Veterinary graduates must be prepared to educate clients about medications and supplements. We surveyed 1955 Dog Aging Project newsletter recipients and 40 final-year veterinary students at Texas A (2) target a specific condition (54% vs. 40%); (3) promote health and wellness (51% vs. 38%); (4) prevent worsening of a condition (60% vs. 72%); (5) are added to food (58% vs. 80%); (6) are recommended by a veterinarian (58% vs. 82%); (7) are covered by pet insurance (57% vs. 80%); and (8) are given to the animal long term or lifelong (55% vs. 72%). The overall distribution of responses was statistically significantly different between groups for three attributes: added to food (p < 0.001); recommended by a veterinarian (p = 0.005); and covered by pet insurance (p < 0.001). While a majority of both groups recognized that only medications are tested and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 15% of final-year veterinary students indicated that they thought both supplements and medications are FDA regulated, which suggests an important educational gap.
Gallinger et al. (2026) studied this question.