Program recruits vets for farm animals
For a veterinarian, Amy Fousek is a rare breed.
She currently operates the only veterinary mobile service in Siskiyou County focused on food animals and equine, and demand for her services continues to soar.
In a region where cattle and horses far outnumber its human residents, the dearth of large-animal vets has been a growing concern for years, rancher Jeff Fowle said. The need has been especially dire in recent years with the loss of several large-animal vets due to death, retirement and other reasons.
“It makes it a challenge when emergencies do arise,” Fowle said.
Because of the vet shortage, producers have resorted to helping each other, dealing with problems themselves or hauling sick animals to vets outside the county or state, he added.
Ranchers depend on veterinarians not only to keep their animals healthy and productive, Fowle said, but as a first line of defense against disease outbreaks that could destroy livestock herds and threaten rural economies. Implementation of new rules requiring producers to have a vet’s supervision when using medically important antimicrobials has further underscored the need for better access to veterinarians.
But with a shrinking national population of farmers and ranchers, Fowle said fewer people are going into veterinary medicine who also have an agricultural background and interest in livestock.
Today, more than 75 percent of U.S. veterinarians are in private practice treating primarily companion animals, while just 12 percent of the profession devote their business to food animals and equine, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Even though the starting salary of large-animal vets is often comparable to those who treat small animals, specializing in livestock can bring a grueling schedule that requires long-distance travel between farms and ranches. Some vets simply don’t want to live in remote places that lack big-city amenities.
To attract large-animal vets, rural communities have sought help from the federal Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program, which provides up to $75,000 toward a vet’s student-loan debt in exchange for serving at least three years in shortage areas. The state veterinarian submits nominations of shortage areas to the U.S. Department of Agriculture based on “suggestions from industry partners like the Farm Bureau and the California Cattleman’s Association,” said California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle.
Since 2013, California has submitted 26 nominations, with four awards made. In total, USDA has awarded three-year contracts to 388 licensed veterinarians practicing in 45 states since 2010. Fousek was one of two California recipients in 2015 and is six months away from completing her contract.
Originally from Kansas, Fousek began her veterinary career in San Bernardino County treating horses and later spent four years in Modoc County in a mixed-animal practice. By accepting a job in Siskiyou County, she acknowledged she left a void in a region that has also faced large-animal vet shortages.
“It was kind of sad because I moved from one county to another county and made it worse for the other,” she said.
Fowle compared the shortage situation to a sinking ship leaking water from both ends, adding that unless new vets move in from out of state or more students graduate, “all the state is doing is moving large-animal vets around from one area to the next.”
Despite the state’s four successful recruitments since 2013, other shortage areas remain unfilled.