horses eating wood

Question
If a horse continues to chew like a beaver on wood to where the fences are falling down because there is nothing left to them and no one does nothing what harm could this do to a horse health wise?
Thank you

Answer
Dear Lori,

You didn't mention where your horse is kept, dry lot, pasture etc.  Horses eat various odd things for various reasons.  There may be something lacking in his diet, most likely fiber, that needs to be corrected, or he may just be bored.  You may want to consider changing your fence material since one of the major dangers if that enough damage is done to the fence, your horse may end up loose on the highway. The wood itself is not likely to do him harm unless it is treated with a preservative or he ends up with splinters in his gut.  However, this is not something you want to allow to continue.  You need to find out WHY it is happening and fix that. Meanwhile, have fun repairing the fences.

Actually there is an excellent paper written on all the various weird things horses eat and why by Christine King, a veterinarian who is a member of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists.  You can find the entire paper at http://www.animavet.com/EatingDirt.pdf

Good Luck

Lynne Curtis
"Common sense isn't."