Uneven tooth wear is very common in cribbers, and it's possible your horse may be losing weight due to an inability to properly chew and digest his meals. In addition to having your horse's teeth checked frequently by an equine vet and floated as necessary, you might see a remarked improvement in his overall condition if you start feeding him a pelleted diet in addition to his hay. There are pelleted grains, pelleted or cubed hays, and feeds which combine both hay and grain in one complete pelleted ration. I feed a complete pelleted feed to one of my aged geldings with very poor teeth. By pouring hot water and some oil over the pellets and letting them soften, I provide him with a meal he can eat easily and on which he maintains reasonable weight. I also offer him as much grass hay as he can eat, though he mostly just chews it for a while and spits it back out. In the case of a cribber, I would definitely recommend keeping a good quality grass hay in front of him at all times to help keep his mouth occupied.
You can find more suggestions for equine weight gain at the following link -
Feeding Horses for Weight Gain
and more information on cribbing at the following link -
Remember that any dietary changes you make with this horse should be made very gradually to give his system time to adjust. Abrupt shifts in type or amount of feed can throw a horse's digestive system all out of whack.
Q. I have an eight year old Quarter Horse gelding and a four year old Thoroughbred mare. While, believe it or not, my mare is holding weight through these winter months, my gelding is not. I have tried everything from switching his feed and hay to putting the dreaded cribbing collar back on. The vet says there is nothing wrong with him, but he looks awful - so bad, I fear for his health. Do you have any suggestions?
A. Cribbers often do tremendous damage to their teeth and can cause equal problems in their digestive tracts. Assuming your horse is still cribbing, I would definitely recommend keeping the cribbing strap on him at all times. It won't stop him from chewing wood (if he chews wood) and damaging his teeth, but it will prevent him from swallowing air into his gut and causing associated digestive problems such as colic.
Return to the Equine Answer Board Archive
Horse Pages Introduction | Horse Quizzes | Horse Quiz Award Winners | Horse Articles | Equine Answer Board archive | Equine Education Links | Horseman's Bookstore - Horse Care & Stable Management | Horseman's Bookstore - Training & Riding | Wallplates With Panache | Iris Pages | Winners of My Website Award | Links | Awards & Affiliations | Webrings—Horse | Webrings—All Others | What's New | Site Index