Shortages of Large Animal Veterinarians

So I was wondering what to write about this week until I stumbled upon an article (In the October 2009 issue of Equus) right up my ally. I going to be applying to vet school in the next couple of years, and this was really interesting.

A quote at the top of article said, "The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that only 15 percent of U.S. veterinarians in private practice specialize in large animals."

That is SAD! That means that there needs to be a major increase before we don't have any more vets! On the other hand, on the food animal side, the USDA has recognized this as an issue. I guess it is a complete problem in the whole LARGE ANIMAL SIDE.

This one article talks about Cornell University, a school in Ithaca, New York. This school is encouraging students to pursue a career in large-animal veterinary practice. Currently they accept about 75 to 85 people each year, but by the year 2016 they are thinking of raising this acceptance number by 35%. Half of those new slots will be for students interested in large animals.

Judy Appleton, PhD, the college's associate dean for academic affairs, said about New York (and this is also true about the United States) that "in 2008, of the 62 counties in the state, 32 had just one large-animal vet caring for everyone in the area, and five tounties had zero vets, forcing residents to seek care elsewhere."

These kind of articles always encourage me, and make me even more motivated to becoming a vet because I know large animal vets are needed, and someone has to care for these animals ...