Wood chewing can generally be treated by increasing the available forage and by increasing free or structured exercise. Applying distasteful substances or electrical fencing to wooden structures may help in preventing the behaviour. In some cases, wood chewing may be related to a nutritional deficiency, which can be diagnosed through blood analysis, serology and hair analysis. If a deficiency is revealed supplementation with the deficient nutrient should minimize wood chewing behaviour.
Cribbing & Windsucking
Cribbing is described as grasping a horizontal surface with the top incisors, pulling backwards, flexing the neck and drawing air into the oral cavity. Windsucking is described as the horse opening the mouth, bending & flexing the neck and drawing air into the esophagus without anchoring the top incisors. The exact cause of cribbing is idiopathic but is likely multi-factorial. It may be caused by a disorder where there are decreased levels of serotonin and other endogenous opiates in the brain. It is thought that cribbing increases the release of opiates, providing an addictive intoxication reward for the cribbing behaviour and stress relief. Nervous animals are predisposed to cribbing as are animals housed with another horse that cribs. Horses without continual access to forage, or those with high grain diets or gastric ulcers tend to develop the habit of cribbing more so than horse with 24/7 access to forage. Thoroughbreds may have a genetic component that predisposes them to cribbing. It has been reported that stallions and geldings tend to crib more than mares. The clinical presentation of cribbing includes wear of the top incisors, hypertrophy of the ventral neck muscles, grunting sounds while the teeth are clamped on a surface and U-shaped pieces of fence lines or stall being worn away. Treatments include the physical prevention of cribbing through use of a crib collar which makes the cribbing movement uncomfortable or removal of cribbing surfaces, changing the housing and pasture arrangements for the horse, increasing available roughage, increasing pasture time, neurectomy of the accessory nerve, myotomy of the omohyoideus & sternothyrohyoideus muscles and the administration of medications that target dopamine & serotonin neurotransmitters as well as exogenous opiates until the positive feedback cycle is broken.
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