An Idea to Boost Veterinary Services in Wyoming

By Darrell Wilkes

I read with great interest and applauded the message in the recent front-page story in the Wyoming Livestock Roundup regarding U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ plan to enhance rural large animal veterinary services.  

This is long overdue since cattle producers have been sounding the alarm about veterinarian shortages in ranch country for four decades.

It seems the current administration is interested in actually solving problems, as opposed to just chatting about them – a tip of the hat to Secretary Rollins.

In my opinion, at least in the state of Wyoming, we are missing an opportunity by not taking greater advantage of veterinary technicians. Vet techs are not even credentialed in Wyoming. In other words, their formal training and subsequent graduation from a certified vet tech program is not even recognized or acknowledged.  

This is the equivalent of a person earning a degree in nursing and then being classified as a non-credentialed “hospital helper.”

I had the honor of serving on the Board of Trustees for Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) in Torrington before I resigned my seat and moved to Texas. EWC has an outstanding vet tech program, pioneered by the late Dr. John Simons, an iconic veterinarian in southeast Wyoming. 

One of the things I most regret about leaving my EWC Board of Trustees seat was I did not have time to complete my two-part, self-assigned mission to achieve official recognition for certified vet techs by the Wyoming Vet Med Association and the state and to resurrect large animal training in EWC’s vet tech program.

When Simons led the program at EWC, there was intense focus on bovine medicine.  Over the years, the program transitioned to a focus on companion animals. So, here is a vet tech program smack dab in the middle of cattle country that does not have a focused curriculum on cattle health.  

But even if the students in the EWC vet tech program received great training in bovine medicine, they would likely move to another state to launch their career because their credentials are simply not recognized in Wyoming.  

If this sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is.

We have a situation where the taxpayers in Wyoming, many of them cattle ranchers, are helping to pay for a program where the graduates are virtually forced to leave Wyoming to practice their profession.  

Meanwhile, cattle ranchers struggle to procure veterinary services, and large animal veterinarians work themselves to death trying to service their needs.

Again, if this sounds ridiculous, it’s because it is.

This problem can be addressed. Vet techs could be officially recognized as credentialed professionals and could be employed to do many of the things we hire veterinarians to do on ranches. 

If this sounds threatening to veterinarians, it shouldn’t. 

Vet techs would work under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian, just like a nurse works under the supervision of a licensed physician or dentist.  

A veterinarian might have to pay a vet tech more than he or she would pay a lay helper, but they’d be paying for the value of their education, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine should darn sure appreciate the value of education since most of them have spent eight years earning their terminal degree.

Now, let’s get practical. Think about the things ranchers hire veterinarians to do. They preg-check cows, they give brucellosis vaccinations, they write health papers, they do breeding soundless examination on bulls and they also do complex things like C-sections and other surgeries. They diagnose disease and other things that can be complicated.  

I submit a lot of the time-consuming and physically-demanding tasks done by large animal vets could be done by trained vet techs working under the supervision of licensed veterinarians.

I am not a veterinarian, so I have not had both of my shoulders remanufactured after palpating a few hundred thousand cows. But if I was a veterinarian in cattle country, I would hire ranch-raised, Beef Quality Assurance-certified young men and women who were graduates of a certified vet tech program, and I’d put them to work doing many of the tasks that burn up time and torture my body.  

However, I couldn’t do this in Wyoming because vet techs are not officially recognized for having any sort of credentials, and I couldn’t send a non-credentialed person to a ranch to preg-check cows without violating the Wyoming Veterinary Practice Act.

Let’s be realistic. All of the reasons we currently have a shortage of large animal veterinarians are not going to magically go away despite the efforts of Rollins.

It is hard work. It can be dangerous. It is often remote work, and one can make a lot more money neutering poodles and tending to parrots in a small animal practice in a big city.  

So, those few brave souls who choose to practice on large animals in remote areas need to amplify their reach.  Incorporating vet techs into their practice could do this.

Wyoming already has a vet tech program at EWC. This program could be significantly enhanced by resurrecting the large animal component of the curriculum, but this is only step one. 

Step two is to amend the Wyoming Veterinary Practice Act to officially recognize vet techs as credentialed professionals who are allowed to perform certain veterinary functions when, and only when, they are working under the umbrella of a licensed veterinarian – just like is done with nurses and just like many other states have already done.  

Wyoming should lead, not follow.

For reasons I simply cannot understand, the Wyoming Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA) has historically been opposed to the credentialing of vet techs.

Recently, however, according to my sources – which are rock-solid sources – the WVMA approved a policy to recognize vet techs, which I assume includes amending the Wyoming Veterinary Practice Act. 

I understand it was a very close vote at WVMA, so there are still some veterinarians who – for reasons I do not understand – are opposed to making their lives better and serving their far-flung clientele better by adding credentialed assistants.  

Therefore, WVMA is no longer the roadblock.

According to my sources, the roadblock is now a legislative committee – I don’t know which one – which could not be convinced to amend the Wyoming Veterinary Practice Act, even though WVMA and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association wanted to do it.  

I suggest it is time for cattle producers in Wyoming to start twisting arms of state legislators to get this done. The sooner, the better.

The final step to be undertaken is to resurrect the large animal component of the vet tech program at EWC – to rebuild it in the vision of Simons. If this requires some extra money, lobby for it, and if it requires EWC leadership to be persuaded to go all-in for a world-class large animal curriculum, lobby for that too.

It is ludicrous a multi-billion-dollar industry in the Cowboy State is shackled by the steady loss of access to a vital service that is indispensable in the production of safe and wholesome beef from healthy and happy Wyoming cattle – not to mention the billions of dollars of trade surplus created by the interstate shipment of cattle from Wyoming to other states, which requires veterinary services. 

Rollins has initiated a program at the federal level, but it’s not enough and it will take far too long to provide any real help to Wyoming ranchers who are finding it more and more difficult to procure veterinary services.  

Don’t wait for the solution to come from Washington, D.C. when a simple and vital first-step is right at our doorstep.

Darrell Wilkes, PhD, is a retired Wyoming rancher who can be reached at docwilkes4@gmail.com.