The Background

For almost my whole career, there has never been an excess of vets looking for work. In fact, at times the supply has been very tight. Yet, we more or less got by.

The reasons for this are up for debate but one of them is not too few veterinary students. Instead it’s that not enough of these vet students end up having long careers.

I’ve talked before about working conditions inside the industry, and the pressures placed on young vets by the public. Into this we can add COVID-19.

It’s quite likely that the crisis we’re in would still have happened without it, but COVID stopped vets migrating to Australia and only made it worse. It’s done the same for vet nurses and the employment market as a whole.

The Current Situation

Veterinary practices around Adelaide are rapidly falling into one of two camps: either adequately staffed or chronically understaffed. Earlier in the year we saw two country branch practices close and I don’t think we’re far away from this happening in the city too.

But this isn’t my concern.

What worries me is the desperation any practice will have for a vet, any vet. Yet these environments are possibly the very worst in which to put a new graduate. I’m not confident that either employee or employer will always foresee the problem before it happens.

In other words, we could end up burning out young vets at an even faster rate.

What New Graduates Need

A vet fresh out of vet school is not the same as a doctor in the same position. They have much less practical experience, and still require 6 to 12 months of on-the-job training. Therefore, in my opinion, they need two things:

1. Continuous support from experienced vets present in the clinic
2. A low workload that can grow in keeping with their skill acquisition

Don’t think they aren’t already great, by the way. I always say a new grad is at least as good as an experienced vet as long as they have enough time and support.

The Opposite Scenario

Today’s vet graduates risk being placed into practices where:

1. There is no experienced vet available, or only part-time
2. There is a high existing workload
3. Experienced nursing staff are in short supply
4. There is poor morale

I don’t blame the practice owners for hiring them. After all, they either do this or consider closing down. But I hope the young vets get a very realistic view of what they face.

To put this in context, when I graduated. I benefited from (almost) always having someone to answer questions, and very good nurses who could also teach me a lot. I also went into a practice that was expanding. So rather than replacing a missing vet and having to pick up the existing caseload, it grew with me.

The Consequences

My view is that the first 6 to 12 months of a vet’s career are make or break. It’s here they will learn the resilience we all need to draw on in a tough industry.

If they lose their confidence early, it’s very hard to get it back. If they don’t get taught the right way, they learn bad habits in how they think, what they do and how they cope.

Of course, I generalise, and many vets have become highly successful from isolated beginnings. But to me, the risk is too high. These are people who have dedicated their lives to being a vet, and we should do nothing to put that at risk.

The Future

Maybe I’m an optimist, but I actually see a bright future. If this crisis is not the stimulus we need to look at our situation with fresh eyes, then what is? In the short term some practices may close, but what should remain is a world where young vets are nurtured and conditions for everyone improve.

Have a safe Christmas and New Year. If you can, spare a moment to tell the young professionals around you how much you’ve appreciated all they’ve done. Let’s just say that when the nurses tell me there’s an email waiting for me, my first thought isn’t, “oh good, some more praise!”.

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

Here I’m going to help you, not by giving you the answers, by giving you the right questions to consider. Sometimes the difference will be due to the pricing policy, but often there are other factors at play.

Is It The Same Procedure?

Probably most examples of dramatic differences in prices are in fact a case of comparing apples with oranges. 

You will see here, using liver disease as an example, how I showed you I could have treated the same problem six different ways with remarkably different end prices. All options were correct, as long as the client knew what they were choosing, and what they were potentially missing.

A classic modern example is the difference between cruciate ligament surgery procedures at different clinics. Here it’s not just about the very different procedures, but all the ancillary treatments and tests that go along with them. The end result can be prices that go from $1500-$8000.

Like always, at each end of the spectrum, there are big differences that the consumer should understand. Rather than just thinking: ‘it’s the same thing only cheaper’. 

Is It Done To The Same Standard?

In a user pays system, it’s quite reasonable for a vet to choose standards that reach an acceptable price point. There’s not a simple case of one global standard for anything. The fussier we get, the higher the price will go.

Of course, this is much harder to judge. The easiest example would be the difference between the same procedure done by a general practitioner and a specialist. When I discuss doing TPLO surgery for example, I always make the comment that a specialist is very likely to do the job better, just because that’s what they do all day. It doesn’t mean my standards are poor, but I have to be realistic too.

There are a lot of tests or treatments in any case that one vet might consider unnecessary, the next optional, and the third mandatory. For example, I know plenty of vets who consider an ultrasound to be essential before surgery for an undescended testicle. I do not and therefore my standards are open to criticism. 

Is It Regular Hours Or After Hours?

I’ve seen a lot of criticism from vets of the prices at emergency clinics, and it’s true that they are very steep. However, people in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones. I don’t see the same vets offering the service themselves.

I hope that a lot of the fees go into the wages of the vets and nurses offering the service. It’s often a thankless task. Although most are genuine emergencies, a fair proportion of what is seen has been left to the last minute, and gratitude is in short supply. This is probably why it is increasingly hard to find vets willing to provide the service.

When we need our vets to be available in the middle of the night, we just have to accept that it’s going to be pricey. The only other option is no service at all. There’s already a lot of South Australia for whom this has become their everyday reality.

Is The Vet Part Of A Corporate Chain?

There’s been a lot of corporate bashing, and who doesn’t love a bit of that? However, the reality is that the corporate vets are not the problem. In fact you could argue that they are part of the solution.

The most expensive vets I know in Adelaide are independently owned, not corporates. That’s because the business owners have decided to set their prices that way, and it’s their right to do so. Additionally, the only clinics I know who pay their vets a commission based on sales are independently owned. I don’t know of any corporates that do this.

