THE EFFECT OF ORAL ANTACID ON GASTRIC PH AND CRIBBING FREQUENCY IN THE HORSE

L.N. Garcia, C.A. McCall, W.H. McElhenney, J.S. Taintor, and J. Schumacher

Eight adult crib-biting horses were used to assess the effect of an oral antacid, containing acid-neutralizing and gastric coating agents, on cribbing behavior and gastric pH. Horses were maintained on bermudagrass pasture with ad libitum water and ryegrass hay. Horses also were fed a 10% crude protein commercially available pelleted concentrate feed (2.3 kg) twice daily for the duration of the study. Four horses were assigned to each of two treatment sequences in a crossover design. In sequence one, 4 horses received antacid in period 1 and no antacid (control) in periods 2 and 3. In sequence two, the remaining 4 horses received control in period 1 and antacid in periods 2 and 3. Treatments consisted of 228 g of a commercially available equine antacid (Neigh-Lox, Kentucky Equine Research, Versailles, KY) or control (228 g of the regular concentrate diet) hand fed to horses twice daily. Treatment periods were 21 d with a 21 d washout between periods. The number of individual cribbing episodes, the duration of cribbing behavior (s), and the number of cribbing bouts (series of cribbing episodes separated by another activity) were recorded during three 2 h observation sessions on d 20 of each period. Samples of gastric fluid were collected using a nasogastric tube on d 21 of each period, and gastric fluid pH was determined using a digital pH meter. Antacid effectively raised gastric pH following 21 d of treatment (0.875 + 0.34; P < 0.05), but did not effectively influence cribbing behavior in these horses. There was no carry-over effect with respect to gastric pH (0.081 + 0.41; P > 0.05) indicating that the washout period was adequate for pH values to return to basal levels. There were no treatment effects for number of crib-bites (-81.8 + 69.8; P>0.05), cribbing duration (690.1 + 863.4; P > 0.05), or number of cribbing bouts (3.4 + 4.3; P > 0.05). However, there was a carry-over effect with respect to number of crib-bites (-201.3 + 83.7; P < 0.05), indicating that 21 d of treatment had little or no effect on the behavior. There were no carry-over effects with respect to cribbing duration (1111.6 + 1036.1; P > 0.05) or number of cribbing bouts (6.0 + 5.1; P > 0.05). The significant carry-over effect for crib-bites indicates a longer treatment period may be necessary to affect the cribbing behavior.

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