I think this is a great subject, and an important one!
I have had many very bad experiences with vets, and have only met 2 or so whom I respect and feel comfortable with, in terms of their knowledge (see my recent thread on Wylie, for one
). I think there ARE good vets out there, but I think you really have to look or just be lucky to find them. I think there are a lot of vets out there who aren't very good at all - and I don't know what recourse there is for that. Because the industry isn't all that well regulated, it truly puts a
lot responsibility on pet owners to be advocates (and do their own research) for their pets. While that's fine, in one way, in another it's not - bc we "should" be able to pay them for their expertise and trust that they have it. Just look at the subject of overvaccination and one can see that the best interest of our pets' health -
and what a vet actually does in practice can be 2 very polar things....and that's sad.
I think it's tough being a vet - you have to know multiple species, and all systems - very few people's brains can be *really* skilled at dealing with that amount of information. A good vet, imo, should be skilled at the basics - a good generalist - and be secure enough to refer on to a specialist when they hit a road block (and many don't do that
).
As far as nutrition, no way. And it really disappoints me when vets who know hardly anything about nutrition (given the 1.5 hrs of animal nutrition in vet school) feel qualified to give advice about it.