Vet situation in New England?

[OldKat]

Had an interesting conversation today with a young lady that is an intern at the vet clinic where I have most of my cattle work done. Turns out that she is about to graduate from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M, and plans to return to the New England states to practice. Amherst undergrad, I think. She is from Massachusetts, but said she is interested in a mixed animal practice, or even straight large animal practice and that might not even be an option in Mass. anymore. Said she might end up practicing in NH, VT or even ME. Never met the young lady before today; she seems plenty capable, competent and INTERESTED. All good traits.

Just curious what some of you from that part of the country would think her chances are of finding a good employment situation as a large animal vet. or a mixed practice vet. in your part of the world? Not that I have a stake in this, just curious …

[dominiquer60]

I have lost touch with the vet world mostly, but I know that it is hard to attract young equine and large animal vets to the northeast. NY Farm Bureau is currently looking to promote financial assistance to these types of vets that want to commit to working in our state for a minimum period of time. I know that it is getting harder to find vets willing to work on largestock and they are having to traveling longer distances. When I worked for an equine vet we covered 9 counties on a regular basis and 3 others periodically. It was normal that we worked 16 hour days and the worst ever was 21 hours, half of the day we spend traveling. There may be demand for vets, it may involve the difficult task of someone starting their own practice, and I wonder what the poor economy can support these days.

[Rod]

I believe New England especially northern NE is wide open in many areas for large animal Vets to succeed. I think parts of NY State are in the same boat. A cattle breeder I know in eastern NY has to get a Vet to travel 3.5 hours to do a health certificate. I had a cattle customer from Maine that told me it was impossible for him to get a Vet to come out to his farm to treat his cows. His two alternates were to load the sick animal and drive two hours to the nearest Vet or call and work through the problem on the phone. Plenty of small animal Vets around here anyway, but not as many that want or are willing to do the hard and dangerous work with the larger animals. Fortunately we have two very good ones nearby but from what I have heard thats not the case generally. She might consider talking with the States Veterinary Departments who would be most knowledgeable about the needs in their States.

[OldKat]

Thanks for the feedback. We are starting to see some of these same issues in Texas, which was one reason I was a little surprised to learn that Texas A&M had allowed someone from another part of the country to take a spot in the vet school.

I’m not associated in any way with T A&M, or ATM as it is known locally, but there is some discussion that says if a youngster declares a preference for a large animal practice or a mixed animal practice they are not likely to be accepted into vet school. Officials from the vet school say they are not turning out these types of vets like they use to, because fewer “qualified” students are expressing an interest in this type of practice. I don’t know which is really the case.

[Patrick]

I work in the veterinary industry, in MA, but my farm is in NH. I deal mostly with small animals, but we of course touch base with other areas within the profession. Kat, tell that young lady that she would most likely be welcomed with open arms in most parts of central and northern New England. In central and northern NH, things are very much like the others describe in ME and NY. Large animal veterinarians are in very short supply, and I often hear similar stories about long waits or distances traveled to get care. Cattle people in particular have a hard time, as some large animal vets specialize in horses. The NH Dept of Agriculture has been talking about some incentives for getting more large animal vets up here, but it’s been nothing more than bureaucratic BS so far, from what I’ve seen. Western MA has a shortage too. So does eastern MA, but it’s not quite as bad, especially if you’re a horse person. Overall, there is a severe shortage of qualified doctors and technicians within veterinary medicine, in both large and small animal practices. It’s getting worse, as the population grows, but vet schools don’t increase their enrollment capacity. As older LA vets retire, there are fewer and fewer to take their place. In some ways you can’t blame them really. Who wants to work in cold, wet, filthy conditions, when you could make the same or often much more money in a nice comfy modern indoor animal hospital, only dodging the occasional bite rather than a 1000 lb animal which can put you in the hospital easily if you’re not careful? The new grads have school loans to think about too, often well over 100K by the time they even start their first job.

[OldKat]

@Patrick 3937 wrote:

I work in the veterinary industry, in MA, but my farm is in NH. I deal mostly with small animals, but we of course touch base with other areas within the profession. Kat, tell that young lady that she would most likely be welcomed with open arms in most parts of central and northern New England. In central and northern NH, things are very much like the others describe in ME and NY. Large animal veterinarians are in very short supply, and I often hear similar stories about long waits or distances traveled to get care. Cattle people in particular have a hard time, as some large animal vets specialize in horses. The NH Dept of Agriculture has been talking about some incentives for getting more large animal vets up here, but it’s been nothing more than bureaucratic BS so far, from what I’ve seen. Western MA has a shortage too. So does eastern MA, but it’s not quite as bad, especially if you’re a horse person. Overall, there is a severe shortage of qualified doctors and technicians within veterinary medicine, in both large and small animal practices. It’s getting worse, as the population grows, but vet schools don’t increase their enrollment capacity. As older LA vets retire, there are fewer and fewer to take their place. In some ways you can’t blame them really. Who wants to work in cold, wet, filthy conditions, when you could make the same or often much more money in a nice comfy modern indoor animal hospital, only dodging the occasional bite rather than a 1000 lb animal which can put you in the hospital easily if you’re not careful? The new grads have school loans to think about too, often well over 100K by the time they even start their first job.

Currently I am in a good situation for vet care. There are 3 clinics in the town where I live (population <4,000), two of which have 2 or more vets and both clinics are mixed practices. The third is a small animal/equine practice. The town 13 miles to the south of us is a little larger, similarly supplied with vets. The town 17 miles to the north is a town of about 12,000 & has probably even more vets per capita. The thing that concerns me is nearly ALL of the vets at these clinics, save the vet at the small animal/equine clinic in my town, are 55 years old or older. (The son of one of the vets in one of the neighboring towns has joined the practice within the past year)

The local clinic that I use is a father/son practice; with the father practicing there since 1952 … figure his age out. The elderly vet that I mentioned is Dr. James Lamp, he has been very vocal about his concerns in this area for a good 10 to 15 years. I started following it closely probably 5 years ago. Every time I meet a new, young vet (usually an intern at one of the area clinics) I always ask what type of practice appeals to them. Frequently they say something like “I’d like to move to a small town and work for a mixed practice, but I will probably have to go to the city and work in a small animal practice”. When I ask why, the answer is almost always exactly what you stated … huge student loan balances that have to be paid off. The city practices allow them to make more money, faster.

[Patrick]

And this economy isn’t helping either. Most horsey people are able to pay for care. Many small animal owners think of their pets as their children, and will do anything for them, but often livestock owners already have financial limitations, and are unwilling or unable to pay a veterinarian what they need to charge for services. There’s also the practicality of providing house call services. Why would someone travel long distances to see X number of patients a day, when they could see the same number per hour coming to them in their hospital, unless the owners of the animals which the vets are seeing are willing to make up the difference? It’s the same with any traveling service providers. In my area I have a difficult time finding good tradesmen to work on my home. They tend to concentrate in the more populated areas, where they can get more jobs in a smaller area. Who can blame them?

[Author]

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