More pets, fewer vets bring strain on veterinary profession
Fluffy’s nail is bleeding; Tiger injures a leg jumping onto a high perch. Fido swallows part of a grape; Luna is hit by a car.
With any of these scenarios, and tons more, pet owners panic.
They frantically call the regular veterinarian or — depending on the time of day or day of the week — the emergency animal hospitals.
For many seeking emergency treatment, or simply regular care for their beloved furry and feathered friends the last few years, it seems to take longer and longer.
A shortage of veterinarians and veterinary technicians and an influx of pets and specialty care owners are seeking for their pets are among forces straining the veterinary profession nationally. The COVID-19 pandemic that began nearly three years ago exacerbated the situation.
“It’s multifaceted — that’s the biggest thing,” Dr. Heather Robertson, owner of Animal Emergency Center in Novi and Rochester, Michigan, said of the situation.
More pets, fewer vets
In 2020, the U.S. pet census was estimated at between nearly 84 million to nearly 89 million dogs, up from nearly 77 million four years earlier; and 60 million to 62 million pet cats, up from 58 million in 2016, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
A report from Mars Veterinary Health last year estimated that the country in 2019 had 116,091 actively engaged veterinarians, with nearly 60% thought to be in companion animal practice. It calculated that more than 40,000 new veterinarians will be needed to meet projected demand in 2030, and that more than 75 million pets in the U.S. may not have access to veterinary care by 2030 without intervention.
Mars Veterinary Health is a network of 2,500 veterinary clinics and hospitals that include Banfield Pet Hospital, BluePearl and VCA Animal Hospitals. Some other highlights from that report were:
- Pet care appointments increased 6.5% in 2021.
- An estimated 33% increase in pet health care service spending from 2019 and 2029.
- Nearly 2,000 baby boomer veterinarians are retiring each year.
- Even with new veterinary graduates expected over the next decade, a shortage of 15,000 veterinarians will likely still exist by 2030.
- It would take more than 30 years of graduates to meet the 10-year industry need for credentialed veterinary technicians.
"There’s not one factor that’s driving all of this. I believe the pandemic just accelerated it,” said Garth Jordan, CEO of the American Animal Hospital Association, which has accredited or preaccredited more than 4,500 practice teams (about 15% of veterinary practices) in the U.S. and Canada.
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'Things just got so busy so quickly'
Veterinarians said the squeeze has already created challenges for pet owners, including longer wait times and turning away clients. And they know it’s stressful for a pet’s family members.
It was worse during the height of the pandemic, they said, with staff shortages, extra cleaning and places needing to shorten hours. Emergency animal hospitals became flooded, sometimes for more basic care because clients couldn't get in to see their regular veterinarian.
“Things just got so busy so quickly,” said Dr. Adam Moeser, veterinary neurologist and medical director of MedVet in Commerce Township, Michigan. “Since things have started to open up and life is more like normal, the pace or number of cases slowed down a little bit, but it’s much busier than we ever were pre-COVID.”
Clients concerned about their pets sometimes became frustrated and angry with staff, taking a toll on already-fatigued workers trying to prioritize care and treat as many pets as possible.
“It was quite a challenge,” Dr. Stephen Steep of Oxford (Michigan) Veterinary Hospital said, adding those times led to a “lot of burnout from people.”
Theresa Sumpter, founder and executive director of Detroit Pit Crew Dog Rescue, said staff at hospitals at times took “a beating from the general public.”
“People were just brutal to them,” she said. “I get it. You’re emotional … It’s triaging. A broken leg doesn’t trump a dog that can’t breathe right now … I do feel their frustration.”
Sumpter said she nearly shut down the rescue two years ago, but she was able to find an emergency veterinarian who accepted the animals and provided rabies vaccines.
“If I’m having problems,” she said, “the community’s got to be having a problem, too.”
Based on her experience, last year she opened Animal Protection and Wellness Services Veterinary Hospital in Eastpointe, Michigan, which services 17 animal welfare groups and is open to the public five days a week.
Dr. Larry Letsche of Remrock Farms Veterinary Hospital in Salem Township said the shortage is even worse for rural areas and veterinarians treating large animals.
“This need for more veterinarians, we don’t have the number of veterinary schools to keep up with the demand at this point,” said Letsche, president of the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association.
Few veterinarian schools
The United States has just 33 public and private veterinary schools, with some states having two schools, said Dr. Andrew Maccabe, CEO of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges.
He said each school decides on student capacity based on its mission, facilities and faculty. Michigan State’s class of 2025, for instance, admitted 115 students — 60 of whom are from Michigan, according to the College of Veterinary Medicine’s annual report for 2020-21.
Its 2021 class of 113 “entered a workforce climate unlike any previous class. A year into a pandemic and at crisis-level shortages of veterinary professionals” with nearly 88% of the graduates hired by their first-choice employer, according to the report.
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Maccabe said about 25% of veterinarians entering the workforce in the U.S. each year are U.S. citizens who are educated oversees, where tuition can be lower than tuition at some of the private schools in the U.S.
