"As a business owner in a rural area, I'm going, 'Dang it. I need another veterinarian.' And right now, they aren't easy to come by."
There is a shortage of rural veterinarians in Texas. This means recruiting and retaining veterinarians out in the country is difficult. Drs. Carol and Joe Hillhouse, who own two mixed animal practices in Texas, outline those hurdles in this episode. A couple of those obstacles include mounting student loan debt paired with lower salaries and a lifestyle that doesn't align with the needs of female veterinarians, which comprise the majority of practitioners in the profession. They also give ideas about what can be done to overcome these obstacles.
Drs. Carol and Joe Hillhouse own Carson County Veterinary Clinic in Panhandle and High Plains Animal Hospital in Borger. They graduated from Texas A&M University-College of Veterinary Medicine in 1984 and have been married for 36 years.
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