Horse chewing on wood

[heddylamar]

We've tried No Chew/Chew Stop (white bottle, blue label), one of the bitter sprays, and painted on chili oil (made a pint from 4 qts red savinas, habaneros, scotch bonnets, and trinidad scorpions).

The mare's still gnawing on anything she can reach.

Please save my sanity and my BO's furniture! Other than physical barriers (metal flashing, pulling all teeth), have we missed anything?

[texsuze]

Is she chewing/gnawing like the proverbial beaver, or is this cribbing? My oldster started eating tree bark, dirt, dead limbs, somewhat casually, as well as putting his teeth on the hay manger in his stall. No true cribbing observed. CBC with mineral analysis and whatever else that is generally tested for revealed all his numbers were within normal limits. Chalked it up perhaps to boredom. Complicating matters: his teeth are failing him so his roughage intake is variable depending upon his mood, fluffiness of hay, and his dedication to eating it

Anyway, point is, I think success at preventing/limiting the gnawing might depend upon the source reason for the behavior. The stinky no chew formula in the brown spray bottle will keep my guy off anything if I see his beaverness behavior returning. Metal flashing (no sharp edges) should hopefully prevent exposed lumber destruction. I'm surprised the pepper cocktail didn't work.

Unless you've already gone down the road of analysis of bloodwork, I'd probably start there to rule out something. Keep us posted, as this is useful information to share.

[Fatcat]

Halt Cribbing is the only thing I’ve found to work. Comes in a gallon paint can and you brush it on.
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.htm ... gLKkvD_BwE

[heddylamar]

With this horse, I lean toward behavioral/boredom. She's chewing -- not cribbing -- and only when stalled. Our pastures have wood fencing, and she leaves that alone for the most part (if there's snow, she may chew, but when grass is available, there's no chewing). Trees, etc are also safe from her.

We had fairly extensive bloodwork done last summer, and there were no red flags. The chewing predated the bloodwork.

I'll pick up some Halt Cribbing when I order vaccines and see if that works. She seems to like(!) the chili oil and No Chew.

[Chisamba]

Does she have free choice hay?

[heddylamar]

Sorta? When they're in overnight (or daytime), the horses get 3 feedings of 1-2 flakes of hay. Maia always cleans hers up, and she's at great weight.

[blob]

Sorta? When they're in overnight (or daytime), the horses get 3 feedings of 1-2 flakes of hay. Maia always cleans hers up, and she's at great weight.

Maybe a slow feeder would be a good idea? Keep her busy for longer

[heddylamar]

Yup. We use one. She chokes.

[blob]

Do you ever see her chewing when she still has hay in her stall or is it only when there's nothing there? If the latter, the barn owner might be happy to increase hay in order to save her barn!

Otherwise, if she's still getting bored int he stall even with hay, you could look into a toy for her (though most of the horse toy options are limited). They have things like those horse licks, that might work well for her, though it just seems like giving your kid a lot of lollipops--I always worry about the sugar content of those. But that doesn't mean it's not worth a try.

I wonder, though if you could make a toy similar to what they give rabbits and parrots (just much bigger). Something that would hang from the stall and have multiple layers of things to gnaw on/eat.

Something like this: https://www.chewy.com/kaytee-perfect-ch ... /dp/129018 or this: https://www.chewy.com/kaytee-lava-n-woo ... /dp/181394
But with horse appropriate materials, maybe even a place in it for some hay or something or a harder grain based treat. You could also put a salt lick in there. Just something to keep her mouth busy and exploring and give her an outlet for chewing, in case that's a motion/feeling she's come to enjoy

[heddylamar]

I found an unexpected solution: a lick-it.

Maia sticks her head out the window near her pal next door. When the long-suffering pal doesn't respond to Maia's pestering, Maia chews the wall between them. So I hung a lick-it in the window. It's collecting dust

[musical comedy]

My mare is chewing wood big time. It's not in the stall, but outside. She chews on the pasture split rail fencing. It's so bad that I'm afraid she'll chew it until a rail breaks. She has plenty of hay and companionship. It's just a vice, and it's getting worse. In the past, seems like all my horses have chewed on the wood x-bar of the dutch doors. The wood chew stop products are worthless, especially for large areas.

[Canyon]

IME, hot wire strung on boards will stop a chewer very quickly - not very pretty, but better than a destroyed fence.

[heddylamar]

IME, hot wire strung on boards will stop a chewer very quickly - not very pretty, but better than a destroyed fence.

For fence chewing, this is the best solution. Fortunately for the fences (unfortunately for the barn), that's not Maia's main focus.

[musical comedy]

Hot wiring 7 or more acres of fencing would be a chore. Actually wouldn't the electric just affect the top rail? My mare reaches down and chews middle and bottom rail.

[Srhorselady]

MC I had to Hotwire one of my turnouts several years ago due to horses leaning on the fences to get weeds outside the turnout in the spring. (They pulled cemented in posts out of the ground). I have metal rail fencing and I found metal/plastic gadgets that attached to the posts that allowed me to put a Hotwire braid 18 to 24 inches inside the fence about 3 1/2 feet high. It worked great. If I were you I’d consider a Hotwired turnout and a grazing muzzle. The large pasture is nice but not at the expense of chewed fencing!

[KigerSMM]

You might try Irish Spring bar soap. Seems to be working to deter my gelding on stall rest. Don't know about the long-term negative effects on the wood though, if any. The stall doors were in pretty bad shape (previous chewer) when we moved in and BO plans to replace them when we're done with stall rest.