Wood chewing. Horrids driving me mad.

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LauraWheeler

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For some reason in the last few days Horrid has desided it would be a good idea to chew the fence. :mad: I put this spray stuff on called Crib Off. It's a non toxic spray and I can conferm it tastes awful as I got some on my hand then stupidly put my hand in my mouth :rolleyes: :o. It took ages to get rid of the taste. But when I sprayed it on the fence Horrid just licked it off and carried on chewing the wood :mad:. My lovely Lucy never chewed wood so I have never had this problem myself but I have known other horses that did it and we put Creosote on the places they chewed and this solved the problem. But seeing as you can't get hold of the stuff anymore I wondered if anyone knew of anything else that would stop him doing this.
It's a new habbit and I don't know why he has suddenly started. Theres loads of grass for him to eat and I excersise him everyday :confused: I'm going to get him a football to see if this keeps him amused.
Anyway your help with this matter would be much appreceated as I don't want this distructive habbit to continu. Thankyou very much. :)
 
You can still get lookalike creosote - little monkey, is he short of vitamins? I'll bet he's full and looking for mischief. Maybe get him a muzzle which will require him to work much harder for his grub and be a definite preventative measure regarding the cribbing. LOL at you being able to tell us all that Crib Off tastes awful...
 
I read somewhere that making a liquid paint of horse dung and water, not too runny, and painting it on the wood puts them off chewing. Never tried it myself yet tho, but it might be worth a try.
 
The only horse iv ever had chew wood was due to a defiencent diet, after a while on a decent balanced diet he soon stopped. Could also be Borden?
 
old engine oil is a good remedy if you can't get creocote or creosote - just paint it onto the fences and other wooden bits that he's chewing.

It can be a stress reaction, it can be a lack of fibre and it can be a lack of certain minerals in the diet, it can also just be that he fancies trying it! I wouldn't worry too much if he can be deterred and he's not wind sucking.

ash and birch in particular are our horses favourites, and Tom will actually pick at the ash tree in the little paddock rather than the grass :rolleyes:
 
Thanks everyone Lots of things to try hopefully something will work. I want to nip this habit in the bud quickly. Luckly he's not wind sucking yet and I don't want him to start. I have bought him a minarel lick which he loves and I have some vitamin suplement left that Lucy used to have so i'll give him some of that in some Happy Hoof (lucky boy :p:))I'll deff give your suggestions a try to.

rosiefronfelen His name is Herbie and to say he is a problem pony is to say the least about him :p Hense the name Horrid Herbie. He is getting less and less Horrid all the time so I guess soon i'll have to call him something else. :D

lost He's 9 so oldenough to know better. :mad:

LOL montyforever

brighteyes it's truly awful I still have the taste in my mouth now. Yuck :( I can't believe he just licked it off.
 
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