The great veterinary shortage

[lenapesadie]

Thought of this thread today.

Sunday pm my horse came up dead lame. Gave him a gram of Bute and then he went down. Flat out down. Groaning. Lips pulled back grimacing.

I could tell he was dead lame but when he went down I was like omg he’s dead lame and has colic. And I’ve just given him Bute like a knucklehead.

Vet arrived at my house in less than 30 mins. Horse got back up on his own. Gut sounds in all 4 quadrants. Determine he must have been in that much pain to go down like that. Determine I’m not a knucklehead for giving Bute (this time). Vet wants me to haul horse to clinic, nearby, on Monday (today) for x rays. I say I don’t want to haul him, he’s obviously still uncomfortable, shifting weight, even w meds on board. Vet offers to come on her lunch break today. I say I don’t want her missing her lunch, horse can hold until she can come at a regular time. Practice plays musical chairs with scheduling so vet can come tomorrow am. I dunno if that’s better or worse than vet missing her lunch but I wasn’t about to tell her yes come instead of taking your lunch.

I guess I can never move from this area while this practice is in business.

[dressagetraks]

When my Dad and stepmom’s little Chi took a sudden turn for the worse, they found out some things about their local vet offices. Chi had had heart problems, had been on heart meds. One morning, she didn’t come for breakfast. Stepmom finally found her under the guest bed, panting, glassy eyed. Would not come out, yelped in pain when they tried to pull her out. Moved the bed off her and collected the dog.

The clinic they had gone to for decades (but with new vet having just bought it) had just opened. She called the clinic to say that they needed a euth appointment ASAP, they were not putting Cleo through any more diagnostics and treatment, dog was in distress this morning. That clinic on the phone offered an appointment of 10 days later, but the vet also pointed out on the phone that they really ought to pay $500 for an echocardiogram to get a thorough diagnosis of this if they loved their dog. She hung up on him.

Called the local ER. Wait time hours and hours. Called another nearby vet practice, apologized, explained the situation. That practice said bring her in this morning, we will help her pass, poor little thing. That won’t take long, and she doesn’t need to be waiting.

Dad and stepmom now have a new vet practice.

Yes, I know vets are overworked, stressed out, etc. But there is no excuse for telling somebody that if they really loved their dog, they would spend $500 on this test when the dog has an established history of heart problems already and is in suddenly far worse distress. If the owners have treated the dog for quite a while, as records show, and say she’s suddenly worse and they have decided for her sake to pull the plug, they obviously are not just looking for a quick, we-don’t-care solution with their pets.

[beowulf]

Woke up this AM to a sick kitty. Waiting for my vet’s office to open at 8AM to see if they can fit me in today and I’m stressing over whether I’ll have a repeat of last month on my hands with ERs playing hot-potato on clients because they are at capacity. Frankie could use some jingles!

[Limitless]

Been there/done that all last fall with a sick dog that took many vets to diagnose. Good luck and I hope they can squeeze you in.

[BUSY]

@beowulf

Woke up this AM to a sick kitty. Waiting for my vet’s office to open at 8AM to see if they can fit me in today and I’m stressing over whether I’ll have a repeat of last month on my hands with ERs playing hot-potato on clients because they are at capacity. Frankie could use some jingles!

Jingles and think about being THERE with cat - at vet - at 8 am - and beg to be seen by people who ‘know’ your dear cat. Jingles !

• Maybe they will at least you to drop her there and work her in between the first appointments of the day.

Fingers crossed for your cat to be seen without a day of wait & stress.

[lenapesadie]

Jingles

[beowulf]

Thank you guys. The update is I got bounced all around; my regular vet practice could not take us in and referred us to an ER, which referred us to another. Got situational deja vu so in desperation I called in a Yuge Favor with a family friend who is a vet and they took Franklin in this AM for observation and tests. They are not my regular practice so I’m so incredibly grateful they did this.

I spoke a little with the woman at the front desk and learned part of the reason for the insanity surrounding ERs in my area is that the major orgs have been bought out by Blue Pearl and VCA and have seen record high turnover rates among vets, plus COVID, plus many more people having pets than before… This is right outside of several major cities including Boston so not a small area.

[trubandloki]

@beowulf, that is the same problem that is happening for ER vets where I am. The long time ER practice was bought out by one of the big companies and the first thing they did was cut overnight and weekend ER services so now this area has no overnight and weekend ER vet, a part of the world that used to have two of them that were always busy.

So glad you found a vet that could look at your cat.
Jingles!

[lenapesadie]

I’m glad you were able to get kitty to the doctor.

I don’t have any experience with vet ERs. There are some in the two “big” cities near me, but in my immediate area the small animal clinics have a rotation for what clinic is taking emergency weekend/overnight/holiday calls for small animals.

I wonder if general COL is a factor in attracting and retaining veterinarians. Like if there’s not an appropriate increase in how much a vet can charge or get paid for services in a higher COL area vs a more middling COL area? Not sure if I’m making sense. Like if a decent home inside a reasonable commute costs $250k in one area and a similar situation costs $500k in another area but vet is only going to see an annual increase of $20k in the higher cost area …

[beowulf]

I thought of this thread this AM, about the veterinary shortage and how it’s changing things for clients too.

