Cribbing (wood chewing) Help - Great tip to stop it! :)

[dianneS]

My husband brought home the I.S soap for me last night, so I'm going to give it a try today. I'm hoping for a miracle!

 

[dianneS]

Okay, I went out to the barn this morning and went in the stall with my mare and coated every wood surface with the I.S. I used almost the entire bar. Luckily two of her stall walls are stone, so I only had two walls to coat. I put it on really heavily. I took her collar off and fed her, since she tries to crib while she's eating.

She didn't crib at all while she was eating, but I wasn't sure if she knew that her collar was off yet or not. I went about mucking other stalls and then I heard the 'gulp' from her stall. I had forgotten to coat the top of her dutch door! I ran over and started coating the door, but the spot where she had already cribbed was slobbery and the soap wouldn't stick! So I closed the top of her dutch door and waited to see what she would do.

She walked around her stall, and sniffed the walls, and she did crib a few times. Each time, she would move to a new spot, and try again. She cribbed about six times, right on top of the soap. Not much for her, she usually cribs non-stop in one place if she can.

I think its the taste rather than the smell that is the deterent, unless they eventually associate the smell with the taste. The smell did seem to put her off, but not enough to stop her from trying to crib and testing to see if she could get away with it. I think she's going to have to go all around her stall and attempt to crib until she realizes that every surface is going to taste bad, and eventually she'll give it up.

Of course this won't work on the fences outside and she did head straight out to a gate and cribbed on that. I immediately coated the top of the gate and the nearby rails. And the same thing happened. She tried cribbing again, and once she got a taste of the soap, she moved to a new spot and tried again. Then she gave up and went back to her hay

I think it will work in her stall and will definitely prevent wood chewing. Once she realized that the whole stall has been treated, I think she'll quit, but I'm sure she will continue to test it until she learns her lesson.

I also held the bar of soap out for my mini horse (he doesn't crib or wood chew) just to see what he thought of the smell. The smell didn't put him off either, he even took a bite out of the bar and once he got a taste of it, he immediately spit it out ! He came back to my hand and pushed that bar of soap aside and wanted to know where the treat was that I should have been holdilng !

I'm going to install hot wire along the top of my fence rails this spring to try and keep my mare off of the fence, and if the I.S. continues to work in the stall, I should be able to get rid of that stupid collar for once!


*EDIT:* I went out this evening to bring the horses in and feed. My mare finished her grain and immediately began cribbing on her stall just above the feed tub (the most heavily coated area in the stall) and she was just sucking wind over and over on the same spot right through all of that soap. Didn't seem to phase her at all this evening. I was feeding the rest of the animals and just heard 'gulp gulp gulp' coming from her stall. It was in the same spot too, she wasn't changing locations hoping for an untreated spot to crib.

I put her collar back on her after what seemed like an eternity of hoping she would get a taste of the soap and stop, but she never did.

I do think it will deter her from chewing wood, but cribbing, no. I haven't found anything yet to stop an addicted cribber. And I've tried it all. I was really hoping it would work too!

 

[Bronco Hollow]

I have one cribber. Nothing will deter him, he will suck air off of air. [I was told once that is you can keep them from cribbing twice as long as they have cribbed you have cured them.]

Kinda like for dogs when they have stitches, you use deodorant over the stitches and it deters them from licking/chewing... I'm sure the IS soap works the same... but only as effective as the horse is determined.

 

[dianneS]

I have one cribber. Nothing will deter him, he will suck air off of air. [I was told once that is you can keep them from cribbing twice as long as they have cribbed you have cured them.]

Kinda like for dogs when they have stitches, you use deodorant over the stitches and it deters them from licking/chewing... I'm sure the IS soap works the same... but only as effective as the horse is determined.

For my horses, it did stop any wood chewing, but cribbing, no. I'm running hot wire across the top of my fence this year to keep my mare off of the fence rails so I can take her cribbing collar off of her. She actually chews wood when she's wearing her collar because she isn't able to crib. If I just let her crib, she doesn't chew. But cribbing still does damage to the wood, just not as much.

 

[ducks4you]

Cribbing is like a cocaine addiction!

 

[patandchickens]

If you have a large expanse of paddock fencing to do (esp. if it is not in 'mint' condition) it is easier and IMO more effective to use a big bottle of very, very cheap dishwashing liquid. You can dilute it up to 50% if you want to stretch it out more. Just walk along pouring a thin stripe/bead of it along the top of each fenceboard you want to protect. Works until you get a very hard or prolonged rain, then needs to be reapplied.

I *depend* on it in Feb or March when the horses get 'itchy teeth' waiting for grass to reappear

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

If you have a large expanse of paddock fencing to do (esp. if it is not in 'mint' condition) it is easier and IMO more effective to use a big bottle of very, very cheap dishwashing liquid. You can dilute it up to 50% if you want to stretch it out more. Just walk along pouring a thin stripe/bead of it along the top of each fenceboard you want to protect. Works until you get a very hard or prolonged rain, then needs to be reapplied.

I *depend* on it in Feb or March when the horses get 'itchy teeth' waiting for grass to reappear

Pat

Hmm I might give this a whirl. My only problem is that Luna isn't beavering up just one rail, she's beavering up 2 lol. She goes "om nom nom cedar is tastey mommy" until I throw her more hay. Cheeky pony.