You hear talk from whistleblowers of what goes on inside corporate meetings, but it’s a bit like better dog food regulation: at least you hear about it. Big organisations are unlikely to be able to keep secrets for long.

To be fair, the corporates do seem to be priced on the high side, and they aren’t much good at offering ‘on the spot’ discounts for charity cases.

Is The Vet Mobile Or Bricks & Mortar?

It seems self-evident that you can’t compare mobile services to fixed veterinary clinics, but I still need to say it as journalists seem to be missing this obvious point.

It’s not just a case of mobile vets being cheaper because they don’t have all the overheads. I want you to consider the opposite: perhaps you should be paying for the overheads. That’s certainly my opinion.

I can tell you from the days before I started offering ultrasound that I never seemed to find many cases that needed it. Before I used dental radiography, I didn’t miss it either. When I worked in the UK, where dental disease was too widespread to fix more than a small fraction, I didn’t notice anything except the very worst cases.

In these examples, it was a case of not seeing the value in doing something that I couldn’t or didn’t offer. Of course, in all three cases I was very wrong.

Unless the mobile vet is directly employed by a bricks and mortar clinic, my view is that many of their patients are being under-serviced. Not because they don’t want to lose business or send the client somewhere else. Just because it’s human nature like it was for me.

Are You Comparing Estimates To Bills?

Another big source of contention is the difference in the estimated price of procedures. I have run foul of this myself many times in both directions.

I try very hard to set an estimate that will exceed the final price. This of course means that my estimates might appear high when compared, and this has certainly happened even when I fully expect the final price to be the same.

The other side of the coin is when I make an estimate for dentistry (especially in a cat) and find after dental x-rays that the mouth is actually a disaster rather than a simple scale and polish. This can turn a $370 procedure into $1000 or more. Not everyone understands what has just happened.

Having The Best Vet Experience

At the end of the day, there’s always going to be a gap between the information you need and what you can actually get. People who try to second guess veterinary decisions often end up being paralysed by information overload. There is no worse source of pet health information than public online forums.

The gap in high quality information can only be filled by trust, and for this you need a vet you’re comfortable to work with. We’re all different, and there’s a vet for everyone. Once you do this, life gets a lot less complicated for both you and your pet. 

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

1. Made a police report against a former client
2. Complained to the Pharmacy Council of New South Wales

It was pure luck that we found out about the fraud, and it’s taught us all a valuable lesson: that the online pet pharmacy system is not fit for purpose. It must change.

As the friendly policeman said later, he could understand her actions because the temptation was put in her path. The real problem is that it was so easy.

Here’s what happened.

The Chronic Skin Issue & Its Cure

I saw a dog back in 2020 for a second opinion on a long-term skin problem. We get a lot of these at Walkerville, and they’re always hard work. With this one I got lucky.

It turned out that the dog responded beautifully to Apoquel®, which hadn’t been tried before because of the cost. But once the owner saw the response, she knew it was worth it.

After the second visit, she asked for a script, which was fair enough. We charge $292.50 for 100 x 16mg tablets and you can get it online for $253.90 plus our script fee of $19.70.

Online vs In-House Scripts

What’s going on here is that vets normally prescribe medications from their own in-house pharmacies. Sometimes however, the owner will request a written prescription they can take away to be filled elsewhere. These days this is typically done online.

For convenience reasons, this owner actually kept getting the drug from us despite having a script. After all, the cost wasn’t that much different. The script seemed to start being used when we said we needed to see her dog again before we could supply more.

Pet Meds & The Law

You see, vets legally and morally must have animals ‘under their care’ in order to prescribe safely. The commonly accepted timeframe between checks is 6 months on stable medications. At this time we will ask for a recheck appointment costing around $60.

It sounds logical but you would not believe how often this is a source of conflict. In the current case, it seems that by the time the dog’s owner wanted to use the script, it was past 6 months. So she simply wrote over the date with a new date!

I’ve seen the fake and let’s just say that it was a pretty weak forgery. Passing a doctored prescription is completely against the law of course. But the temptation to do so is combined with a system more holey than Swiss cheese.

It’s Too Easy To Fake It

Once I found out the pharmacy had been supplying drugs without a valid prescription I assumed that they were also breaking the law. How wrong I was. It turns out that (in NSW at least) what they did was totally fine.

Before COVID, the pharmacy was supposed to get the original signed hard copy that the client had been supplied. Since that time, they are totally within their rights to supply the drug based solely on an electronic copy. Which can be changed by anyone with any smartphone.

The way it is, it’s too easy for Schedule 4 prescription drugs to be supplied without any regard for the consequences. In the internet age of self-diagnosis, this is extremely worrying.

It gets worse if a client tries to buy the drug from overseas. We saw one of our patients go blind after the owner bought counterfeit cyclosporin from Singapore. Of course, she was told it was the real thing, only cheaper.

How Often Does It Happen?

I would dearly love to go through the records of one of these pharmacies and see just what percentage of their prescriptions have physical proof of validity. This is a crazy system. Imagine going to your local pharmacy with just an email and getting a prescription filled.

If you can, it’s wrong.

What Must Change In Pet Scripts

I remain happy to support online scripts, just not ones that lead to:

• my signature being shopped around on forged documents
• pets being medicated without any veterinary oversight

From now on, we will only handle the electronic and hard copies ourselves. To do this, we will need to nominate just one pharmacy and send all scripts there. There will be a modest increase in costs but the result is peace of mind.

Another alternative would be for the industry to get together and make a secure online system not open to fraud. And I’m keen to hear the industry view in the comments below. But I’m not going through this again.

