National Veterinarian Shortage in the U.S.

Scale and Projections

• The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) estimates the U.S. needs about 7,300 new veterinarians per year to replace retirees and meet demand, but schools are producing closer to 6,000 annually, creating a cumulative shortfall of roughly 14,600 veterinarians by 2030.
• Some industry reports suggest the gap could be as high as 55,000 additional vets by 2030 to meet companion animal demand alone.
• By 2030, the U.S. will need 10,000 more veterinarians just to meet demand, with 25,000 job postings in a single quarter in 2023.

Where It’s Hardest

• Rural areas and food animal medicine are hit hardest, with many counties lacking a single vet or emergency clinic.
• Emergency and specialty care is overburdened, leading to long wait times and temporary closures.
• The USDA’s 2026 shortage map lists over 40 counties across multiple states as designated shortage areas.

Causes

• Aging workforce: Many vets are nearing retirement, especially in large animal medicine.
• Shift to corporate practices: Fewer small, independently owned clinics, making it harder to pass on low-cost practices.
• High training costs: Veterinary school tuition has risen sharply, making entry harder.
• Specialty shortages: Open positions for specialists exceed available candidates by up to four times.

Impacts

• Pet owners: Longer wait times (48 hours vs. 12 in urban areas), higher emergency care costs (15–17% more), and clinic closures.
• Agriculture: U.S. dairy farms lost $3.2B in 2022 due to delayed care; rural farm incomes drop 5–10%.
• Public health: Delayed diagnosis increases zoonotic disease transmission risk by 32%.
• Economic loss: Estimated $1.2B annually in lost productivity.

Solutions and Outlook

• More veterinary schools: 20 new schools needed by 2030 to meet demand.
• Incentives: USDA and VMLRP programs target vets to shortage areas.
• Affordable care: Organizations like the Maryland SPCA and Baltimore Humane Society are stepping in to fill gaps.
• Workforce retention: Addressing burnout and improving compensation to keep vets in the field.

In short, the U.S. veterinary shortage is a systemic, long-term issue driven by supply constraints, demand growth, and structural changes in the profession. Without significant expansion of training capacity and targeted recruitment, the gap will continue to widen.

Cat Butt Imprint Study — What It Was and What It Found

A viral “cat butt imprint study” was actually a science fair project conducted by 6th grader Kaeden Henry and his mother, Kerry Hyde, in 2021 to answer a common cat owner question: Do cat buttholes touch every surface they sit on? Upworthy.

How the Study Was Conducted

Hypothesis: Cats’ buttholes do not always make contact with every surface they sit on.

Method:

1. Non-toxic lipstick was applied to the anuses of each cat.
2. Cats were trained to follow commands (sit, lie down, jump up) and sit on a variety of surfaces — soft (pillows, couches) and hard (wooden tables, tile floors).
3. After each sitting, the lipstick was wiped away with a baby wipe.
4. The experiment lasted under 10 minutes per cat.

Participants: Long-haired, short-haired, and medium-haired cats (hairless cats were excluded due to potential contact with wipes).

Results

• Long-haired and medium-haired cats: Their buttholes did not make contact with either soft or hard surfaces.
• Short-haired cats: Their buttholes did not make contact with hard surfaces, but the study did not specify soft surfaces for them.
• Conclusion: Cat buttholes do not touch every surface cats sit on — contact depends on the cat’s coat type and the surface’s texture.

Why It’s Not a “Real” Scientific Study

While the experiment followed the scientific method, it was not peer-reviewed and was presented as a fun, educational project rather than a formal research paper. It was designed to entertain and answer a quirky but relatable question for cat owners.

Takeaway

If you’re worried about cat butts touching your furniture or bedding, the study suggests that coat length and surface type matter. Long-haired cats are less likely to leave a visible mark, while short-haired cats may still leave marks on hard surfaces. For hygiene, regular cleaning of cat resting areas is still recommended.

Cats Came from the Desert but They Need Water!

Providing water for ferals can increase their quality of life so much! If you feed canned food, stir water into the food and it will make a huge difference. Be sure to clean outside water bowls frequently – even daily as a biofilm scum can form easily and do more harm than good!

Why Does My Cat’s Water Bowl Get Slimy? 3 Vet-Approved Reasons

How Much Water Does a Cat Need per Day?

286 Now Compared To 288 At the End of June 2025!

Our next s/n is 6/25!

• 6/8 – DCAS – 1 feral male, injured rear foot and mats on his back. Very talkative. Under review at DCAS and may be adopted thru them. We’ll put him under feral, but…
• 6/11 – DCAS – 13 friendlies, 19 ferals, 18 female, 14 male. Of those 13 friendlies, we have a lot of approved adoptions applications on hand. While we are working on having adoption events, we don’t seem to be keeping kittens in stock!

June total 33, 2026 total 286, 16,831 since 2007!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Kitten “Season”

This resulted in an additional plea on Facebook for kitten food – that plea resulted in 17 cases of Fancy Feast canned kitten food, 5 24 packs of Fancy Feast kitten canned, 16 bags of Iams kitten dry, 3 cases of adult pate, 1 case of Buffalo Wilderness kitten and a very cool scratcher! A kitten in our care receives 2 cans of Fancy Feast and whatever dry they will chomp on throughout the day. We are so grateful for the food donations and the monetary donations that keep these kittens well fed and healthy. Amazing that this is just the start of the year, please keep those donations coming!

