Dr. Don Walsh DVM
Dr.
Walsh was raised on a horse farm on the border of St. Louis and
Franklin Counties in Missouri. and spent his summers showing
American Saddlebreds at country fairs.
He graduated from the veterinary school of the University of
Missouri - Columbia in 1969 and began practicing medicine in St.
Louis. A year later he opened the Ellisville Animal Clinic, treating
small and large animals. In 1985, an associate took over the small
animal practice, and Walsh moved the horse practice to its current
site in Pacific, MO, naming it Homestead Veterinary Hospital which
now serves the entire St. Louis metropolitan area.
By 1984 Dr. Walsh had witnessed firsthand again and again the
excruciating pain horses suffer from laminitis. There was little
research being done and virtually no one understood what mechanism
causes this disease.
Without that, knowing
how to properly treat laminitis and more importantly prevent it from
occurring is virtually impossible. Fueled by his frustration at the
lack of understanding and knowledge of this dreadful, crippling
disease Dr. Walsh and his wife Diane founded the Animal Health
Foundation (AHF) whose mission is to find the cause and prevention
for laminitis.
AHF is a not-for-profit organization staffed exclusively by
volunteers and all administrative costs are paid directly from the
wallets of the board of directors.
All donations go
directly to fund the research of the laminitis-founder complex found
in horses.
Laminitis is the second leading cause of death in horses, behind
colic. And yet, owners who haven't dealt with the disease know
little about it.
Laminitis is a
catastrophic failure that happens in the equine foot, caused by some
trigger factor. The crippling disease strikes indiscriminately,
taking down such thoroughbred legends as Secretariat and Affirmed,
and more recently, Sunday Silence.
A few years ago a
writer for the Chronicle of the Horse did an article and found in
her research that the AHF had funded more laminitis research in the
last twenty years than any other entity. “I think we had only funded
about $800,000 at that point.”
Don and Diana Walsh
have two adult children. The Walsh's four-legged entourage includes
9 dogs, and several horses including Dakota Sundance (pictured
above).
Kathryn (Katy) Watts
Kathryn
Watts, BS, Crop & Soil Science from Michigan State University is
owner and director of research for Rocky Mountain Research and
Consulting Inc. in Center, Colorado. She has over 25 years
experience as an agricultural researcher and crop consultant.
Originally a specialist in Integrated
Pest Management and pesticide residue and efficacy studies, the
focus of her study and research changed to the carbohydrate content
of grass and hay after her two mixed breed ponies developed chronic
laminitis and were diagnosed with Equine Metabolic Syndrome. She has
continually studied how many elements affect the sugar content of
hay and grass and the most accurate way to test that sugar content
and now has cooperative studies with forage experts at USDA-ARS
Forage and Rangeland Research Lab to quantify and characterize the
carbohydrates in grass, and with several university researchers
investigating equine diseases associated with carbohydrate
intolerance.
Thanks to funding by
the Animal Health Foundation, her website www.safergrass.org is
recommended by university experts on Equine Metabolic Syndrome and
has helped many people understand how to successfully manage horses
and ponies prone to laminitis
Dr.
Chris Pollitt, of the Laminitis Research Unit of University of
Queensland invited her to write a booklet on ‘Pasture Management
Practices to Minimize Risk of Laminitis’, which should be published
by early 2010.
Ms. Watts has become
an activist for more appropriate nutrition specifically directed
toward the needs of the average recreational horse via articles and
interviews published in scientific journals, popular consumer
magazines, and electronic media. Her work has been featured in
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, Clinical Techniques in Equine
Practice-Laminitis edition, Journal of Nutrition, The Horse, Horse
Journal, Equus, numerous newsletters, and internet forums. She has
been invited to present her work at numerous conferences on equine
nutrition and laminitis. Her lectures are accredited for CE at
veterinary conferences. She was invited as an expert to join the
AAFCO committee to write a regulation requiring labeling of maximum
carbohydrate levels in horse feeds. She was invited to the AAEP
laminitis researcher workshop Nov. 2009.
Her ability to explain technical aspects of plant physiology in
layman’s terms provides horse owners, equine nutritionists and
veterinarians with tools to make better forage choices and pasture
management practices to manage obesity and minimize risk of
laminitis.
Ms. Watts is
available for private consultations at $60/hour and speaking
engagements on feeding and management guidelines for carbohydrate
intolerant horses, as well as topics such as pasture establishment
and management, and responsible land stewardship.
Her approach differs from typical forage specialists by
acknowledging the fact that a horse is not a cow, and a pony is not
a racehorse. “We need to re-evaluate what ‘best’ means. Many of us
who followed conventional, expert advice ended up with pastures that
our horses cannot eat without becoming obese or laminitic. We need
to un-learn and re-learn how to manage pastures and hay crops for
lean, healthy horses”.
Rocky Mountain Research & Consulting,
Inc.
0491 West CR 8 North, Center, CO 81125
Phone (719)
588-2984 email: kathrynwatts@wildblue.net
Contact Information
Julie Capaldi
846 Allgood Bridge Rd.
Pickens, SC 29671
(864)
420-1635
