Veterinarians in Canada say they are experiencing extreme burnout and declining mental health due to staff shortages, a boom in animal patients and the round-the-clock stress of the job.
Neil Pothier, a veterinarian since 1985 who runs a veterinary clinic in Digby, N.S., said caring for animals has never been easy, but it’s a job he’s always loved.
“But now, all day long, people are talking about burnout and thinking about quitting,” Pothier said after meeting with veterinarians from across Nova Scotia. “We’re struggling to make it.”
Pothier said the increased workload, which in many rural areas comes with 24-hour on-call emergency care, is causing severe stress and exhaustion that has worsened over time. “People are just at the point where they don’t know what to do. And there is already a high suicide rate in the country in our profession, which is frightening.”
Survey data compiled in 2020 suggests that veterinarians in Canada are far more likely to think about killing themselves than the average person. The study, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, found that 26.2 per cent of the 1,403 veterinarians surveyed had had suicidal thoughts within the previous 12 months. Statistics Canada data from 2022 found that 2.5 per cent of Canadians surveyed had thoughts of killing themselves within the previous year.
Pothier, who has lost veterinary colleagues to suicide, said the mental health of veterinary workers has been strained by a pandemic boom in the number of pets and a shortage of veterinary technologists, technicians and veterinarians available to work.
“It really exploded during COVID,” Pothier said. “It seemed like everybody was sitting at home deciding, `I should get a pet.
“After that, it was just out of control,” he said, adding that his patient list increased by 40 per cent in the two years after the pandemic began.
Earlier this year, his patient list grew again after two veterinarians closed a veterinary clinic in nearby Yarmouth, N.S. “Two of them, who are in my age group, they just burned out, they couldn’t hire help, and they left.”
The registrar of the New Brunswick Veterinary Medical Association said stress levels among veterinary staff in the province are much higher now than they were 18 years ago, when she started practicing.
“We’ve had veterinarians and registered veterinary technicians leave the profession altogether or go on medical leave due to burnout and fatigue,” said Nicole Jewett.
The province’s veterinary community was dealt a blow last summer when the only veterinarian in a northern New Brunswick community died by suicide.
“We’re a relatively small province, so it’s not just a (veterinary) licence number. It’s a person we all know and have met,” says Jewett. Veterinarians from across the province have volunteered their time to keep their colleague’s rural veterinary clinic open.
Some veterinarians may feel trapped in their jobs and unable to get help, Jewett said.
“Unfortunately, they may feel that the only option is to leave. So whether it’s leaving the profession or, you know, taking their own life,” she said.
Trevor Lawson, president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and a veterinarian of 20 years, said euthanasia has a major impact on the mental health of veterinary staff, who often form long-term bonds with the pets they care for, and the pets’ owners.
“That connection and those relationships are very important,” Lawson said. “So I think end-of-life care is a significant burden for our colleagues to carry.”
Likewise, Jewett said an additional stressor is the “moral crisis” that comes with the financial reality of running a veterinary clinic and asking clients to pay. “If the client doesn’t have the finances to pay for it (treatment), it’s a very awful feeling for the vets and the staff,” she said.
Jan Robinson, registrar and CEO of the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, said the veterinary sector is “feeling tremendous pressure from many different angles”.
Robinson said she is hearing from veterinary clinics that are struggling to hire staff, and from emergency veterinary clinics that are understaffed and unable to maintain scheduled hours.
“And we’ve heard from members of the public who are concerned about long waits to see their animals, or having to travel quite a distance to see their animal,” she said.
Veterinary associations in other provinces say they are experiencing staff shortages, including Manitoba, where the registrar said the province is “undeniably facing a severe shortage of veterinarians.”
The P.E.I. Veterinary Medical Association said there is a shortage of veterinarians working in emergency positions, and the Quebec Order of Veterinary Doctors said it has become increasingly difficult to access veterinary services across the province in recent years.
In Ontario, the number of practising veterinarians has remained flat, says Robinson, but the college has seen a change in the way veterinarians choose to work, which may be due to the demands of the job.
“Veterinary medicine provides 24-hour care for animals and it’s not a big job. So there has been a change in attitude to work in the last five to 10 years, with people being more concerned about work-life balance,” she said.
Robinson said she’s noticed fewer vets owning their own practices and an increase in vets working in roles that allow them to limit their hours.
“We’re seeing individuals moving into locum positions, which gives them a lot of control to say things like, `No, I’m not going to work Tuesdays and Thursdays,’ or `I’m only going to work weekends because I want to be there for my kids during the week,'” she said.
Pothier said that at his age, nearly 64, he had hoped to slow down at work, but instead he’s putting in “as many hours or more than I ever have”.
“I should be thinking about retirement, but there’s nobody stepping up and not enough new people coming in. So we’re stuck holding the line until things change.
