My Vets Closing their Practice

[Son of Butch]

I've heard of it too, and even saw it for real, back in the 50s and 60s.
They sure seemed to do a lot with just that little black bag...

I remember doctors making house calls, but they always had an office or clinics for exams.
Only doctor with an in home office that I remember was Cliff Huxtable in the late '80s and believe he did gynecology exams
off hours in that basement office of his.

 

[simme]

Internet vets were mentioned as a possibility. Vets are allowed to do tele-medicine. But only for existing clients with an established Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship. That restriction requiring a VCPR was relaxed during covid, but now back in place. Another example where the rules for vet services are more restrictive than human medicine.

Info here.

 

[elkwc]

We are seeing it in our area. Several have retired. A few have drastically reduced their work load. One in his mid 70's no longer does after hours calls or pulls calves. He stays busy working cattle, doing some small animals. There has been one young lady come back and bought a large animal practice where 2 vets retired. In the next 5 years I think it will get serious in this area.

 

[DNelson]

copied from a google search. Earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) takes at least eight years. That includes four years of undergraduate study at a college or university to earn at least a bachelor's degree and four years attending an accredited veterinary school.

After graduating from veterinary school, you may opt for general or specialty clinical training. Some specialties require up to five years of additional residency training leading to board certification and practice within a wide variety of medical or surgical specialties including the following:

• Neurology
• Cardiology
• Dermatology
• Orthopedic surgery
• Equine medicine
• Zoo medicine

The cost of vet school averages between $200,000–275,000 for four years. As of Feb 28, 2023, the average annual pay for a Veterinarian in the United States is $108,297 a year. The average student loan debt for veterinary school graduates is $150,000. I imagine the cost of the four-year bachelor's degree is in addition to this. no wonder there are fewer veterinarians available.

 

[Travlr]

copied from a google search. Earning a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) takes at least eight years. That includes four years of undergraduate study at a college or university to earn at least a bachelor's degree and four years attending an accredited veterinary school.

After graduating from veterinary school, you may opt for general or specialty clinical training. Some specialties require up to five years of additional residency training leading to board certification and practice within a wide variety of medical or surgical specialties including the following:

• Neurology
• Cardiology
• Dermatology
• Orthopedic surgery
• Equine medicine
• Zoo medicine

The cost of vet school averages between $200,000–275,000 for four years. As of Feb 28, 2023, the average annual pay for a Veterinarian in the United States is $108,297 a year. The average student loan debt for veterinary school graduates is $150,000. I imagine the cost of the four-year bachelor's degree is in addition to this. no wonder there are fewer veterinarians available.

Who makes these rules??? Maybe that's an antiquated criteria for generating graduates? Would someone be just as good if they only had an associate degree before entering vet school?

 

[Buck Randall]

Who makes these rules??? Maybe that's an antiquated criteria for generating graduates? Would someone be just as good if they only had an associate degree before entering vet school?

Schools set their own admission requirements. The information posted above is somewhat inaccurate; students don't need a degree at all to get into vet school. Every school has a list of courses that they require applicants to have completed before they will be considered. For most students, that ends up taking 3-4 years and they earn an undergraduate degree in the process.

Wisconsin experimented with "fast tracking" undergraduate students with great grades into vet school earlier, but I think they discontinued that program after underwhelming results. The students that got in early struggled more and had a higher dropout rate. Older students get the value of the additional education, tend to be more mature, and have had more time to consider their commitment to being a veterinarian. Schools are motivated to keep their dropout rate low because it ends up costing them a lot of tuition revenue when a student doesn't stick with it.

Even when schools have lower academic standards on paper, competition between applicants keeps the standards high. It's not uncommon for students to apply two or three times before being admitted. If you're a school administrator whose job security depends on keeping the graduation rate high, and you have the choice between two students with similar grades and test scores, are you going to choose the 20 year old on her first application or the 23 year old on her third?

 

[DNelson]

Who makes these rules??? Maybe that's an antiquated criteria for generating graduates? Would someone be just as good if they only had an associate degree before entering vet school?

from a google search: looks like every state requires certain levels of education to get licensed.
Will I Need a License?
You must generally earn a license before you can practice veterinary medicine in the United States. However, some government employers may not require a license. Although licensure requirements vary by state, they usually include graduating from an approved veterinary medicine program and passing the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam. Depending on your state, you may be required to take additional examinations, such as a state jurisprudence exam or a clinical competency exam.
To gain admission to a veterinary medicine program, you must first complete undergraduate prerequisite courses, which may include inorganic and organic chemistry, biology, physics, nutrition, microbiology, genetics, social science, English and mathematics. Many schools also require that you gain experience working with animals. Since admission to veterinary school is highly competitive, it is recommended that you earn a bachelor's degree as well. You will also need to take an admissions exam, which, depending on the school to which you apply, could be the Veterinary College Admission Test (VCAT), the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

While enrolled in a veterinary medicine program, you will take courses in anatomy, physiology, pathology, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, nutrition and ethics during your first two years. During your final two years, you will receive clinical training in surgery, anesthesia, dermatology, ophthalmology, radiology, critical care and euthanasia. You will be exposed to different types of veterinary medicine, such as companion animal, food animal, wildlife and equine medicine. Some programs allow you to concurrently conduct research and prepare a thesis. Upon completion of your program, you will earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) or Veterinaria Medicina Doctoris (V.M.D.) degree.

 

[Travlr]

If you're a school administrator whose job security depends on keeping the graduation rate high, and you have the choice between two students with similar grades and test scores, are you going to choose the 20 year old on her first application or the 23 year old on her third?

I think a lot depends on what is needed and would do the most good for community and nation.

Which one wants to work with large animals as opposed to charging $4K to set a Cocker Spaniel's leg?

 

[Buck Randall]

I think a lot depends on what is needed and would do the most good for community and nation.

Which one wants to work with large animals as opposed to charging $4K to set a Cocker Spaniel's leg?

There is some consideration of that, but I don't know how much it's worth. Start reading vet school applications and you'll be amazed how many people want to work on livestock in underserved communities. Of course, most of them will end up working on small animals in town. Whether you believe that's because they were trying to game the system or they had a genuine change of heart later depends on your level of cynicism.

 

[wbvs58]

I think the world is changing rapidly and I can see down the track that most large animal Vets will be working for big pastoral companies as their resident Vet or Vets managing their herd health. Those that do farm visits to smaller farms will work for large corporate practices and when that does happen be prepared to pay for absolutely every service, every bit of advice. I have been out of the game now for over 15 years but when I left corporate Vet practices were already swallowing up the small city practices. I was told that pressure was put on the employed clinicians to meet targets for every consultation, recheck etc. They didn't care how you got there, selling prescription dog food or excessive pathology tests as long as you hit their target per consultation which even then was over $200.
This along with the new prescription requirements will add a lot of costs and the corporate Vets won't be generous with giving out prescriptions either.
I think you are going to have to learn to deal with a lot of things without pumping drugs in and if all else fails a bullet will be the final answer.
The point that a lot of people here fail to understand is that your new prescription requirements is not directly about drug resistance but is aimed at keeping drug residues out of your product both in your domestic market and in your export market.

Ken