More pets, fewer vets: N.B. struggles to keep up with animal care demand

New Brunswick is short of veterinarians, just as pets adopted in great numbers during the pandemic grow older and need more care — and the only Atlantic Canadian school training vets is at its enrolment limit.

Dominique Griffon, dean of the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, said New Brunswick has only three-quarters of the veterinary professionals it needs.

Before the pandemic, the shortage was primarily for vets treating farm animals, she said. Now, however, there's a shortage in the small-animal field because pet ownership grew so much during the pandemic. 

Griffon said vets have become more specialized, similar to what's happening in human health care.

"Where we used to have maybe one veterinarian to do everything, now we may have 10 specialists, and then one generalist," she said. 

There are two main strategies to overcome this kind of shortage, she said. The first is to train more veterinarians in Canada, and the second is to hire more internationally trained vets. 

Until now, she said, about 75 per cent of Canada's vets are Canadian trained and 25 per cent have been trained outside the country. 

Mary-Ellen Thémens, registrar of the New Brunswick Veterinary Medical Association, said while there's a shortage of vets in certain areas, the overall numbers are hard to determine.

Thémens could not provide a total for the number of vets practising in New Brunswick now, but the most recent data collected by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association shows 355 vets working in the province in 2023.

Thémens echoed Griffon's comment about a surge in pet adoptions during the pandemic being a contributing factor to the current situation.

"People were isolated, so they took to having companion animals to fill the void of their social contacts," she said.

Many of those animals are now getting health problems, she said, making the shortage of care even more acute. 

Griffon said the Atlantic Veterinary College is doing a feasibility study to find out how to increase the number of students it can train. Right now, the school can train 70 students a year but has reached its cap.

"At the moment, there are not enough seats for all Canadian students who would be suitable candidates."

That means vets are leaving Canada to be trained, she said. 

This year the school opened new spaces for five such students in their final year of study, and Griffon hopes they will stay in Canada after graduating to help alleviate the shortage.