• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Vet Shortage

Help Support Ranchers.net:

A

Anonymous

Guest
An interesting article- and some pictures about the Vet shortage these rural areas are having....

http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/03/31/news/state/18-vetshortage.txt
 
We are lucky here with a couple of really good vets with mixed practices around. Not everywhere is the same. I went to a veterinary university and most of the grads went into small animals.
9-5 with the odd $1500 hip replacement (on the dog/cat) looks pretty good compared to 5-9 with the odd frozen ear (on the vet of course).
We are very short of rural vets.
 
Looks like being a rural vet is something people are needing. Is there much of a "market" for guys who just work on cows?
 
MYT the guys and gals that work on both cattle and horses are in short supply and the good ones are in even shorter supply.
We have 3 vets in our county. One I would never call again or do anything with, the other 2 are the vets we call when we need them.
 
I Luv Herfrds said:
MYT the guys and gals that work on both cattle and horses are in short supply and the good ones are in even shorter supply.
We have 3 vets in our county. One I would never call again or do anything with, the other 2 are the vets we call when we need them.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...... Yah, I had considered being an "all around" vet, but around here all we have are "Equine Veterinarians". :roll: We need more guys doing cattle, hogs, sheep, and such. One guy we lease pasture from had said that colleges like CSU were offering programs where if you became a vet in a rural area for a certain number of years, they'd help pay for your schooling. That seemed like an attractive option, and I think I'd like to check into it. I reckon being a rural vet, you'd have to know horses as well as any other specie.
 
MYT Farms if you go get feed from Calhan do you get a vet out of Kiowa. Just wondering on that.
Here in our county we have two really good vets. The problem with one is he is getting up in years and just cant do all that he used to. But he is a damm good vet. The problem with around the front range its all those hobbie farms and horse people, and thats all most of those vets handle up there. The rural vet out in the country that handles cows is getting harder and harder to find. Not the best lifestyle for a young guy coming out of Vet school to want to go to a small rural area and work your ass off. When you could stay in the city or here in Colorado around the front range and work on horses or small animals and youd dont have to work as hard.
 
No, we use a vet out of Calhan. A little rough and tumble, but he's pretty decent. Yup, all the guys out of college go right to the front range where the "horse people" and suburb folks with pets pay through the nose to get whatever for their animals. I personally dislike the thought of working with small animals and their owners. I'd rather be out in a rural community where I did actually have to work for a living. That's what I love doing, and I'd rather do that than do something easier that I could make more money at.
 
One concern for us right now is our present vet is losing the place he leases in about 2 years. :(
If he can't find a place around here to buy or lease they are going to move to North Dakota. :cry: Sure would hate to lose that family.

MYT I have heard of some towns that are willing to help pay for the schooling and help get both vets and people docs started. Not a lot of young people are willing to get their hands dirty or work those hours.
 
Several years ago we had a vet that lost his lease. He worked out of his truck for many years and we all built facilities capable of surgery. It worked great and he eventually built a small facility. I have been thankful for my little hospital barn many times. We semen test in there and my wife incubates chicks in there as well as a temporary office during calving.
 
per said:
Several years ago we had a vet that lost his lease. He worked out of his truck for many years and we all built facilities capable of surgery. It worked great and he eventually built a small facility. I have been thankful for my little hospital barn many times. We semen test in there and my wife incubates chicks in there as well as a temporary office during calving.
Click to expand...

Our vet room is not consistantly heated because of being on the gen-set but a cow and small electric heater warms it up to t-shirt weather pretty fast. It is the best money we have spent on the place.

Our vet comes here from Edmonton for preg-checking and bull testing, the rest of the year he is available on the phone 24-7. I do all my own surgurys so don't miss not having him closer other than he is a close friend.
 
There can be plenty of rural vets if we're willing to pay for the service. Horse people get pretty good service around here any day any hour. But what they pay seems crazy. On the other hand, my Vet works 4 days a week. She decided to prioritize being with her son while he grows up over a sick animal. Our State has looked into grants for people to go to Vet School and come back as a large animal Vet. There has also been talk on having large animal Vet Techs. There are a lot of tasks a Vet does that someone with a BS or even a AAS can do. A buddy from my Fraternity was super smart, he got accepted to Cornell's Vet School early, Jr year, while we were working towards a BS. He went through a few years of Vet School and a large dairy farm offered him a six figure income to be their herd health manager. Another girl we went to school with who also got accepted to Cornell Vet School did the typical thing. She was a large animal focused person on the way to the BS, but decided to go to a small animal practice in Syracuse. If someone is expected to work harder, more dangerously, longer hours, less desirable conditions, why should they do it for less? There was one vet around here who used to do large animals, he got sick of being pushed around by cows and only does horses, camdelids and the goat herd for the Biotech I work for. He did tell me it's all just to make the money for his real interest. He has a full auto M4 and goes to a bunch of these shooting schools around the country like Front Sight.
 
