Your veterinary team is undoubtedly among the most important players in your operation. Its crew of skilled professionals advise and treat, analyze, and adjust to help you help your herd. But who is helping your veterinarian? 
Earlier this year, the suicide of a young practitioner in Southern Ontario shook the veterinary community across Canada. 
Andrea Kelly, 36, was an equine specialist, unusual in her profession in that she was licensed to practice in both Ontario and Quebec. She was respected for her compassion, and she was generous with her time. Late in June, via an online phone connection, she guided veterinary student Arianne Fournier through the early delivery of twin foals on a farm near Luskville, Que. while the owner was away on business. Kelly visited the farm herself the next day and during the following weeks to check on their progress. Her last visit was on July 28. Relating the story to a CBC news reporter, mare owner Siri Ingbritsen said that was the last time she saw Kelly alive. 
Three days later, Ingbritsen learned Kelly had killed herself. 
Practitioner Juan Garcia of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, who operates a mobile practice focused mainly on horses, said Kelly’s death highlights the increasing pressure veterinarians across the country are experiencing, starting with a shortage of practitioners that is compounding the workload for everyone, especially in rural areas.
Pressures that are normal for all veterinarians are becoming more intense, both physically and emotionally. 
In an interview with Prairie Hog Country on Sept. 16, Garcia acknowledged that he has considered quitting at times and said, if he could go back and visit his younger self, he would advise that young man to take a different path. 
Most people who elect a career in veterinary medicine have made that choice early in life, says a detailed study released in the spring of 2021 by the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association and the Alberta Veterinary Technologist Association. The study found more than 850 vacant positions across the province altogether, emphasizing that the lack of technologists is even greater than the lack of veterinarians. It notes that “rural practices are particularly impacted by staff shortages due to limited population and recruitment challenges.” 
Given current attrition and recruitment rates, the report estimates that the sector will need to find almost 4,000 more vets and just under 5,000 technologists by 2040. 
“Alberta’s domestic training system and international sources of new veterinarians will not meet this surge in demand as it is projected to graduate or recruit only 2,675 new veterinarians and 2,415 new veterinary technologists by 2040,” says the report. 
Leaders in Western Canada’s agricultural research and educational fields concur with the report’s findings about the need to step up the pace on training and recruitment. 
Alongside that reality, Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Sask. is taking steps, including setting aside a dedicated bank of seats, to recruit more students into rural practice. It also prepares all veterinary students for the pressures they can anticipate in the field, regardless of the specialty they choose. 
To compare the pressures placed on veterinarians across different specialties is akin to comparing apples and oranges, says Chris Clark, Associate Dean and associate professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at WCVM. 
He asked how one can be expected to judge whether the experience of dealing with a cranky client after performing surgery on a cow at -20 is any harder than dealing with the destruction of a barn full of pigs that has been diagnosed with a reportable disease? Either of these situations can have devastating consequences for the practitioner, and those consequences are worsening as workloads increase, says Clark. 
Retired veterinarian David Chalack, Chair of Results Driven Agricultural Research – the funding arm for agricultural research in Alberta – is intimately familiar with the physical and emotional pressures placed on livestock practitioners. 
Staff and directors with RDAR are keenly aware of the value veterinarians carry in Alberta’s livestock industry and would therefore readily support any research into areas where recruitment and retention can be improved, said Chalack. That could include streamlining qualification exams for veterinarians coming from other countries, increasing the number of seats available at veterinary colleges in Calgary and Saskatoon, and any other proposals to help put more professionals in the field, he said. 
“This is important to RDAR. If you take a look at our mandate, we want to target strategic investment, mainly in producer-led and results-driven agricultural research. It has to have an impact at the farm gate. On the profitability side, you lose animals, you’re not profitable.” 
He said veterinarians are important in improving productivity and competitiveness for farmers, which are all aspects of RDAR’s mandate in funding research projects, and that they are key players in writing and enforcing regulations. 
“That whole value chain, veterinarians are in the middle of it.” 
Chalack describes the shortage of veterinarians as the main driver for their stress. 
Citing the 2021 report, he said more seats are needed at WCVM and at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM). 
Renate Weller, appointed dean at UCVM in 2021, has joined in the push for more seats for veterinary students, said Chalack. The province has funded some expansion of seats and facilities, announced earlier this year, he said. 
“That’s an important first step. The other problem is, in the admissions process . . . (there is a need) for more emphasis on individuals that have an interest in rural practice. There is incredible opportunity. But also, because of the distances we have in Canada, and especially in Alberta, these rural practices have got to work smarter,” he said. 
“We at RDAR are working with UCVM in promoting and funding better diagnostics and we see the opportunity . . . for veterinarians to get online support. Innovation and technology can help.” 
Clark said one of the initiatives now underway in Alberta is a 24-hour triage line, operated by veterinary technologists, that veterinarians can use to manage emergency calls. Veterinarians who subscribe to the service are able to have technologists answer calls, assess the need, and then either advise the caller or find a veterinarian for emergency treatment. 
Garcia said his practice is seasonal, peaking with breeding and foaling in spring and running through until fall when competitions have finished. During that season, he takes on emergencies for a fellow practitioner who has a clinical practice nearby. 
They share the workload, but they don’t share conversations about their stressors, said Garcia. 
That sort of help is available through the ABVMA. Garcia says there was one occasion when he sought support and was referred to a psychologist in Red Deer, and it did help. 
He is a member and supporter of a volunteer organization set up eight years ago to assist veterinarians in the United States. 
Based in San Francisco, Not One More Vet – find them at  nomv.org – was set up as a Facebook group on Oct. 1, 2014, by veterinarian Nicole McArthur. McArthur started the group following the suicide of veterinarian Sophia Yin and amidst reports that veterinarians are at an increased risk for suicide. NOMV is now a recognized non-profit organization with a membership of more than 26,000 veterinarians around the world. 
On its home page, the website states that veterinary professionals are in crisis: “NOMV provides the necessary support to all members of veterinary teams and students who are struggling or considering suicide. Because you are good enough, and you are never alone.” 
Clark said farmers may not have much impact on veterinarian stressors in the big picture, but it’s the little things that matter. 
A cup of coffee and a bacon sandwich after a difficult emergency can be meaningful and it could make all the difference in the world, said Clark. 
He knows, that was the small gesture, a long time ago, that made a world of difference for him. •
— By Brenda Kossowan

