The Moos Room™

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[cow moos]
Joe: This is a Windshield episode. I am on my way to Mankato to talk at the Minnesota Nutrition Conference, and I thought I would take this time to drop an episode, talk about a question that I get fairly often. That question is, "Dr. Joe, you are constantly telling me to talk to my veterinarian, check in with them, have them look at something, seek their advice, but I don't have a veterinarian that serves my area reliably. What do I do now?"
That's a good question. A lot of times, the solutions to these kinds of things are rooted in the policy side of things, and that's been talked about a lot. I don't want to go there too much today. I want to focus more on what can you do now? Because that matters right now. There's a couple things that I think you can do to help with a lack of a veterinarian or lack of access to a veterinarian in your area.
Really, one of the first questions in this conversation usually is, "Is there a shortage of large animal or food animal veterinarians?" That's a little complicated. I think it's a yes and a no. The biggest problem when we're talking about food animal veterinarians, large animal veterinarians, is that when you get out to school, your debt load is so high and your income is so low, it makes it very difficult to make your loan payments.
Sometimes the small animal veterinarian world can provide a more reliable salary and a higher salary that allows you to pay your debt off. I do think that we lose some of our colleagues and some of our veterinarians in practice to jobs like that where they move to the small animal side because they see an opportunity to potentially make more money as an associate and not an owner of a practice, and potentially feel a little more comfortable about making those loan payments and not having that debt over their head.
The other piece of this is that we all know the agricultural world is changing. We're having a little bit of consolidation. There's less farms than there used to be. This sets up the situation where we have areas that don't have the density of farms that they used to. While we probably do have enough food animal or large animal veterinarians, we may have areas around the state or in the country that need veterinary care, but don't have enough farms or the density of farms to support a veterinarian. Unfortunately, veterinarians have to run a business, they have to make money, and an area needs to be able to support them.
In addition to that, that area has to be able to support them in the lifestyle that they would like to have. The veterinary profession has been heavily romanticized. When we talk about James Herriot, some of these new shows that are on tv, you can't do the work for free. You have to have an area that can support a veterinarian, and then you have to have an area that can support a veterinarian in a lifestyle that doesn't have them burn out in the profession.
A solo practitioner is a choice for some people, and they can make it work, but others, a solo practitioner is just a recipe for burnout. When you're the only one on call, the only one working day in and day out, that can spell burnout. That's where we lose colleagues as well. Unfortunately, yes, we do have to make money. We have to be able to support a veterinary business. Sometimes there's areas where farms are too spread out, where there's not enough animals to make that work, and then we end up with certain areas that have less access to veterinarians than others.
All right, that's enough talk about why do we not have enough or why do certain areas not have access to veterinarians. Let's get into, if that's your situation, what can you do right now? I've come up with a list of five things that I think you can do right now if you're struggling to find a veterinarian or to have a veterinarian service your area. All right, here's the first one. I think it's all rooted in trying to increase the numbers and making it look like a better opportunity for a veterinarian to come to your area. Veterinarians are used to driving, we drive a lot, and windshield time can fill you, if on the other end of that windshield time and their drive time is long and there's not much work on the other end of it.
I think one of the big things that people can do if they're struggling to find a veterinarian to service their area is to talk to your neighbors. Get together, try to coordinate your schedules, so when you do reach out to that veterinarian, you can say, "Hey Doc, I've got myself, neighbor Bob, neighbor Amanda, we all have this many cows and we've worked it out so that we're all ready to work cattle on the same day." When you make that hour-and-a-half, two-hour drive, instead of working 50 cows at the end of it, you can work 150 or 200, and that's going to be a lot more appealing from a business sense to that veterinarian to make that drive. I think that's one thing that you can do.
Now, I don't know if that solves the emergency side of things, which is often a pretty big deal, but a lot of veterinarians are willing to drive for that emergency if they know that regular work is there and you're making an effort to make it worth their time to drive to you on a more regular basis, they'll take care of you on the emergency side as best they can.
Here's another one, number 2 on my list. I think it makes a huge difference, and that is having proper facilities. I am totally of having a bias towards which clients I go visit based on the facilities that I have to work in when I'm there or the conditions that I have to deal with when I get there. If I'm going to get there and it's going to be zero degrees with the wind blowing through a wind tunnel while I try to cut a DA, it's not very fun, and I'm going to hate going there. Now, if that's on the end of a two-hour drive, I'm going to want to go there even less, to the point where I might not come.
I think having proper facilities where it's comfortable to work, where it's safe to work, which is a huge deal, that is something that needs to be considered. It's an improvement to your farm that's going to help you, but it's also going to make it more likely that a veterinarian's willing to make that drive to you if they know when they get there, they're going to be safe and comfortable while they work.
Number 3, and I think this is something that we're going to start to see more. We have some veterinary clinics that have haul-in facilities, so it's much more efficient for someone to bring animals to me while I stay in one location where I have everything and I know I have everything that I need, than to run around the country and hope that I keep my stock truck to take care of everybody throughout the day.
