Help Wanted

When farmers in eastern Colorado need a vet, Dr. Lora Bledsoe makes farm calls. All of the equipment she needs to provide exams, preventive care, birthing assistance, and dental and field surgical services for cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses is in the back of her pickup truck. Until Bledsoe started Bledsoe Mobile Vet in 2017, farmers near her home base of Hugo, Colorado, struggled to access vet care for their livestock.

“In our area, there was a need … for someone to dedicate [his or her] time to large animals,” she says. “We have one veterinarian for every 85,000 food animals, and that’s me. I serve farms across 7,300 square miles.” Bledsoe is one of a dwindling number of large animal veterinarians. In fact, just 101⁄2% of veterinarians focus on treating livestock, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The nationwide shortage of farm vets led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to designate 187 areas, mostly in rural communities, with insufficient access to veterinary services.

A combination of factors from rising educational costs and student debt burden to lower salaries and lack of willingness to relocate to rural areas have contributed to the shortage of large animal veterinarians, according to veterinarian Angel Abuelo, who is an assistant professor in the department of large animal clinical sciences at Michigan State University.