Vet urges pet owners to be kind after losing three colleagues within three weeks to suicide

A VETERINARIAN has urged pet owners to be kind after losing three colleagues within three weeks to suicide.

Jessi Lewis said “enough is enough” after being left heartbroken by the recent deaths of vets in the industry.

She explained that people in her field often work long hours and deal with tough situations regarding ill animals but are often verbally abused, swore at and harassed.

Jessie, who lives in Bristol, even revealed how some vets have been stalked and physically threatened whilst doing their jobs.

Now, the heartbroken vet has taken to social media to urge members of the public to be kind to vets while highlighting the link between the job and suicide.

Posting on Facebook on Monday (21 NOV), Jessi said: “I’ve held off posting about this for a while, but enough is enough.

“The veterinary profession is struggling. We’re heartbroken, we’ve lost three of our own within three weeks.

“One I knew directly, the other two are close friends of friends. All wonderful, compassionate, dedicated, intelligent and talented people, lost far too young.

“The difficulty with our job is that it’s never just a job. We genuinely give our heart and souls to the patients we treat; we put our blood, sweat and tears into being the best we can possibly be.

“We strive for perfection in a field in which perfection can never be achieved.

“We work long hours, we deal with pets and their people when they’re at their weakest and most emotional, we don’t switch off at home and spend evenings and weekends researching cases, worrying if we missed anything, crying for the patients we lost and cases that didn’t go the way we wanted.

“And then rather than being thanked and appreciated, we often get yelled at, sworn at, blamed for prices which are way out of our control (I get that pet care is expensive and increasing, cost of living crisis affects all industries!).

“We get verbally abused, harassed, sometimes physically threatened and stalked online.

“But through all that we still have to try and remain polite, composed and caring and still try to do what is best for your pet.

“Obviously we also have wonderful pet owners who do thank and appreciate us, and actually the good does usually outweigh the bad and I do still love what I do.

“But these last few weeks have been a stark reminder of the darker side of our world, and it’s heartbreaking to see.”

She continued: “So I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; please just be kind, not just to vets, to everyone.

“It’s dark and it’s winter and things are expensive and everyone is struggling, just be kind. Please don’t yell and shout and swear at people who try to help you.

“And if you do think your veterinary team is great, please tell them.

“You have no idea how much a card from a happy and grateful client means to us.

“A positive review online. A nice email to the practice telling us you appreciate us. Just a simple thank you really goes a long way. Especially now, as the UK veterinary profession are really feeling the losses of the last few weeks.”

Hundreds of people commented on the post and shared it across social media.

Many were quick to show their support to Jessi and vets.

Monica Frankland said: “Everything you people do for our animals is truly amazing.

“I, like many others have nothing but respect for vets/veterinary nurses.

“Your patience, your determination, your love for our animals goes above and beyond.

“It must be so hard to leave your job at the end of the day and turn off. My heart goes out to those who could not cope anymore and Jessi, as for you my lovely, stay strong knowing that you are loved by many. Thank you for what you do.”

Petra Longhorn said: “So so sad, I’m from Bedford and my son’s American bully recently had a serious accident which resulted in two severed arteries in his leg, lots and lots of stitches and copious amounts of bandages and check ups.

“He cost us over £2,000 but every vet/nurse that was involved with his care were amazing.

“Your job is relentless and so very appreciate, thank you.”

Vanessa Waite, 39 runs her own veterinarian Vet Station Molesey and who also lost their friend in Kadiji to suicide, today said: “There’s so many theories about why this happens in our profession like being desensitized to euthanasia.”

“For me personally, I think it’s more due to the type of people that become vets, there’s a classical personality type that become a vet.

“It’s the kind of job that really weighs you down, we get something called compassion fatigue so we run out of energy to care, and that’s a hue thing because if you stop caring about your patients you stop caring about yourself and you can just go into this dark and hopeless hole.”

“Something I know I suffer with is decision fatigue especially as head vet, your constantly hounded with questions from people, there’s no downtime even when you’re not at work your brain doesn’t get to rest, there’s so many sleepless nights, you might blame yourself about something you did with a patient and you just stress the whole night.”

“We get attacked by the public so much, all the time, particularly since more corporates people have taken over, thankfully I’m an independent vet but it’s become such a money-making exercise for all these corporates and the person that they blame is the vet, and it’s not the vet, I promise you there’s none of us driving around in Rolls Royce’s.”

“Zero tolerance on bullying towards vets would be one thing to help this, there’s bullying in the industry and there’s bullying from outside the industry and it needs to stop. We need to be given time off and we need to be able to rest with less pressures in the job, but where that support comes from I don’t know.”

“The corporates send you pizza and a candle to light, that’s not going to help. People need therapy and time off if they’re having a bad time not bloody pizza – it’s ridiculous.”

“It’s hard because you don’t spot it until it’s too late, or you don’t spot it at all.

“My friend Kadiji was a beautiful Brazilian girl we used to talk all the time, we were both surgeons, we would operate together and she was so happy, I’d walk into the room and she’d be doing a samba and would be like ‘Vanessa join in.’ you’d never had known it and then one day I got a call from an old boss saying ‘oh by the way Kadiji killed herself and I was like ‘No she didn’t, I was messaging her just yesterday and was just going to visit her.”

Jess also shared an image of a charity named Not One More Vet (NOMV).

This charity was established in 2014 by Dr. Nicole McArthur following the suicide of Dr. Sophia Yin.

Their website reads: “NOMV will transform the status of mental wellness within the profession so veterinary professionals can survive and thrive through education, resources, and support.”

Veterinary professionals are more likely to die by suicide than average.

When veterinary professionals die by suicide, they often use methods connected to their work.

Vets across the UK have teamed up with The University of Edinburgh to conduct a groundbreaking study which they hope will help to reduce high rates of suicide in the industry.

One of their core objectives is to look at how limiting access to means could cut the veterinary suicide rate – which is currently three to four times higher than seen in the general population.