Let me go on this morning to share an experience that might make sense for those of you with questions about board certified specialists.
I had a foster who was surrendered to rescue by his owners. He had a fractured leg...the injury had occurred six months previously.
His owners didn't have the money to go to a surgeon and they went shopping for a vet who would be less expensive. (I know all of this because they told me). They found a vet who did the surgery but the bone did not heal and after six long months, they decided to surrernder him.
His bone was broken in half. Horrifying to me. Anyway....I took him to a boarded specialist who informed me that what the previous vet had done was not ever going to work.....the owners had spent $800 on that surgery!!! The vet had put a pin in it and it was a large bone that would rotate with that pin in it and never mend. Was it criminal? I think so, but vets do this stuff all the time to try to help people when in fact they really are not helping the poor pets....or the owners. Fortunately the leg was saved, but by that time, he needed bone grafts, plates and pins....and lengthy crate rest.
I get that people don't have money for expensive condtions/surgeries...that is why I often suggest that they get pet insurance. We have it for ourselves, why not for our pets? I think most of us on this forum feel strongly that our pets are our children...no I don't think human, but they are important to us.
That was an example about boarded vets.....and imo if you have a pup who has a medical condition for whom a rx diet won't work, it is best to have a specialist. The first time I went to a nutritionist was years ago with a pup in renal failure...he also had pancreatitis. So none of the diets were good for him...one would throw the pancreatitis off...the other would throw the kidneys off. I consulted at Texas A&M with a vet nutritionist and started home cooking for him. He enjoyed his food and did well on it until it was simply time for him to leave me.
SO...this is why I promote vet nutritionsists.. I am not merely putting someone down for being a dentist. I just firmly believe in going to specialists for my pups just as I would for myself. As Pstinard said, I would not go to a dentist for nutrition advice and I won't for my pups.