The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) meets annually to offer continuing education for horse vets worldwide. They meet in a major American city every autumn (this year, San Antonio, TX); however, they also offer a virtual meeting for practitioners who cannot attend. That appeals to me, as November and December are my busiest months as my clients get ready for their show season.

Why do I attend this meeting? The answer is to collect my credits for maintaining my veterinary licenses. It is also my way of conveying to horse owners listening to this podcast an interpretation of the information my colleagues receive from the “experts.” I listen to what is said, but I also listen to what they don’t say.

In this episode, I review a recommended paper by the prime speaker of this conference called “Review of Considerations When Feeding the Equid with Insulin Dysregulation” by Dr. Pat Harris. This interesting paper states six things horse owners can do for horses with ID (insulin dysregulation). I agree with some of the recommendations, especially when suggesting owners should not feed “cereal grains” to horses with ID. I further say that no horse should be fed grain to PREVENT ID. But what was not surprising to me was at the end of the paper, the author states that s/he works for Mars Petcare. This relationship means that the information is biased toward the company’s interests. Also, there was never mention of protein, which I consider an important factor in ID.

Thank you for listening and forwarding this to other horse owners.

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