A distinct lack of cribbing....

Kinda interesting... I ordered some omeprazole a few weeks ago and started to give it to Rubi 9 days ago. Omeprazole is an anti ulcer medication that reduces stomach acid production in order to give stomach ulcers a chance to heal. I'd decided to try him on something for ulcers because he has a few signs and symptoms - firstly his cribbing can be associated with ulcers (vets did some research that showed the common factor between cribbing and ulcers was especially acidic stomach acid in some horses), he had a habit of scoffing his food down - he almost 'attacks' his food with an open mouth and stuffs it in as quickly as possible (which is why he's had choke previously), and then he always went to crib afterwards. He's got a bit of a pot belly despite being wormed regularly etc. Plus, he's experienced various things in the course of his life that could give him ulcers - race training, being kept alone, competing, travelling... since there's no real negative side effects with a course of omeprazole, I decided to try him to see if it made a difference.

After 3 days he was no longer bothering to go and crib straight after eating. This is unusual because he was always particularly determined to crib somehow after eating. And I haven't actually seen him go and crib at any time in the last 3 days. When he's not munching on hay, he's been happy to chill out, leg resting, under the barn or, this morning, in the field standing guard over Lutine as she slept.

He may well be cribbing occasionally overnight, though I've not caught him at it even if I've gone out and they've had no hay left. But even if he's still doing it a bit, he's doing it FAR less than I've known him to do since he's been here.

And last night, he didn't attack his food teeth first, but just started picking it up with his lips and eating like the rest of my horses do.

So that's all pretty interesting.... A full course of omeprazole lasts 28 days so he's got almost another 3 weeks before this course finishes.

Learning to have his teeth done

Mr Good boy tried to jump on top of the vet when he tried to do Rubi's teeth at the beginning of the year. The vet was determined to use power tools and, therefore, he was trying to sedate Rubi, who decided he was having none of it! Cue barging with the shoulder, leaping about, rearing and kicking out - the vet decided, much to my relief, that it just wasn't going to happen and so Rubi didn't even get his teeth looked at, never mind floated.

Then when we went over to Kath and Ian's to get the FnE saddle fitted this summer, Ian took the opportunity to introduce himself to Rubi and see if he could have a look in his mouth. Ian is an Equine Dental Technician - and uses hand tools not power tools to float horses' teeth. It always seems far less of a palaver when hand tools are used and the horses have a better job done. Anyway, to my delight, Rubi decided he quite liked Ian and so he was happy to have his mouth handled and so we decided to get Ian down to do his teeth at some point.

They came down about 3 weeks ago now but it's taken me until now to upload the photos. This was more of a training run than a full dental session so the aim was for Mr Good Boy to learn to behave himself for the dentist. Luckily, his teeth are in pretty good shape still so we could afford to do a less-than-complete job, with the aim that Ian will come back in 6 months time to do even more.

He was a very good boy for at least 25 mins, better on the right side than the left, but stood very well to have his teeth rasped. As a last item, he then had the gag fitted and opened a click while Ian sloshed out his mouth with some water and had a feel of his tongue.

I think the photos are hilarious though - you can almost see the thought bubbles above his head as he's contemplating what this guy is doing with this funny implement in his mouth!