We are trying to trap as many cats as we have slots for – time to ask for newspapers again! We have a donation bin at the front of our building – please place in paper grocery bags if you can, it can get really windy and we don’t want to spread them around the neighborhood!

Feral Fixers Named 2026 Animal Welfare Partner of the Year

On May 15th, DuPage Animal Friends named Feral Fixers their 2026 Animal Partner of the Year! What a difference compared to when TNR first began, and it was a struggle for acceptance that TNR was one of the best tools to reducing overpopulation and euthanasia! We are so grateful that we can now work together for the benefit of the cats! I put together a short video for the award which you can view here, and you can view a photo album of the event here.

Another Reason for Spay/Neuter - TNR

Not that you really need another reason but finding out that rodenticides can impact newborn kittens in this way is a real eye opener. This study of found kittens and their toxicology reports – we often intake kittens that ultimately do not do well and have no idea why they fail. So glad this study was done. Low levels of poison do not kill immediately and not always the animal that eats the poison directly but to find that it affects kittens born later and weeks into their new lives…very disturbing. Not all the kittens in the study died but required huge amounts of supportive care. The study was funded by the Orphan Kitten

How Many Times Do You Buy New Food?

Study has found that cats can have a 5-day limit on interest in a food flavor/brand. Simply introducing the scent of a different food can restimulate interest in first food. So many cat parents constantly change their cat food as intake slows dramatically and repeatedly. Who knew? Hesitate to share this as Feral Fixers is the recipient of donated food that “my cat loved this food and now won’t eat it”!

TNR Working - Colony Numbers Stabilizing

Studies are showing colony volumes are stabilizing and, in many cases, dwindling. Yay!!!

Spread Of Hantavirus Thru Pets Highly Unlikely

Concern over the spread of viruses via our pets is new, this article explains that the new Hantavirus has very low rate of infection between humans and as a result an even lower incidence between pets and people. Something to think about but doesn’t seem to be a big worry at this time!

253 Already So Far This Year!

We will be off the week of 6/4 and 6/18. Can’t wait to see how many we achieve this coming week!

• 5/14 – DCAS – 5 friendly, 14 feral, 2 already chipped, 12 male, 7 female. DCAS performed an entropion surgery on one of the ferals, he looks so much better!
• 5/21 – DCAS – 1 feral male – nope he was not pregnant!
• 5/26 – DCAS – 1 male feral with a severe facial wound.
• 5/28 – DCAS – 3 friendly, 21 feral, 12 female, 12 male. 

May total 70, 2026 total 253, 16,798 since 2007!

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible

Just What Have We Been Doing?

The face of volunteerism has changed. More than half of our volunteers are well over 50 years old. My history is different from what many people are experiencing these days. I started volunteering in my late twenties, no kids, full time job. Twenty years later, still no kids, “retired”, I’m President of Feral Fixers, learning so much on that journey and making connections all along the way.

We are all overworked – doing multiple tasks any given day, any given week. It would help so much to have more fosters, more trappers, TNR volunteers & CiT caregivers, transporters, cleaners of crates, traps and carriers. Each one of those needs? We have people who not only trap but also foster and transport. People who clean and maintain inventory at the building – keeping in-kind donations under control. People who coordinate other volunteers, trying to valiantly keep shifts covered but ultimately ending up covering those animal care duties themselves when volunteers cannot make it in to do their shift.

We are no different from most organizations in our area. What has changed is the ability of people to volunteer consistently and responsibly and there are many societal causes. But it is the strength of an individual that we need to contribute what is so very valuable to the goal of reducing cat overpopulation and euthanasia.

The offers of limited hours on specific days may not fit our needs, but perhaps those hours do not have to be at the building, maybe it takes another form – soliciting donations for fundraisers, creating and manning fundraisers, networking in municipalities to increase endorsement of TNR, just a few examples. Those things are already being done by people who are doing several other things, take a load off our shoulders for specific activities. Bear in mind that you cannot just walk in and take over a task – we need to get to know you and your abilities, be sure you are going to stick and we can rely on you. And sometimes you need to be a bit pushier – about one in 10 volunteers is a keeper, we get discouraged spending the time we don’t have on an investment that is not going to work out.

Trying not to be negative, just express how much we need so many more volunteers to continue doing what we do!

208 Already So Far This Year!

We will be off the week of 5/21, resuming 5/28. Can’t wait to see how many we achieve this coming week!

• 04/14 – DCAS – 1 male feral
• 04/16 – DCAS – 2 males, 1 friendly, 1 feral, both with wounds on rump/tail.
• 04/20 – DCAS – 2 male ferals.
• 04/23 – DCAS – 3 friendly, 26 feral, 12 female, 17 male.
• 04/30 – DCAS – 5 friendly, 18 feral, 7 female, 16 male.
• 05/07 – DCAS – 6 friendly, 19 feral, 12 female, 13 male.

Our April total is 115, May total 25, 2026 total 208, 16,753 since 2007!

Getting ready for the 4/23 trip to DCAS...

As Many As Possible As Soon As Possible