Related: Why 6 Monthly Prescription Checks Matter

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

After all, part of the reason vets use it so much is because we think you want us to.

What Is Convenia?

Convenia is a long-acting broad spectrum antibiotic called cefovecin. Once injected, it attaches to blood proteins and works for up to 14 days.

When Convenia first came on the market it was a godsend, or so we thought. Here was the answer to all those cats and dogs who just couldn’t be given pills. And to our fears that owners would miss antibiotic doses.

And in truth it is a remarkable antibiotic. It’s generally safe, highly effective and not too expensive in smaller animals like cats. For these reasons it’s changed the very nature of veterinary practice around the world.

So where’s the problem? It’s right there in the name.

Convenia Is Too Convenient

There are two good reasons why cefovecin is usually not the best antibiotic, but no others are so easy to administer. This leads are some of the following thoughts a vet might have:

• I bet this cat is hard to give tablets to
• I doubt this owner can give the medication any other way
• If I use it I’m more confident that my treatment won’t fail
• Owners prefer it when I give their animal a shot
• My boss says I have to give Convenia for this
• If I don’t give it, they’ll go elsewhere

And some of these could even be true. So, faulty as it is, it’s the popular choice. Even for things we just shouldn’t be using antibiotics for at all, like:

• simple diarrhoea
• cystitis (lower urinary tract signs) in young cats
• routine surgery or dentistry

There’s also the added pressure that once we make up a vial, it needs to be used within a time limit or we throw away several hundred dollars.

So what were those two reasons it’s not so good?

1. Convenia’s Side Effects

When Convenia came on the market, vets were understandably excited. It opened up a whole new way of treating difficult cases. But fairly soon we started to hear stories of adverse reactions.

Cefovecin contains the same base structure as penicillin, and so allergies can occur. When they happen with other antibiotics, we just stop them. With Convenia, blood levels are known to persist for 65 days.

That’s an out of control roller coaster you can’t get off.

However, let me be absolutely clear. It is still an excellent choice in three situations:

1. Resistant infections
2. Severe life threatening illness
3. When cats simply will not allow other medications to be given

Serious reactions are rare enough that when my cat was sick, I still chose Convenia to get her better. The daily fight to get her to take the pills was ruining our relationship. But perhaps if I’d known then what I know now I would have tried harder.

2. Convenia’s Wider Effects

Nobody has ever come to me with what I am about to say. I have learnt this only by finding the information myself. It’s the silence of a guilty status quo that needs to change.

It turns out that cefovecin is a “highest priority critically important antimicrobial”. It’s supposed to be a third line antibiotic, only used after the first and second choices fail, or after culture and sensitivity testing. This is when you swab and grow a bacteria to work out which antibiotics it’s sensitive to.

A recent Australian study found that vets were only performing cultures 0.3% of the time. Even when they did they always started the Convenia before the results anyway.

I am included in this behaviour. It can be hard to convince an owner to spend the extra 100+ dollars on testing and the results take several days to get. Usually you just want to get on and treat.

Why Does It Matter?

Antimicrobial resistance affects us all. We tend to blame doctors for overprescribing, or the agricultural industries, but people in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones. The rate of antibiotic resistance in dogs and cats is comparable to that in humans and certainly higher than farm animals.

The use of third-generation cephalosporins like cefovecin is known to lead to the development of multidrug resistant organisms in people. Convenia is probably a worse offender due to the long ‘tail’ between 14 and 65 days when antibiotics are present in the body at sub-lethal doses to bacteria. This is a boot camp for resistance.

The problem isn’t just for ‘society’. If I give your cat Convenia when I could have used a first or second line antibiotic, their resident flora will probably develop resistance too. That means important antibiotics could fail later when we really need them, even possibly for you if you pick up those bacteria.

So What Should We All Do?

The path out of this mess is actually quite simple. Here are some suggestions for cat owners:

• Proactively tell your vet if you think you can give oral medications. We are often time-pressured so you might find you don’t get a choice otherwise.
• Even if you think you can’t, you mostly can. Common diseases like hyperthyroidism and chronic kidney disease tell us that every cat owner can do it when the chips are down.
• If it still seems impossible, visit my page on giving cats tablets. You’ll see that I stress the importance of roping in a second person to help, even a neighbour.
• As a last resort, most practice nurses will give tablets or injections for no extra fee if you come down at a set time.
• Antibiotics aren’t just tablets. Most can be made in liquid form, which is generally easier. And would you believe that giving a daily injection is easiest of all once you know how. Most recently a 90-year-old client of ours totally aced it!

For vets, who are in the driving seat it’s even easier:

• Vets should ask owners about their capabilities and wishes. If owners want to try we should give them support from the practice.
• We need to take a good hard look at whether some conditions really need antibiotics at all. Part of the problem here is our tendency to be risk averse (see below*).
• If antibiotics are needed, we should ask ourselves whether we can use one of low or medium importance instead.

By saying all this I don’t want to set myself up as a saint or criticise other vets. Until recently I was using Convenia way too much, often for the wrong things. The authorities can’t criticise either until they’ve made a decent effort to get the information in front of busy vets.

After all, they’re the ones who registered it, allowed it onto the market and then stepped away.

