Vets in regional and rural areas are struggling to keep up with demand, as more people take up companion animals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pet owners in regional and rural areas are having to travel long distances to get after-hours care for their pets.
When Lisa Huxley's dog Arden started going into a seizure late at night, she panicked.
"I got on the phone and I tried to call at least half a dozen vet clinics in the local area, left messages and didn't get any messages returned," she said.
Lisa eventually got onto a vet, but was advised to drive 90 minutes from the small town of Guildford in central Victoria to Melbourne to get emergency treatment for her dog.
"We're just lucky that he survived the trip to Melbourne and he survived the procedures."
24-hour service not viable
Emma Tomkins is the owner operator of a vet clinic in Daylesford and said the pressure on vets operating a 24-hour service is a lot to handle.
"I did offer a 24-hour service, but due to the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion of being that one vet that everybody rang up, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, we decided to stop that service," she said.
"I might not even be here today if I kept going at that pace."
A nationwide shortage of vets
Figures from the Federal Government show there has been a shortage of vets for the past three years, despite a record high number of people completing vet courses.
With a suicide rate higher the national average, research shows 30 per cent of vets are considering leaving clinical practice in the next 12 months due to stress, anxiety and poor work conditions.
Chris Richards, managing director of Apiam Animal Health, a service that has vet clinics across regional Australia, said the vet shortage is nationwide and has only got worse over the past year because of the pandemic.
"We are seeing a shortage of vets, with the increase in companion animals that has happened as a result of COVID," he said.
"We're also seeing more services required in the farming industry as agriculture has expanded over the past six months."
Dr Richards said Federal Government support is needed.
"We'd like to see some incentives from the government to attract vets into regional and rural Australia," he said.
"And we'd like to see vets added to the priority skills list as a result of the increased demand since COVID."
A lifeline needed, for all creatures great and small.
