Trends Flashcards
List some trends in vet medicine
- Increase in companion animals, mostly small animals
- Increase in corporatizations of vet med
- Pharma returning focus to vet med… they are seeing money in the industry
- Pets becoming people
- increase in those identifying as females in the profession
- Generational shift from baby boomers to millennials
- Increase in student debt
- Consolidation in food animal veterinarians (Poultry, swine, dairy, feedlot, cow-calf)
Who is behind corporations in Vet Med?
Often large corporations are owned by venture capitalists (individuals with lots of money). They buy these corporate chains but don’t actually run them… just somewhere to put their extra cash
Clinic values for purchasing as a private owner vs. corporation
Figure out how much cash they have and multiply it by a factor of 4-6 (and that is how much we would have to pay for it. But now corporations are able to multiply that by 8. It would be very difficult to be able to buy these clinics as corporations will offer these private “retiring” vets more money.
Vet Corporation Examples
- Banfield Pet Hospital (US based)- Owned by Mars
- VCA (Veterinary centers of America)- Owned by Mars
- Vet Strategy
- Mosaic Veterinary Partners
What is the Pharma Trend in Vet Med? And explain in an example
Pharma went away from vet med for quite some time but this has now changed due to the upward trend of companion animals and what people are willing to spend on them. Pharma sees income in the companion animal side of vet med, but there is less income in the food side of vet med.
Ex. a farmer will look at the cost of a medication/procedure and weigh that against the animals worth… most the time not worth it. Whereas people are willing to spend more on their companion animals
Pets becoming People
Went from guard dogs outside, to dogs inside, to dogs sleeping in our beds… “Pets are family members”
Increase in those identifying as females in the profession, and the impact on the profession
- switch began in 1985, where graduating class was 50/50 spit
- Impact on supply of labour (maternity leave, part time (more female) vs. full time workers (more male))
- Impact on practice ownership. More women becoming practice owners than ever before.
Generational shift from baby boomers to millennials
- Baby boomers had more of a focus on working long hard hours for more money
- Millennials would rather be paid a bit less but have more time off
Vet Shortage solutions
- 2+2 model
- Vet schools like WCVM doubling class sizes
- Use of RVTs
- Use of international vets
2+2 model
Do two years at another college and then do final two years at vet school. This way there would be less restrictions with schooling numbers
International Vets contribution to vet shortage
There are lots of international vets that may be willing to come to Canada. But they must write and exam and perform techniques before they can practice making it more difficult to bring people in.
Better use of RVTs to help with vet shortage
Technicians are underpaid and underused. A lot of stuff could and should be considered technician work (ie. Dentists and dental assistants). This results in many technicians leaving the profession.
Why are RVTs underused? What would we need to do to make a change?
Vet acts are forcing us into regulations as they state what a vet and RVT can and can’t do.
We have the CVMA but provinces are allowed to opt out so regulations fall on the provincial vet medical associations. In these associations, the presidents are allowed to be in seat for one year and most of the time one meeting a year… how are they going to be able to make changes? It used to be the deans of vet colleges but now its not. OVERALL, The vet industry is lacking leadership.
To make changes to the act, would have to go through legislation. But once the act is opened, it is open to anyone to propose changes making it a very lengthy process and it could encroach on our profession (ie. Members in community what to be able to have the right to castrate neighbours farm animals) .
What affects trends in agriculture?
Demographics and economics
Producer Trend and its effect on Farm Size
No young producers, lots of old producers (baby boomers).
Since there are fewer young people stepping up looking to farm, there is an increase in larger farms or consolidated farms (ex. instead of having lots of medium sized farms, there are lots of farms with massive herds)
