I had to take my son’s budgerigar to the bird doctor the other day… one-hour visit, antibiotics injection, $280 bill.
It’s cheaper to treat humans.
This got me thinking about a conversation I recently had with a friend about vets.
“Vets have one of the highest suicide rates around.”
“You mean War Veterans right?”
“No. Veterinarians. Animal doctors.”
I just couldn’t believe it. My friend was telling me about an article she read about how vets (not just here, but in the US and the UK and probably elsewhere) have a much higher likelihood of taking their own lives.
So I googled it and it turns out it’s true. It’s a known problem in the industry and has been for years.
In the UK, vets are four times more likely than the general population to take their own lives. That makes them one of the most at-risk professions going.
I just couldn’t get it out of my head…
Why?
So I did a bit more digging.
Turns out I had a totally romantic idea of what being a vet was all about. I thought it was all helping dolphins give birth and pulling thorns out of hamsters’ paws.
Nope. Vet life is actually pretty stressful. Most work long hours, the pays not great, and your clients can be very demanding. And there’s a lot of blood and guts and vomit and sh#t to deal with.
But that alone can’t explain it. There are many high-stress occupations that don’t have high-suicide rates – forex traders and airline pilots.
And there are many jobs that are unpleasant. Ask any nurse – or childcare worker!
(A friend of mine works in daycare. She said one day, two parents dropped their daughter off and said she’d swallowed 12 marbles the night before. They wanted her to check that they all come through.)
Some people wonder if it’s the high mortality rates associated with vet work. Compared to doctors say, vets are much more likely to lose patients. Many only see their patients when it’s time to ‘put them down.’
Some say their job is less animal health than it is ‘unwanted pet disposal’.
That’s got to be pretty brutal. And if you’re dealing with cases of animal cruelty or neglect on a regular basis, that’s got to test your faith in humanity.
But again, it’s not just vets that have to deal with that. If you’re working in palliative care, 100% of your patients are going to die sooner or later.
And if you’re working in child protection, you probably regularly come face to face with the horrible underbelly of human nature.
But these professions don’t have high suicide rates.
So what is it that sets vets apart?
One study reckons that if you spend too long doing vet work, you end up getting used to the decision and the act of ending something’s life.
You get desensitised to putting something ‘out of its misery’.
But humans are a lot like animals (especially if you’re an animal lover which I assume most vets are). So this crosses over into ending human life.
Vets and vet nurses are much more likely to favour voluntary euthanasia. One UK study showed almost 95% of vets are in favour. That compares with about 70% of the Australian adult population.
And if you think it’s ok for people in general, then putting your own self ‘out of your misery’ no longer seems like such a big deal.
And so vets are much more likely to take their own lives.
Is that true? This seems to be the best explanation available, but I find it really disturbing.
Every time I hear about someone taking their own life, I feel a sense of loss. I feel like we, as a society, have failed them. And the tragedy and sorrow weighs heavily on us.
And our stubbornly high suicide rates are a national disgrace.
Is it really just a cold and tragic calculus that lies beneath it all?
If a horse has a broken leg, it’s like we say that any joy and happiness their future life might offer does not offset the suffering they will have to endure. We put them ‘out of their misery’.
But does it make sense to apply that kind of cost/benefit analysis to any life, let alone human life?
It’s feels like such a shame when someone takes that view of their own life and thinks, there’s not enough prospect for joy to bother going on.
Life circumstances can change. Easily, radically. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
But does it even make sense to place joy and suffering in opposition to each other? Both are needed for a rich and full life. One is not possible without the other.
And so I think vets are on the pointy end of a modern cultural fear of suffering. We run from suffering, see suffering as a problem.
My point is that a life full of suffering can still be a rich, powerful, meaningful and valuable. And suffering is a necessary part of life.
And a life full of suffering can still have a point. There can be still be a point to life.
I wonder if we, as a society, have lost sight of this. And vets, tragically, are the canary in the coal mine.
I guess I’m sharing this because I’ve also had my ups and downs. I’ve had my share of highs, but also my share of lows.
And I can be hard on myself. I set my expectations high. If a project doesn’t come off, it can really throw me.
But these set-backs – these hardships – are part of the journey. An important part of the journey.
The trick is not to fight them – not to see them as some sort of problem – but to allow them in.
Allow them in and realise that you are bigger than your suffering. You are bigger than it all.
And measure your life not by some entry in the joy/suffering ledger, but in meaning – in the contribution you can make to the lives of others.
Like your vet.
When did you last hug a vet?
Your thoughts?
lol. hey i’m a forex trader, and have done quite well and own my own trading company out of it. and I don’t regard it as stressful. the flamboyant ones on wall street make all of us look bad.
agreed with the rest of the article though.
Life full of suffering can be rich etc. and suffering necessary for a rich and full life. Rubbish. You must be catholic
Hug a vet? Sure, as long as it is the sexy female vet on TV.
