On a cold February morning, large animal veterinarian Ashely Armstrong worked on one of her first patients of the day, a horse named Rebel.
Rebel is just one of many large animals Armstrong is seeing, with appointments on the horizon for goats, cows, and whatever emergency call comes up.
“I'm almost begging for another veterinarian to come in with me,” she laughs. But for a few years, Indiana has grappled with a shortage of veterinarians in the large and small animal specialties.
Armstrong opened her practice near Bedford, Regional Veterinary Services, in 2008. Since then, she’s learned being a large animal vet isn’t for everybody. There are irregular work hours spent mostly outside, no matter the weather. School is tough and competitive. And in a rural area, the pay isn’t always the best.
But the demand is there, even with two other large animal vets in a ten-mile radius to her.
“I have new clients that call every day,” she said. “If I can get to them, I definitely will in the schedule. But I mean, there's definitely times where I've had to tell them to try another vet clinic, because I'm only one person and I can only do so much in a day.”
Those gaps in coverage where Armstrong can’t make it out to a new client can be consequential. What might be a minor issue one day could turn deadly for livestock the next, and as vets like her know, swift, preventative medicine can be the difference between life and death for animals of all sizes.
A bill working its way through the statehouse, Senate Bill 56, aims to help by making it easier for vets in other states to become licensed here. If they are in good standing, those vets wouldn’t have to take an exam to get their license.
Armstrong has doubts that it’ll help ease her workload.
“I hope it helps to a certain degree, but as far as the shortage of large animal veterinarians, I'm not sure that that's going to cut it,” Armstrong said.
The author of the bill, Senator Jean Leising of Oldenburg agrees the legislation isn’t enough to solve the larger issue of a vet care shortage.
“It helps to solve what is an existing problem and can be done fairly quickly, whereas trying to figure out if we have the funding to expand the veterinary school at Purdue, that's a whole other issue and not a quick fix by any means,” she said.
But it could help pick up some slack by removing a bit of red tape.
“Just like a nurse has to take an exam, a doctor, an attorney, you know, everybody seems to have to do it and that is cumbersome,” she said.” And for some people, they would say it's not worth it.”
Leising worked with the state veterinary association to get the bill done in this year’s shortened legislative session.
“They asked me if I would carry a bill with Senate Bill 56 that would allow an out of state veterinarian who has passed the boards and is practicing in another state, but would want to come across and help in some of the areas that were there shortage in Indiana, and likely it would be in the border counties,” she said.
View the Indiana State Board of Veterinary Licensing dashboard here to see how many vets are licensed in each county
Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine is one of 34 accredited vet colleges in the U.S. And according to the dean of the school, Dr. Brett Marsh, it’s a challenge to get accepted.
“Our doctor of veterinary medicine program, we take 84 students each fall, we had 1,930 applications for those 84 slots,” he said. “So it's very competitive.”
Through this program, students are often exposed to what operating in a rural area would look like.
“We're really looking for mixed animal practitioners in the rural areas, because small animals will need attention in those areas as well,” he said. “So it's making sure they're well-rounded in their education here and understanding what the opportunities are in the future.”
But those students are likely to seek a higher-paying job in an urban setting to pay their student loans.
That’s why Marsh believes the state should consider a loan repayment program for veterinarians that take a position in an underserved area.
“I think that would help encourage veterinarians to work in areas that are considered underserved, because as they leave our program, they may have student debt, and that's one way to relieve that debt,” Marsh said.
Armstrong hopes that one day more students will move towards working with large animals in rural areas, because to her, it’s a critical part to the agricultural industry.
“These rural areas are really the heart and soul of where our food animals are and come from, and in order to be able to provide food and for it to be safe for everyone to consume, I think it's very important that we have veterinarians out in rural areas,” she said.
Senate Bill 56 passed through the Senate in mid-January and is awaiting approval in the House.
