08/17/2021
Where did “Not One More Vet” stem from?
“Not One More Vet” was created after a veterinarian, Dr. Sophia Yin, committed su***de. The 48-year-old animal behaviorist was well-known around the world for her leadership and contribution to positive reinforcement techniques in animal training. “NOMV” began as a private page created by Dr. Nicole McArthur. The goal was to raise mental awareness within the veterinary community. Studies show one out of six veterinarians consider su***de throughout their career, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Originating in 2014, the NOMV community is now a nonprofit organization aimed at providing the veterinary medicine community, including students, a center for resources and peer support for now tens of thousands of members.
Fortunately, I have never experienced first-hand the outcome this movement was created to prevent. However, I have been around those who have suffered because they have lost colleagues who were very dear to them, dear to their communities, and dear to their loved ones. I have never lived without being surrounded by animals and veterinary medicine. In fact, as a toddler I was helping color in my mother’s anatomy homework as she was going through veterinary school with two children. My brother is three years younger. She has always actively pursued her dream and strived to improve the animal community and welfare, teaching animal safety at the schools, partnering up to start up Lapeer’s well-known Paradise Animal Rescue, which is nearing about twenty years old now, and opening her own veterinary hospital 15 years ago this year. Our family has put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into keeping it thriving through the first recession soon after opening, the national shortage of veterinarians and technicians, and now COVID, all the while helping as many animals as possible.
Veterinary medicine is commonly misconstrued as easy and low stress. I cannot tell you how often I have heard people say “I would love to play with puppies and kittens all day” implying that is all that is done inside the walls of a veterinary clinic and nothing bad ever happens. Yes, most of us are truly in the field because we love animals. It is usually not for the money, as many veterinarians and credentialed technicians are in hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in debt after leaving school and still paying it off decades later. They practice a wide range of medicine under one roof including preventative care, dentistry, surgery, x-ray, ultrasound, dermatology, internal medicine and much more. We are there to help end their suffering and be there for every family to accommodate everyone’s needs to the best of our ability. We are there to hold their hand when making some of the hardest decisions of their life and crying with them as they lose their best friend, four-legged child, or emotional support animal. It is difficult, but at the end of the day, we are glad we were there to help them through it and help families make decisions as if their pets were our own fur babies. We all feel the emotional hardship from the person who answers the phone to the person who gives the injection. Veterinarians are the animal’s personal advocate. They speak for them even when owners may not want to hear the truth. They do everything they can to make sure the owner is informed as soon as possible to keep them from having to wait, and sometimes that means the veterinarian is calling them late after hours, because they were just able to sit down and finish their charts and figure out a diagnosis and explain a difficult treatment and plan out how they are going to monitor its progression. Sometimes they must explain that more tests need to be run when money is already low.
During the pandemic, the increase in veterinary demand has skyrocketed. Why? Some theories are that everyone acquired new pets, people started staying home more and noticing their pets’ ailments, the family was all together so they decided it was time, etc. Our staff have pushed through long hours, emergencies and clients taking out their stress on us when everyone is already fighting back tears from the normal everyday sadness and stress already involved in helping animals. Do we fight over who gets to hold and socialize the super sweet puppies or kittens when they do come in? Yes. Because some days, that is what keeps us going and reminds us that we get to be there for those animals when they are sick. I can tell you from experience, it is very difficult to find the words to say when someone is yelling at you because they have been waiting 15 minutes and they have no idea an emergency walked in right before they arrived. They ask why we did not call and warn them that we were behind. In reality, we had no idea we were about to have a hit by car puppy walk in. That family had no idea they were losing their four-legged fur baby. We do not want to rush the owner while going over urns, especially when they are still processing what happened because they never expected their day to turn into this. We wipe the tears away and clean ourselves up after being covered in vomit, diarrhea and blood and try our best to make sure the owners are okay before we move on to the next patient. While trying to compose ourselves, we are asked why we did not call and warn them. If we knew, we would try our best to communicate with everyone ahead of time. Sometimes it is just not possible. We are here for the animals and to help as many of them as possible. We just ask for your patience while we are working through a sudden increase in the demand for the profession.
We are trying to help take as many emergencies as possible as emergency clinics now commonly have several hour wait times and that is if they even have enough staff to be open with the extreme shortage of veterinarians and licensed veterinary technicians. One of our goals is to try our best to help the emergency clinics and lighten their load. With that being said, we are experiencing way more euthanasias than we normally do which is very difficult, but we are here to help when it is needed. I can assure you that we are not trying to neglect any of our patients. We have hired many new staff members and are doing our best to try to take care of as many animals as possible while practicing the highest standards of care and making sure they are treated like they were our own.
“Not One More Vet” is all too real to all of us. It is meant to make the public aware that there is a severe mental awareness within the veterinary community when it was already a profession in the top five su***de rates for decades. Both of our veterinarians have dedicated and sacrificed so much in the past year, and I can guarantee the rest of us have thought about quitting more than once. If not for the love of the animals and our veterinarians’ dedication to the animals, we may have all done just that. We have all been screamed at, threatened, and sent into tears by clients. We have tried our best to keep our staff safe during very scary times and we too have families and loved ones we fear getting sick or who were experiencing hardship and having to find babysitters while schools were closed and have children learning online.
However, we also have clients that tell us we are doing an awesome job and thank us repeatedly and show appreciation and understanding. We keep moving forward because of them and the animals that are no longer sick or suffering that had nowhere else to go. The smallest “thank you” travels throughout the staff quickly. The “Thank You” cards are hung up in the break room for all to see and silly pet pictures sent to us are shared with everyone here. The positive feedback refuels us throughout the day. Besides seeing an animal’s life improved because of something we did, like the dog who had a broken jaw running up to give us kisses, nothing makes us feel better than that sign of gratitude when putting in physically and emotionally exhausting work.
That is why all of us are here. We want to take care of as many four-legged family members as possible and we are doing our best to make that happen every single day. “Not One More Vet” was created to make others aware that support from the community is much needed and to please be kind to your veterinarians and veterinary staff, and please be patient while we do our best to take care of everybody to the best of our ability.
Thank you to our wonderful clients who show appreciation, it does not go unrecognized!
I would also like to thank our hardworking, dedicated, and compassionate staff who have put in many long, strenuous hours while working diligently and passionately during hectic times. We would not be able to help so many animals without you.
Samantha Waterman
Practice Manager
