| We have two riding
mares and an older gelding that are together, either in the pasture or
up in the shed, almost all of the time. We use the two mares just for
occasional weekend pleasure riding. The gelding is aged and has a stifle
problem. He is just hanging out here eating grass.
Here's the problem. Whenever we take
our mares out of the pasture to ride or for any other reason, the
gelding simply goes nuts. He just runs up and down the fence, back and
forth in front of the gate, or tears around the shed, calling and
screaming until the others are back. We can hardly get them through the
gate he's so upset. Even after we get back, it takes him about an hour
to settle down. He runs the mares all over and won't let them out of his
sight. We have tried putting him up in a stall while we're out, and he
just goes crazy. He won't eat hay or grain or relax the whole time we're
away. We have tried disciplining him, but that does nothing to quiet him
down. We have tried leaving one mare with him, and that doesn't seem to
help. He's agitated until the other one is back. All the carrying on
makes him really lame for a week or so. Sometimes he gets himself so
worked up that we're afraid he'll colic or run through the fence.
I was wondering if this might be a
mental condition like the one you hear about in dogs. My sister had a
dog that went nuts like this, barking and running around and tearing up
the apartment whenever she left it at home alone. Their veterinarian
called it "separation anxiety," and recommended behavior
modification procedures. They tried it, but it didn't work so well
because of their hectic schedules. They ended up giving the dog to a
home where someone was there all the time.
My sister recently gave me an
article saying that now there is a medication available to treat dogs
with separation anxiety. What exactly is separation anxiety in dogs? Do
you think our gelding has the same thing as dogs? Are there any behavior
modification programs or medications that you think would help? Also, we
were wondering if you thought we should try taking the mares away from
the gelding for more than just a few hours to see if he'll get over it.
How long would you think it might take to know if he'll ever settle
down? What we have been doing is getting the mares back as soon as
possible so he doesn't hurt himself, two to three hours at most. What
would happen if we took him somewhere else?
All of your questions are great, and you
are not alone in asking about separation anxiety in horses. So let's
take a look at your questions one at a time.
What exactly is separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety disorder is indeed
the term used in dogs that have frantic behavior when they are left home
alone. The term comes straight from child psychology in which a child or
adolescent experiences extraordinary fear or depression, even panic,
when separated from home, parents, or other attached individuals. To fit
the diagnosis of disorder, the child's distress must be clinically
significant (severe and beyond that which is normally expected for a
certain developmental level), it must continue for a period of longer
than a month, and it must significantly impair social or occupational
function. The afflicted youngster or adolescent expresses fear for their
own safety, for the safety and return of the attached person, or for the
safety of their home or belongings from which they are separated.
In dogs that suffer from separation
anxiety disorder, there is barking, hyperactivity, pacing, destructive
pawing and chewing, hypersalivation, house soiling, and sometimes loss
of appetite. We can only make educated guesses about what is going
through the mind of the dog or why it is frantic. The best guess is that
the dog is fearful rather than simply excited; the frantic and
destructive behavior is often directed toward the door through which the
owner left and might return. The interpretation is that the dog in many
instances has become very attached to and dependent upon one or more
people. After all, for dogs in apartments, all exercise, feeding, and
stimulating events happen when the people are home, and nothing happens
when people are away. A common mistake of owners is to conclude that the
dog is spiteful, that he is destroying property to get back at the
owners for leaving him alone. They often punish the dog when they return
to find the furniture and carpets destroyed. In general the dog behavior
experts advise that punishment only makes things worse for the dog.
Separation anxiety disorder is one of
the most common reasons owners seek the professional advice of small
animal veterinary behaviorists. It is considered a disorder because it
can become quite severe, and because it represents quite strong
attachment of the dog to people, as opposed to a member of their own
species. And there are a variety of environmental changes, behavior
modification, and pharmacologic aids that veterinary behaviorists
recommend to treat the disorder. Sometimes the dog's behavior can
improve significantly. A really good summary article on this behavioral
disorder in dogs was written this year by Dr. Barbara Simpson of The
Veterinary Behavior Clinic, Southern Pines, N.C. It can be found in the
veterinary journal The Compendium on Continuing Education Vol. 22
(no. 4) April, 2000.
Are horses like dogs?
Back to horses, and specifically to your
gelding. Sounds very similar to the behavior of your sister's dog,
doesn't it? The gelding seems especially attached to his herd mates,
gets distressed when they leave, and eventually settles down when they
return. So, yes, many equine behaviorists would call this separation
distress or separation anxiety. I don't think many would call it a
disorder, because in most cases the frantic behavior can be explained in
terms of normal horse herd behavior.
