Saundra Traywick (a.k.a. The Donkey Milk Lady) and her husband Walt are the owners of the Oklahoma Donkey Dairy, one of the first and only Donkey Dairies in the United States, located near Luther, Oklahoma.
The Traywicks started milking donkeys for their 6 year old daughter when she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that had attacked her brain after a case of strep throat, P.A.N.D.A.S. (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus).
When the top doctors said their "best guess was antibiotics every day for the next 13 years,” they stubbornly refused to accept that answer. After many tears and prayers, the Lord answered their prayers in an unlikely way, through an unlikely source...donkey milk.
In other countries and throughout history, donkey milk was known for its health benefits. Hippocrates was the first to prescribe it, and nuns used donkeys as wet nurses for orphan babies, but in America Donkey Milk was practically unheard of. So the Traywicks did what any desperate parents would do for their child. They bought 3 American Mammoth Donkeys.
These critically endangered donkeys are the descendants of President George Washington's first imported French Donkeys, royal gifts from the King of France. It was our first President's dream to create a breed of mule that would be strong enough to work this new land, and for this, he needed a large, strong donkey to sire mules. When the mule fell out of favor with the advent of the tractor and the plow, the need for Mammoth Donkeys declined, and so did their numbers.
The Oklahoma Donkey Dairy has grown from 3 Mammoth Donkeys to 43 of these gentle giants, and they now provide raw donkey milk for children and adults who travel to the farm from across the United States. Because it is illegal to ship raw milk, they became the first to import freeze-dried donkey milk to America, which they ship to families across the U.S.A.
The Donkey Milk Lady makes their best selling Dulce de Donké skincare on their Oklahoma Donkey Dairy with the extra donkey milk that families don't need for their health.
Their freeze dried donkey milk is used in a world renowned program at Southern California Allergy Institute for children with food anaphylaxis.
The Traywicks founded a nonprofit, Hee Haw for Health, to help other families dealing with childhood chronic illness and neuroinflammation.
In her spare time, the Donkey Milk Lady advocates to protect farmers and ranchers from government overreach through her Facebook page @SaveOklahomaFarmsAndRanches and has testified at the Oklahoma State Capitol and the Texas State Capitol on behalf of Farmers and Ranchers.
The Oklahoma Donkey Dairy has been featured on T.V. news stories, in Southern Living Magazine and Garden and Gun.
The Donkey Milk Lady also enjoys being a guest on podcasts related to autoimmune disease, natural health, alternative farming, and the importance of protecting our farms and ranches for future generations.