Sources

Hardefeldt, L., Hur, B., Verspoor, K., Baldwin, T., Bailey, K. E., Scarborough, R., … & Gilkerson, J. (2020). Use of cefovecin in dogs and cats attending first‐opinion veterinary practices in Australia. Veterinary Record, 187(11), e95-e95

Norris, J. M., Zhuo, A., Govendir, M., Rowbotham, S. J., Labbate, M., Degeling, C., … & Ward, M. P. (2019). Factors influencing the behaviour and perceptions of Australian veterinarians towards antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance. PloS one, 14(10), e0223534

Singleton, D. A., Rayner, A., Brant, B., Smyth, S., Noble, P. J. M., Radford, A. D., & Pinchbeck, G. L. (2021). A randomised controlled trial to reduce highest priority critically important antimicrobial prescription in companion animals. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-14

The National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship

* One problem we don’t talk about enough is the pressure vets feel to practise defensive medicine. I recently treated a limping dog whose owners told me at the outset they wouldn’t have xrays done. So I treated the dog the best I could and when the dog turned out to have bone cancer (as I suspected), they made a complaint anyway. This sort of attitude gives us very little room for manoeuvre to not use antibiotics. If we are wrong even 1% of the time, we could still be held responsible.

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

The big problem with cat laws in Australia is that they seem to be enacted by those who know the least about cats. It’s leading to unrealistic expectations and poor results.

I’ll discuss why that is in a minute, but to not sound negative I’ll start with the benefits of curfews.

Also read: Which South Australian Councils Have Cat Laws

Why Contain Cats

Here are three good reasons. Keep reading to see why the first two aren’t as simple as they look.

Wildlife

I have neighbours who allow their cat to roam and hunt far from their property. I’m also a bird lover. It drives me crazy but there’s nothing I can do.

Urban cats are believed to kill an average of one wild animal every two days. Many of these in Australia will be introduced species like rats, mice, sparrows and turtledoves but local wildlife is just as much at risk.

The problem is acute where cats have access to native vegetation. Single cats have been repeatedly shown to be able to cause local extinctions. No cat should be allowed to roam into natural ecosystems.

Nuisance

The main reason that most Australians support cat confinement is the nuisance that roaming cats create in the suburbs. Nighttime caterwauling, urine spraying and using the yard as a toilet. This isn’t just unpleasant, it can also spread diseases like toxoplasmosis.

There’s no doubt that some of these cats are pets coming over the fence.

Cat Health

The main reason I keep my cat inside it that it’s good for him, even if he doesn’t agree. His personality means he’s obsessed by hunting, but also clearly at great risk of road trauma and cat fights. Both of these lead to early death.

It’s worth admitting here that I let my last cat outside during the day. She was a timid homebody who never strayed from the yard and showed no interest in hunting. Of course many owners say this, but how well do we really know our cats?

Problems With Cat Curfews

Evidence for the effectiveness of curfews is poor.

“Overall, councils with cat containment regulations have not been able to demonstrate any measurable reduction in cat complaints or cats wandering at large following the introduction of the regulations.”

RSPCA, 2018

A total of 33 cats and 23 kittens were brought into the RSPCA as strays from containment suburbs in 2016, compared with 20 cats and 24 kittens presented in 2015

Canberra Times, 2017

Attendance to cat nuisance and related complaints continue to account for around 13% of Council’s animal management services. In 2000 we received 349 calls for assistance … and impounded 381 cats with 37 being reclaimed (in 1998, 264 cats were impounded in which only 14 were reclaimed by owners)

Casey City Council, 2001. Containment began 2 February 1999.

Anyone promoting cat curfews or containment needs to understand why they don’t work well on their own.

Most Stray Cats Aren’t Owned

I want you to recognise the inherent assumption in the third quote above: “reclaimed”. This is the problem at the heart of the debate and you can find it everywhere. It goes right back to the myth that feral cats come from ‘dumped’ pets.

It’s time to show you something that most people can’t see. Look at the cat in this ABC article, and then at the picture at the top. What do you notice about the cats’ faces? Sort of wide or fat, aren’t they?

Once you get your eye in, you’ll see this everywhere (such as a recent question on our facial swelling page). This is the characteristic appearance of a tomcat: an adult, undesexed male. Not a cat any sensible person owns without desexing. That’s because these are the cats mostly responsible for roaming, cat fights and spraying foul-smelling urine.

Cat curfews do nothing to reduce these except make it easier to see they’re not owned.

There is a large and self-sustaining population of feral cats found throughout Australia. It’s true that it’s made worse by people feeding strays, but cats have essentially become Australian wildlife despite our best intentions. Any solution to roaming cats needs to include these, but it isn’t easy.

Trapping Doesn’t Work

This explains why trapping is so unhelpful. Anyone who starts trapping cats finds that they keep coming back, just in different colours. One Adelaide resident in this article actually seems proud to have trapped over 30 cats in four years. Possibly she doesn’t realise that adult feral strays are often euthanased.

Cats can’t be trapped faster than they breed. That’s the realisation that most organisations come to eventually. You can read here of one local example.

What limits numbers is reducing their food sources and using the territoriality of existing cats occupying the space. Both will limit breeding success and prevent colonisation. This is just as true for urban possums.

Curfews Alone Won’t Stop Hunting

Overnight cat containment may have very little effect on hunting behaviour. If you think about it, most native species in cities are birds, and these are generally active during the day.

Of course, curfews or containment should give some benefit, as long as we have realistic expectations. Certainly, where native mammals are present, overnight curfews should reduce kill rates substantially.

Cats Aren’t The Only Predators

I read a recent news story of an animal rescue shelter whose ducks were reportedly taken by a cat getting into their ‘fox proof enclosure’. This is problematic on two levels.

First, it underestimates foxes badly. Anywhere a cat can go, a fox can go too. Therefore, the enclosure wasn’t fox proof. I could write you a very long list of all the ingenious and acrobatic ways foxes have got into chicken coops. A gap bigger than 4 inches anywhere in or on an enclosure is fair game.

