FAQ – Cribbing

By Dr. Karie Vander Werf & Dr. Teresa Wiley (Teresa Renee)

Common Questions & Misconceptions About Cribbing

Why do horses crib?

• This is a great question and we don’t know. Personally, I believe every cribbing horse starts performing the behavior for a different reason but it’s usually related to something that is stressful to the horse. For younger horses this could be weaning stress. For older horses it can be any number of things – increased grain and decreased forage; decreased saliva production (all three of those can add up to gastric ulcers which are painful and stressful); moving to a new barn; social isolation; introducing a new horse to the herd; maybe the temperature for a particular month was warmer or cooler than usual. You get the idea. You know horses. Sometimes they stress at the drop of a hat. People often say cribbing releases endorphins, and it’s possible. But why are they releasing endorphins? Is it because cribbing directly causes the endorphin release? Or is it because the cribbing alleviates stress which then causes an endorphin release? We then unintentionally reinforce the behavior (usually with a grain meal) and the original stressors don’t really change – so it becomes a permanent thing. Like a habit. In most cases we then see horses crib all the time – regardless of if the original stressful stimulus is corrected. So sometimes we will see cribbing horses that only crib when they are happy and stop cribbing when they don’t feel well – like in a colic situation. This is what makes the behavior so frustrating.

Which collar works?

• None of them. Mild cribbers might stop cribbing with a collar, but heavy cribbers will not be dissuaded by the collars. Often horses will adapt to the collar and crib thru it – this will cause owners to tighten the collar. This usually starts a vicious cycle of tightening the collar and the horse learning to crib thru the collar. If you are creating a wound on your horses neck, the collar is too tight. If your horse is passing out – the collar is too tight. Collars will often cause a rebound in cribbing as well – meaning once it’s removed they will crib more than before the collar was applied. I often encourage people to remove collars, be aware of the rebound, and know that after a period of time they will go back down to the original levels.

How do I stop it?

• You don’t. The behavior develops, becomes a habit and once it’s established the best you can hope for is to minimize it. More importantly, we don’t know exactly why horses perform the behavior. Is it ethical to stop a behavior that may perform a significant function? One such thought is that horses crib to produce saliva (they produce less saliva than non-cribbing horses when prevented from cribbing). Saliva buffers the stomach which helps prevent gastric ulcers. If your horse might be cribbing to prevent gastric ulcers, wouldn’t it be better just to let them crib?

I heard there was a surgery that could be done to stop them?

• Please don’t. First of all, general anesthesia on horses is not without risk. Personally, I wouldn’t put a horse through anesthesia simply because it was a cribber. Secondly, the surgery has variable results, and often stops working all together eventually. Third, if you are at all involved with the Arabian industry there is a huge stigma about this surgery being done on “cribbers” simply to narrow the throat latch.

How do I minimize it?

• This is the right question to ask! Cribbing horses should be turned out as much as possible, with friends. They should not be isolated because they are cribbers. Cribbing horses should get as much hay/grass as they want – especially when stalled. Grain meals should be as small as possible and as frequent as possible. If your horse gets 3 quarts of grain a day, that amount should be divided into as many feedings as you can manage. You should also have your horse scoped for gastric ulcers and treated if necessary.

Is cribbing “contagious”?

• No. These horses are often exposed to the same stressful management situations that cause the display of cribbing. If a new (cribbing) horse is introduced and a different horse begins cribbing as well, it is more likely that the new horse’s presence stressed the other horse, which then began using cribbing as a coping mechanism. Horses do not learn by watching other horses.

Is cribbing hereditary?

• No. Cribbing is more likely to be seen in individuals that are very affected by high stress situations. What we believe is hereditary is how susceptible they are to stress. If the sire and/or dam are high stress +/- cribbers, then the offspring is more likely to be affected by stress and therefore develop behaviors like cribbing.

Cribbing = wind sucking = wood chewing.

• FALSE. Cribbing and wind sucking are two separate behaviors that are often mixed up or used interchangeably. The behaviors can be present in the same individual. Expression of either behavior usually have similar underlying cause therefore management directed at minimizing these behaviors is often the same. Wood chewing involves removing and sometimes swallowing wood. Cribbing horses don’t use both the top and bottom teeth to perform the behavior – and therefore would not remove pieces of wood.

Cribbing horses swallow air.

• FALSE. This is something that is still so incredibly common to hear, but was actually disproven by a researcher named Mcgreevy in 1998.

Cribbing horses will colic more.

• Okay, this one is a bit complicated. They do NOT have more frequent gas colics, because they aren’t swallowing air as discussed above. They are more at risk of a type of surgical colic called eliploic foramen entrapment (EFE). Cribbing causes negative intrabdominal pressure which may cause a piece of small intestine to get pulled into the epiploic foramen and trapped there and need to be surgically corrected. Okay, all that being said, all horses are at risk of surgical colic on any given day. While this particular type of surgical colic is over-represented in cribbing horses, I don’t necessarily feel like I see more surgical colics in cribbing horses vs non-cribbing horses.

Cribbing horses wear down their teeth.

• TRUE. If you have a cribbing horse you should get yearly, if not twice yearly dentals on your horse. You should work closely with your veterinarian to monitor dentition and make any diet changes necessary to maintain a healthy weight.

Okay, but they destroy everything.

• I can’t argue with that. They absolutely do. My suggestion is to hot wire fencing you don’t want them to crib on and create a cribbing station in their pasture. Cribbing stations are super high tech – two posts with a 2×4 connecting them. Ta da! Who cares if they break it. Please, please – do NOT use the sharp side of nails to prevent them from cribbing in their stalls. Yes, I’ve seen people do this. It is an accident waiting to happen.
  
  See Dr Wiley’s thesis on cribbing here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/277077519400687/permalink/480908382350932/
  
  Copyright 2021 Dr Teresa Wiley and Horse Vet Corner. Do not remove or alter without permission from the authors.

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