A certain amount of distress is a normal
part of life in animals that have social attachments or home territory.
Another distinction between horses and dogs in relation to separation
problems is that the horse usually is upset by separation or isolation
from horses, not from people. It's true that sometimes a horse can be
distracted or calmed by the presence of a human, but you almost never
see a horse that is initially set off by separation from a human. So,
most equine behavior experts would call the behavior you describe in
your gelding as separation distress or separation anxiety, but not a
disorder. Most would probably consider it a normal behavioral response
of a herd animal.
In fact, in the case of your gelding, it
sounds like he might be showing a fairly common form of normal equine
separation distress. Your gelding, living with two mares, has taken over
the natural role of protector of the mares, or the "harem," as
he surely would if he were an intact stallion. Under domestic
conditions, where there is rarely a stallion there to do the job, a
gelding often will take on the role. Even among geldings which have been
castrated for a long time, and even if castrated before sexual maturity,
a fairly large percentage exhibit stallion-like herd formation and
maintenance behaviors under conditions such as you describe. And as
severe as his distress seems, the behavior you describe is probably
within the range of normal behavior for a stallion whose mares were
taken away (if you could safely get them out of the pasture more than
once).
Other common forms of equine separation
distress that fall into the normal versus disorder category are mare and
foal separation and separation of closely bonded pairs of mares.
What might help?
Depending on the form and severity of
the problem, there are some general recommendations to consider. Some of
them you already have tried. One is leaving a companion behind, one of
the mares. That didn't work. Another is to take the horse out of the
pasture and reward him with feed, as you did when you put him in a
stall. You tried that, and it didn't work either. With horses such as
your old gelding, it might be tough to improve the situation with
behavior modification or medication. Stallion-like behavior in geldings
under pasture conditions sometimes can be quite resistant to training,
even with medicinal aids. In many cases, a permanent change in
management and housing arrangements is the only way to go.
For example, many geldings with residual
stallion-like behavior and related separation anxiety would settle down
within less than a day or two if they were taken to a place where they
were the only horse or where they were with other geldings instead of
with mares. You asked how long it might take for him to settle down if
you were to just keep the mares away from him. Most geldings will settle
down within a couple days after the mares are taken away, but probably
even faster if the gelding is taken to a new location. Away means miles
away, where he can't see, hear, or smell the mares.
For the form of separation distress in
which two mares who are closely bonded are distressed each time you take
one away, all of the methods we described--including behavior
modification and medication--are much more likely to help. Most mares
which have a special buddy will readily bond to a substitute, or at
least they are somewhat calmed by having another companion.
Medications?
There are no medications specifically
developed for alleviating separation distress in horses. Some of the
medications used to calm horses, such as oral progesterone, l-tryptophan
supplementation, or anxiolytics, can be helpful. But in most cases,
changing the social environment and management are almost always more
useful approaches.
How about prevention?
As horse owners, we probably should
think more about what predisposes certain horses to this problem and
what can be done to prevent it. Current thinking is that, as with all
good and bad temperaments and behavior, some horses might be genetically
predisposed to social separation or isolation. They simply could be more
likely to make strong attachments and become more distressed by
separation. There is no research to support the notion, but we often
wonder how the horse's early experience and management affect this
tendency.
One goal in prevention is to
systematically expose young horses to separation from pasture mates, in
other words, get them used to the comings and goings of herd mates in an
organized gradual way while they are young, and throughout life. If a
particular young horse seems stressed by separation, it can be exposed
to gradually increasing distances of separation, avoiding any explosive
panic events that might set the horse up for future panic.
We all have heard of individual horses
which had a traumatic early separation or weaning experience, and ever
since have had difficulties. In such instances, we always wonder whether
it was the horse's basic nature that caused the initial distress
response to separation, or did the initial stressful separation
experience set the animal up to be a lifelong separation problem?
To be most effective, behavior
modification and medication programs for separation distress should be
tailored specifically to each case. If medications are to be included,
your veterinarian should monitor the treatment and health of your horse.
There are a growing number of equine veterinarians and behavior
specialists who can help with a specific program. These can be found
through The Animal Behavior Society, 812/856-5541, www.animalbehavior.org;
or The American Veterinary Medical Association, 847/925-8070, www.avma.org.
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