Second, cats don’t go for animals the size of ducks or chickens very often. Therefore, if you read reports of these animals been taken by cats, look for proof. Many urban residents live in denial that foxes are among us. That is, until they get chickens…

How We Can Do Better

Future containment bylaws will only satisfy all residents if they can achieve the following goals:

1. There is good owner education about both the benefits of containment and what it cannot achieve
2. Owner compliance is monitored; too many animal bylaws are just wishful thinking
3. The council spends time and money on setting up systems to humanely handle and store cats

In closing, I will leave you with another quote from the 2018 RSPCA report.

Enforcement of containment regulations can prove difficult for various reasons including: 

• difficulty of capturing cats in breach of containment regulations 

• unrealistic community expectations in regard to enforcement and management 

• the majority of trapped and impounded cats are not owned or traceable to an owner so there is no possibility of taking any enforcement action 

• the expense of proper monitoring and enforcement may be prohibitive and is likely to far exceed the benefit gained from limited cat containment regulations. 

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. I for one can’t wait for the day when wildlife are safe on my property. But we should go into it with our eyes open.

Now read: Making Indoor Cats Happy

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

Further Reading

Legge, S., Woinarski, J. C., Dickman, C. R., Murphy, B. P., Woolley, L. A., & Calver, M. C. (2020). We need to worry about Bella and Charlie: the impacts of pet cats on Australian wildlife. Wildlife Research, 47(8), 523-539 Full Article

RSPCA (2018). ‘Identifying Best Practice Domestic Cat Management in Australia.’ (RSPCA Australia: Canberra, ACT, Australia.) Full Article

This article will be updated regularly so please let me know if you hear of any changes before I do. Absolute accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

Cat Registration & Curfews By Council Area

Please note that on Kangaroo Island the maximum of 2 appears to be for dogs and cats combined, and there is a future intention to remove cats completely by 2030. The question mark refers to the fact that I can find no regulation to keep cats confined, but expect that it is required.

Please also note that regardless of the actual curfew, almost all councils have the following written in their bylaws:

“An owner or occupier of premises is guilty of an offence if a cat (or cats) kept or allowed to remain on the premises causes a nuisance by reason of: 

• noise or odour created by the cat or cats; or
• wandering from the premises; or
• the aggressive nature of the cat or cats.”

Regarding registration, it’s important to point out that in fact all cats in SA are required to be registered with the Dog and Cat Management Board. I have only included councils where there is a separate bylaw and generally where a fee is also levied.

What To Do With Roaming Cats

If you find a cat roaming in a council with curfew laws, please do not trap them unless as a last resort. First you should door knock the neighbours or attach a note to the collar. Next, look at improving your fencing . Finally, try gentle methods like smelly deterrents, water or loud noises.

If a cat is identified by a collar with owner contact details attached or has the letter M tattooed in its ear do not trap it. You are breaking the law if it is not released from the trap immediately.

Issues with owned cats causing nuisance must be dealt with through a formal council complaint, not via trapping.

Now read: What You’re Not Told About Cat Curfews

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

There’s something else contributing to the problem that I did not mention, because it’s tricky to bring up without blaming innocent people. It’s the deterioration of the relationship between vets and pet owners.

The Power Of The Web

The problem as we see it is one of expectations, and it’s the result of a positive change. In only the past few years, vets are noticing that clients are coming to us increasingly well-informed. Something appears to have happened to web search to make it more relevant.

Here’s the issue: your dog or cat has one condition out of a thousand common, and a million rare ones. If you get your search right, you can easily and quickly read more deeply on this specialist subject than your veterinarian will ever have the time to do.

Vets In The 90s

When I graduated in 1994, life was simpler. What we learnt came out of textbooks and journals, which were inaccessible to pet owners. The internet was just a baby learning its first steps.

This was undoubtedly worse for pets. Vets were not as accountable, and standards varied greatly from clinic to clinic. Some I worked in were as good as any today, and some were frankly diabolical.

For any decent vet though, it was great. We were the font of all knowledge, and we had free rein to treat animals the way we felt best. Clients needed and respected us in a way we don’t see much any more. And if we weren’t always perfect, it was rarely noticed.

Vets Now

So imagine you are a new or recent graduate in 2021. You’re still learning, but as long as you get enough time you can do a good job. However, now you’re expected to advise people who come in better informed than you are.

Not only are they able to measure your advice against their pre-reading, but they can also compare the treatment plan to what other people say, plenty of which will be contradictory. And you don’t yet know which bits of all the knowledge are reasonable not to know.

Are these clients patient? Are they understanding? Most are, but certainly not all. And as anyone knows who works with people, it only takes a few to spoil it for everyone.

Where It Leads Us

The problem is that it is almost certainly adding to work dissatisfaction for many veterinarians, especially younger ones. You may know everything there is to know about a disease, but you still need a vet to guide you on its best management. If they keep leaving the profession the way they are now, availability of veterinarians goes down.

So what am I saying here? That we need to be treating each other with a bit more humanity. Owners need to understand that their vets are human beings, not computers.

It’s in the interests of all of us.

The Consequences

With the working conditions that young vets face, the only thing keeping them in the job is their work satisfaction. If we start making a song and dance about every small thing, we are going to lose them, and that ruins it for everybody.

This is not an argument for not holding vets to account for major mistakes. But even here, handling them badly can be career-ending or worse. Most vets care deeply about what they do, especially poor outcomes that they feel responsible for.

Blame or punishment might feel like the natural response. However, you will usually find that inviting an open conversation leads not only to better practical solutions but also genuine healing for everyone.

It’s A Partnership

The truth is that we need each other. As much as vets need your trust, they could also benefit from what you’ve learned. You can help by doing it as respectfully as you can; perhaps by trying to picture yourself in the same position. And there’s always a chance that what you’ve read is only part of the story, or not relevant to Australia.

