Hello and Welcome to the Northeast Wisconsin Horse Talk (NEW Horse Talk) blog. My name is Wendy Vandenboom, DVM and I am excited to have the opportunity to reach out with news, tips, nutrition advice, etc. about horses, pets and show animals in this form.
I have been involved in the equine health industry professionally for 20 years and horses have been in my life since I was born. My daughter has caught the horse bug as well and we continue to be active in barrel racing and 4H. We have three horses (Buttons - 13 yr old QH mare, Melody - 3 yr old QH filly, Chase - 10 yr old QH gelding), beef cattle, turkeys, chickens and show pigs on our farm.
I am currently working with three feed dealers in northeast Wisconsin:
Larsen Cooperative - Larsen/New London/Weyauwega
Stephenson Marketing Cooperative - Oconto
Frank's Feed Mill - Casco
My role at these dealers is to provide nutritional consultations and feeding recommendations to the horse owners in their areas. I will also be working to set up Pet & Equine Supply stores at these locations where you can find dewormers, grooming supplies, supplements, health care products, etc. Watch for these stores to open in June. Larsen Cooperative has stores open in Larsen and New London. We will be making a few changes to these stores in the future to enhance the shopping experience. I will be available for on-farm consultations as well as certain hours in the stores for questions. You can also email me: equinenutrition@yahoo.com.
Equine nutrition has seen some exciting advances in the last few years. Now, instead of feeding every horse the same feed with an old coffee can, we have diets and recommendations to fit each individual horse's needs - which leads to the best performance and health results. I look forward to discussing these topics on this blog and in person through the above feed dealers.
I will also use this blog to post news and alerts that may come up. Currently, the hot topic is the EHV-1 outbreak going on in the US. As of now, there are NO CONFIRMED CASES IN WISCONSIN. It had earlier been reported through the state veterinarian that 2 horses from Wisconsin had been at the NCHA event in Ogden, Utah. However, these horses did not come back to Wisconsin after that show - they were transported to a training facility in Texas. There have been cases confirmed in Florida in recent days that are not connected to the Utah event. Horse owners should follow basic biosecurity measures that should be followed at all times anyway:
1. Do not share buckets, feed dishes, tack etc.
2. Wash your hands before handling horses.
3. Horses that have traveled or been to shows should be isolated for 10-12 days before co-mingling with other horses on farm.
You can find more information on preventing the spread of disease on the USDA website http://www.aphis.USDA.gov/vs/nahss/equine/ehv/
There is no reason to panic at this point and no reason to cancel shows or avoid shows in Wisconsin. This information will be updated as needed.
Thank you for visiting the NEW Horse Talk blog. Feel free to comment and tell others - I hope we can get some good conversations going!
