The Readers speak!

2. OK, one reader speaks. The rest of you slackers, feel free to chime in any time. Our reader Jenna commented so eloquently on our previous post, we obtained permission to repost her remarks here as a separate blog post. 

   
   

   From Jenna:

   It's convenient to blame the current generation's parents for encouraging to follow their dreams, no matter how unrealistic, or the current generation, for expecting "someone", whether that be the government or Mom and Dad to bail them out. 

   You are on the brink of retirement. What do you have to say to someone like me, who graduated over a decade ago? I am NOT part of this new generation, nor am I of their parents' generation. I'm from the group stuck in between, the practice owners who are still paying back loans they once thought were reasonable and manageable. 

   I paid for my first year of veterinary school with savings I'd earned in a job I'd worked for half-a-dozen years before I applied to veterinary school. Unfortunately, I reside in a state with an expensive in-state veterinary school. I graduated with loans around the national average for the year that I graduated. After working for other people and doing my best to absorb all I could from my mentors, I set up practice in a rural community, figuring if I were good, I'd always be able to make a living in large animal practice. 

   I didn't anticipate the economy tanking. 

   I didn't foresee a hefty percentage of my clients leaving the area or losing their homes. 

   I didn't see all those farms being sold for development and paved over to build yet another shopping center or McMansion development. 

   I didn't expect veterinary schools to increase the number of new grads to a point that the number of practicing veterinarians would balloon out of control. 

   I didn't plan on those new grads starting their own practices when they couldn't find jobs. 

   I didn't guess that a huge percentage of those new grads would come from wealthy backgrounds, so they'd own nicer equipment (digital x-ray, etc.) than I could afford unless I overextended myself on credit, equipment that impresses clients but doesn't actually improve outcomes. 

   I had no clue those wealthy young grads would prefer "boutique" work, offering only the profitable, 9-5 services like lameness and "alternative therapies". 

   I didn't know the "retired" large animal veterinarians in my area had never actually given up the predictably profitable portions of practice (basically excluding illness and emergencies) or that a sizable number would come out of retirement when the stock market crashed. 

   I didn't realize the small animal veterinarians who had "retired" from large animal practice were selling vaccines and dispensing drugs to their "good" clients without ever setting foot on farms. 

   I didn't have an inkling I'd lose such a huge percentage of my routine work to lay people (e.g. tooth fairies), internet sales, and human chiropractors and physical therapists. 

   I never suspected that my colleagues, my fellow veterinarians, would find themselves so desperate for a source of income that they'd engage in race-to-the-bottom pricing in order to attract clients, any clients, even temporarily. 

   I banked on my clients' loyalty, only to find that if there are 10 practices working in an area that formerly supported 3, after a certain point this benefits only the clients, not the veterinarians... and after another, later point, this benefits neither group. Everyone loses.  

   Sure, I'm still a good veterinarian, but I am very, very tired of this profession. What does anyone have to say to people like me who did what we were supposed to do: work hard, pay back student loans in full and on schedule, all while providing full-service veterinary care? All this, and I bought a home I could actually afford, and as a result have never missed a mortgage payment.
   I'll soon be closing my practice and going on to a job as a non-practicing veterinarian. I've practiced just long enough that I will remember the good times without forgetting they were far in the past, in a practice climate far different than what I see in 2013. 

   The young people in my life will never be veterinarians, if I have anything at all to say about it. 

   And yes, Lindsay, veterinarians have a suicide rate double that of other high risk professions (law enforcement, military, physicians). I've already lost two colleagues to suicide.

   
   Jenna, we at VBB central feel your pain. A number of us are in the same situation! I remember my mom telling me "they can never take away your education, and that's your most valuable asset." I'm not sure that's true anymore in this economy!