By now, most people in the equine industry have heard about the nationwide shortage of equine veterinarians. In recent years, fewer veterinary students have graduated with the intent of working in equine practice, and many who do end up leaving in just a few years.
The root causes are well-established – equine medicine pays significantly less than small animal medicine, which is a significant consideration for students who are graduating with more and more debt; conventional equine practice demands long hours and can strain work/life balance; veterinarians in general are suffering from poor mental health as client demands increase among shortages of support staff; and in addition to the other drawbacks, working with equine patients is more physically dangerous compared to small animals.
Read our previous coverage of the ongoing veterinary shortage here, here, and here.
In response, a number of colleges, industry organizations, veterinary clinics and equine businesses have responded, looking for ways to reduce stress on equine veterinarians and reduce barriers to people interested in the profession.
Virginia Tech's veterinary program recently launched an emergency care team to help support veterinarians in their equine hospital, reducing on-call hours.
Mississippi State University's College of Veterinary Medicine has begun organizing trips to Central Kentucky to give students a first-hand look at equine practice.
And Lincoln Memorial University recently engineered a veterinary degree program that's paired with an associate degree program in equine studies. The goal is to shrink tuition debt for students while giving them practical horse-handling skills they can carry forward into a veterinary career.
This fall, a group of nearly 50 equine veterinary practices will be working together to host veterinary students in Lexington, Ky., at the Opportunities in Equine Practice Seminar (OEPS). The annual event was launched in 2003 and hosted 3,900 students before it went on hiatus several years ago.
Seminar host Dr. Craig Lesser of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital said there was no better time to bring it back.
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“Many of us would love to be able to hire additional veterinarians for our practices, and we're really starting to worry about workload for our current veterinarians,” he said. “We're concerned with the number of veterinarians entering, but also the number of veterinarians leaving in the first five years. OEPS' goal is to work on the recruitment aspect of that.”
There are already 263 students signed up for the event, somewhat above Lesser's original goal of 200, from American, Canadian, and island veterinary schools.
Students will go on farm and clinic tours and experience lectures focused on different types of equine practice, as well as some ways to overcome commonly-cited challenges to the profession. Lecture topics will center around different types of equine practice availability from different parts of the country, as well as how to manage work/life balance. Speakers will come from ambulatory clinics, academia, and mixed animal practices in addition to equine hospitals.
Students will also have the chance to get hands-on with some wet labs focusing on ultrasounding, colic, and dental work.
“Mostly who we're trying to attract are the kids that say, 'Wow I really like horses but I'm not sure I really want to be an equine vet – I've been told how hard the life is,'” Lesser said. “A lot of times they haven't been exposed to people who are champions of the lifestyle and really enjoy it.”
Lesser has seen firsthand examples of students who came to past events thinking they'd graduate and go to work on cattle but decided to give horses a try and are still in the profession today.
“You don't have to be the horse girl who grew up going to all the shows to be able to do equine practice,” he said. “Having a love for horses and the desire to be a good practitioner is enough.”
In recent years, more veterinary students have leaned toward careers in small animal medicine; meanwhile, equine caseloads at teaching hospitals have decreased significantly. That, combined with the need for veterinary schools to give students background in a wide range of species (since veterinary degrees are not species-specific even though practices are), may mean that veterinary students don't know much about the ways they could use their degree to work with horses.
“We're excited for the next generation of equine veterinarians,” said Lesser. “We hope they find the joy in practice that we do.”
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