Dr. Cynthia Sweet has been a veterinarian for about eight years and loves her work, but is clear that the job is not just “playing with puppies and kittens all day.”
Sweet has been on the staff at the Belcaro Animal Hospital in Denver for four years after moving to Colorado from Wisconsin. The COVID-19 pandemic forced vet clinics to offer curbside-only service and pet adoptions surged.
“We were overbooked and we honestly still have not recovered,” Sweet said. “I don’t ever see it slowing down, which is a good thing. But it does take a toll on everyone involved.”
Longer waits for appointments and doctors’ jam-packed schedules are more than just a hangover from the pandemic. A shortage of veterinarians has been building for a while and is being felt by owners of cats, dogs and other companion animals and in rural Colorado, where farmers and ranchers might drive for several miles to find help.
While the labor market has been tight for a number of professions coming out of the pandemic, the demand for workers in the veterinary field has been particularly high. The unemployment rate for veterinarians in 2023 was 0.5%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noted. The national unemployment rate was 3.6%.
In 2023, 95.7% of graduates reported receiving a job offer or an opportunity for advanced education two to three weeks before graduation, according to the 2024 American Veterinary Medical Association Report on the Economic State of the Veterinary Profession.
“Our grads are getting an average of 2.5 to 3 offers per individual. Nearly all of them have jobs by the time they graduate,” said Sue VandeWoude, the dean of College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences Colorado State University.
The robust job market is not surprising considering the increase in the number of pets. The number of households with pets in 1988 was 52 million, said Dr. Laura Molgaard, the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota.
“Last year, the number of households that owned pets was 87 million,” Molgaard said. “The number of households has increased dramatically and the number of veterinarians has not increased dramatically because the number of veterinary schools has not increased dramatically.”
The number of veterinary schools remained stable for several decades, Molgaard said, but recently new programs are expected to start.
There are 33 accredited veterinary colleges in the United States and one college has received the go-ahead to pursue starting a program. Another 12 proposed colleges are in various stages of development, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, or AVMA.
The association lists a total of 127,131 veterinarians in the U.S. There are 4,010 veterinarians with a Colorado address and a license to practice in the state and 275 vets who are licensed to teach, according to the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association.
Dr. Rena Carlson, president of the AVMA, believes the veterinary industry is seeing the dust settle from the turmoil of the pandemic. “We’re seeing workforce challenges and vets returning back to normal.”
However, there are certain segments of the profession where staff shortages are more of a problem, including in rural areas and academia, said Carlson, who had a practice for 25 years in Pocatello, Idaho.
“We’re focused on targeted solutions because simply adding more people and veterinarians into the system is not going to necessarily solve the problem,” Carlson said.
The rural dilemma
In Colorado, one of the strategies for providing more vets in rural areas has been establishing a program to repay a significant portion of a graduate’s loan debt. The Colorado General Assembly increased the payment last year to $90,000 from $70,000 for recent grads who commit to working in a rural area for four years.
Nationwide, it is difficult to attract veterinarians to rural areas, where there are fewer amenities, the pay is lower and the hours are usually longer. But in Colorado, as in several other states, the need is great. In addition to cats and dogs, rural areas are home to horses, cattle, goats, sheep and other livestock that need care.
Agriculture is a major economic driver in Colorado, contributing about $47 billion annually to the economy. The Colorado Department of Agriculture lists cattle and calves as the state’s No. 1 agricultural commodity.
But ensuring that livestock has access to health care isn’t just about economics, VandeWoude said.
“There are public health implications of not enough vets in rural areas. There are a lot of instances when vets are really critical for looking at potential risk factors for human health,” VandeWoude said.
A veterinary diagnostic lab determined that the bird flu was present in a dairy cow herd in northeast Colorado in April. VandeWoude said the discovery was made after cattle began showing certain symptoms.
West Nile virus and other diseases that can jump from animals to people are present in Colorado. “We’re really dependent on vets to be monitoring and diagnosing those things to reduce their risk for public health,” VandeWoude said.
Attracting more vets to rural areas is a priority for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, said Erin Karney Spaur, the group’s executive vice president. About 40% of the more than 125 CCA members who responded to a recent survey said their veterinary needs are not being met. And 56.5% said a shortage of vets is affecting the health of their livestock and the economics of their operations.
The need for vets in rural communities is large, but so is the challenge of finding people willing to practice away from urban areas, said Jon Stocking, senior director of operations at CSU’s veterinary college. The disparity in pay is one factor, he said.
“On average, a rural vet in Colorado can plan to earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 a year,” Stocking said.
That’s about half of what a recent graduate working in a small-animal practice in a city can expect to make. Most veterinarians leave school with a substantial amount of debt. The average debt for CSU students is $155,423, according to college officials.
“I walked out of CSU with $209,000 dollars in debt,” said Callie Kuntz, who graduated in 2017.
Thanks to the state loan-repayment program and a federal program, Kuntz has reduced the debt to approximately $43,000. She has a practice in Yuma. Her husband grew up in the area. About 70% of her practice is taking care of small animals.
Kuntz, originally from San Antonio, also tends to horses, sheep, goats, cattle, “about everything except for snakes.”
“For us it was a kind of unique situation, where a city kid like me would end up in a town of 3,500,” Kuntz said.
Veterinarians working in rural communities have to be self-reliant, Kuntz said. She’s on call in case of emergencies. “But I feel like the positive side is that I get really close to my patients and my community.”
Kuntz knows a rural practice is not for everyone, but she’s doing her bit to encourage more vet students to consider it. She has hosted about 12 CSU students for two-week stints in Yuma.
“I feel like the hands-on approach for vet students who are interested in it is really key,” Kuntz said.
CSU to expand veterinary program, facilities
To meet the demand for veterinary service, whether in rural areas or at Denver-area clinics, CSU plans to expand its facilities and programs on the Fort Collins campus. The first phase of what’s been dubbed the Veterinary Health and Education Complex, or VHEC, will include a new primary care center and a new livestock veterinary hospital.
The legislature has committed $50 million to the project, which will cost $230 million. Completion is expected in the fall of 2026.
Larger classrooms will allow CSU to increase each class to 168 students from 138, said Kelly Hall, an associate professor in clinical sciences. She is co-chair of the executive steering committee overseeing the project.
The 213,000 square-foot facility will include high-tech examination simulation rooms and spaces to accommodate team-based learning. Hall said updates to the curriculum will include more attention to the well-being of students and attention to some of the stresses that are part of the profession.
A 2019 Centers for Disease Control study found that veterinarians are between two to four times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. Pressures such as burnout, compassion fatigue and access to euthanasia drugs are factors, according to experts.
“Wellness is going to be emphasized all four years,” Hall said. “We’ll have opportunities right out of the gate to be talking about the things that cause stress in veterinary medicine.”
The building itself is being designed with students’ well-being in mind, Hall said. “Spaces will be built within and throughout the building where people can gather quietly or meet in smaller groups. The architects are putting a lot of thought into lights and color and the texture of spaces.”
Sweet, one of five vets at the Belcaro Animal Hospital, said the practice will soon get a sixth vet. The staff dropped to just four veterinarians during the pandemic.
“I can’t speak for everyone but the majority of vets are burned out. We’re exhausted, seeing as many appointments as we can throughout the day,” Sweet said.
She welcomes more attention in vet schools to the real-life pressures students will face once they’re in the field.
“I do love being a vet and helping animals and helping people,” Sweet said. “I come home and I have three pets: two dogs and a cat. They’re my family, so knowing that I’m helping other people come home to happy, healthy pets means the world to me.”
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