cal fibre nuts in for him to play with.

With a very slight change in how I fed and managed him in his stable, he's a changed boy, happy as larry. I can't recommend this herb blend highly enough and we saw results almost immediately.
 
All of my horses have a Big Red Rockie in their fields and if they've been chewing the fencing this stops them instantly. Often they are lacking a trace vit or min so they chomp on the fencing. Worth a try and not expensive.
 
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