Windsucking

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Cobland

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Was reading in an earlier post that there are things you can give a horse that windsucks. I know my friends mare does and shes been wearing a collar now for ages but the minute its off she starts again.

Her mare is also expecting a foal next week and she doesnt want the collar on her for the birth, also doesnt want the foal to catch it.

Anyone suggest?
 
Turn them out as much as possible for one thing and make sure the mare has all the vits and minerals she needs.
A lot of the time, windsucking just annoys the hell out of you but does not affect the horse, it's just a boredom breaker although I think it's also been proved that it could be something to do with acid in the stomach so if she can address that she's halfway there.
I would be inclined to leave the collar off at all times until the foal is weaned (well, it's what I would do but that's not to say it's THE right thing to do!)
 
Don't worry - foals can not 'catch' winducking!! My old mare used windsuck and had about 6 foals. None of them windsuck!

There is a feed supplement called Settlex which does help to reduce the windsucking.
 
i bought a nine year old horse who windsucked like crazy. He colicked at least once a month because of it. I seem to have stopped him almost completely it's a miracle. I had a steel piece made that fits on his stable door. It is now too wide for him top get hold of and so he simply stopped!! He does it once in a blue moon on a fence post in the field but hardly worth mentioning. I know I'm lucky that he didn't start doing it on anything else but it's worth a try with your horse.
 
It's not catching - I have a yearling living out with a very bad windsucker. Yearling did try biting the fence once and stood there looking confused as to why Bob thinks this is "fun"!
 
I've had good results with U-Gard Plus from Equine America. I'd given up with supplements (nothing seemed to work, some made Jim worse) but tried this on my vet's recommendation & have been very very impressed!

It may be coincidence but I had a McTimony lady out & she did a lot of work on his atlas. The little bit of cribbing he was still doing virtually disappeared a couple of days later.
 
I left my mares collar on during her labour last year, she didn't have a problem and my foal doesn't crib or windsuck. I haven't found anything else that worked. I figured it was safer leaving it on rather than her cribbing/sucking and getting colic whilst in foal.
 
a horse on our yard windsucks and they have now taken his collar off and he is never fed treats anymore and his windsucking has reduced considerably. There is a theory that it is a craving for sugar that can start a horse windsucking.
 
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