Last week, a few articles popped up on Facebook that caught my attention. In true internet form, the really interesting stuff happens in the comments… so it’s hard to resist checking those out, however toxic they may be. I’ve provided links to the articles, as well as some of the actual comments on them.

CBC quill dog article: The blurb on Facebook said “A Saskatchewan man is trying to cope with massive veterinarian bills after his dog Mahola received a muzzle full of porcupine quills,” this title was pretty misleading as it failed to recognize that there were 3 dogs total that needed treatment, and the bill was for all of them. (To their credit they did have a follow up article with the title stating that removal of quills took 4 hours) Here are some particularly good comments:

Maggie the Dog: This is the heartwarming story of a 30 year old (!!!!!) Australian Kelpie dog. My favourite line “But veterinary medicine has nothing to do with this dog’s age. She hasn’t been to the vet since she was spayed, and that was when she was 15!” Yeah… just feeding the fire. “But why would someone spay their dog at 15 years old?” Most likely because she came down with a life-threatening case of pyometra (uterine infection that is quite common in older unspayed females), and the surgery probably saved her life. So maybe vet med does have something to do with her living that long? Yet… the comments don’t lie:

Upworthy Low-cost Mobile: This is a profile on a mobile low-cost veterinary clinic that provides basic services like spay-neuter and dentistry for a reduced cost to those in need. Lovely, quick video, but as always, the comments shine through:

What do all these have in common? A lot of complaints about the price of veterinary medicine, and that anyone that isn’t practicing for free or for a reduced price is scamming or overcharging. Now there have been lots of excellent articles written about the value of the money you spend at the veterinarian, and why we charge what we charge.. see here, here and here. These well-written posts all give the various reasons why your vet bill is the way it is. But have you ever heard about the value from a student standpoint? After all, what we learn now is what you will be paying for in the future. Instead of getting frustrated and angry with these internet comments, I’m hoping that by explaining the student side of things, it will help in the overall understanding of the veterinary field and why the value of your dollar starts at vet schools. (Of course, keep in mind 3 things: that this is coming from a Canadian student, that I haven’t yet graduated and started practicing, and I can’t speak for veterinarians that have graduated years ago, because the curriculum and the field itself changes so much so quickly.)

Firstly, veterinary students are a funny bunch. Many of us will say we wanted to be a veterinarian since we could walk. All of us would say it’s a calling. And none of us would say we came into this career because of the money. Or because it is easy. Vet school isn’t easy, and the career is gruelling (just look at our mental health and suicide rates!), but we have a desire to help the animals we care about. Another myth – we become vets because we hate humans and would rather deal with animals. No one comes in with that mind set. We know that most animals come attached to an owner, and we enjoy helping and communicating with people. We may enjoy watching abscesses get lanced on a cow, but simultaneously be grossed out by the thought of a rash on a human… but that’s just because human medicine is not what we like.

Now some quick stats for background. The vet profession gives out the most discounts of any healthcare (or other service) provider. This chart was given to us in a class last year, and it was pretty shocking.

Hard to say your veterinarian is over-charging when they are giving discounts every single day.

While that is sinking in, I will give you a few more statistics. A study just recently came out about the state of employment for new veterinary grads in Canada (see references for the paper). Currently, new grads get a starting salary of (average!) $69 000. But our average student debt is $55 000. In comparison, newly graduated physicians in General Practice have a starting salary average of $100 457. Registered Nurses have a starting salary of $50 759 (these numbers I found on www.payscale.com where you can find average salaries for just about every career!). So after 7 or 8 years of school (similar to that of physicians), we are closer to the RN than the GP on the pay scale if you’re looking for a comparison (this is not anything against our wonderful, compassionate RNs). Again, we are not coming into this for the money, but we do need to make a living and pay off our debts.

In Canada, we are fortunate to have universal healthcare. It also makes us slightly oblivious to the cost of our own medical procedures. I would have no idea what a yearly physical would cost for my doctor, or the cost of blood work or an X-ray, and I can tell you I couldn’t find it anywhere. There is an often shared picture from a news article of a veterinarian who was treated for a knee injury and compared it to the costs he would charge for the same injury in one of his canine patients:

It might be a little old, and it’s hard to tell just how factual it is. But it packs a good punch.

So what keeps us vet students going when we see a slide like this:

This slide is saved as “key things to know” in our Theriogenology (repro) course

Why do we not simply quit in the face of learning ridiculous numbers of “species differences,” and go and find something that pays better? Simply put, we are avid learners, we want to make a difference, and we love animals. You may think that vet students spend all their free time learning tables like the one above. But you can find us doing so much more. During our lunches, we attend talks on interesting and unique topics that don’t get covered as much in class. We use our social media skills to educate the public on the things we learn. We can be found shadowing older students to get hands on experience, and looking up the things we don’t know about yet because we saw something interesting. We work to give back to our communities with charity work, community outreach programs, and summer volunteer trips. We will even try our best to answer that Facebook message from a friend’s cousin who has a dog with a “funny looking eye” even if it’s just to say “please take him to a vet.”

Lastly, our curriculum. You can find our full curriculum on the OVC website – under each phase there is a course list with outlines of what is covered in each class. But I thought I’d share some highlights that apply to you, the client.

We learn a lot about our important role of protecting public health. We learn about all the weird and wonderful things that can affect animals as well as humans and be passed between the two (this is called zoonosis), and what we can do to protect and educate the public about the risks. We work to keep the food supply safe and to reduce your exposure to potentially harmful pathogens. This ranges from the individual level (a dog that gives it’s owner ringworm), to the national level (outbreaks of serious diseases like Avian Influenza) to the global level (preventing the spread of emerging zoonotic diseases like Ebola Virus). You will find veterinarians playing key roles in all of these things!

We also learn communication. We are taught that empathy is one of the most important communication skills – which means we have to see the client’s perspective and appreciate what they are feeling, and take this into consideration when we communicate about their animal. We practice this. Another important thing we are taught this year is “informed consent.” This means that before we do any sort of diagnostics or treatments, we have to discuss everything with client. This includes budgetary issues, as well as any clarifications about diagnosis, prognosis, treatments and associated risk factors. We also have to work with clients to make a plan and agree on options for the care of their pets, and nothing is done without conveying the value of the tests or treatments we would like to do. This is what we are taught right now in 2015. When discussing budget issues, we learn about how to talk about money and how to work with clients to get the most value for what they are paying for, while at the same time getting the information we require to care for the medical needs of the animal. So for example, in the case of the quill dog seen in the CBC article, the veterinarian will have taken a detailed history, empathized with the client, discussed the urgency of the situation, the costs and risks of the required surgery, what alternate options the owner has, and what the prognosis and after-care will be – all the while, checking in to see how they are feeling and what questions they have and addressing any concerns. Is that conveyed in the article that was written? No, but now you know the other side of the story.

When you hear that vets are in it for the money, I hope you don’t believe it. If this were true, why do vets turn down convenience euthanasia (euthanasia of a healthy animal at the request of the owner) or take moral stands against unnecessary cosmetic surgeries? Why wouldn’t we use this as opportunity to make a quick buck? Because we take an oath to do the right things for both animals and humans, and we live every day trying to do that. We really do care, and our learning and education encourages us to do so and fosters our compassion. So please take a second and consider all of these things when you hear another story of a veterinarian gouging their clients.

We really are a good bunch.

References:

Jelinski, M. & Lissemore, K. (2015). Retrospective analysis of survey data relating to employment conditions of Canadian veterinary graduates for the years 2008-2013. Canadian Veterinary Journal, 56(10), 1057-1063.

http://www.payscale.com