Veterinarian shortage creating headaches at North Bay clinics

These days it takes a bit of luck to get your pet in to see a veterinarian.

Just ask Tania Soderman of Sonoma, who runs the Sonoma Chicks farm and animal sanctuary, which is home to dogs, chickens and other fowl, as well as rabbits and goats.

“We had a dog who had a foxtail (also known as mean seeds or June grass) in his ear. We couldn’t get in with our regular vet and my husband called six different vets,” she said. Finally, Soderman said, she lucked out when her regular vet called and told her, “‘OK, we’ve got a spot if you can come in three minutes.’“

“I’ve called and been told I have to bring my animal in a week. And I had a sick animal. It’s really hard to get a vet right now,” Soderman said. “If you don’t have connections and you just have one dog, you’re screwed.”

These kinds of stories are common among pet owners who are tearing their hair out over their inability to find a vet or get an appointment.

According to a 2020 study by Vancouver, Washington-based Banfield Pet Hospital, an estimated 75 million pets in the United States may not have access to the veterinary care they need by 2030 — with an important factor being a critical shortage of veterinarians.

A national veterinary chain, Banfield Pet Hospital, operates North Bay practices in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park.

Industry insiders blame a number of factors, including an uptick in pet adoptions, which means more appointments, as well as fewer doctors returning from the pandemic or even going into and staying in the field.

Also, pandemic safety protocols have complicated existing methods used to make appointments. It takes much longer to make an appointment and then actually have the appointment.

According to an American Veterinary Medical Association survey of clinic owners and practitioners, vets said they are seeing fewer patients per hour. The average productivity rate has declined by almost a quarter of appointments processed in 2020 in contrast to the previous year.

Plus, people are making more appointments during the waves of the pandemic. The Schaumburg, Illinois-based AVMA reported a 4.5% increase in appointments made in 2020 in comparison to 2019 — with no signs of letting up.

In 2021, they’re up another 5%.

“There’s been a massive increase in pet adoptions,” said Hanna Pollack, front office supervisor with the VCA Sequoia Valley Hospital in Santa Rosa.

The AVMA reported that adoptions from animal shelters and rescue facilities surged from 865,846 in 2019 to 1 million in 2020.

Pollack said she knows of a Rohnert Park clinic booked out for appointments until January, with at least one animal cardiologist unable to take new patients until May.

Her practice has lost one vet, temporarily creating a backlog of appointments and elective surgeries. The hospital does not perform emergency surgery, which always takes precedence.

“We’re faring better, but we were booked a month and a half out,” she said, referring to a period of time in spring.

Vets’ offices know the crowded appointment schedule and COVID-19 regulations are taxing. Soderman said she was told some pet owners take out their aggressions on the staff, sending “the girls in the front to the bathroom, crying.” Some workers have quit.

One Marin County vet has a sign outside that reads, “Please be kind to us; it’s not our fault,” she said.

Soderman said the veterinarian backlog is “a huge concern for me with all these animals that I need pretty much constant help with. What if it’s an emergency?”

“I was trying to get a rabbit spayed, and no one’s doing that anymore because it’s complicated, so the rabbit didn’t get spayed,” she said. “The annoyance and frustration of not being able to get help! Thank God for Cotati Large Animal Hospital. They are the only place I can go to, and you have to bring your animal there and it takes a couple of days.”

The problem is widespread across the North Bay and the nation.

Just ask Barbara Makris of Bodega Bay.

Her cat, Angus, a 13-year-old black male, was diagnosed with heart problems and needed to be seen by a cardiologist to determine if he could survive anesthesia.

Makris was referred to a VCA (Veterinary Center of America) in Rohnert Park. The center scheduled Angus for an appointment in May.

“I told my vet and she said there’s no way he will live that long. I was referred to a specialist in Marin,” she said. “But then I got lucky; I called back the VCA hospital and got on a cancellation list. Someone canceled and I got him in.”

Angus had an echocardiogram and is now on medications for congestive heart failure. Makris adopted him when he was scheduled to be euthanized in Bakersfield at the age of 3. “We had 10 good years and we’re doing the best we can,” she said.

“You just can’t get an appointment,” lamented Makris, who is a volunteer for Compassion Without Borders, which fosters animals from the Central Valley and Mexico. “These vets and vet techs are exhausted. It’s not anyone’s fault.”

Dr. Gene Harlan of Cotati Large Animal Hospital is seeking another vet to help his practice, but he admits it seems harder to find willing recruits because the pay is “too low.” With starting salaries of $60,000 to $90,000, compared to “$200,000 in average debt” from veterinary school is hard to swallow, he said.

“That’s a disadvantage,” he added.

But Harlan stressed the importance of serving the influx of animals entering the clinics. His former business partner shared with him how he was unable to accommodate a dog with a foxtail in his paw for two weeks.

“By that time, you don’t know where that foxtail has been,” he lamented.

Harlan and Pollack mentioned how stressful the job is. Harlan has noticed a number of fellow practitioners are retiring. Pollack said vets experience a high rate of suicide.

In a 2014 AVMA survey of 11,627 vets in the United States, 9% indicated they suffered from psychological distress. A pre-pandemic 2019 study also noted the 398 deaths among veterinarians that year was 1.7 times higher than in the U.S. general population.

Both Soderman and Kate Sullivan, who is in charge of the nonprofit Sonoma Action For Equine Rescue in Sebastopol, know vets who are in Soderman’s words, “working their butts off. They work so hard they’re overtired. It’s hard to see them.”

Added Sullivan, “I know from talking to my small animal vet, they’re overloaded and can’t meet the demand here in Sebastopol. I really think this problem has been developing for a while. There aren’t enough people coming out of vet school. It’s a very difficult field to be in.”

She said veterinarians for horses are few and far between, particularly in Lake and Mendocino counties. And those that do exist require patrons to sign up for a long-term contract with them, Sullivan said.

The California Veterinary Medical Association has pledged to explore new “ways to increase veterinary professional licensure and access to veterinary care in the state,” spokeswoman Michelle Cave said on behalf of the state’s Consumer Affairs department.

For now, the CVMA may have its hands full with fraudulent players. It just reported Oct. 14 that a Los Angeles man pleaded no contest on the charge of practicing veterinary medicine without a license last summer. The scam involving Marc Ching’s organic pet food store, The PetStaurant, prompted an undercover investigation initiated by the California Veterinary Medical Board. Ching was sentenced to a year of probation and a $1,000 fine on the criminal offense. He also faced a $5,000 citation issued on Sept. 24 through the CVMB.

“Unlicensed veterinary practice endangers the lives of animal patients throughout California and will not be tolerated,” CVMB Executive Officer Jessica Sieferman said.

The CVMB encourages any individuals with evidence of unlicensed practice to file a complaint by completing an online complaint form available at vmb.ca.gov.

North Bay Business Journal reporter Susan Wood can be reached at susanwood@busjrnl.com. Press Democrat Staff Writer Kathleen Coates can be reached at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com.