Hi Gunter, I am female but nolonger might I be called sexy so I miss out on the hug here – considered possibly past my ‘use by date’. Thinking about it I never did get a hug in all the years of practice. Good article.I would think anyone in practice knows of a colleague who has taken their life. Many a time I have wondered why some people have pets – cat has ringworm, put it down. Siamese cat sheds hair on the chairs of a different shade, put it down, Guys come in stating their bitch is in season, put it down. Pure bred dog ends up with mixed litter – not the fault of the bitch – pups brought in for destruction so the callous owners can get a repeat mating (hopefully they will keep their bitch from their male dog of a different breed next time around). I could write a book. Some of us do not stay the distance. A hug may have helped. Who knows?
Vets also have access to lethal doses of medication that let you pass peacefully into the night.
And if you are an animal lover, having to put lots of animals down would be hard.
Just read Victor Frankl’s book “Man’s search for the meaning of life” – he would fully agree with you, and after reading that book, I do agree somewhat, but I also understand people who had enough. What about a person (like my brother) who is in constant great pain due to an inoperable back problem. He can’t sit, stand, walk or lay down for more than half an hour – day or night. He can’t work anymore (he is 49) and centrelink doesn’t think he is fully invalid, so he only gets little money – who would employe someone who has such health problems (he was a very good tiler but now can’t lift anything over five kgs). He doesn’t talk suicide, but I must admit, it wouldn’t surprise me if one day I got the message that he has taken his own life. I do admire him greatly, but ….
Long time reader, first time poster.
I always love your work Jon, whether it be technical or touching. Always very insightful.
This No B.S. Friday was very strong to the point and touching. I think everyone in life is dealing with something, good or bad. Reading something like this hits home and allows us to put our lives in to perspective. I hope everyone that read this today can continue on with a bit more compassion and care of the rest of society.
Success, in order to be successful, must be full.
Interesting article . As a vet we hear about this a lot and try to put a finger on what it’s all about. There is also the idea that vets have easy access to means ie euthanasia drugs.
your opening paragraph is also relevant.as it plays into society’s opinion of a vet’s worth..re having to pay $280 for a 1hr appointment with a professional person ( the vet) to treat the bird. ‘ its cheaper to treat a human’ . You could have just got another budgie for $5 but you dont because its worth more to you. Nor would expect the vet to work just to the replacement value of the animal.
is it really cheaper to treat a human? When was the last time you spent a hr with dr? What about all the health insurance and medicare levies we pay? Let alone regular income tax….health care is expensive. Yet few people appreciate its true financial cost until they go somewhere where they have to pay in full….ie the US.
I think a lot of vets battle with this expectation of if humans get ‘ Free’ health care why is it so ‘expensive’ to treat my dog…
thanks for article…it got me thinking and is good to hear it brought up outside the profession
Exactly! People have no idea of the true cost of health care so they are constantly whining about the cost of veterinary care. This misperceptions means vets are unfairly resented and maligned, even as they are constantly pressured to cut corners in terms of proper animal care.
We encourage our best and brightest to become vets, when the general public expects to pay very little for their considerable expertise and medical supplies.
The constant low- level aggression and misunderstanding from the public, combined with the actual technical and logistical pressures of the job, wears these intelligent people down over time.
you devote your life to saving animals, then you wake up and realize that they’re just food, how depressing
I appreciate your compassion and article. Vets are such valuable assets to humanity. I admit that I am guessing here. There could be a mixture of things that combine to impact Vet suicides. Some ideas are: (a) Unlike a human medical doctor who can be a specialist in one area a Vet needs to know multiple anatomies, be the surgeon, dentist, anesthetist (and each type of animal needs entirely different drugs and volumes). There is an arduous endless requirement for keeping up with the ongoing research and drugs, more than that for a medical doctor. A good Vet knows they can’t just reach the top and plateau. This can be daunting and when one does not give enough time to one’s own needs you can begin to loose your soul and get out of touch with what you enjoy for yourself, your very meaning (b) The lack of care of a large % of animal owners to educate themselves about their animals and their often insufficient care for their animals is far worse than the domestic violence amongst humans. Vets know this. Try considering the perspective for a moment of breading and selling your children in a shop to make money or leaving them tied up and home feeding them biscuits and canned food once a day. That perspectives the bare starting point for considering animal rights that most of us haven’t really thought through; (c) Loving, caring types apply to be Vets and Vet nurses, they can be more emotionally charged with their personal lives; (d) Could some of the very many chemicals and drugs the Vets deal with (on jumpy patients) for which meany of them have less liberal testing before being released for use be having a cumulative effect on the Vets own hormones and health
I think vets also see the worst in human behavior when abused & neglected animals are brought in. Has to be depressing to see what some people are capable of.
