Local veterinarian shares thoughts on veterinary care in the Northwoods

To the Editor:

My thoughts on veterinary care in the Northwoods: I saw a http://change.org petition recently wanting to get an emergency veterinary clinic in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I decided to write about why, as a small animal veterinarian in Rhinelander, I am no longer on call and why I don’t believe a 24-hour emergency facility will work here, so you can see a little bit of our side of things. 

When I first started working as a vet here back in April 2002, there was a mutual agreement in place between the three veterinary clinics in town to share the after-hours emergencies. There was no 24-hour facility closer than Appleton. The way the arrangement worked was that each clinic would rotate one week on call. It started on Thursday night and ended the following Thursday morning. Boy, do I remember how relieved I felt every third Thursday morning! The on call was rough on the weekends and during the week was not always the greatest. Summer months were worse, Porcupines were my nemesis along with fish hooks. There were times when I would maybe get 1-2 hours of sleep a night. And need to work all the next day. Get home, sit down for dinner and the phone rings, another emergency, ugh back in I go. Meanwhile, I had a family at home who needed me. I raised my children being on call 1/3 of their life! 1/3 of the weekends, I couldn’t guarantee I could make to ball games, horse shows, etc. 

My children could recite my questions I would ask people when I would answer the phone. They knew if it was a true emergency or just an urgent care visit. I still have voicemails saved on my cellphone from my children begging me to come home, wondering when they will see me. 

It was then that I started to notice a shift in veterinary care in our area. The population was not only increasing, but owners were becoming more demanding. I used to only get calls when the pet was truly in need, like bad quills, severe lacerations, bloat/twisted stomach, things that really needed attention. It slowly turned to bad ear infections, diarrhea for the last few days, vomiting for the last week and now on a Sunday afternoon because the owner has time it’s an issue. No concern that the veterinarian they are calling in may have just gotten home to their family, no apology that they may be disturbing them at dinner — just expectation that we fix their pet. 

The calls that really bothered me were the ones that took 30 minutes of my time with the owner wondering what they should do. I would usually tell them if they are that concerned they should come in. Then they would decide not to come in, then at midnight call in a panic because the pet got worse and now my night is upended for something that could have been taken care of 4 hours earlier. I could go on and on about how awful and rude people can be on call. But the real terrible thing is, so many people want me to do my job and to be on call and to work all the time for little to nothing, just because I love animals! I can’t remember exactly when the emergency clinic in Kronenwetter first opened, but when they did, they only were open at 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. during the week and 5 p.m. Friday until 8 a.m. Monday and nothing was hospitalized during the day so that meant my clients would have to go back and get their pet at 8 a.m. if they needed longer stays or go to Appleton. So I didn’t think it was right to stop being on call. 

On call continued to be more and more stressful on me. I think 2017 or so the emergency clinic in Kronenwetter opened 24/7. By February 2018, I was burning out badly as a veterinarian, it affects a lot us, it’s called compassion fatigue. I was wanting to just throw up my hands and quit being a veterinarian, walk away from everything. I was no longer happy going to work, no longer wanted to work on animals.

 I figured I could be happy doing just about anything else, and probably make more money, too! 

Maybe I will write about the cost of veterinary medicine another time. This is about why I am not on call for emergencies. I also realized that it was the on call that was making me hate my job. I really did love being a vet but I hated being woken up at midnight to talk about the dog that has been vomiting for the last week, or about the bad ears or whatever else might be going on with the pet. I realized that while one hour away for an emergency clinic was a bit of a drive, but almost 95% of all the emergencies I had ever seen were not going to perish if they waited over an hour to be seen. 

So I decided that I needed to stop being on call and be a veterinarian on my own terms.

 I don’t know exactly why none of the other clinics are no longer on call, but I could guess. Did you know: A 2019 Centers for Disease Control study shows veterinarians are between two to four times more likely to die by suicide than the general population. (cited by various news operations).

 A closer 24/7 emergency clinic would be great, I would support it, but you need to find the person or corporation willing to finance it, and then you need to find the veterinarians to staff it. You should probably find the vets first then worry about the building and rest of the support staff. 

There is a worldwide veterinarian shortage, I believe just about every vet clinic in the area is looking for a vet. You can put out http://change.org petitions to express your opinion, but I don’t think that will attract any veterinarians to the area. We have all been trying to hire for years.

 It does seem like a dream job — taking care of animals in our beautiful community! But with a shortage, it seems impossible.

 In the meantime, be nice to the vets that are here doing our best to take of your pets. We love it when people appreciate us and our staff, some days it really feels like a thankless job. Proud to be a veterinarian who is not on call.

Dr.Alison French DVM