Weekly Veterinary Industry Review #8

 

It’s Friday, September 18th, 2020. Welcome to round eight of the Weekly Veterinary Industry Review, brought to you by GeniusVets. This week we discuss the heavy toll the raging wildfires are taking on Oregonian veterinarians, we share some surprisingly good news about COVID in relation to the industry, and we end with a heartwarming tale of a dog whose sole job it is to ensure the safety of the koalas in Australia. So let's get to it…

 

Veterinary Business News

Keeping you at the forefront of veterinary news regarding products, personnel, and conferences...

Wildfires Are Taking Physical and Emotional Toll on Oregonian Pets and Vets

  • This WaPo article shares information on the Southern Oregon Veterinary Speciality Center and the stress their employees are under as they not only take in animals with burned paws and other extremities from the wildfires, but they also try to reunite them with their owners on social media.
  • Some of the clinic’s employees are still working despite having family that has been evacuated.
  • The cats have burned paws covered in bandages. Some have seared bellies and, in one case, a cat nicknamed Depot because (found by the Home Depot!) had to be hooked up to oxygen because their lungs suffered smoke damage.
  • From the article: “[Rory] Applegate [a vet at the clinic] says the fires are a ‘huge emotional toll’ on the staff but they are balancing out the management of critical patients and making sure they can stay stable themselves. She said she expects animals to feel the impact of the heavy smoke in the coming days, too.”
  • Article posted by the Washington Post

     

Veterinary Industry Showing Promising Signs of Economic Recovery

  • While we take a bit of exception with this article for calling the pet space a “COVID-19 winner” due to the seriousness of it all, there’s no denying that the veterinary industry is faring better than many others.
  • The article notes that economists have been pushing for V-shaped recovery but, as the article notes, “Our veterinary profession is experiencing an even more desirable checkmark-shaped recovery, a quick decline from baseline followed by a quick return to and move above baseline.”
  • If you’d like to hear more about the future of finance in the veterinary field, listen to the bit of caution recommended by Terry O’Neil in his recent Webinar Wednesday, urging practice owners to realize that this boom does have an end date.
  • Article posted by the TodaysVeterinaryBusiness.com

     

Recent Study Points to Lack of Diversity and Veterinarian Shortage For Upcoming Pet Healthcare Crisis

  • A new study from Banfield Pet Hospital® estimates 75 million pets in the U.S. may not have access to veterinary care by 2030, likely due to a critical shortage of veterinarians.
  • From the article: “Further, with nearly 90% of veterinary professionals identifying as white according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need to not only increase the number of veterinary professionals in the U.S. but also diversify the talent pipeline is a critical focus area at today's annual Pet Healthcare Industry Summit.”
  • Banfield’s initiatives to avoid this disaster include putting funding towards ensuring the veterinary field is more diverse, offers more training, and increases representation.
  • Article posted by PRNewsWire.com

     

dvm360 Announces Second Virtual Fetch dvm360 Conference

  • The event will be held November 12-14, 2020, and will combine three of their six annual events that are held live in non-COVID times—Fetch Indianapolis, Fetch San Diego, and the Atlantic Coast Veterinary Conference (ACVC).
  • This second conference is using the momentum from their ultra-successful first virtual conference held on August 26-31, 2021, which boasted more than 2500 attendees.
  • The most well-attended sessions covered canine aggression, nutrition management of chronic enteropathies, mammary and bladder cancer, and going beyond the basic chemistry panel to individualize patient care.
  • From the article: “This November virtual conference will also feature a robust mix of prerecorded, live, and interactive sessions featuring a wide array of topics relevant to the entire veterinary team, with a focus on technology and well-being.”
  • “Our profession has been hit with multiple challenges during this pandemic and we are happy to showcase the technological advancements our profession has,” says dvm360 Chief Veterinary Officer Adam Christman, DVM, MBA.
  • Catch GeniusVets co-founders David Hall and Michele Drake, DVM, presenting at this conference on going from chaos to controlled growth and how the top practices are regaining efficiency and planning for success in 2021.
  • Register at dvm360

     

Attention all Vets and Veterinary Practice Owners Who Participated in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP loans)!

  • The Small Business Administration recently opened its forgiveness portal for small business owners who participated in these loans.
  • Many lenders are beginning to process forgiveness applications.
  • The five tips offered in the article are: Be patient, make sure all of your documents have dates, understand the rules that apply to expenses that are outside of payroll, save everything, and triple check your submission.
  • If you’re a practice owner thinking of selling relatively soon, listen to Dr. Tait’s Webinar Wednesday, as he discusses several crucial and tactical exit strategies that could save you money and heartache.
  • Article posted by PilotOnline.com

     

Valuable Pet News For Your Clients

Topical stories your clients will want to hear...

Your Clients Might Not Realize Just How Many Pets Are Suffering in Silence

  • Because September is Animal Pain Awareness Month, the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management (IVAPM) is helping to raise awareness on how to recognize and manage pain in animals.
  • From the article: “Animal Pain Awareness Month is the perfect time to provide pet owners with the tools they need to spot signs of osteoarthritis (OA) at home and encourage them to have meaningful conversations with their veterinarians to restore their pets’ quality of life,” says IVAPM’s president, Jennifer Johnson, VMD, CVPP.
  • According to the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC), more than 45 million household pets suffer from chronic or acute pain.
  • This is a crucial reminder for veterinary clients to understand as, unlike them, their pets cannot convey that they are in pain (the article contains these signs of pain, which could make a great infographic).
  • Article posted by Veterinary Practice News

     

Not-So-Human-Interest

Lighter pet stories to provide much-needed cheer in difficult times...

Bear the Border Collie Mix Leads the Charge in Rescuing Koalas

  • Australian scientists are using sniffer dogs to rescue koalas struggling to survive damaging bushfires as they try to avoid last year’s heartbreakingly high death toll of the native animals (approximately 6,000 koalas were killed!), focusing this year on Queensland.
  • Led by Bear, a border collie and Australian cattle dog cross, Detection Dogs for Conservation is led by a cross between a border collie and an Australian cattle dog named Bear.
  • Together, they saved more than 100 koalas in the country’s worst summer of fires in decades from late 2019 to early 2020.
  • From the article: "'While it is unlikely that we will see bushfires to the scale of last year, we are still preparing for multiple fires that can impact many hectares of koala habitat during the next fire season,' said Detection Dogs founder Romane Cristescu, an ecologist at the University of the Sunshine Coast."
  • Article posted by Reuters

     

From the GeniusVets Blog

Engaging veterinary or pet owner content to keep you in the know...

The Need For Sweeping Changes in Hiring and Retention in Veterinary Field

  • This week, we took a deep dive into the nuggets of wisdom that many of our guests have shared on hiring and retention during their time on Webinar Wednesdays With GeniusVets.
  • With a huge shortage of veterinarians currently and predicted for the future (see above article), it’s more important than ever to ensure your culture is strong and your hiring and training practices are sound.
  • As Dr. Peter Weinstein said during his episode: “In the case of Ritz-Carlton, it’s six months from the time of hire to the time that they actually connect with a client. With veterinary medicine, it’s six minutes from the time that they're hired to the time they connect with the client.”
  • Veteran veterinary trainer and renowned author Wendy Myers also took the opportunity to share some very detailed thoughts on how veterinary employees should be trained to ensure their success as well as the clinic’s success during her episode of Webinar Wednesday.

Have something newsworthy in the veterinary field? Reach out to us at [email protected]. Enjoy our weekly veterinary industry review, coming to you each Friday afternoon.