In the not-so-distant future as economies regress into a global socialist dictatorship our descendants will be fortunate to only allow psychopaths to perform euthanasia and all human dispatches. This will eliminate the problem of suicides in some of society’s most valuable professions where practitioners are regularly confronted with suffering and carnage (not limited to paramedics, soldiers, police, doctors, firefighters). Otherwise you have to be optimistic, or take drugs, have a great sense of humour or have a solid faith in the after-life to be able to work with some detachment from personal emotion.
Being a butcher is the same in a sense that you know someone else has invested in those animals’ lives but then you have to sharpen your knives and get to work to provide food. Not everyone wants to become vegan and there is nothing immoral about meat consumption. So my carnivorous four-legged pets get to eat fresh meat offcuts, bones, not just processed loaf or kibble.
People naturally have diverse interests and talents but personality typing is one way to guide a young person to uncover which occupation provides the best fit.
As long as there are wise people like Jon to provide food for thought and in Australia we remain free to say what we like without having to fear volatile types who get easily offended by cartoons.
I wonder if there has been a corresponding study on the level of depression amongst Vets. High suicide rates, with low levels of depression might point to people who work with animals in a nurturing and caring role, realizing that every living animal, including ourselves, are just cosmic dust. In the timeline and magnitude of the cosmos, our individual existence is like a spritz from an aerosol can. Vets no doubt see the beauty and cruelty of pet owners, and they also see the full lifespan of animals. No GP has ever seen the full life cycle of a human from birth through to death at the age of 80. I wonder if seeing the lifecycle of animals brings an inner peace to our own life cycle. I personally feel this way, and feel that after working all around the world, being very financially secure and living a very personal lifestyle, that ‘checking out’ doesn’t feel that foreign to me. You can’t talk to people about this, or you get locked up in the looney bin, but I think there are people like me who realize that our search for happiness and overcoming adversity while living in a little corner of this rock spinning around one of trillions of stars is so, ‘meh’. Nevertheless, until it is time to choke down on the double barrel, I’ll be enjoying gardening on the weekend, renovating the bathroom and taking the Rapide out for a blast on Sunday. I hope everyone has a great weekend. =)
Yes, I agree with all you say Tony. You are not alone in feeling this way – or perhaps I should be in the loony bin too. In the first instance I think the profession of veterinarian would attract very sensitive and caring people – the kind of people who empathise and feel another’s pain, whatever the species. I have witnessed the complete lifecycles of several of my own beloved animals and it has helped me to understand that it is ridiculous to look for “the meaning of life” – we just need to live well and enjoy the time we have. Just looking up at the stars shows us how unimportant our little problems really are in the greater scheme of things. If you concentrate really hard you can almost feel this “little rock” spinning and moving through space. Its a good way to put our own short little lives into perspective. The cosmos just keeps expanding and expanding – and we are just specks of dust. If you don’t know it already have a listen to Monty Python’s Galaxy Song – my own personal mantra.
What can I say? Last week I took the cat to the vet. $150. I came back home and told the wife: for that money we can buy a new cat.
Exactly what some people might do, ask to put the cat down as they don’t want to spend money or say they can’t afford to have the cat if cat develops medical issue and maybe $500 for visit to sort issue out so ànimal healthy. Sad for vets then to deal with it
Hi Jon,
David here, we spoke after the event last Saturday…about soccer and other things. Sorry I had to run off. My pregnant wife was spent after a full day sitting up. Your articles are great. Vet suicides? Whoever would have thought. I too feel very weighed down at the news of someones suicide. Incredibly so. The thought that it all came so much to bear that they took their own life. I can’t even fathom that amount of despair and I feel hopelessly responsible, like I should have been able to do something, even though I don’t know them. But to change the world you have to change from within first. Your thoughts, considerations and viewpoints need to be of the highest quality. You are of help to no one if you are of no help to yourself. Your articles go some way towards being able to do that. They are thought provoking and poke you into thinking bigger and broader. As I see the human race as one big family, we are all responsible for each other. I am loathe to use this forum to push any agenda but may I take this opportunity to just put it out there that we as a family of 7 billion people seem to be in a bit of strife. A way through this mass of seemingly unending problems, I have found personally, is to read the philosophies of Scientology. The most insightful, incredible and concise writings on the human condition you are ever likely to read. It truly does point the way to better and happier living, productive and beautiful relationships and an ability to help others that I have never seen the likes of before…after 28 years of reading texts of many philosophies. A good day to everybody…and have a great weekend. Thoroughly enjoy your articles Jon.
http://www.guzer.com/jokes/doctordave.php
why does suicide always have to be looked at as a negative. I’m a rational human being and have decided that when the time is right I will take me own life. I’m not depressed have had a good life. I actually have a sense of calm and a smile when I think that I can decide when I want to leave this world. I know this probably sounds weird but it’s really how a feel. I will just peacefully lay down and go to sleep, no pain. I’m 45 now and have decided that my glory days have been and gone and I’m ok with that. I don’t want all the crap that comes with getting old and fading out. I think maybe 50 sounds like a good out time but I’m not set on it but I know when I’m ready to do it I will be in a happy place.