Personally, I’m quite comfortable not holding as much information in my brain as the sum total of all the internet-connected devices on the planet. I just hope that you are too. Because this situation is here to stay, and it could be yet another nail in the coffin of accessible vet care.

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

In both cases, a lack of vets has been cited as the main reason. So in the interests of the care for your pets, it’s worth taking a closer look at what’s happening to the vet supply in Australia. Afterwards, I’ll offer some advice for new graduates and recently employed vets.

Reasons For The Vet Shortage

Australia has seven veterinary schools, including one right here in South Australia. When the three newest ones opened, we were warned it would lead to an oversupply of vets. So why hasn’t that happened?

It seems like vets are leaving the profession much faster and earlier than they should be. The reasons why aren’t well understood. I’ve got some ideas, but let’s start with what is published on the subject.

Here is the only recent study I can find that lists the reasons why young vets leave their job.

Reasons for leaving or planning to leave for 98 recently graduated veterinarians in New Zealand

At first glance, this seems surprising. The biggest reasons stated are common to any profession: inadequate support, workplace conflict, remuneration and workload.

However, we shouldn’t be surprised. Vets are just like anyone else, and what matters most is being happy, valued and supported at work. Is this what we are doing wrong? I think it is.

I’ll expand on each on these reasons.

Inadequate Support

It’s notable that the two vets that are closing are both small practices where only one vet generally works at a time. Clinics like these are certainly less popular with vets, because there’s no-one to offer support for things like:

• professional advice
• cover when things get busy
• sick leave
• even just conversation

These benefits are especially important for young vets. But for them, support isn’t just having other vets around. It’s the other vets also being willing to offer their time to help. Even in bigger practices I’ve seen young vets left to fend for themselves.

Those who have come to Walkerville for a while will know it’s grown it from sole-vet to a five-vet practice. The reasons have always been about adequate cover, support, and yes, being able to get vets to apply when a job vacancy appears. I always saw our small size as a threat to our existence.

Workplace Conflict

It’s very hard to know whether conflict is worse in vet clinics, but I suspect it is. I’ve had my share of toxic cultures where everyone is so busy trying to protect themselves that the team ethos disappears into hostility. It’s really a management issue.

Our job has conflicting pressures from many sources: clients, patient needs, employers, but the one that often gets overlooked is our own internal pressure. Most of the conflict I’ve seen is when vets want to do what they feel is right, but feel unable to do so.

We should always remember that vets (much more than doctors) are employees, and are often expected to toe the practice line. This can be very hard if you’re asked to do something you don’t believe in.

Read more here about the new pressures on vets from owners.

Workload

Conflict is also very often related to the feeling of being short on time or overworked. Overwork is horrible, because it increases stress and fatigue. The double whammy is knowing you’re not doing as good a job as you could if you had more time.

I always say to student vets and recent graduates: new vets are actually very popular with a client, because what they lack in experience they more than make up for with care and enthusiasm. However, in order to shine they need to be given enough time.

Young vets are extremely vulnerable to overwork because they take longer to get to the same result, and because they lack the coping strategies. Like standing up for themselves and saying “I’ve got too much on”, “please don’t double book me” or “I’m not comfortable doing this procedure without training.”

Not overworking vets does mean sometimes turning clients away at busy times. This is very hard to do, and very hard to justify on the phone. You can understand why some practices will keep saying yes and increasing the pressure.

Remuneration

Vet wages lag well behind other professions, and nowhere more so that with new graduates. To some extent this simply reflects their greater need for support early on. However, wages should then rise quickly as skills develop.

It’s still an unusual vet that comes to me asking for a pay rise. I hope I do the right thing, but I could be so easily be overlooking pay rises. And I’m in a thriving, busy practice. There are probably plenty that simply cannot afford to pay their vets what they deserve.

In the end of the day, the amount any vet can be paid depends partly on the fees we charge you. There’s always been a push-pull between vets being adequately remunerated and being affordable to everyone who needs them.

City vs Country

One specific factor in SA matters too. It’s well known to be harder to hire rural vets everywhere, but especially here with our smaller towns. They can lack a full range of lifestyle choices, and are long drives away from each other and Adelaide.

Most vets come from the city so why would they move away from friends and family unless they had to? It’s not as though we’re talking about the country jobs being very different either. Even in country towns, most vets are still only seeing small animals these days.

Country vets also often have to do their own after-hours work (though not the two that are closing it must be said). Please note that both towns still have larger vet clinics.

Yes, COVID Affects This Too

Until Covid, I wasn’t aware of just how many vets Australia has been importing to make up the shortage. Needless to say, that has all stopped, and there’s no doubt it’s contributing to the overall lack we are experiencing. But of course, if we look after our vets properly, we shouldn’t need to import them.

Advice For New Vets & Recent Graduates

I strongly suspect that out vet shortage starts with how we treat vets at the beginning of their careers. I think we aren’t setting them up for success, and allowing too many to slip through the cracks.