I left my Regular Vet Practice of 5 years and had an appointment with the New Vet for the kittens. The new vet remarked that the kittens were a little old to have “zero medical/veterinary history” and insinuated I had waited too long to get them seen by a vet. Nevermind the fact that I am at this new practice because my regular vet couldn’t fit me in!

The comment rubbed me the wrong way, especially since the kittens were spayed/inoculated/dewormed at 9 weeks of age at a TNR clinic. If they’re spayed they obviously have vet history… They’re 19 weeks old.

[IndysMom]

It’s an issue here too. I wasn’t happy with my last vet. We’d been patients there for 20 years, but a couple years ago they were bought out by a conglomerate. The vet we liked the best retired early. The vet we saw when Roxie got sick didn’t really listen to us at our first two visits. On the third visit we had a different vet-who I liked a lot-however she has left the practice. The practice had xray but mo ultrasound.

We’re getting a new puppy at the end of the month so we started looking around for a new vet clinic. I was surprised at how many vet clinics were only open M-F, 9-5. No Saturday hours! We did finally find one with a vet who used to be at our old vet practice. But they couldn’t get our new puppy in for second set puppy shots until 13 1/2 weeks instead of 10-12 weeks. So I’m back to our old practice because they could get us in. Sigh.

[Cammie]

It’s pretty dire in my area despite a high number of clinics. Have an orphan kitten who’s starting to look iffy, called 30 clinics this morning before finally finding one that can see him this afternoon. I think 3 could see him tomorrow but only by squeezing him in, the rest were booking at minimum next week up into Sept.

[Alex_and_Bodie_s_Mom]

@BatCoach

Like most of us animal-obsessed folks, I dreamed of being a vet when I was a child. In high school, I was lucky enough to work at a local small-animal vet that was biking distance in my neighborhood. I was basically a kennel cleaner, light office work and general extra hand, and I loved learning from the Dr’s when they let me watch a procedure. The reason I ultimately did not pursue vet medicine when I went to college is I was TERRIBLE at chemistry. I loved biology and was not squeamish, but I was so untalented at math & chem that I knew there was no way I would make it through organic chemistry at vet school. I have so much respect for people who can make it through a program.

This is me. When I was a teenager, my vet wanted me to go to vet school, but I am hopeless at math and science - any kind of science. I can handle animals, I can handle trauma, but the technical side is what I cannot do. I’ve since thought about going back to school for a vet tech degree, but my math and science skills have not improved since high school.

It’s such a niche thing - you have to have a love of animals, you have to be excellent at certain subjects, you have to be able to afford school . . . it’s really no wonder there aren’t more vets, especially large animal vets.

I’m lucky that OSU (large and small animal vet school) is less than two hours from me, and I thank my lucky stars every day that my vet clinic has an emergency phone number that they respond to almost immediately. I’m terrified they’re going to burn out before long.

[kmwines01]

“Your” doctor, dentist, etc are rarely open more than those hours and we deal with it. Hell most of them close at lunch on Fridays. Why shouldn’t vets be allowed to have normal working hours? I work 8-6 and even that extra hour makes getting to do anything with my kids in the evening super tough.

[DarkHorse1]

Same here. With the escalating costs of everything, decrease good boarding facilities, shortage of vets, and my own personal waning interest, I’ve decided this horse will be my last. I’m only in my 40’s, so that’s a bit sad, but I feel like I’m fighting an uphill battle.

[trubandloki]

@kmwines01

“Your” doctor, dentist, etc are rarely open more than those hours and we deal with it. Hell most of them close at lunch on Fridays. Why shouldn’t vets be allowed to have normal working hours? I work 8-6 and even that extra hour makes getting to do anything with my kids in the evening super tough.

My experience (which is clearly different than yours) is that most not specialized practices (doctor/dentist) have some hours that are more working person friendly.
Early morning hours are pretty common. Saturday hours are too.
My dentist is closed on Monday but open on Saturday.

My small animal vet has evening and saturday hours. There is more than one vet so I assume they either take turns doing those hours or some vets just work a different schedule than others.

[beowulf]

Does your boss let you use a personal day / PTO for a pet?

[quietann]

Very late to this thread… but it sort of surprises me you couldn’t get a joint medical/vet public health degree off the ground. I taught biostatistics as an adjunct in exactly that program at the only Boston area university that has both a med school and a vet school. Admittedly it was back in 2004-2005. The vet students were thrilled that I lived close enough to Grafton to go teach them on their own, because the vet school had a completely different exam schedule, including practicum (live animal) exams, and there were times the vet students just couldn’t come to Boston. This was in my pre-horse days.

[kmwines01]

I’m a vet so I have the option of bringing mine to work. Although she barks all day so I generally take her in on my day off. I’ve worked 8-7 before and now 8-6. Even leaving at 6 I get about 20 minutes of awake time with my infant before he needs to go to bed and about an hour with my toddler. So working 8-5 (which are our Saturday hours) would be nice.
We offer a lot of dropoff appointments which people generally do if they’re working and a problem comes up.

[lenapesadie]

Out of curiosity @beowulf does your employer ask why you are requesting PTO?