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Message
Veterinarians and suicide
Posted on 7/11/19 at 2:05 am
Posted on 7/11/19 at 2:05 am
Oregonlive article
Who would have thought?
I've probably spent $1000 this year alone at the vet.
quote:
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study in January that found suicide rates, when compared to the general population, were 2.1 times as high for male veterinarians and 3.5 times as high for female veterinarians.
quote:
The average student loan debt of veterinarians was $167,000 in 2016, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. Average starting salaries are between $70,000 and $80,000 annually. Some vets can even carry student loans of $250,000 – debt they’ll be paying back well into retirement.
Who would have thought?
I've probably spent $1000 this year alone at the vet.
This post was edited on 7/11/19 at 2:07 am
Posted on 7/11/19 at 2:17 am to EST
quote:
Who would have thought? I've probably spent $1000 this year alone at the vet.
They have access to euthanasia meds and it can be a psychologically distressing job.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 2:24 am to EST
I was in my vet's waiting room one time and witnessed a family arguing over how much to spend on their dog who had been hit by a car. The dog needed surgery and ole boy was having none of it. His wife was alternately crying and arguing with him and the youngins were wailing. Vet finally agreed to splint the leg and hope for the best. An MD gets paid more and doesn't have to contend with that.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 4:00 am to EST
I would be interested in knowing how their suicide rate compares to other professions. Just saying 2x the national average doesn't tell us much. I bet there's a lot of professions with equal or higher numbers. (Yep construction workers are #1 by a mile).
It's clear that newspaper is trying to equate student loan debt with suicide when there's no direct evidence of that. Indeed the very study they cite says this:
Don't these countries have free college? If so that kind of invalidates the entire debt hypothesis.
The lesson here is journalists are not scientists and should stay far away from interpreting such data.
It's clear that newspaper is trying to equate student loan debt with suicide when there's no direct evidence of that. Indeed the very study they cite says this:
quote:
A higher-than-expected number of deaths from suicide among veterinarians has been described in multiple studies1–8 from Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom.
Don't these countries have free college? If so that kind of invalidates the entire debt hypothesis.
The lesson here is journalists are not scientists and should stay far away from interpreting such data.
This post was edited on 7/11/19 at 5:49 am
Posted on 7/11/19 at 4:27 am to AUstar
quote:
It's clear that newspaper is trying to equate student loan debt with suicide when there's no direct evidence of that
I didn't understand that either. Every advanced degree costs lots of money.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 4:57 am to EST
Our daughter is a vet. My wife and I have discussed this before and it is due to the fact that it is a high stressed, long hour job that is consistently surrounded by death by either the animal dying or they have to euthanize them. Here's an article that lists suicide rates by profession and gives some insight.
Link:LINK /
Link:LINK /
Posted on 7/11/19 at 5:36 am to Crowley Cajun
Those are similar to other numbers I have seen. The rate is similar to medical doctors and dentists. Financial pressures are worse for veterinarians than those two groups given DVMs have lower average salaries but veterinarians accumulate a lot of debt going through undergraduate and then doctoral four year programs.
Parsing out the reasons for individual behavior is a risky business especially because people who actually kill themselves may be different from some of those who "attempt" suicide (more as an attempt to get attention and support that they need) whereas people who successfully kill themselves are not necessarily seeking help or attention so much as trying to just end a life they don't enjoy.
Anyway, having worked in small animal private practice for a few years there are definitely a lot of stressors that people dump on your lap and we don't really have easy fixes for some of those things.
Pet insurance is not a widely used enough to spread out financial risk and dilute costs over time - so many people in the position of having to pay large sums for emergency care or significant supportive care for aging or ill patients have no good recourse to provide care - and that emotional pressure those owners may pass on to you can really crush your ability to feel good about your job. Even the clients who understand you didn't make their pet sick or medicines and medical devices expensive are still going to go through a normal grieving process that is going to scar you unless you have a bit of sociopathic immunity.
Parsing out the reasons for individual behavior is a risky business especially because people who actually kill themselves may be different from some of those who "attempt" suicide (more as an attempt to get attention and support that they need) whereas people who successfully kill themselves are not necessarily seeking help or attention so much as trying to just end a life they don't enjoy.
Anyway, having worked in small animal private practice for a few years there are definitely a lot of stressors that people dump on your lap and we don't really have easy fixes for some of those things.
