At the Vet Love veterinary clinic in Goonellabah, there is a vet on site for only 2.5 days a week.

The clinic’s practice manager Rhiannon Heighes said the clinic hasn’t had a full time vet on site since March this year.

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“This causes frustration for concerned pet owners who arrive with medical emergencies,” Rhiannon said.

“If people call us, we often have to divert them to other clinics - and they too are often short of a vet too.”

Rhiannon said even though they have been advertising widely for a new vet since the last vet left in March, they have had no applications from vets with experience.

“We need to have someone with three years’ experience or more in the position,” she said. “We can’t have a new graduate straight out of vet school here by themselves - there’s no support for them.

“We are lucky to have a vet at another clinic helping us out and working here to help us stay open. But he’s working more than five days a week – and that puts a strain on him.”

Rhiannion Heighes from Vet Love in Goonellabah.

Animal welfare

As a trained vet nurse, Rhiannon said animal welfare is her main concern.

“I have so many patients coming in - and when a vet is not here, I do what I can do - but I am not a vet,” Rhiannon said.

“I can see the patient, triage them and stabilise them. But I feel terrible that in emergency situations, I have to send them to another clinic with a vet.

“I can sometimes take samples and run pathology testing and then give the results to vets at other clinics.

“We advise people to have compassion and patience with us - and to call us on 6625 1311 first [- before they bring their pets in.

"This will save the frustration of arriving and finding we can’t help them. We have nurses here and can talk to you over the phone.”

National problem

The short supply of vets who want to work in regional areas is a problem that has been recognised at a national level.

“It’s a stressful profession that a lot of people don’t want to stay working in,” Rhiannon said.

“It also has the highest suicide rate of any other profession in Australia.”

Vet suicide

The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) has reported that vets take their own lives at a rate four times more than the general population.

Some of the reasons it has been put down to include client abuse, poor mental health, low pay and their access to lethal drugs and daily interaction with euthanasia.

The AVA also reported that common causes of stress for vets include working more than 50 hours per week, dealing with difficult clients and problems with interpersonal relationships creating a detrimental effect on their wellbeing.

The median wage for a first year vet is $52,800 which will later rise to $84,000.

However, vets in regional areas are typically on-call 24/7, and see their salary drop dramatically when compared to the massive hours they work.

Compassion fatigue

Rhiannon said burn out is a big part of the reason vets don’t stay in the profession.

“They can suffer from compassion fatigue because on a daily basis with death and the workload is extreme" she said.

“Vets also get pressured from clients to work for free, when actually the clinic has to run as a business.

“Clients also have unrealistic expectations. I had one person arrive asking for a magical injection to fix his dog.

“People don’t realise what the reality is because of Medicare and subsidised medication for humans.

“It costs a lot less for us, but animal medicine and treatment costs so much more.”

Other local clinics

Lismore’s Keen Street Vet Clinic do have a vet on duty vet every day, but are very busy.

Lismore Central Vet Clinic also have a vet on duty every day, but are still unable to get a full time vet.

Suzie, the clinic’s practice manager said the clinic is staffed by four younger female vets who only work part time in order to have time to raise their children.

The women are supported by two retired men who are still working while retired.

“They are dedicated to the job and help keep things running and fill in when the other vets have holidays,” Suzie said.

“It can be an issue at school holiday time when all the vets want time off. Locums are scarce these days and expensive – so we muddle through as best we can.

Regional vet vs city vet

Suzie said the low pay was one of the reasons regional vets are in short supply.

“Unless you are born on a farm, people don’t really want to do without sleep and get up at midnight to pull a calf out of a cow that’s having trouble,” she said.

“Lots of vets choose only to work with small animals and work 8am to 5pm.

“The vet course at uni is also very hard and you need high marks to get into it – with all that hard work, people often choose medicine instead and know they can earn more money.”

Suzie said these days, the numbers of women studying veterinary courses has overtaken the number of men.

“The vet board has done a lot of research and collaboration to see all these issues are happening,” she said.

“There is definitely a shortage out there and hopefully the vet board will find a solution."

Overseas vets

Recently, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke confirmed vets will be placed on the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List, allowing them to apply for an exemption to enter Australia.

The special exemptions for overseas veterinarians exemptions to enter Australia will hopefully to address the acute shortage of vets.

The minister acknowledged the shortage has been exacerbated by COVID-19, resulting in the pandemic puppy boom and shortage of skilled migrants.