Niko hurt himself recently, we think he must have pulled something in his shoulder, I don’t think it’s anything too serious, however he has been cribbing and making it worse so not long ago, we went to get something to stop him.
Yep that’s right Cribox, we have tried Cribox before with little success, but having said that Niko had not been living out before, when he is in a box he is surrounded by things he can crib on like the door and parts of the walls, but when he is in the paddock it is a much larger space, so he has longer to walk before he can crib.
So I set about applying the Cribox paint to the tops of the fence posts and a little of the way down the post, I really had to use a lot of Cribox for the first coat to give it a good covering and let some of it soak into the post. I now give them a quick do every day to make sure the post has a good covering of Cribox, if the posts are not repainted frequently the Cribox will not be strong enough to stop the horse cribbing.
And here is the finished result of all that painting, I have given the post a thick coat of Cribox on the top where he will grip the wood with his top set of teeth, and a slightly thinner coat down the side were he sometimes touches the wood with his bottom jaw, this has been working well so far.
So I set about applying the Cribox paint to the tops of the fence posts and a little of the way down the post, I really had to use a lot of Cribox for the first coat to give it a good covering and let some of it soak into the post. I now give them a quick do every day to make sure the post has a good covering of Cribox, if the posts are not repainted frequently the Cribox will not be strong enough to stop the horse cribbing.
And here is the finished result of all that painting, I have given the post a thick coat of Cribox on the top where he will grip the wood with his top set of teeth, and a slightly thinner coat down the side were he sometimes touches the wood with his bottom jaw, this has been working well so far.
It has been working so well that I haven’t see Niko crib once since we started this, and he looks to be pretty much sound, not quite right yet but almost there. He has also been spending more time searching for food and is getting a nicer shape to him, so all in all it is working out quite nicely.
6 comments:
I hope you have that annoying habit curtailed. I wonder if he could use a visit from the chiropractor for his shoulder. I don't know if that is an option for you. I've never tried it but I read on blogs here that quite a few folks do and they seem to put a horse back in order. I don't know, just a thought.
I bet he's mad at you for taking the joy out of his day. I hope it works. I agree, its a bad habit for a horse to have. Our large animal vet also has a chiropractic license. We've never used her for that, but there is a lot of attention in our area for hands on massage on equines.
I had a shetland/welsh that ate a 2x4 before I even realized that he was EATING the wood feeder. I had no idea what to do - and I didn't have any money - so I stole, er, borrowed my Mom's vinegar and after my Dad replaced the 2x4, I soaked the wood with the vinegar. My pony never chewed wood again!
So glad your plan is working with your horse!
Mary and Debi, I don’t really think much of equine chiropractors, I think it is normally best to let these thing sort themselves out on there own, but having said that if he needs one then he needs one and that is that. He is well on his way to recovery and I intend to bring him back into work very slowly, if after all this is done he goes lame again then I will defiantly have to consider a chiropractor, or some form of treatment.
Deanna, yes it can be a shock how fast wood chewers can munch their way though something, sounds like the vinegar really worked well.
Oh wow, didn't know that Niko Cribbed.I sure hate those collars they use...I am glad that you are tryuing to curtail it as naturally as you can. They say there is a possibility of ulcers and grazing grasses can help. I use a bee pollen supp, when there is not grasses(like now at my place).
I also have a massage theripist for my mare. She has taught me all the moves to ensure a supple horse..maybe I'll try to shoot a small video for you, ther are quite a few stretches, that are safe for us to help our horse freinds out of tighnesses.
They really do love it too Edward..once they start to yawn, you know you've gotten something accomplished!
Hope by now, maybe he has suppled up some.
KK
Thanks for the comment KK, and thank you all for leaving comments, I forgot to say thanks, so rude of me sorry.
KK, I think I know why he is cribbing at first I thought it was stress but now more research has shown that lots of cribbers have a higher number of pleasure endorphins than a normal horse, and when cribbers eat hard feed it can increase the overall number of cribs for about 40 minutes if fed forage the cribbing is decreased for about 50 minutes, but yes I am aware some horses crib because of ulcers but luckily I believe Niko is ulcer free. He is an ex-racehorse and he developed this habit during his racing career when he was stuck in a box for up to 23 hours a day.
If you did get a chance to shot a video that would be very helpful.
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