Pet adoptions in the spring of 2020 with people welcoming home new so-called COVID puppies and kittens.
Couple that with many owners choosing to delay pet care during lockdowns and you have an industry that鈥檚 stretched to the brink across .
If you call to schedule a basic wellness visit for your pet, don鈥檛 be surprised if you鈥檙e looking at a three-week wait.
鈥淣o question that鈥檚 taking place in the state of Ohio, taking place nationally,鈥� Jack Advent said. He鈥檚 the executive director of the .
鈥淧eople were saying, 鈥榊ou know, I鈥檓 home. Maybe I鈥檝e always wanted a dog or cat and I鈥檓 going to do that now. Somebody to help keep me company during a difficult time.鈥欌��
So you have an increased number of new pets who need vaccines, heartworm meds or flea and tick prevention.
Add to that all the deferred wellness visits for pets whose owners put off visits during lockdowns, and there just aren鈥檛 enough veterinarians to go around.
Veterinarians are swamped
Walking into in North Canton your ears are instantly filled the sounds of barking and phones ringing off the hook.
Dr. Jennifer Jellison, who opened the practice about 10 years ago, leads me to a back room with wall-to-wall kennels, full of dogs and cats that need attention.
One dog is bleeding from its face with an IV bag hanging inside its kennel.
鈥淏asically most of these came in today and called and said I have to get in ASAP,鈥� Jellison said.
鈥淎nd then there's these.鈥�
She holds up a thick stack of messages about other animals that need care. They may or may not get in.
鈥淪o just to kind of give you a heads up of like what my day is like. And then I see patients every 15 minutes till 6:00 o'clock. So there's probably another 30 that I'll see on top of all,鈥� Jellison said.
She鈥檒l see around 45 patients today, up from the 25-30 animals she would see on an average day pre-pandemic.
鈥淪o, we鈥檙e seeing a lot more. But what鈥檚 more important is a year ago I could have gotten them all in. I can鈥檛 get them in. I don鈥檛 know where to put them, she said. I truthfully don鈥檛 know how to say no to them because we鈥檙e compassionate and perfectionists by nature. So you want to help them, but by the same token this is 45 problems that you have to solve.鈥�
The workforce supply chain
Dr. Rustin Moore is the dean of the , one of the largest vet schools in the country.
He said while the workload has gone up, the workforce hasn鈥檛.
鈥淎nd so that just means longer days, more appointments,鈥� he said.
Even before the pandemic, Moore said veterinary school applications have been rising, but many programs don鈥檛 have the means or ability to grow their class sizes at the same rate.
鈥淚 don't believe it's possible in a short period of time to address the veterinary shortage because of the pipeline and the amount of time it takes. You know, if somebody enters veterinary school this fall, it's going to be four years before they've graduated,鈥� Moore said.
Add to that the fact that veterinary technicians, the people who help practices run smoothly and efficiently
鈥淎bout 50% of veterinary technicians or nurses actually leave the profession in the first five to six years,鈥� he said.
According to Moore, technicians are chronically underpaid and underutilized, often saddled with doing basic tasks.
He said veterinarians need to trust their techs to be able to do more.
鈥淢ost ideally utilize a veterinary technician for their practice because they can see more cases and they can be more productive and profitable, which means they can also deal, hopefully, with the second issue, which is increased the salaries of veterinary technicians,鈥� he said.
Mental health care for veterinarians
Another priority is for veterinarians to prioritize mental health care in the profession.
It鈥檚 something that Moore鈥檚 program at Ohio State has made .
鈥淭here is a mandatory seven week program called Mind Strong, which is a basically a resiliency and coping skill-building program,鈥� Moore said.
They also have two full-time counselors on site for students to be able to utilize, as well as a part-time psychiatrist.
鈥�(It鈥檚) hard to destigmatize mental health and let people know that mental health is in some ways no different than, say, diabetes. It's something you have to manage,鈥� Moore said.
Dr. Jessica Harriman, who owns in Johnstown, said her profession has long struggled with .
鈥淚 would use the word rampant in my profession. I don't have any qualms saying I personally have dealt with it, for sure,鈥� she said.
Harriman thinks most vets have trouble saying 鈥渘o,鈥� to the point of overwork and exhaustion.
鈥淏ecause we really care about helping out the pet and certainly if they're sick or something needs to be addressed, it's very difficult to say, 鈥楴o, I'm full today,鈥欌�� she said.
She said in the long run getting in as many patients as humanly possible isn鈥檛 the answer to this vet shortage.
鈥淪ometimes we will pack it and see as many as we can in the day. If you add more onto that then that's less quality care that you can give to each one of your patients that's already scheduled,鈥� Harriman said.
Her practice has embraced curbside visits, telemedicine for some non-emergency services, and clear workload and boundary setting for staff.
They even have a drive-up window for medication pick up just like a pharmacy.
鈥淵ou have to be able to take care of yourself and your staff, or you won鈥檛 be there to take care of the pets that you want to care for,鈥� Harriman said.
She sees eventually embracing augmented schedules, having a mixture of online, drop off and in-person pet care becoming the industry standard.
It鈥檚 a world where you may be able to use an app to send your veterinarian a message or photo and have someone call you back, just like a lot of human health care systems already use.
鈥淓ven if it's not the ideal time for this to happen because of all the other challenges going on, I think that's inherently going to play a role in how we rethink how we do our business, right?鈥� she said.
Playing the waiting game
But pretty much everyone I talked with said the same thing: It鈥檚 going to take time for this industry to be able to catch up.
Until then, Jellison urges pet owners to be patient and respectful.
鈥淲ell, if (your pet is) healthy, be willing to wait the three weeks. Try not to get irritated. Know that it's everyone, she said. If it's not healthy, the ERs are always taking people. So don't wait simply because you can't get into a regular veterinarian. The ERs will see you eventually, and just like a human you may have to wait six or eight hours and your pet should be worth that.鈥�
Editor's note: A previous version of this story mis-stated Dr. Moore's first name.
