b"CRIBBING and COLICabdominal pain. If their abdomen hurts, then horses might crib.Regardless of the underlying link, crib- Devices such as bing can be detrimental to an affectedcollars might help horses health. Owners must also considerreduce cribbing.the dental and surface damage caused when the incisors grasp onto an object, the veterinary costs incurred if a horse colics, and the welfare implications as-sociated with cribbing.Putting the Kibosh on CribbingVeterinarians and manufacturers have devised multiple treatment strategies to prevent cribbing. Most focus on prevent-ing incisor grasping and include:ALEXANDRA BECKSTETT/THE HORSE Electrifying surfaces;Applying unpleasant-tasting products to surfaces;Physically preventing grasping via muzzles;Preventing the horse from flexing his neck, using metal or leather collars;Surgically placing gingival rings in the oral cavity; behavior through the use of anti-cribbingof the issue when deciding whether or notSurgically transecting the neck musclescollars or other physical devices mayto treat and, if so, which strategy would used during cribbing (e.g., modifiedsignificantly impact equine welfare, by re- be best suited for the animal in question, Forssells procedure); and ducing a horses ability to cope with stressadds Southwood. Administering selective serotonin reup- without addressing the underlying cause.take inhibitors, which are drugs used toAlbright said she has observed thatTake-Home Messagetreat anxiety disorders in humans.some horses urge to crib is so intenseThe driving factors behind stereotypies Which method should you choose?that they work as hard to find a surface toand the links between those behaviors Julia Albright, DVM, Dipl. ACVB, and hergrasp onto as they do to find food. Otherand colic remain unclear. Whatever the colleagues at the University of Tennesseedata affirm this finding, showing thatlink, cribbing not only causes physical compared two anti-crib collars, a muzzle,horses are highly motivated to performdamage to a horse owners property but and gingival rings in a 2016 study andthe behavior, spending approximatelyalso has health implications, includ-found that all methods except the gin- 15% of their days cribbing. ing the increased risk of colic. Although gival rings effectively reduced cribbing.options exist to stop cribbing, welfare Albright also reported that horses showed''concerns complicate the issue, which can no distress, as determined by measuringCribbing couldmake it challenging for veterinarians, re-their serum cortisol levels, when wearingsimply be a way forsearchers, and behaviorists to definitivelyany of the physical devices.recommend their use for fear of negative-Albright said she also did not notice ahorses to deal withly impacting a cribbers quality of life. rebound effect after removing the anti- chronic, low-gradeThe conclusion drawn is that it may cribbing devices. This phrase refers to abe more useful to remove the sources of compensatory increase in cribbing afterabdominal pain.chronic thwarting that initially give rise it has been prevented for a period, whichDR. LOUISE SOUTHWOOD to the stereotypy, rather than to prevent researchers have described in the past.horses from crib-biting, says Briefer Freymond. This can be done by improv-Should We Fight the Bite?If crib-biting is a coping strategy, it ising the captive environment, mimicking Stereotypic behaviors such as cribbingbetter not to prevent horses from crib- nature, increasing feeding time, or giving appear to (at least partially) develop as abiting but instead improve their welfare,horses some kind of control over their means of dealing with stress, our sourcessays Briefer Freymond. Potentially, oneenvironment. This should be done for say. In such cases, preventing the behav- could say that higher stress is also oneall horses to prevent the development of ior could be construed as a welfare issue. of the causes of colic and that improvingstereotypies or to cure stereotypies, as In a 2009 article published in Appliedwelfare could decrease stress and indi- well as to improve the welfare of horses Animal Behavior Science, the authorsrectly reduce colic. that do not crib-bite but are housed in the wrote thatattempts to inhibit thisOne must carefully consider all sidessame environment as crib-biters.h16November 2019The Horse|TheHorse.comCribbingColic USE2.indd 16 9/25/19 10:43 AM"