‘I don’t see my family’: Polk County has ‘high priority shortage’ of large animal veterinarians
BARTOW, Fla. (WFLA) — “She’s so sore on her back today,” said Dr. LuJean Waters while checking the heartbeat of a 2-year old horse named Marilyn.
Dr. Waters was awoken Saturday night by a phone call and learned Marilyn had been injured in an accident.
Dr. Waters, being one of the only large animal veterinarians in the Polk County area, got out of bed and drove an hour away to care for her.
She stitched Marilyn for four hours and was injured herself in the process.
It was just another day at work for Dr. Waters, whose last day off was Jan. 2.
Dr. Waters said the idea of quitting does cross her mind.
“Every day, every day. It gets me a little bit choked up because I can’t see myself doing anything else. This is my home. This is where my heart is,” she said. “But I don’t see my family.”
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On Monday, Dr. Waters had to miss her great aunt’s funeral because of an emergency call.
Dr. Waters grew up on a Polk County cattle ranch and now owns Heartland Large Animal Services.
She cares for horses, cattle and other large animals across Polk County and in surrounding areas.
Several other large animal veterinarians have retired or passed away in recent years, leaving Dr. Waters with a heavy burden.
Polk County has a “high priority shortage” of food supply veterinarians, according to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
One challenge is salary. Large animal veterinarians earn less than human doctors, pharmacists and even small animal veterinarians but require education at a similar cost.
“You’ll work three times as many hours as everybody else and you’ll make a third of the pay. Like, that’s a hard sell to anybody so unless you just absolutely love it and it’s just in your heart and soul to be here, nobody would do this,” said Dr. Waters.
“It’s definitely an emerging and continuing problem for our industry,” said Dr. Amanda House, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.
Dr. House said UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine, the only such program in the state, accepts 150 of the 2,000 people who apply every year.
Fifteen to 20 percent of them list large animal practice as their first or second area of interest when they enroll.
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That number drops by graduation.
“We’re not necessarily retaining those individuals that are going in to large animal, to food animal specifically or equine practice when they graduate,” said Dr. House.
According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), half of all equine veterinarians leave for small animal practice or quit veterinary medicine altogether within five years.
Some challenges include salary and the demanding schedule.
“Some of the things that we can do at the college level in terms of recruitment and retention are to really try to be intentional about recruiting students that are interested in equine and large animal practice specifically,” said Dr. House.
This year, the University of Florida offered an equine recruiting scholarship.
Dr. House said she supports federal student loan repayment and forgiveness programs for people in these high-need positions.
Dr. Waters agrees.
“We have some of the lowest salaries of any upper level education professional and so increasing the income and increasing the salaries will bring more people in. People have to
understand that in order to do that we’re gonna have to increase prices,” she said.
Dr. Waters said it would also help with efficiency if more clients could haul their animals to her rural Bartow practice rather than her having to travel all over the county to treat her patients.
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