Large Animal Vet Holds Her Own

What was so natural for Pilmer — to work with large animals in a rural area — has become increasingly unnatural for most people going into veterinary medicine. At the turn of the 20th century most vets’ business was on family farms, so all vets were large-animal vets. But now, more than 500 rural counties in the U.S. have no veterinarians to treat the pigs, cattle, horses and goats that graze their fields, fill their dairies and feed their residents. Texas farmers, vets and public health officials are worried: Older vets like Laurence are retiring, and few of the younger generation want to treat large animals.

Finances are a big factor in vets’ choice of career paths. To pay for her training, Pilmer sold her house, truck, horse trailer and three horses — and that still didn’t pay all the bills. Most students are much younger than Pilmer was and don’t have the assets to sell. As a result, they generally graduate with around $140,000 of student debt, a debt that can be more easily paid treating small, companion animals. By scrimping — Pilmer lives in a studio apartment above the clinic to avoid paying higher rent in town — and taking more than her share of night or off-duty calls, she predicts her $90,000 loan will be paid off after two years of working.

Trying to reduce the burden and attract more new vets to the shortage areas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in March 2010 announced a loan repayment program for large-animal vets willing to work in underserved counties. Dan Posey, the director of special and professional programs at Texas A&M’s veterinary school, said this is a good start but not enough. “Loan repayment is only one little portion of attracting new people to these areas,” Posey said. “The real challenge is recruitment.”

Another change in animal care in the past 40 years is the number of women veterinarians. The first woman graduated from A&M vet school in 1966; now incoming vet classes are more than 75 percent women. Large-animal practice has a reputation as a man’s job requiring superhuman strength, which may deter women from even considering the possibility. In vet school Pilmer noticed that few of her female classmates were interested in treating large animals. “It’s hard because people say women can’t do it,” she said, “but I know some amazing women veterinarians.”

The message doesn’t seem to come from vet school — Pilmer said many of the vets who supervised her were women — but traditional perceptions die hard. While schools like A&M do their best to highlight the benefits of the field — the flexibility, the honored status of large-animal care in Texas — Posey acknowledges that it’s often hard to sway students from their pre–vet school expectations. “Students tend to see themselves doing what they’ve been around,” Posey said. Few women as large-animal vets mean even fewer who’ve had women as role models.

Laurence says sex has little to do with success in the field. He said 42 years of experience taught him that brains, not brawn, will help in the most tricky situations. In the past year, Pilmer has called him for help only a few times. Once she couldn’t dislodge a calf’s head from its mom’s birth canal, thinking she just wasn’t strong enough. Laurence arrived and taught her how to do it with little exertion. Two other cases were similar. And sometimes the advantage is Pilmer’s. “The other day I had to call Amy back to the examining room to help me with a pregnant goat,” Laurence said. “She has smaller hands.”

But sex and student loans don’t entirely explain the large-animal vet shortage. Even if, as Posey predicts, the scarcity of competitors translates to higher pay, the lifestyle of long hours, long drives and no backup isn’t for everyone. “Most of my classmates were younger and wanted a 9-to-5 job only five days a week,” Pilmer said. Treating Fido for canine cavities in Dallas makes you more money, with shorter hours, less labor and better working conditions than delivering Bess’ calf at 3 a.m. at a ranch outside Plano. Small wonder that since 1990, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the number of large-animal vets nationwide has dropped from 6,000 to 4,500. In Texas, 62 of 254 counties, most of them with more than 5,000 farm animals, have no large-animal veterinarians.