God knows I’m not perfect either. In the interests of human well being and the future care of animals everywhere, here are some suggestions for young vets going into their first job:

1. Choose your first practice carefully. It should have an experienced vet available in the clinic every day. You may be expected to be alone for a few hours, but that’s all until you are confident. This is usually 3 to 6 months.
2. Even once more experienced, no vet should do sole charge for two years after graduating. Make sure that the staffing when you are hired will be maintained.
3. Don’t accept your appointments being double booked. Make that a condition of employment if you feel you have to. Clients with routine appointments are always happy to be rescheduled for emergencies.
4. When it comes to conflicts over clinical standards, use the nuclear option: evidence. If you think you’re right, do a literature search and present the results to your practice owner. They’ll need a very good reason to continue the old way after that.
5. Get support programs written into your employment contract, like regular meetings to discuss your progress (honestly the corporates have it all over us on this point). Meetings would also be an excellent time to nip conflict in the bud.
6. Your student peers are a valuable source of support so never fall into the trap of thinking of them as competitors. I find the vet social media forums to be excessively preachy and full of unrealistic perfection, so try to engage with real people face-to-face as much as possible.
7. Get a mentor from outside your practice. There is an established AVA program not just for members but you can do it yourself as well. Just find a vet you can trust so that you can be completely open with them.
8. Consider joining the AVA especially in the (cheaper) first two years. They have a free phone counselling service for members. In the absence of any well-established professional unions, this is as good as it gets.
9. Be open about pay. Talk with your classmates about this and anything else, and then bring it to your employer’s attention if you think there’s a problem. Most of the time, it’s just that they have their mind elsewhere.
10. The country can actually be a fantastic way to start a career if the practice is right. That’s especially true for ‘joiners’ who get involved with the local sports and community clubs.
11. Know yourself and your requirements. How resilient are you? Can you work full time without mental or physical exhaustion? How would you cope away from friends and family? Do you have a good support network?
12. Be prepared to leave if it isn’t right. Don’t feel guilty about ‘leaving them in the lurch’. Your future is at stake here.

I would love to hear more of your suggestions below. Names can be anonymous. Replies to this email will also be treated with the strictest confidence.

Related: Veterinarian Workplace Stress & Suicide

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

Traditional sources like breeders and shelters have long waiting lists. The only quick and easy way to get a puppy is from a pet shop. I perfectly understand if you’ve thought about it. But before you make the commitment, there are a few things to consider.

This is an honest, open discussion of what you can expect from pet store puppies. If after reading you want to get one, you’ll have have a good idea of what to look out for.

Also read: Help! I Can’t Get The Breed I Want!

The Source Of Pet Shop Puppies

Most of the puppies sold in Adelaide pet shops come from puppy farms interstate where such breeding is allowed. The problem is that it’s rarely clear from the paperwork or the shop. Therefore, an absence of information is enough to raise suspicions. 

Additionally, many puppy farms are large businesses quite capable of making themselves appear legitimate online. It often takes a bit of detective work to find out the truth.

Why does it matter? Because of the next issue…

Health Issues

There’s no question that many puppies from pet shops turn out to be excellent dogs, but vets observe a higher rate of physical and mental illness. Some of this may derive from the shop, but a large part is believed to be due to how they are bred.

Giardia is an important protozoal gastrointestinal infection that is both serious and easily spread to people. It should not occur in well-bred dogs, but we see it very commonly from pet shops. I know of one new owner who was hospitalised, and many puppies who died or were sick for extended periods. 

Coccidia is another protozoal infection that is more easily overlooked but just as serious. Any puppy that does not always have normal poo should be suspected of having coccidia or giardia.

Anxiety is more common in puppies bought from pet shops. We suspect this is due to four factors:

• An impoverished breeding environment
• Early separation from their mothers
• Transit at a sensitive age
• A lack of 24 hour care in the shop

Anxious dogs usually retain some traces for life. This affects both trainability and quality of life.

Also worth mentioning is inbreeding. We don’t have evidence, but it appears that pet shop puppies are more likely to have genetic diseases. The suspicion is that puppy farms replace breeding dogs with others bred from their own puppies rather than buying in new stock.

Shop Management

I have personally observed Adelaide pet shops not housing puppies adequately. Here are some red flags:

• Pens and cages made from wood, which make disinfection all-near impossible
• Puppies of different ages being housed together, risking vertical disease transmission
• Inadequate space for the number of puppies being housed, preventing emptying and cleaning of pens
• Puppies being left alone at night, either in the shop itself, or out the back
• Staff unqualified for animal husbandry

Regrets

One thing I don’t want you to discover without being warned is regret. In the moment of buying a puppy, with the kids all excited, it’s easy to not see the future.

If things go well, for the next 15 years you’ll be taking your dog for walks, going to the vet, visiting friends and spending time at the park. Everywhere the first topic of conversation is going to be your dog. Before you buy it’s worth making sure that you’re going to be okay answering the common question of where he or she came from.

You will undoubtedly face some judgment and even open hostility, but most people won’t care. It’s more about picturing how you’ll feel inside and whether the kids will feel the same way in the future. This is one of the reasons I advise heavily researching the origin of your puppy so you don’t find out later.

Price

A very practical consideration is the high price you will pay for convenience at a pet shop. Although breeders are definitely expensive, they still are generally cheaper than the pet stores.

Most vets I know consider it more than ironic that the puppies that seem to require the highest level of veterinary care are also more expensive to buy. It certainly doesn’t seem to be a case of “you get what you pay for”.

If you feel you can buy a pet shop puppy and avoid the problems listed above, I’ll support you. For example, a locally bred puppy held in a caring and well-maintained environment is probably going to be OK.

Of course, I will always fully support you to achieve the best health and welfare outcomes for your puppy. So even if you think I might judge you, I’m really only here to give him or her their best life.

If you’re having second thoughts, visit our page on where to get puppies in South Australia. It shows you how to find breeders as well as adoptions from shelters. Waiting times can be as little as one month.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

If Your Dog Is Being Attacked

To separate dogs, try:

• Water sprays or buckets
• Aerosols and sprays (pepper spray is only legal in WA)
• Personal duress alarm (hold buttons on each side of an iPhone down for 5 seconds)
• A beach towel thrown over the aggressor
• Picking the aggressor up by the back legs (wheelbarrowing) is dangerous and should only done by the dog’s owner

Do not try to pull the other dog off. That’s up to their owner to do. You will get badly injured. Click here for your closest Adelaide Emergency vet.