I think there is a huge opportunity to be developing some of these haul-in facilities or satellite locations where people can bring animals to a veterinarian, rather than the veterinarian going to the animals. This is especially true for emergencies. I can cover a much bigger area if the producer or the farmer is able to bring that animal to me, instead of me having to drive two hours north, and then getting a call from a client that's two hours south of there, and jumping around and staying up all night trying to do that. I can have people bring them to me, and be much more efficient with time.
I think there is a big opportunity for something like that in a lot of practices, just to be more efficient with the time and the resources that we have. Especially considering the price of fuel lately. I think one of the things that you can do is ask your veterinarian about it. Talk to your neighbors, get enough people talking to the veterinarian about this kind of thing, a haul-in facility because it's a big investment and overhead right away for that veterinarian.
If it's not going to be used, they're not going to do it, but if they hear from enough clients saying, "Yes, this is definitely something we would take advantage of and something we would be interested in," they get enough pressure from clients to do it. I think that some veterinarians will look into this and make it happen. Talk to your neighbors, talk to your vet. Tell them this is something that you are interested in. I know that if it saves them sleep and drive time in the middle of the night, it might become even more likely that they get it done.
When we get to number 4 on this list, one of the things that I experienced in practice that made it difficult to service clients that were a decent ways out from the clinic, was that they had very particular requests about who they saw and when they saw someone. If you're that far away from the clinic, it's really hard to be picky about who you see and when you see them. It has to work within the veterinarian's day and it has to be worth their time to come see you. If you are very particular about which doctor you see and when you see them, you're going to get pushed on the schedule farther and farther and farther out to make that happen. Now if you're okay waiting, that's fine, but if you want to be seen in a reasonable amount of time, then a lot of times, what you need to do is be flexible about who you see and when you see them.
There's a lot of clients that I saw in practice that were on the way or on the way back from a large client, a large dairy that we saw on a regular basis, and that they were flexible about who they saw and when I saw them, so that I can do that when I was already headed that direction or on the way, and I could be really efficient with my time and make a nice loop while I'm out driving and see a bunch of different clients. At the same time, it's going to be much more likely that someone's willing to come see you. Again, we have the same conversation with emergencies and things like that, but if you're flexible and are seeing this veterinarian on a regular basis because you're being flexible about who you see and when you see them, much more likely that that practice is going to be willing to come see you for an emergency.
Number 5 on this list is be a good client. This one could be a little touchy subject for some people, but being a good client is definitely something-- Whether I should be talking about it or not. Sorry to any of my veterinary colleagues out there if I'm spilling the beans on this. We prioritize good clients. If you pay your bill on time, you're a nice person, you work well with others, you have nice facilities, you're conscious of the fact that we have to make a living and our time is also valuable. If you're a good client, I'm going to bump you up the list. I'm much more willing to drive and see you if I enjoy seeing you, and I know the bill's going to get paid.
Now, of course, we work with farmers, we understand farming, we understand agriculture, we understand the ups and downs, the unpredictability at times, so we're more than happy to work with you on a lot of the different things I'm talking about, but part of being a good client is being a nice person and making sure that you're cooperative, easy to work with, listen, all of those things. For my favorite clients, for those people that I enjoy working with, I'll drive a huge distance to come see them and help them out at the drop of a hat, but if you're a jerk and you don't pay your bill, you're not going to get prioritized, and that's just a fact.
Now these are five of the things I think you can do. I think there's more, and if I sat here and I thought about it while I drive for the next hour, I could probably come up with more to add to this list. Just thinking about it now, I think one of the things that I think about is supporting your veterinary clinic on the product side. If you're buying vaccines or medications or drugs, buying those from your veterinary clinic is just another way to support them and figure out how to keep them in business for your area.
Now, I have nothing against any of these prescription delivery companies or suppliers, and I won't drop any names here, but if you had to choose on who you're going to give that money to, and I understand that farming, like I already said, is unpredictable and all these other things, and money can be tight, margins can be tight, I see some of that money and buying products, all of that as an investment in your veterinary clinic if you want them to be around. If you can save pennies by going with someone else, that's a decision you have to make, but that can seriously make or break whether or not a veterinary clinic is going to be able to stay in business in your area.
Potentially, when you think about products, drugs, vaccines, all those kinds of things, think about buying them from your veterinary clinic as an investment in that clinic to try to keep them around, keep them afloat, make sure that they're there to service your area. Like I said, I could talk forever about this topic and come up with more and more reasons and more and more ways for you to try to keep a veterinarian in your area or bring a veterinarian to your area, but I think those five, and then supporting them in any way financially you can and viewing that as an investment, those are all the top ways, I think, and the things you can do right now that will help you with this lack of access to a veterinarian issue.
As always, if you have comments, questions, or scathing rebuttals to this episode, please email themoosroom@umn.edu. That's T-H-E-M-O-O-S-R-O-O-M@umn.edu. Follow us on Twitter @umnmoosroom and @umnfarmsafety. Catch Bradley on Instagram @umnwcrocdairy, thank you for listening everybody, and we will catch you next week. Man, I'm getting old. There's definitely something I thought of while I was on the list of five, and I should have stopped and just said it into the mic at that time because it is gone. It is not in my brain at all anymore, and I have no idea where it went. It'll probably come to me hours from now.
[cow moos]
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[00:14:39] [END OF AUDIO]
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