Is it smart to pay $300+K for a $45K job?

[meierlde]

While there is intense completion among domestic animal veterinarians because of the oversupply of graduates, there is a real shortage of large animal vets in rural areas. First, most vet students do not go into the large animal field, and second, the ones that do are often hired by the big agriculture companies. This also appears tied to fewer people growing up on farms and even knowing what a large animal vet does. Some states are offering to help pay for the educations of large animal vets if they promise to practice in a rural area. Here are two links Shortage of Large Animal Veterinarians - Hot Topics/Problems in the Equine Industry Farm Animal Vets in High Demand | News, Sports, Weather for Great Falls, Helena, and all of Montana | Local Top Stories

Unless one gets one of the jobs with the big companies it appears that country vets do not make enough to justify even the domestic student loan amount (in state about 150k). Recall that in the large animal area its a business and when a cow might bring in at most $3 per pound, and you have a 1k pound cow you got 3000 to raise it and pay overhead, its not clear how much you could afford to spend on vet bills, in any case the more elaborate proceedures that have been transplanted from humans to animals (companion animals in particular) would be out of the price range. The same applies to pigs btw that the price gotten does not justify much vet care.
Thus a report from the AVMA says that due to the business issue large animal vets in private practice can't make a go of it.

 

[samclem]

The US military also hires veterinarians, though the number isn't high. They frequently are responsible for doing food safety inspections and other industrial hygiene duties in addition to animal care (the MP working dogs, etc) and sometimes they do VETCAP missions in remote countries. Patching up a villager's cow buys a tremendous amount of goodwill and makes a real difference in the quality of life for an entire rural family.
I would be surprised if there's not a program to pay for vet school for those willing to go this route.