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Farm Animal Vets in High Demand

Farm Animal Vets in High Demand

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Feb 17, 2010 at 9:05 PM MST

Story Updated: Feb 17, 2010 at 10:31 PM MST

It's a problem on the rise, a lack of veterinarians who specialize in treating large animals like cows and horses. This is a national trend that is worse in rural areas, including here in North Central Montana.

Doctor Kelly Manzer practices medicine at K-Heart Veterinary Service in Great Falls. While she also sees companion animals, she is one of the few vets in the area to treat horses. She says those who specialize in large animals are few and far between.

"It's physically demanding,” Manzer said. “One kick and you are done. A twelve hundred pound animal can put you out of business in short order.

About 80% of veterinary students are female and are far more likely to want to focus on small animals. Also, the numbers of vet graduates is not increasing as fast as population growth.

"it's not glamorous, standing out in the snow and in the horse manure. The pay is better with small animals and graduates are tending to go into small animal practices."

Doctor Manzer says insurance for equine practices is three times higher than for small animal clinics. She understands the importance of vets who treat larger animals, and hopes that the trend begins to shift.

"I hope vet schools address this and admit more students who want to work in ranch and rural areas."

Doctor Manzer said knows of only one clinic in the area that specializes in cows, that being Indian Hammer Veterinary Medicine in Vaughn.

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Future Vet said on Monday, Mar 22 at 5:21 PM

I am about to graduate high school and I AM going for a vet for small&large animals..so if anyone has any advice!! i would appreciate it!

ACM, DVM said on Tuesday, Feb 23 at 3:18 PM

I am in the same boat as previous commenters. I graduated as a Food Animal Track veterinarian with strong interest in production animal medicine, but found that I could not afford loan payments working for private or governement practice. Now in small animal medicine and dreaming of cows.

SJ,DVM said on Friday, Feb 19 at 8:58 AM

I agree with the prior post. I do live in a rural area and practice small animal medicine because my student loans force me to. I can't afford to practice large animal medicine despite having an interest there. Forgiving student loans is a great way to allow those of us who want to do large animal medicine to afford it. That's what rural areas do for human medicine but finding a funding source is the hard part. States may have to budget for it?

anonymous said on Thursday, Feb 18 at 4:00 PM

i would prefer to work in a rural country setting but vet school loans have force me to work in a city. If there was a way to forgive my loans i would move tomorrow to a rural area to work with cows and horses. something has to change to help the vet student pay back loans

fho said on Thursday, Feb 18 at 2:16 PM

I am both a veterinarian and a physician. Besides the economic incentives to do small animal practice (which I did), this situation is directly analogous to getting physicians to locate in rural areas. "If Mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy" is also relevant. The lack of amenities out in the country, particularly in the vast expanses of the West makes a big difference.

Anonymous said on Thursday, Feb 18 at 10:17 AM

For newer grads, it comes down to salary. The amount of debt we have coming out of school is much higher than it was 20 years ago, not just dollar wise, but in proportion to the average starting salary. Many of my classmates who wanted to work in rural areas and on large animals could not do so because the rural and large animal clinics were either unable or unwilling to pay a salary that would enable them to repay their student loans. Some of us were fortunate enough to have lower than average debt, and some of us were able to find dairy jobs or a rare mixed animal clinic that could pay a reasonable salary. The remainder are stuck in the small animal world. When your monthly student loan payment is $1500, how can you pay it and live on a $40,000 a year salary?

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