(This story was published in The News on Thursday, June 15, 2023.)

There has been an epidemic across America: vet shortages. There are many reasons why and it has a local impact. The News reached out to Schlapkohl Veterinary Services in Kalona and spoke to Brooke Kreiss, vet technician and receptionist, about the vet shortages. Other vets we reached out to simply did not have the time to speak.

The vet shortage at Schlapkohl Veterinary Services is felt every day. The clinic has two-full-time veterinarians. They’ve tried to find a third full-time veterinarian since their last one left, but even when the clinic had three vets, they were still looking for more.

The shortage creates burnout for the clinics. Since Schlapkohl treats small and large animals, their two vets rotate weekend shifts to do house visits for farm animals in need. This has potential for tremendous burnout.

“You got your [vets] that are burnt out. [Or] they’re still capable of being a veterinarian, but they just don’t want to deal with it anymore or a lot of them are just limited,” Kreiss said. “This shortage could be in so many different tiers because [you] don’t see a lot of large animal veterinarians anymore. A lot of [vets] are starting to go to small animal clinics.”

The reason a small animal vet clinic is more desirable to work at is because these vets can work a typical 9-5 schedule whereas large animal clinics are always on the clock. But the preference is up to the individual vet. Some grew up on a farm and want to treat cows, where some grew up in a city and have no desire to do the same type of work.

Small animal clinics can also be more profitable since small animal medications experience higher markups and people are willing to pay the price for their house pet. The fact that Schlapkohl focuses on large and small animals could hurt their chances of finding a new veterinarian since an increasingly high number of vets are not prepared to take on the proverbially larger task at hand.

Kalona vets also deal with a proximity issue; they compete with the larger clinics just north in Iowa City. These clinics, according to Kreiss, can afford to pay their employees more, give them sign-on bonuses, and can see more patients, meaning they attract vets away from the Kalona area.

The COVID-19 pandemic is another cause for many vet shortages. There was already a shortage, but the amount of pet owners increased tenfold during the pandemic. According to a survey conducted by Forbes, 78% of pet owners adopted new pets during the pandemic or became first-time pet parents. The demand for vets was a lot to keep up with.

One positive change that helped speed up vet clinics were pet drop-offs. Some clinics also started telehealth for pets, ways to get a consultation without bringing the pet into the clinic. Obviously, this would be for minor things. Schlapkohl adapted to this somewhat, allowing more phone call visits after a pet was just in the clinic. This gives pet parents more flexibility. This is an aspect that many clinics continued to do.

But adaptations didn’t cure the main issue, the shortages. In fact, local clinics were so overworked that they turned down animals because they simply could not handle the workload.

“You have all these new patients that came in the last like, two to three years and then you had the vet shortage on top of it and I think [the] pandemic had a lot to do with that because vets couldn’t keep up and clinics had to get to the point where they were not accepting new patients,” Kreiss said. “You are booking three, four weeks out and of course, that upset people.”

“The pandemic increased the amount of patients we were seeing, everyone got dogs or cats when they were home. We [Kreiss worked at the Kalona Veterinary Clinic at the time] were doing curbside,” Kreiss said. “We saw behavioral differences with some of the dogs. Like if [pet parents] were stressing, their pet can pick up on it too. With the owner not present, you actually saw them shift, like they couldn’t feel the nervous energy from their owner and so they were actually a little calmer.”

Some clinics still provide curbside drop-offs because of this positive outcome.

One of the main issues contributing to the shortage is education. Is the six to eight years of schooling and the $150,000 average debt, according to American Veterinary Medical Association, worth it to become a vet in a small town like Kalona? Even if someone has the knowledge to be a vet, they still need this schooling, a huge deterrent for many. It’s much easier, time (two-four years of schooling) and money wise, to become a vet tech, leading more people to follow that career path. Both techs and vets experience shortages, however. As a tech, you need a vet. Without vets, there will be less need for techs.

“Some places do what’s called technician exams. On some spots of the law, that’s technically illegal, because we have to have a vet seeing an animal within eight hours,” Kreiss said. “If we don’t get any more vets in here, then we’re not going to have positions for the techs to fill if they’re not allowed to do anything, like [giving shots without a vet’s supervision].”

Techs can do basic things on their own and aid a veterinarian, but overall cannot do most things alone. A vet tech’s limitations are legislative ones.

A change in legislation can help aid vet clinics. Right now, Kreiss feels there are too many restrictions on what a vet tech can do. If they were given more freedom, they could help out clinics in massive ways. It would give the title of technician more meaning as they can fill in in the spots most needed in the wake of the vet shortage. Kreiss believes many things a tech cannot do can be learned on the job.

“I think [what] would help a lot is changing legislation in ways like utilizing more techs. It affects everyone. You get frustrated and the workload doubles for you, or you have to step in in a lot of other places,” Kreiss said. “If you’re doing it momentarily, it’s not too bad. But when you’re trying to do it for six months out of the year, it gets to be a lot.”

Changing what it means to be a vet technician means that hiring a vet tech would become more common. They act almost like nurses to a doctor, but is it time for them to take that next step? Kreiss thinks yes.

The moral of the story is to treat veterinarians with kindness and respect as they pour a lot of time into becoming a veterinarian and might never see the pay off, financially speaking. They are overworked and over legislated to a point where they can’t get the proper help they need to maintain a constant flow of petcare. And becoming a vet has become such a mountain that many are halting their climb midway, jumping in pursuit of new things.