Large-animal vets are in short supply

US - Rainbow had the bad luck to try to have a baby on a Thursday. Thursday was her doctor's day off, and there was no one else for miles who could handle a complicated breech birth, not when the mother was a Holstein cow.

Instead, Eddie Benson, co-owner of Rainbow and 150 other dairy cows, ended up taking the cow to a butcher shop.

Across the country, veterinarians who care for the large animals that provide the United States with food are in increasingly short supply.

For one, there is generally more money to be made caring for cats and dogs. And with fewer students from farm backgrounds, fewer gravitate to rural jobs.

Since 1990, the number of veterinarians focusing on large animals has dropped to fewer than 4,500 from nearly 6,000, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, which said those doctors now made up less than 10 percent of private-practice veterinarians.

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Source: DetNews

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