22/07/2023
MEDIA RELEASE -
The National Shortage of Rural Veterinarians - how Horses teeth can help to solve the issue!
It is no secret anymore that Veterinary Practice is struggling to remain viable in most of Australia – due largely to not being able to attract veterinarians.
We are already seeing established vet clinics close their doors in large towns, purely from not being able to find Vets. This has major negative consequences for animal welfare and consumer protection in these regions.
Part of the reason for vets not wanting to work rurally are the long hours, relatively low pay, lack of support and overload of afterhours emergency work compared to schedulable, elective work.
When too much reliance for business sustainability is on emergencies, it gets too top heavy, with too much stress, too many bad debts, poor cashflow, poor outcomes and no one really wins. Not the animals, the owners, or the vets.
The key to sustainability of any vet business model is to have enough bread-and-butter work income to accommodate for growth of the business where it can handle the more stressful and complicated lines of work such as afterhours emergencies.
One possible solution lies in the horse’s mouth – for enough routine work to support a large enough team of vets to cover emergencies.
Every rural area in Australia has lots of horses! And all horses have teeth – that for optimal health and welfare, need an annual checkup, just like in humans, dogs, and cats.
Dental disease is the most common disease of all mammals, so it’s vital that veterinarians are at the cutting edge of these diseases.
Good dental care has a major beneficial effect on the welfare of horses, given they are meant to eat for most of their waking hours.
And healthy comfortable mouths make horses safer to ride – thus helping keep the emergency rooms in hospitals less overrepresented by horse people.
We know that with some good post graduate training, some equipment and experience, Veterinarians can be trained quickly, efficiently and effectively in the field of equine dentistry and most of the younger vets who want to work rurally really enjoy doing it!
Equine Veterinary & Dental Services Pty. Ltd. (EVDS) is a Grafton, NSW based equine veterinary clinic, owned by Dr Oliver Liyou.
He has been a vet for 30 years and an advocate for improving mental health statistics in the profession through equine dentistry and sustainable business models.
He knows about the massive detrimental effects of veterinarians being 4 times more likely to commit su***de than the average citizen – having survived a su***de attempt himself in 2005 and has lost 7 veterinary friends to su***de since graduating.
For at least 2 decades now, one of the 12,000 vets in Australia commits su***de every 12 weeks – with no evidence of it slowing down.
EVDS has 10 employees and performs dentals on over 1500 horses per year along with conducting several 5 or 6 day training workshops in equine dentistry for veterinarians. Since 2002, close to 1000 vets have attended EVDS post graduate workshops. But the 5 yearly Toothfest Conference is where it all goes to another level and the world leading experts are brought in to bring Australasian Equine Dental Vets up to speed.
From August 1 to 5, 2023 close to 100 equine dental veterinarians from all over the world will converge on Opal Cove, Coffs Harbour for Toothfest 2023 - 5 big days of lectures, panel discussion, trade exhibits, social events and exchange of ideas. There will also be some small animal dentistry lectures too.
The point of this event is to bring the veterinary profession up to date in equine dentistry. This gathering will have vets who as a group take care of and instruct other vets who take care of the mouths of millions of horses around the world.
The speakers include Prof Padraic Dixon, Nicole Du Toit and Jack Easley - all veterinarians & the main 3 authors of the current leading equine dental textbook – Equine Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery.
Dr du Toit and fellow Toothfest speaker Dr Chris Pearce, own the Equine Dental Clinic in the UK – famously known as the most progressive equine dental hospital in the world.
Another speaker is Assoc Prof Denis Verwilghen - one of the few registered specialist Equine Surgeons in the world who is also a Specialist Equine Dentist.
Dr Jack Easley was famously quoted for his answer when asked which horses needed an annual dental checkup? “All of them!” he replied. Sadly, it is estimated that less than 25 % of Australia’s one million horses actually get an dental checkup each year!
Toothfest 2023 will see speakers and registrants from all states of Australia along with representatives from NZ, SE Asia, Canada, USA, UK and Europe. Following the lecture week, 40-50 of the vets will be involved with a 2-day practical workshop being held at EVDS.
The benefits of veterinarians performing equine dentistry extend well past the horse’s mouth too. The resurgence of equine dentistry being done by vets, to levels like before the motor car arrived a century ago, has meant that many vets who would have otherwise left the profession, have been able to remain operating as vets.
Many such vets will be present at Toothfest and includes Dr Kirsten Weber, from WA, who has become a world-renowned researcher in equine dental disease.
This added level of sustainability of veterinarians in rural areas becomes invaluable in times of natural disasters such as floods, fires and even to the inevitable future outbreaks of exotic disease in Australia.
The private veterinary workforce was invaluable in being employed by government to help contain the outbreak of exotic equine influenza in 2007 – which shut down the equine industry for nearly 6 months!
As the final preparations for Toothfest are being done, a NSW Parliamentary Enquiry into the Veterinary Shortage is being conducted.
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/inquiries/Pages/inquiry-details.aspx?pk=2964
Toothfest will be a strong symbol of how there are ways of keeping veterinarians working, valued and sustainable in all parts of Australia, but there needs to be ongoing focus and effort from community, private enterprise and government to ensure that consumers don’t lose this valuable service to their region, which will have devastating effects on animal welfare and local economies.
Toothfest is only for registered veterinarians to attend and for more information, go to www.toothfest.com
Dr Oliver Liyou can be contacted by texting him on 0427 515 650 or emailing him on [email protected]
