Animal Welfare Professionals

We are a rural city shelter that is struggling to get a vet to come to the shelter and/or be able to fit us in when we have an emergency case.  We have a local vet that does our inspection & stuff needed for licensing but for a regular "shelter vet" we are struggling.  We have large farms/ranches in the area that he helps with their livestock and honestly that seems to be his priority over shelter medicine.  Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas to get a vet to help in a rural area?

#AccesstoCare

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Tara L.
Animal Shelter Supervisor
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Tara,

 I am sorry that you re experiencing this. Are there any vet schools that you may be able to reach out to for help near you?  Have you posted any social media ads looking for help? Do you think that this particular vet prefers large animal or over shelter animals? Have you spoken to this vet about your concerns at all? I know that in this day and time vets are hard to find and  I am sure that you do not want to upset anyone but it may be worth a conversation. Are  there any GP vets that may be willing to help the cause? I truly hope that you can find a vet that can help with your  shelter medicine program.

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Marissa Reid
Assistant Practice Manager
Blue Pearl Specialty and Emergency Pet Hospital

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Access To Care Specialist
Clinic Management Specialist
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Unfortunately there is a huge vet shortage and even in large cities it's difficult or sometimes impossible to find vets who are willing to work with nonprofits. It might help to post your location in case people have specific resources to share!

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M Saucedo
GIS Analyst
Pets for Life
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Speaking as someone in a rural area, I think it's going to always be difficult to get a vet to come to your shelter on short notice or even on a regular schedule. There are just too many demands on their time.  Your best bet is to take the animal in question to the vet's clinic.  If you don't have enough staff to do that,  you may be able to recruit a couple of volunteers to act as Critter Uber drivers for you.  Good luck.  There simply are not enough vets to service rural areas because it's really hard work and the monetary rewards are limited. 

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Charlotte W Craig
Animal Welfare Alliance
Poplar Bluff, MO
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We just talked about how great it would be to find a retired vet that might volunteer to do shots at the rescue.  We are brainstorming this topic 

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Laura Coan
Volunteer
Novastar Rescue
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2023 11:53 AM
From: Charlotte Craig
Subject: Rural Vet Services

Speaking as someone in a rural area, I think it's going to always be difficult to get a vet to come to your shelter on short notice or even on a regular schedule. There are just too many demands on their time.  Your best bet is to take the animal in question to the vet's clinic.  If you don't have enough staff to do that,  you may be able to recruit a couple of volunteers to act as Critter Uber drivers for you.  Good luck.  There simply are not enough vets to service rural areas because it's really hard work and the monetary rewards are limited. 

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Charlotte W Craig
Animal Welfare Alliance
Poplar Bluff, MO
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Shelters in our rural area will often use social media to ask for transport assistance as the animals are usually taken to the vet clinic as opposed to the vet visitng. It works well. The requests bring attention to the needs of the shelters and  rescues, and it gives community members an opportunity to help.. The animals always benefit by the added interaction with new and caring people. It also allows the vet to continue serving clients in their clinics. Every vet in our area is overextended and overworked so hopefully this helps the vets also. 

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Susan Clay
President
The Martha Decker Memorial Fund for Animals
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-29-2023 11:53 AM
From: Charlotte Craig
Subject: Rural Vet Services

Speaking as someone in a rural area, I think it's going to always be difficult to get a vet to come to your shelter on short notice or even on a regular schedule. There are just too many demands on their time.  Your best bet is to take the animal in question to the vet's clinic.  If you don't have enough staff to do that,  you may be able to recruit a couple of volunteers to act as Critter Uber drivers for you.  Good luck.  There simply are not enough vets to service rural areas because it's really hard work and the monetary rewards are limited. 

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Charlotte W Craig
Animal Welfare Alliance
Poplar Bluff, MO
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We have the same issue. We are in a rural area of Florida and have a farm and exotic animal sanctuary. We have two local mobile vets who will come to us for preventatives and routine vet care but when it comes to an emergency that's a different story.  As an example, on Friday I messaged our vet to see about having them come out for an injured goat and was told two weeks. I sent a reply message and said it was time to have our 6 equine vaccines, teeth float, etc so we better get them on the schedule and she replied she could be here on Monday. I understand being busy but clearly it is mostly about money. One of the vets actually charges us and additional $125 trip charge just to come through our gates.  I will say we have had good luck getting vet students as volunteers. 

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Lisa Burns
founder/VP
Farmhouse Animal and Nature Sanctuary Inc
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