Pet insurance is not a widely used enough to spread out financial risk and dilute costs over time - so many people in the position of having to pay large sums for emergency care or significant supportive care for aging or ill patients have no good recourse to provide care - and that emotional pressure those owners may pass on to you can really crush your ability to feel good about your job. Even the clients who understand you didn't make their pet sick or medicines and medical devices expensive are still going to go through a normal grieving process that is going to scar you unless you have a bit of sociopathic immunity.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 5:39 am to Crowley Cajun
Pics or we don’t believe you.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 5:40 am to EST
When I think of suicide and vets being connected, the last thing I'm thinking of is student loans
I'm thinking of the constant death and grieving families.
I worked at a vet years ago and thankfully I was in the hospital part. I couldn't handle the exam rooms with the families
I'm thinking of the constant death and grieving families.
I worked at a vet years ago and thankfully I was in the hospital part. I couldn't handle the exam rooms with the families
Posted on 7/11/19 at 5:42 am to AUstar
quote:
The lesson here is journalists are not scientists and should stay far away from interpreting such data.
Don’t tell that to that climate journalist with a journalism degree and 5 years on the climate beat. She’ll call you a sexist
Posted on 7/11/19 at 5:44 am to EST
quote:
Some vets can even carry student loans of $250,000 – debt they’ll be paying back well into retirement.
This little tidbit is a bit dramatic.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 5:51 am to EST
Working in any healthcare environment is stressing, whether it be for humans or pets.
My best friend is a veterinarian and she is one of the most compassionate people I know. There are days she breaks down to me over her work whether it be a pet she loses, or a pet owner who won't pay for a diagnostic test but will treat her like shite when she can't answer their questions or treat their pet. She said most days she feels like a punching bag.
My best friend is a veterinarian and she is one of the most compassionate people I know. There are days she breaks down to me over her work whether it be a pet she loses, or a pet owner who won't pay for a diagnostic test but will treat her like shite when she can't answer their questions or treat their pet. She said most days she feels like a punching bag.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:02 am to EST
quote:
Some vets can even carry student loans of $250,000
These folks probably went to school in the islands. cost is much higher to go to one of those schools. Given vet salaries I would advise not going this route if one can’t get into a regular vet school.
Wife is a vet working for a very successful practice. She does ok but doesn’t make near enough to compensate how much she works and what she does. It definitely is a drag on her emotionally at times but given where she works her clients are more likely to do what they can to save their dogs (even take them to AU/LSU if necessary)
I get fricking livid when people accuse vets of trying to get rich off of people emotions or that “it doesn’t cost me this much at the doctors office”. People are dumb.
This post was edited on 7/11/19 at 6:06 am
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:03 am to Capital Cajun
quote:
This little tidbit is a bit dramatic.
If you're talking about the amount, I can see it being that high depending on the circumstances. We helped her with lodging by purchasing a 3/2 trailer and placing it in a nice park not far from the LSU campus because it was cheaper than having her in an apartment. Those were going for $900 a month for a one bedroom. She lived as cheap as possible so she was able to reject the last installment of her loan by the time she was graduating and she still was in the $140,000 range. And that is staying in state. If she had gone to Texas A&M, she said that the debt would have been a lot higher because of the out of state tuition cost that is factored in. She did defer it for 6 months after graduating and thank God she has a great job and doing well to make the payments.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:07 am to EST
Vets are one of the biggest scams of this age. Paying what they make you pay when your pup gets sick is criminal
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:08 am to Deactived
quote:
I worked at a vet years ago and thankfully I was in the hospital part. I couldn't handle the exam rooms with the families
A cousin wanted to be a Vet since she was a little girl. She was in college on track for Vet school while working part time at a veterinary clinic. She recently decided she no longer wanted to be a Vet after dealing with the constant sadness at the clinic. She now wants to be an Occupational Therapist.
She equated Vets to dentists. A lot of people don’t go to the dentist until something is wrong. Vets are the same way. The difference is a root canal is a common outcome when someone is forced to go to the dentist. Euthanasia is the diagnosis a lot of times at the Vet.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:18 am to EST
I dated a vet and she had a huge chip on her shoulder about not being an MD. Got pretty annoying, especially when she would try and convince people that being a vet is not a respected profession.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:21 am to EST
What's the correlation between this and me having to pay $1000 for getting little Dexter's paws trimmed?
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:25 am to Ghost of Colby
I would have thought vets did better than 70-80k.
Posted on 7/11/19 at 6:26 am to EST
Being a vet would be a very emotional job I think. Giving shots to puppies, etc would be just so much fun, but dealing with terribly injured pets and the families would be stressful.
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