Windsucking .... Your stories please...

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Bedford Joy

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I have just bought a lovely tb mare, she's ex race and ex polo but she is a wind sucker. She came with a collar but my yard ( who i value the advice of ) say that there are a few wind suckers on the yard and they say the horses can get more stressed if prevented from Windsucking with a collar so best not to use it. She sucks in her stable and occasionally in the field. She's fit healthy and a good weight otherwise.

What I really want to know is if it really does cause serious harm and lead to colic or can a horse do it constantly with with very little detrimental effect ....

Your stories please ....

Thank you x
 
It's a cycle. They suck because they think it alleviates the discomfort of ulcers but when you treat the ulcers they keep sucking which makes the ulcers bad again. My boy has a collar in the field to protect fencing so they stay safe and when eating hard feed as its worst then. He sucks half heatedly without it overnight but I have treated his ulcers and keep his gut healthy so he is gradually stopping sucking.
 
I had an ex racer who cribbed/wind sucked, it did not matter if she was stabled or in the feild. I tried collars, the crib box stuff and was advised to smear the edges of stable in Vaseline with the hottest chilli powder I could find she licked it off :eek:
I gave up trying and around the time I gave up trying the thought was changing about making them stop can be more stressful. My mare was prone to colic and was a poor doer, was it related I don't know but she did end up having colic surgery and had a strangulated hernia so the vets presumed the colic was not a result of cribbing but the hernia
 
Unfortunatly your horse is far from fit and healthy the likely hood is that she windsucks because of pain caused by gastric ulcers especially with a racing and polo back ground! I would strongly suggest you have a vet to Gastroscope her and treat her accordingly. I speak from experience do NOT ignor it until it is to late!
 
My TB cribs and I have made her a cribbing station. The rest of the fence has electric tape on the top. I then leave her too it, she only really cribs after eating hard feed or a treat anyway so it's not a big deal. She has never had colic and has always held weight well (although she is getting old and I have had to up her feed a bit, but this is nothing to do with cribbing).

ETA. No ulcers either.
 
My old boy cribbed almost constantly for 20 years and wearing a cribbing collar made him visibly stressed and unhappy. Five years ago we radically changed his routine. We removed all sugars and cereals from his diet, provided plenty of forage, constant company and as much turnout as possible. He hasn't cribbed at all since and is so much happier and more relaxed. I suspect it may have been down to ulcers or some kind of feed intolerance in my horse's case but I think it's definitely worth a try for anyone with a horse that cribs or windsucks. You do have to be really careful about reading ingredients though as we discovered that lots treats, licks and even supplements have ingredients that will set my horse off.
 
My connie rescue windsucks. Had her 3 years. She was diagnosed with ulcers last year. They were treated and she still windsucked lats week I rescoped her and her stomach was 100 healthy with no blemishes despite windsucking like a trooper.
I dont stop her as this makes them more stressed and more likely to cause or irritate ulcers and the v3t agreed it isbest to leave her to it. I try totdiscourage it by criboxing the door of her stable but that is as far as I go.
She is also turned out with 5 other mares including a youngster and none have ever shown an interest in what she does.
If you need any more info please feel free to pm me
 
In January I took on a TBx 15yrs old, I have never had a windsucker before and was quite bemused as to what to do. He does it constantly on ANYTHING, everybody I know has told me stuff from hitting him (yeah, like THAT is going to happen and **** help anyone I catch doing it) putting a collar on him, painting every 'grabbing' surface.. He's happy doing it, I haven't had any problems with him he's in lovely condition. Only thing I have trouble with is where he 'grabs' stuff it's wrecked-the fences etc :(
 
my boy is also an ex racer, been treated for ulcers when i got him. he used to wear a collar all the time, but it ended up giving him sores as he just kept trying to do it even with the collar on. he hadnt wore it for a couple of years but i bought a different style of collar and started using it again a couple of weeks ago as i need to get more weight on him
 
Windsucking is not always caused by ulcers, it is a stress response behaviour and also does not always cause harm to the horse. If it's not doing the horse any harm, nor caused by anything such as ulcers, and you've removed the stress triggers, then I'd say "every horse needs a hobby", and leave him to it.
 
