#12 Dr. Madalyn Ward on horses: feeding the need, vaccines
Dr. Madalyn Ward has been working with horses since well before vet school and joined a conventional equine practice early on.
We both graduated in 1980 and our paths crossed first in 1992 when we both joined the first Professional Course in Veterinary Homeopathy, taught for graduate veterinarians by Dr. Richard Pitcairn, in Eugene, OR. She traveled from Austin and I from Maui repeatedly for a year’s study (5 or 6 trips as I recall).
After that training, her practice changed fundamentally, as did mine.
When it came time for me to move to Austin, Dr. Ward graciously offered me a place to practice and her small animal clients, as she was too busy with the horses at that point.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
In the episode, Dr. Ward takes on two of the commonest horse health management issues:
- how to feed them appropriate to their “always browsing” nature
- how to think about vaccinations in this, probably the most over vaccinated species
One of the most amazing revelations to me from her interview: these huge beasts can benefit from very small doses of whole food supplements. One might think an animal weighing 1000lbs or more would need a ton of supplements compared to a dog, she’s seen the opposite to be true!
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[fusebox_transcript]
Next week: Kasie Maxwell returns with her unique insights forged over decades in the raw feeding business on how to transition your cats and dogs to raw food. Excellent info and a fun first hand report on how the lions of Kenya eat. Not to be missed, especially if you’ve longed to make the jump to raw and wonder how to introduce it.
It’s great to hear Dr. Ward. I’ve been reading her stuff for years. She is a leader in the holistic equine world for sure. I have a great story about a little orphaned foal, a product of the nurse mare industry who was absolutely mauling a rose bush in his turnout area. Turns out he had an umbilical cord infection. He knew at two months that rose hips were needed to fight off the infection. Great to hear about oranges my horses LOVE them especially in the winter. They have no interest in them during the summer. As for vaccination, I don’t and have been thrown out of barns because of it as well as not indiscriminately deworming. I have them at home now and the 24/7 turnout has transformed them. When I tittered them for rabies and they have antibody numbers 3 times what they would need for international travel! -and I haven’t vaccinated them for that in years. I get all of my whole food supplements from BiostarUS, Nutritionist Tiger Montague has a wealth of knowledge. So great to see we now have choices.
Aww, Jennifer, you make my heart swell! So proud of you for listening to your heart and doing your horses right in the face of opposition you knew to be wrong. Cool about those rose hips, too!