Well, there's a pretty common misconception
that vets are also formally trained in nutrition. They aren't---at
CSU, large and food animal nutrition takes up about three hours of
lecture total, and equine nutrition specifically took up a whole 25
minutes. There's an elective course in Feeds and Feeding (that was
the one I helped teach, which really drove some of my classmates
nuts)<eg>, but even that just barely brushes the surface and
(being an elective), relatively few students took it. This is
fairly typical at the other vet schools as well---even if they have a
formal course in nutrition, one semester doesn't even begin to do more
than cover the very basics.
What I found astounding is
that this same person will insist that "vets know nothing about
nutrition". So why ask the vet?
I don't mean this as a criticism of vets
(although I do criticize the vet schools for not including more
nutrition, but, hey, I'm biased)---the vet schools have four years to
cram you full of anatomy, diagnostics and therapeutics, and nutrition is
considered "preventative medicine" or "management"
and there just aint enough time for everything.
Criticise away. My vet
is continually saying that he wishes he knew more. Maybe I should
give him your website address?
But the point to be made is that unless
your vet has either done an undergrad degree in animal science of some
sort, or sought out a Continuing Education course, or has done ALOT of
extra reading from solid sources on his/her own, unless you suggest
something totally off-the-wall like hey, let's feed him trout chow, pipe
tobacco and jet fuel to kill them darn parasites, the odds are pretty
good you'll get, "well, try it and see". It's just
VetSpeak for "I didn't take any of the elective nutrition courses
but what you're suggesting will probably not kill the animal
outright."
Alternatively "Oh God,
another weirdo who will try something, claim it is "on vet's
advice" and then bitch when it doesn't work".
There are exceptions, of course---alot of
vets really *do* know their stuff about nutrition, and of course, Sarah
is the final word about equine clinical nutrition no matter who you
are. But there's a world of difference between someone like Sarah
that's spent years doing the residency and PhD, and the "try it and
see" approach. Not a bad idea to keep looking for better
answers if "try it and see" doesn't do it for
you.
(And BTW, my suggestion for the hives
wouldn't have been 4-5 pounds of oats
Okay, please explain
why? Because you are taking eliminating everything else, or
because there is some magical property to oats?
---I would have taken the horse off
everything except grass hay, and added back in one additional feed at a
time to find out what was causing the hives. If that didn't do it,
I'd see about getting some allergy testing done.)
It turned out to be an
allergy to alfalfa. Interestingly enough, the very same allergy he
had had two years before. Sheesh. Who would have thought it
wouldn't miraculously disappear during that 2 year period?
Tracey