Southern Rangitīkei Veterinary Services equine vet Julie Bell says in more remote areas where teams are not fully staffed, it is much more difficult to deal with the after-hours workload.
Southern Rangitīkei Veterinary Services equine vet Julie Bell says in more remote areas where teams are not fully staffed, it is much more difficult to deal with the after-hours workload.
Shortages are impacting the veterinary sector and there is a struggle to retain equine vets, whose focus is treating horses, in rural areas.
Southern Rangitīkei Veterinary Services vet Dr Julie Bell, who is one of four equine vets at the Bulls clinic, serves clients in an area ranging from Foxtonto Hunterville.
Bell said the day-to-day job of an equine vet involved “never knowing what you’re going to get”.
“There are so many factors involved that can make it interesting because you’re often outside and you don’t always have the perfect facilities to work in.
“You can get a call for a cut leg and it can be anything from a tiny little scratch to the leg almost falling off.
“The horses can be tricky and the owners can be tricky as well.”
Wanganui Veterinary Services vet Dr Wilna Labuschagne, who has a special interest in treating horses, said equine work tended to be very intense and required a fair amount of urgency.
“It also has the reputation of being quite a dangerous job.”
Wanganui Veterinary Services veterinarian Dr Wilna Labuschagne with her horse Saphie.
Labuschagne said she had never been injured badly enough to be hospitalised but had experienced a number of near misses, typically involving horses kicking out.
“We’re out in the field and we don’t have support staff with us, and we’re more reliant on clients to be straight with us about whether a horse is dangerous.
“I’ve been in scenarios where people say to me ‘he’s a little bit green’ and the horse is full-blown wild.”
Wanganui Veterinary Services vet Dr Netta Rousell, who often treats horses, said it was more attractive for vet graduates to go into small animal work as it took place in a more controlled environment.
“With horses, you have to have that special motivation and drive to look after the sector.
“You get far more exposure to small animals and, for me, I’ve gone through pony club as a kid and therefore had that leg-up of wanting to work with horses.”
She said there were nights where they struggled to cover after-hours shifts for horse work.
“Often horse owners only get vets out where there is an emergency and the owners are in a very stressed and panicked state.
“They see you probably as negative before you build rapport with them.”
Bell said the work could involve ending up in the middle of nowhere chasing a horse around a field and “just rolling with the punches”.
“As a new grad, I remember being on after-hours for the first time and a call came to stitch up a horse.
“Then the horse ended up being very challenging and it didn’t like vets at all, it was just me and the owner ... but then the owner fainted.
“Those are the things that you just can’t prepare for - they can’t teach you that at vet school.”
Palmerston North Massey University senior equine practising veterinarian and clinic manager Alaina Tessier said they were “definitely feeling the pressure” of recruiting and maintaining adequate vet numbers.
“I think that the vet shortages are not specific to our region or to the equine industry, but are nation- and veterinary-industry wide.”
In their fifth year of a veterinary degree, students can choose to spend more time in the Equine Veterinary Clinic, but numbers vary year by year depending on students’ interest.
Tessier said there was likely a combination of reasons for a shortage of equine vets.
“Ambulatory work can be daunting, especially for new graduates, as they are not as easily physically supported on farms as they would be in small animal clinics by senior vets and nurses.
“After-hours work can be stressful and exhausting - especially if not fully staffed as each vet has to be on call more often.”
Emergency clinics dedicated to covering after-hours work, such as in the small animal veterinary industry, were not available for rural vets.
“Rural areas may not be as attractive, especially to younger vets, compared to the accessibility and entertainment that we now find in cities.”
Bell said the heavy after-hours workload of an equine vet made it difficult for young vets.
It used to be more common for vets to see a mixture of animals but now it was normal for vets to be more specialised, she said.
“Whanganui used to definitely be mostly down the road of being mixed vets - but within that, you always have some people who have an interest in one thing or another.”
Labuschagne said there were big areas of the country that were not well-covered when it came to equine vets, and clients between Whanganui and New Plymouth would have to travel with their horse to access a specialised vet.
“It’s not like cats and dogs and cattle where pretty much every town has a vet that does them.”
Whanganui Mana Farms Riding School students (from left) Ginelle Davis with horse Bling-bling, Zoë Pawson with Nutella and Francesca Baldwin with Spartacus.
Mana Farms Riding School owner Sheree Dey said there was a need for more experienced equine vets in the Manawatū-Whanganui region.
She has been operating her riding school for about 23 years and owns 32 horses - including donkeys and foals - across more than 24ha.
When one of her foals experienced a rectal prolapse, the vet who arrived did not have the experience to deal with the injury because they were not specialised in treating horses.
“[The horse] was stressing out to the max.”
After calling another veterinarian service, she was able to secure proper treatment for the horse.
“Sometimes [the vets] are busy and can’t come straight away and so you’re standing around waiting.
“Or we can’t get them because they’re not available or too busy.”
The most common injuries that required vet treatment were gashes that needed stitches after horses kicked fences, but there were also less acute issues such as diarrhoea or rashes from a change of grass, Dey said.
Labuschagne said horse-owning clients were very knowledgeable and could have definitive ideas about treatment which made it difficult for younger vets.
“With horse clients, they tend to want the vet that they want and it can make it very difficult for new graduates to break into the industry and build up a client base.”
Bell said in more remote areas where teams were not fully staffed it was much more difficult for vets to deal with the after-hours workload.
“I think there’s the right number of vets for the number of horses, but you can’t tell horses to only get sick between 8am and 5pm.”
Tessier said student numbers at Palmerston North’s veterinary school had been gradually increasing.
Since 2023 the annual intake had increased to 175 students, and she said this marked a positive change for the industry.