Even with new schools coming online or an existing school increasing enrollment, Maccabe said it would be “a minimum of four to five years before you see any change.”
“I think all of our schools recognize from their alumni and employers, there is a demand for veterinarian students exceeding the supply for the time being,” he said.
Jordan said from his group’s research, nationally, it takes more than 15 months for a practice to fill an open veterinarian role and more than a year to fill a credentialed veterinary technician role.
Maccabe said it also is becoming a challenge to ensure an adequate number of faculty to teach students who want to become veterinarians. The demand for specialists in the private sector, such as surgeons, he said, also is high.
Cynthia Tewes, who has run Midwest Small Breed Rescue for about 19 years, said she is finding waits for specialty cases. She said she has two dogs that need patella surgery. It’s taking two months to get in for the first of two surgeries. Another small dog needs liver shunt surgery.
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More veterinary technicians would help
Maccabe said part of the solution to the workforce crisis and improving access to care is through the increased use of veterinary technicians. But they, too, are in short supply and have a high attrition rate.
“Technicians are the human equivalent to a nurse,” Robertson said, adding they take patient history from clients over the phone, check a pet’s vitals, review estimates, draw blood, do X-rays, prepare diagnostics for the veterinarian to review and monitor pets in recovery.
“Those programs need to continue. They must continue,” she said. “We need more programs.” The country has more than 200 vet tech programs now.
Robertson said of the students in Michigan State's program: “I could take six of their technicians right now.”
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Steep said the lack of veterinary technicians was a problem that predated COVID-19. Many veterinary technicians felt they were underutilized, underpaid and not respected, though he said there is some improvement being made in these areas.
The National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America indicated in a 2022 demographic survey that while the average veterinary technician is earning 25% more than in 2016, a third of them have a second job, most often full time.
However, burnout and student debt (with more than one in three veterinary technicians having a student debt load averaging nearly $30,000 per person) continue to be a problem, it states.
The same is true for veterinarians.
The mean debt from earning a veterinary degree was more than $147,000 for 2022 graduates from U.S. veterinary colleges, while the mean starting salary for those who secured full-time work was just more than $111,000, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Some veterinarians have student debt reaching more than $200,000 or $300,000.
According to an article on the Los Angeles Times website this month, a bill was recently introduced in the California Legislature that would offer up to $150,000 in student debt relief to licensed California veterinarians who agree to work for an animal shelter or in underserved communities for at least five years because of the veterinary care shortage there. The San Diego Humane Society and San Francisco SPCA cosponsored the bill, according to the article by a San Diego Union-Tribune reporter.
Combine student debt and other financial worries (such as higher costs from inflation or owners who can't pay) with long hours, cyberbullying and difficult daily situations involving the stress of patient care, terminal diagnoses and end-of-life decisions on a regular basis, stress and burnout can be high.
Veterinarians may choose to retire or sell their practice to a corporation (which often can pay more for a practice and offer larger signing bonuses than independent veterinarians).
Sometimes, veterinarians die by suicide.
A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released at the end of 2018 indicated veterinarians in the U.S. were at an increased risk of suicide, a trend that had spanned more than three decades. It stated female veterinarians were 3.5 times as likely and male veterinarians were 2.1 times as likely to die from suicide as the general population.
The study looked at death records for 11,620 veterinarians who died between 1979 and 2015. Of them, 398 deaths resulted from suicide. It stated 75% of veterinarians who died by suicide worked in a small animal practice.
Not One More Vet was created in 2014 after the death of world-renowned veterinarian Dr. Sophia Yin, with the nonprofit providing education, support and resources to veterinary professionals and students. Its Facebook forum membership has grown to more than 26,000 veterinary professionals across the world, according to its website.
Patience and kindness
As those in the veterinary profession continue to make strides in pay, work-life balance, mental health, staff retention and producing more veterinarians and veterinarian technicians to ease the strain, they also offer suggestions to pet owners to help alleviate the stress they are feeling during these challenging times.
It starts with patience and kindness.
Veterinarians suggest owners buy pet insurance when their pet is young and healthy, if they can afford it, to help stave off high medical bills at a future, worse time.
“That can make a huge difference. It’s a monthly expenditure. But if a major problem costs thousands and thousands of dollars, it makes that decision to provide care for loved ones that much easier,” Moeser said.
Also, provide your pet preventive care — routine exams to detect problems early, vaccinations, heartworm medication and the proper amount of food.
Cheapest pet coverage. These plans are the most cost effective.
Establish a good relationship with your regular veterinarian and seek a relationship with more than one facility so you have a backup if you need it.
Become more comfortable with telehealth if it's offered, Jordan suggested, adding it may alleviate some of the traffic going into hospitals. For all of the stress COVID-19 wrought, telehealth and curbside check-in were some technological improvements.
“I know it’s been very hard for clients with pets, the wait times,” Moeser said. “We don’t want to see that either. We want to see our clients happy. We want to see our patients healthy.”
Steep agreed.
“This truly is the greatest profession. I love it,” he said.
Contact Christina Hall: chall@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.