| Large-animal vet shortage not in all of central Midwest |
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| By BOB RIGGS
Indiana Correspondent
ROME, Ind. — According to a survey by the American Veterinary Medicine Assoc., the need for food-animal veterinarians will outpace the supply for the next decade or longer.
The Fiedler Family Farms operation in Rome, Ind., raises Angus, Red Devon and Hereford cattle, Katahdin sheep, Large Black pigs and laying hens. They have no problem finding a food-animal vet when one is needed.
“We in Perry County, Indiana, are very lucky in that we have three large-animal vet offices to call on,” said Manager Jim Fiedler. “The large-animal vet problem talked about in the U.S. is not affecting us.”
Kentucky Farm Bureau (KFB) Second Vice President John Hendricks, who has a cow-and-calf operation in Winchester, Ky., recently said that farmers in many Kentucky counties are without access to large-animal vets. Additionally, he said many practitioners are getting older and approaching retirement.
The seriousness of this problem was brought to his attention earlier this year by fellow KFB board members from counties in the western part of the state. A special committee was appointed to look into the problem. At the first meeting in May, the blue-ribbon panel discussed researching strategies to encourage vet school graduates to set up food-animal vet practices in the state.
At the meeting, the topics which came up included vet school recruiting and admissions strategies – including scholarships and tuition forgiveness programs for graduates who locate food-animal practices in underserved areas – a veterinarian hotline where farmers in counties with no vets could call and get advice and the use of vet technicians to do some of the work.
Vet tech responsibilities typically involve animal nursing, administering medicines, assisting in or doing simple surgery, taking x-rays, monitoring anesthesia and lab work. There are currently vet tech programs at two Kentucky colleges: Morehead State University in the east and Murray State University in the western part of the state.
Like Fiedler, Hendricks’ operation in Clark County, Ky., does not suffer from a shortage of large-animal vets. “We have a vet clinic with about three or four vets that are on call and come out at any time,” he said.
Across the river from the city of Louisville, Dr. Dwayne Allen in Floyds Knobs, Ind., a partner in Hillside Animal Clinic, has the responsibility of treating large animals. He said that while farming is dying out in Floyd County and horses are still a big part of his practice, he does some work on cows, pigs, sheep and other non-domestic farm animals.
Allen, of Owensboro, Ky., attended vet school at Auburn University with help from the state of Kentucky, which paid the difference between out-of-state tuition and the in-state rate. Under that existing program, however, graduates are not required to specialize in large animals; they are not even limited to practicing in the state of Kentucky.
Allen said Floyd County does not suffer a farm vet shortage, because of the long-term decline of farming in the area. He suggested that Kentucky might pursue a program where an agency would pay the tuition of a local student and have them under contract to work in the county for a period of four or five years.
Roger Wonderlich is a large-animal vet in Shelbyville, Ky. The vets at the Shelby Animal Clinic stay busy, and there is no discernible shortage until next year, when one of the partners will retire.
Wonderlich said there are many Kentucky counties where the animal population just won’t support a large-animal veterinarian. In order to make a living, practitioners must turn to small-animal veterinary. Once they convert, they enjoy the advantage of not working nights or weekends and often refuse to take emergency calls.
Wonderlich said in nearby Bullet County, farmers sometimes have a problem getting veterinary service. When people call, the clinic tells them if they can bring in their animal, it will be treated.
“We just can’t go that far or we would end up spending all of the day, all of the time on the road,” he said.
This farm news was published in the Sept. 19, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee. |
| 9/19/2007 |
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