Do not blame yourself. Often there’s nothing you can do due to the size and determination of the aggressor. You’ll probably also fail to get the owner’s details in the heat of the moment.

Now dive deeper…

This week all of us have been devastated by the loss of one of our puppies. He died after being mauled by a dog during an evening walk.

You can raise a puppy to be as social as you like but you still have to watch out for the other dogs. It shouldn’t have to be that way.

How Common Are Dog Attacks?

Despite the ever-present fear, attacks leading to death seem rare. I would hear of roughly one a year. However, the problem is far less studied than dog attacks on people.

However, dog attacks in general are far too common. Here’s one survey from March 2018 for Guide Dogs NSW/ACT:

• One in two Guide Dogs have been attacked by another dog while working
• 78% of attacks on Guide Dogs were caused by an off-lead dog,
• 52% of those who reported attacks said it occurred within the last year

Although these figures seem high, there’s no reason to doubt them. According to data from the SA Dog & Cat Management Board, only 1 in 5 dog attacks involving private citizens get reported.

How Dog Attacks Happen

Most attacks happen on a walk, and the serious ones are almost always from a much larger dog. A survey of 132 people here in Adelaide found that dogs get attacked in these places:

1.   In the street (36%)
2.   Public park (22%)
3.   Beach (17%)
4.   Dog park (16%)
5.   At home (5%)
6.   Friend’s house (4%)

Fatal dog attacks are not part of normal dog aggression. A typical serious attack goes as follows:

• You are out on the street, park or beach
• An off leash larger dog runs towards your dog
• Often there is no growling or barking
• The dog appears fixated and cannot be distracted
• Submissive behaviour by your dog does nothing
• Biting is immediate, often followed by vigorous shaking
• Injuries are rapid and horrifying

Breeds & Owners Responsible

Great care must be taken when talking about the breeds involved. Although you often hear aggressors called Staffies or Pit Bulls, it’s clear that these labels reflect existing community bias.

Additionally, as we also found, dogs called one breed by their appearance usually end up being something else completely.

In one study, 75% of dogs identified by an adoption agency as having specific breeds in their ancestry did not have any of them on DNA analysis. Accuracy can only be worse in a chaotic dog fight. This is why vets say that legislation to ban dog breeds will never work. Just look at this example.

What is clear is that these dogs have been badly treated. Their owners are much more likely to be known by the police, and the dogs themselves have usually been attacked in the past and are very poorly socialised with dogs.

These dogs do not need to be euthanased. I know plenty that could be dangerous, except that they are properly controlled, by muzzles, good fencing and responsible owners.

Preventing Dog Attacks

Prevention therefore must focus on two things:

1. Better control by the people responsible for the attacks
2. Avoidance strategies by other dog owners

Getting dangerous dogs under adequate control is critical. All vets know that the owners responsible for these dogs are often repeat offenders. They usually live in denial of the true seriousness of what is happening, and make excuses for their dogs.

I believe that better enforcement is essential.

What To Do If Your Dog Is Attacked

First focus on the health of your dog. Any injury that breaks the skin is likely to get infected. Many injuries can look minor on the outside while masking serious internal damage. Therefore, a visit to your vet is almost essential.

Then we want to prevent it happening to other dogs. A weakness of our system is the use of local councils for enforcement. Although they do their best, and usually have an officer dedicated to the task, they are not the police. Their abilities to pursue and prosecute offenders are much, much more limited.

This is especially true if the offender leaves without providing accurate details. This is all too common. Even if they do, dog owners often choose not to pursue them out of a misplaced feeling of sympathy, or because it’s difficult.

I encourage everyone, no matter how large or small the injury, to report the offence. Even if you only have limited details, it will build up a picture that might help other dogs eventually. And despite the limitations of councils, they are serious about controlling this problem. They can:

• Issue a warning
• Give an on the spot fine
• Take direct court action in more serious cases
• Impose a control order
• Place a penalty of $2,500 to $5000

Money is usually the last thing on someone’s mind when this happens, but treatment costs can be substantial. The offender is usually liable for veterinary fees if your dog was on leash and their dog was off in a public area.

Avoiding Dog Attacks

What can an individual dog owner do to reduce the risk or improve enforcement? Here are some suggestions:

• Walk at times when there are other dog owners around
• Avoid unknown places, especially on your own
• Consider owning a wearable camera
• Offer help to other dog owners even for minor attacks
• It’s illegal to carry a weapon but you could have a sonic device or bright light
• Call out bad owner behaviour, especially in dog parks

While on the subject of bad behaviour, the picture from the start of the aggressive dog only tells half the story. Here’s the full image.

What can we say about people who not only let their dogs harass wildlife, but actually post the pictures?

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

Further Reading

Ragatz, L., Fremouw, W., Thomas, T., & McCoy, K. (2009). Vicious dogs: the antisocial behaviors and psychological characteristics of owners. Journal of forensic sciences, 54(3), 699-703

Schilder, M. B., van der Borg, J. A., & Vinke, C. M. (2019). Intraspecific killing in dogs: Predation behavior or aggression? A study of aggressors, victims, possible causes, and motivations. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 34, 52-59

Thompson, P. G. (1997). The public health impact of dog attacks in a major Australian city. Medical Journal of Australia, 167(3), 129-132

Voith, V. L., Ingram, E., Mitsouras, K., & Irizarry, K. (2009). Comparison of adoption agency breed identification and DNA breed identification of dogs. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 12(3), 253-262