Received after the hard copy went to press from Manitoba Pork Council.

Manitoba Pork welcomes steps taken to increase number of veterinarians in the province

Manitoba Pork commends recent announcement by the Manitoba government of an increase in the number of veterinary student seats at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). A shortage of labour is restricting the growth potential of the hog sector, and today’s announcement will help address one key aspect of this problem, a scarcity of large animal veterinarians practicing in rural Manitoba.

The announcement is a result of months of collaborative dialogue between the provincial government and Manitoba’s livestock producers, including Manitoba Pork, Keystone Agricultural Producers, and the Manitoba Veterinary Medical Association. 

“Large animal veterinarians, like those that work in the hog sector, are vital partners in ensuring that our animals are raised healthy and free of the threat of disease outbreaks,” said Rick Préjet, chair of Manitoba Pork. “Today’s announcement will ensure that we can continue to close the gap in the necessary number of veterinarians practicing in Manitoba, and that our sector can continue to sustainably grow our herds.”

Advanced Education, Skills, and Immigration Minister Jon Reyes and Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson announced today that the province is providing increased annual funding to the WCVM at the University of Saskatchewan to allow for an additional five Manitoba students to be trained as veterinarians.

The hog sector will continue to work with all levels of government to address ongoing labour shortages, including the lack of large-animal veterinarians. Addressing this shortage could include working to more rapidly accredit qualified foreign-trained veterinarians who want to work in the province, which is something Manitoba Pork has recommended to all levels of government.