Maybe they like the warmer climate. Around here we have 9 vet's about 30 miles of each other. One vet works off of a ranch itself and take a few calls on the side. Most are cattle vet with a couple of them specialize in equine. Look at this vet office at this ranch just up the road from me. http://www.centerranch.com/cvrs.html#myGallery-picture(3) We use this vet to vac. our heifers every year.
 
MYT Farms, I know there are several states where tuition refunds, or credits of some sort are offered for each year of large animal practice in the state. It seems there are variations, and there are good grants and/or scholarships available in many areas.

A good starting point for a young person like you who is interested might be to shadow a working vet in your area. Having a grand daughter who has wanted to be a vet for as long as she can remember, I asked our local vet if she could follow them around a bit. She got a wonderful look into the profession and was allowed to do some hands-on things that helped re-inforce her decision. She will start pre-vet studies in the fall.

It does seem that schools offering pre-vet studies are quite eager to help prospective students, so if you have such an inclination, my guess is you will find lots of helpful people.

Re. working with cattle or horses, it seems to me among vets I know, or know of, there are quite a few who specialize in one or the other and those who maybe don't care for, or are not as knowledgeable about one or the other can find another vet at a doable distance to handle the critters they have less expertise with.......even in western SD with bad sparsity factors in the best of situations!

How much highschool do you have left? Are you studying as much science and math as you can get? Our gal has been able to get in quite a few basic college courses during her junior and senior highschool years, so will have more time for the hard stuff at college. She will be in a financial tight spot, so has to stay ahead of the game as much as possible.

She has commented that if only her parents were a homosexual and a transvestite she probably could qualify for all kinds of big time financial assistance.......but she is stuck with such normal people she doesn't qualify for much, other than the academic stuff she has already won. Pretty sad when that is the case for too many students!!!

mrj
 
It's the same here in our part of the country. My son is a Jr. in high school this year and he is set on being a large animal vet. I have been talking to some of the vets I know and all of them say he when he gets out of school he can make a good living out of a truck.

One of vets said by the time my boy is out of school the vet will send all of cattle/horse calls to him. The vet says he will be to old handle large animals and there sure won't be anyone else willing to work on them.




Brent
 
We've got one neighboring county- where the community has offered to finance the building of a clinic for any vet that wants to come in and will work with them on sitting it up whatever way they want...

Local Vet has already bought a house in Idaho on a fishing stream--and as soon as he can get his Clinic sold is moving there to semi retire- and work part time in small animal clinic...He is hoping to find someone that can just come in- buy out his practice and continue on... But he hasn't had any luck finding anyone in over a year...
 
Lil Lilly has had her heart set on bein a large animal vet since she was about 4 years old. That's the direction she's headed in college. We've checked out several pre-vet colleges, and so far, the closeset to us, seems to be the best bet. Sam Houston State. Which is only 25 miles from home. Good for me....I don't hafta send my baby way off to school.

The only thing that I think they could improve on, is the suggestion/article I read a few years ago. Talked about seperating large and small animal vet school. Small animal would take 4 years after the 4 years of pre-vet to get the animal science degree. Large animal would take two years.

I think this would be a determining factor for alot of kids goin into vet school. Knowing they didn't hafta learn all the dog, cat, bird, lizard, mouse, snake....etc stuff if they were goin to specialize in large animals. Cows, Horses, goats, pigs. Not as much to learn in a situation like that because your not working on 40 gillion different species.
 
mrj, I am only a freshman in high school, so I have 3 years and about a 1/4 semester left. I am doing Algebra 1 and Earth Science in school right now. I am also doing a vet project in 4-H to learn about what they do and different aspects of the career. I would like to check in to what classes I can take to help me get some of my basic classes out of the way. Jersey Lilly, I'm thinking that I only want to do cattle, sheep, hogs, and goats. Although, it seems that knowing something about horses would be a good thing, too.
 
In the meantime you could look into volunteering to help one of the local vets in your area. You'd get some hands on experience that could prove very valuable later. And I bet the vets would appreciate having some help.

I admire you for knowing what you want to do at a young age.
Go for it!!!! :D
 
Thanks FH! Being a vet really fits my personality. I don't mind getting dirty and seeing some interesting cases, love livestock, and I'm up at all ours of the day and night anyway. :D
 
Best advice I can give is to get as much vet and animal experience as you can when you're in high school -- it's hard to fit it in when you're in college. And when you get to college, keep up with extra-curricular activities and study hard. Vet school lets very few folks in who have less than a 3.0 GPA, and it's hard enough to get a 4.0 when you don't party, let alone if you are a partier-type. Also, keep your eye out for people who could write you a good letter of recommendation, and you've got to have at least one letter from a vet.

I'm applying next fall, FWIW.
 

Latest posts

Top