Dr. Terry Muratore and Rachel Cox, a veterinary assistant, treating an animal at Hearts Alive Village. (Photo courtesy of Hearts Alive Village)
The lack of veterinarians in Nevada and the resulting high costs for service are causing some pet owners to avoid care, surrender their animals, or choose euthanasia over treatment, according to others. various advocates and experts.
It also leaves non-profit shelters and rescues struggling to compete with corporations for vets.
“It inflates salaries,” said Christy Stevens, founder and director of Hearts Alive Village, the only full-service, non-profit veterinary hospital in Southern Nevada. Options Veterinary Care provides full service affordable nonprofit care in Reno. “Some of the signing bonuses these corporations pay to get these new students are outrageous. Tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.”
The shortage is not unique to Nevada.
In California, a Sacramento shelter with a budget for three vets has one, preventing 200 animals ready for adoption from release because they have not been spayed or neutered.
“They give these vets ridiculous salaries straight out of school,” said Dr. Terry Muratore, a 42-year-old Las Vegas veterinarian who sold his practice to a corporation. “There is a backlog of appointments. If you get in you can’t afford the price they charge. And if you can’t afford it or they recommend you go to a specialist, treatment is out of the question. So the animal suffers, the client suffers, and they lose a companion animal because of it.”
Muratore now treats animals at Hearts Alive Village’s low-cost hospital.
The pandemic, which has prompted newfound homebodies to seek a furry friend, has increased the need for veterinary care, but also burnout in the veterinary ranks, where reports of depression is common and the rate of suicide exceed the general population.
The veterinary crisis is the biggest threat to the safety of pets in our state.
– Rebecca Goff, Humane Society of the United States
A 2022 study from Frontiers in Veterinary Science, found that 43% of veterinary technicians surveyed strongly agreed and 34% agreed that they were treated worse by animal owners during COVID-19 than before.
“Compassion fatigue, burnout, excessive student loan debt combined with low pay, compared to other careers with similar skill sets and educational requirements, the rise of hostile and aggressive clients, the physicality of the work – it all leads to an industry that is becoming increasingly destabilizing,” said Rebecca Goff of the Humane Society of the United States.
Pet health care spending is expected to increase 3-4% per year above inflation over the next decade, according to a report of Mars Veterinary Health, and the US is expected to be short of 24,000 veterinarians by 2030.
Veterinary schools cannot produce enough graduates to alleviate the shortage, and landing a coveted spot is costly.
Four-year tuition for an Arizona resident at that state’s veterinary school is $230,000, and $290,000 for out-of-state students. Tuition at Colorado State University is $274,000 for a resident and $384,000 for non-residents. About 85% of graduates leave with debt.
At Midwestern University, non-resident tuition is $467,000 while residents pay $267,000.
By 2022, 99% of school graduates will have debt.
Predictably, 90% of veterinary professionals identify as white, according to a Banfield Pet Hospital study which says 75 million animals could lack veterinary care by 2030 and suggests the need to “not only increase the number of veterinary professionals in the US but also diversify the talent pipeline.”
The company is committed to ensuring that at least 30% of its veterinary professionals are Black, Indigenous, people of color by 2030, and to provide training assistance.
Clinical veterinarians in Nevada earn $100,380 a year on average, and the state has fewer practitioners per capita than the national average.
“The veterinary crisis is the biggest threat to the safety of pets in our state,” said Goff of the Humane Society of the United States. “Even if you have the resources, with an owned animal it’s quite a few weeks to get in for a spay or neuter surgery.”
The delays result in “unwanted litters that lead to more animals in our shelters,” Goff said. “Combined with the housing crisis on top of it, this really puts an unprecedented level of stress on our rescue and shelter communities. This is definitely not sustainable.”
Some limit services or cut back due to lack of resources.
The Clark County Community Cat Coalition (C5), which has trapped, neutered and released about 50,000 cats over the past decade at no cost to taxpayers, announced this month that due to the decline of donations and volunteers, it will no longer be trapped in the low income, lost-full neighborhoods surrounding the Animal Foundation, the valley’s government-funded shelter.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the US had 78,810 clinical veterinarians last year, earning an average of $129,000. Another 14,100 work in public or corporate positions.
Nevada has 690 veterinarians, 630 of whom work in the urban areas of Reno and Las Vegas, leaving the animal-rich rural parts of the state with a shortage. according to the USDA.
At private clinics, the cost of spay/neuter surgery, which is required by law in Southern Nevada, can cost upwards of $400.
“We try to keep our prices as low as possible so that our care is accessible to almost everyone,” said Stevens of Hearts Alive Village, “We have three full-time veterinarians, and sometimes months more time has passed for pets to come in. . If we don’t have access to vets, how are we asking people to enforce a spay/neuter mandate?”
Stevens said the spay/neuter mandate and the microchip mandate passed by the City of Las Vegas are “feel good” measures. “You pay $80 for a vet visit and $60 for a microchip. Who can buy that? And you can’t chip an animal unless there’s a vet. It doesn’t really change things unless you pay for those microchips, and find a mechanism to get them in all animals.”
Portability of license
Some states have reciprocal agreements with other states, allowing licensed veterinarians and veterinarians technicians to train in other jurisdictions while avoiding costly and time-consuming licensing requirements. Nevada is not one of them.
Stevens wants Gov. to take emergency executive action. Joe Lombardo to make it easier for licensed out-of-state veterinarians to practice in Nevada, at least temporarily, by citing licensing fees for “MASH-style, high-quality, high-volume spay/neuter events” that can get vets skilled in performing hundreds of surgeries in short order. “Not every vet can do that and we’re in a state of emergency,” he said.
The state charges $100 for a temporary 10-day license, but free for a vet who volunteers.
“Who would volunteer when they could be making so much money elsewhere?” asked Stevens.
Lombardo, in a orders from superiorsordered licensing boards in Nevada to determine whether half of the states have portability agreements that allow professionals to work across state lines, and if so, to create a plan for a Nevada reciprocity program.
Jennifer Pedigo, executive director of the Nevada Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, said she doesn’t know how many states have equivalent agreements, but in a spreadsheet submitted to Lombardo, the board indicates that it is less than 26 states.
“We have plans to expedite the licensing process for individual (sic) licensed, in good standing, and with equivalent education/exams in other jurisdictions in the US and Canada,” Pedigo said via email, and adding that he was unable to provide details.
A draft regulation approved by the board last month and forwarded to the Legislative Counsel Bureau says the board will approve licenses by endorsement (granting a license to an applicant licensed in another jurisdiction). The board will hear it again following the LCB review,
“Lack of license reciprocity is a problem,” said Stevens of Hearts Alive Village. “We need to be welcoming to vets. We need to compete as a state.”
Lombardo’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Ray, would not say whether the governor considers the vet shortage critical, but said she does not have the authority to tweak regulations.
“The Governor cannot unilaterally authorize licensure reciprocity, but it remains a top priority of his administration,” Ray said via email.
Disclosure: This reporter donated to Hearts Alive Village and used the veterinary services of Dr. Muratore.
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