But, not everything is called a “supplement”, and some things not called a “supplement” is indeed a supplement.
giving every horse in the barn the same thing might, or might not be grounded in some beneficial likelihood. If the’re ONLY using it because SmartPack or whomever said “you’re a much better owner if you use this” then I agree there’s WAY too much of that.
Since most nutritional status can’t be determined by anything other than forage testing, which doesn’t require any vet involvement, I don’t agree that supplementation should require a vet’s involvement. Vets are typically way behind in nutrition when it comes to using nutrition to help resolve some issues. Scratches is one example of how any vets will go through a slew if immune boosters, scrubs, wraps, etc, never considering it could be as simple as adding copper
Yes, supplements can absolutely be treatment or therapeutic. Add copper and zinc and a whole lot of horses’ scratches and rain rot disappear, never to return. Add MSM and the horse’s mysterious nighttime stall stocking up, goes away. But no, you can’t just add a hoof supplement like Farrier’s Formula to fix (or prevent!) laminitis
The whole supplement industry is unregulated (as I’m sure you know), which means a whooooole lot of the use ingredients that aren’t even remotely proven to help, or if they are, are used in amounts too low to make a difference. So few of them have the right ingredients, in useful amounts.
