Where have all the vets gone?

My neighbours dog died of lepto from rats contaminating his water bowl which was in the garden. It was a great Dane.
All my dogs have always had lepto 4 vaccine annually with no reaction at all.
It's not always successfully treated and often fatal.

There is a shortage of vets due to Brexit according to a relative who is a veterinary nurse. Many went home.

I left Bristol vet school in 84, practices were struggling to get assistants even back then (although as I recall most of us wanted large animal or mixed practice so easier for those). That's changed! When I relocated in 1990,the young vet doing most of the work (2 of us assistants were part-time & then there was the practice owner) was from Belgium. She went back home when she had 2 years' experience to her name. So no, not a new problem, and of course Brexit will make it harder for newly qualified EU vets to come here and plug the gap.

I’ve had to wait 4 weeks for a routine vaccination appointment. Usually get one within days.

*employed not emoyed

Just back from the vet, where we were able to have a 20 minute chat as we were the last patient.
Vissos is correct. Many veterinary practices have been or are being bought up by MediVet and other companies. This was happening before Brexit and covid.
Many of the vets they took on were young Europeans who wanted overseas experience and who invariably could be emoyed for a lot less money. As these vets have now left the UK this leaves a gap for more younger British vets to come along who will benefit because they will be paid higher salaries in order to keep them.
Nice to hear it from the horse's mouth!

Reading this, I’m really grateful that our vet’s is still functioning. It’s local, not a big chain and it covers large and small animals.
DD says the nearest Pets at Home will see you if you are already registered. She doesn’t know if they are taking more on.

There's been a 'dearth of veterinary surgeons' for years. I left the RCVS in 2009 and the problem had been reported in the vet press for years. So not all down to Brexit but exacerbated by Covid.
The shortage of Librela is down to manufacturing process & unprecedented demand.

My nephew (straight As at A Level) dearly wanted to be a vet since a young child. Couldn’t get into vet school so went into (human) medicine instead.
Kevincharley, a friend of mine, of the anti-annual vaccine school of thought, just had her animals vaccinated as pups, just lost her lovely, and very fit and active, 4 year-old Australian shepherd to Lepto. Got ill and died within a week.

Horses no problem ring and they come out, no masks, we are lucky in that we are registered with the Cambridge 'vet school' as its locally known. Different practice. 9Emergency with the dog, had eaten something nasty, couldn't go in with him, in the vets for 2 nights, had to bring him home with meds as he wouldn't eat, knew he would if at home, all well. Spanish and Portuguese vets.

Vet in my family's who was in partnership with two other vets (two practices). Ill health caused him to sell his share. Other two didn't take to new shareholder. Like many other private practices they were bought over by a huge company that seems to be buying up and down the land and cutting staff. Suppose a lot may be foreign vets who worked in private practices but have since been made redundant and gone home.

Depending where you are, there is an ’All Creatures’ chain. Our local one near Norwich is open from early morning to 12am 7 days a week. I pay a monthly fee for one full check up per year and all the de-fleaing,worming remedies - the scheme also offers 10% off normal fees.

Recently moved area, took my dog to the local Vet, a one man band, for his boosters. A great experience, laid back, not trying to flog me unnecessary tests, food , meds. Not a computer in sight. The bigger companies pressurise the Vets to become sales people ( do they have sales targets?), and the through put of Vets is hopeless when you want continuity of care. But then I could say that about GPs. Took my breath away recently as the quote for dog insurance renewal was over £500. This one is probably my last pet, Vet bills getting crazy.

AND of course there was the rush to buy puppies during lockdown which also stretches vet's time.
However, to those of you who are vaccinating annually, you might want to rethink.
The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) guidelines are to give core vaccinations - Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus - every 3 years.
Leptospirosis is a bit like the flu vaccine. It's advised annually BUT it often doesn't last for 12 months, and it only covers 2 strains. Some vaccines (Lepto4) cover 4 strains but there has been a lot of bad reactions, I personally wouldn't use it on my dogs. Also, Lepto is easily treated with antibiotics if caught soon enough. The ONLY reason my dogs are vaccinated for Lepto is because boarding kennels have to have proof - because the council tells them to!
So, give the vets a breather, don't stress on vaccines. Leave them to do the more pressing stuff.

I am having trouble finding a dentist. They've mebbe all gone to the same place

The tests and procedures for us are often available for animals these days and have to be paid for by the owner or their insurance. Vets often claim to be more skilled than medics because they have to understand illness in many different species.

Apparently fitting out a practice to the high standards customers now expect, and in keeping up with medical advances, costs a fortune .
Is that because people see the posh MRI and CT scan machines on the likes of Supervet, not to mention the sophisticated blood tests and meds they give? A small surgery couldn't hope to achieve anything close.

My daughter is a vet in a corporate practice. Apparently fitting out a practice to the high standards customers now expect, and in keeping up with medical advances, costs a fortune .
They had to close one of their practices due to lack of vets.
My 15 year old dog, who has arthritis, was started on a new treatment, Librela, in May, had her 2nd jab in June, but unable to get any since, as there is a very high demand.
So, sadly shortage of vets and meds.

We moved a year ago and registered both cats with Vets4Pets - I've not noticed an issue with a lack of appointments and have seen the vet twice in the last month. One cat is currently in surgery having a dental procedure this morning.

Where we lived previously there did seem a high turnover of vets in the practice as several of them seemed to be either training and moved on once they'd finished.

Been going to my local vets for 20 years with my cats.
Last one was put to sleep by my regular vet and I was allowed in the surgery to be with him.
Got another rescue cat fairly soon and could only have him if I lived outside the area as the rescue’s vet practice had closed and others in the area were not taking on new patients.
When I phoned to register him with my own vet was told that they were not taking on new patients. I explained that I had been a regular client for years and they agreed to take him on.
I think I’m lucky as we nearly always have the same vet, Jennifer, who is brilliant with cats, she has several of her own, and is very kind.

Lasermum

In addition to the shortage of vets, there is a big increase in demand for their services with all the dogs that were acquired during the lockdowns. Bit of a double whammy!

Yes, 12 and a half million dogs in the UK now as compared with 9 million in 2019.
I believe we are the biggest dog owning country in Europe, maybe after Germany? So I guess it kind of figures that we need more vets and that many come from EU countries where they don't need as many.

In addition to the shortage of vets, there is a big increase in demand for their services with all the dogs that were acquired during the lockdowns. Bit of a double whammy!

Our vets is a small local vets which we have used for over 30 years (except when we moved away for 5 years and then came back to them). The three main vets are born and bred in our market town. I can't answer for the other vets in our town but ours have kept going through the pandemic and have been able to run a normal service as far as possible, albeit in the car park when we were in the thick of the pandemic. I would assume that the larger the veterinary practice the more they would have to reach out overseas for their vets.

My vets are busy but fine. They do as much of their work as they can via chat or video call and have a waiting list for new (human) clients though and I think that this is because they have taken up the slack from other surgeries.

I took my dog to the vets on Friday as she had a cluster of her seizures and a new vet treated her and she was French. The owner of the vets told me a while ago that once they qualify it's hard to hold on to the younger ones as they head off for practices with higher wages as he has only a small practice at his farm. My sister who goes to a different vets and she was saying their Spanish vet has gone.
My vets do a vaccination only clinic on a Sunday morning for an hour to free up the appointments for sick animals through the week. I think it's an excellent idea.