Have you had her checked for ulcers?

Id prefer not to use a collar but try and limit where horse can do it.
So block surfaces, or paint them with something.
plenty of turnout and exercise and adlib hay when in.
 
I absolutely agree. In all the years that my horse cribbed, he never suffered from colic or any other related health problem (other than wearing down most of his front teeth!). I also agree that stress can be a factor- it certainly was for my boy. I think it is definitely better to let them crib if possible although on a livery yard I know that can be less than ideal. Before I got my own land, I used to electrify the tops of all the fences and have a special 'cribbing post' for my boy in the middle of the field so that he could satisfy the urge without damaging anything. I know it can be discouraging and difficult to deal with a persistent windsucker or cribber but, if my lad could stop after all that time, I do think there's hope for anyone.
 
Cortez said:
Windsucking is not always caused by ulcers
Click to expand...

Although this is true looking at this horses history it is likly that she is suffering from ulcers to some degree. Studies have shown that 90-95% of racehorses have ulcers!

So as other posters have said if you can have her scopped for ulcers that would be the best idea. If she has got them then you can get on top of treating them before they get worse.

In the meantime you want to be feeding a low starch, high fibre, no cereal diet. Something like Saracen Re-Leve would be ideal. Also ad-lib hay or haylage and alfalfa chaff should help.

Also as others have sad preventing them from cribbing can increase the stress levels so if others on the yard don't mind it would be nicer to just leave her to it
 
My boy started windsucking at the age of 20 - the only thing I can put it down to was me being away and this co-inciding with him being put on a bit of a diet to reduce his weight (he was a bit of a porker!), so think it was a reaction to a reduction in food - he does love his food.

I had him scoped and his tummy was as clean as a whistle - in fact the vet said she hadn't seen such a clean tummy for a while. He colicked a week after the scoping - it may have been related.

He wears a traditional collar as the humane collar had to be done up too tight to be effective. Unfortunately our YO doesn't believe in letting them get on with it and prefers them to wear a collar, which I have to respect (and before you tell me to leave the yard, it is actually one of the best yards in the area, very well respected, great hacking and facilities, reasonably priced and we have been there 8 years.)

He sometimes tries to suck with the collar on, but not often. He does have a break from the collar for about 4 hours a day when he comes into a nice big pile of hay, his collar only goes on when I get down to the yard about 6pm.

He gets plenty of fodder, is turned out for 8 hours per day. I have even tried an animal communicator to try and find out why he does it - I didn't get any answers.

So, I manage it as best I can, keep the collar handy, as we do try and wean him off it every now and then, and try not to stress about it.
 
Thanks everyone for your answers, such a mixed response. She only raced on the flat 3 times as a 2 year old but was rubbish so was sold to a polo yard but she has done very little polo, in fact she's done a bit of hacking and been ridden by children to learn how to play polo as she was too lazy and slow for polo as well as racing. She's very laid back and not at all stressy and I am lucky in that my yard are happy to have her. They have American barn stabling and all the stable doors have metal tops, we have electric fences with posts in the fields but she doesn't do it much when out. I will mention scoping her to the vet and see what he says. Thanks again for all your responses x
 
Annie has always windsucks and is worse after feeds and treats. she is in good condition though (apart from her legs :( ). and i always that to try and stop something thats become a habit (did it when her previous owners brought her so at least 15 yrs) would be more stressful to her. she doesnt bother in the new stables with metal strips on the doors but will on wood. just keep an eye on fence posts etc, i saw a horrible injury where a horse reared and landed on a post that it always windsucked on, it had been shaped almost to a spear shape by the constant wear on it and went straight into horses chest
 
Please don't rule out ulcers just because she was only in training for a relatively short period or because she's a decent weight. Studies show even a few days of stress is enough to cause ulcers. Also many horses that are diagnosed with ulcers are a good weight.

You could take the approach that the racehorse rehoming centres do and treat her with aloe vera juice to see if that makes a difference to her. You'd need to cut out cereals and molasses too
 
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