05/26/2023
(Not Written By Me)
Dear Horse Owners,
Recently a letter was sent to many of the equine veterinarians on the central coast by a horse owner who unfortunately lost their horse and was unable to get a veterinarian to come attend to their horse during this emergency as their regular veterinarian was assigned to a horse show and his backup was unavailable due to a surgery that would take several hours. As a horse owner, I can only empathize with the author as having a dying horse without the seemingly availability of veterinary care is not something any horse owner wants to go through.
The letter mentioned that their family’s veterinarians in the past were ALWAYS available for scheduled appointments and emergencies. Other points of the letter were that there should be a dedicated emergency number, veterinarians need to be checking their messages frequently, and need to make sure our covering doctors will be available.
Unfortunately, the equine veterinary field is in a major crisis. The availability to emergency care that many were once accustomed to no longer exists due to the massive shortage of equine veterinarians. The week the author lost her horse, many of us were overwhelmed with emergencies and had to turn several away. In fact that week I sent 6 horses to referral clinics for likely emergency surgery and worked no less that 16 hours a day for the entire week ( well over 100 hours) and had to turn away several emergencies - which likely included the authors call as well. We have a growing horse community but a shrinking number of equine veterinarians to serve our area. The central coast is blessed that our equine veterinary community is close knit and we help each other cover and see our clients emergencies when we are unable but the fact that we are short veterinarians makes it impossible for us to cover everything.
Many horse owners may not realize the severity of this shortage. Job openings for veterinarians are receiving no applications despite being in a such a desirable locations. I have watched the same job postings locally stay up for months at a time. Equine veterinarians are leaving the equine medicine field for small animal at an alarming rate - shortened and dedicated working hours, no on call / emergency coverage and better pay are just a few of those factors influencing that. Three of our central coast veterinarians have followed this path - only one of their positions has been filled. Two veterinarians have retired in the last few years and they have not been replaced.
In short, my point in posting this is that the veterinary world is changing, su***de rates in veterinarians are escalating, veterinary shortages are rampant with no end in sight. The work load of equine medicine is not desirable for new grads, your current vets are exhausted and overworked, and we physically can’t see every emergency call we get - client or not. None of us want a horse owner to be stuck with a dying horse and we most certainly try our best but there is only so much we can do.
With knowing that the days of always having a veterinarian available 24/7 to make emergency field calls are long past, horse owners need to have a plan for if one of us isn’t available.
- have a trailer available to take your horse to an emergency clinic. This may take coordination with the community. Maybe someone can take the lead and get a list together of horse owners with trailers who would be happy to help haul a horse to the hospital during an emergency and can distribute this list with contact info to horse owners and the veterinarians in the area.
- Maintain a great relationship with your veterinarian. The author had someone to call right away who just unfortunately was unavailable, there are many horse owners who do not have a regular veterinarian who has good knowledge of the patient and an established preventative care plan. Many veterinarians are being forced to stop taking new patients and only providing emergency coverage for our current active clients so that we can ensure they have adequate veterinary care.
- Contact your veterinarian early in the emergency before it’s been going on for several hours. I’ve more than once had someone contact me 3 hours after a colic started when I could have seen them right away but now unavailable.
- Understand we can only do so much and unfortunately we can’t be in two places at once. It is the worst feeling when I have to tell a client I can’t make it but all my clients also know if I’m n telling them that there is no way possible for me to be there.
My post is not for people to be upset at the person who wrote the letter. None of us wanted her to be in the position she was in but felt there was a need to address the issues and make those aware that this is a significant problem in our area and having alternative plans is essential.
