A Perspective On Veterinary Medicine With Dennis French DVM - #068 The Horse's Advocate Podcast

My guest today is Dr. Denny French, a second-generation large animal veterinarian from the midwest United States. He was a professor at Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Veterinary Medicine for 30 years. In 2009, he migrated back to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Veterinary Medicine as a professor and head of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine. He presently is a co-owner of a private large animal practice. I met Denny a few years back, sitting at a kitchen table at a mutual friend's home outside Shreveport, LA. I asked him how many students were graduating from his school that year. He said 119. I then asked him how many of those were good horse vets. He scrunched up his face and questioned me, "Good?" Then, with only a slight pause, he said, "I can say two. And with a lot of work, maybe another two." This statistic aligns with the current official 1.4% of all students in the United States becoming equine veterinarians. However, the worse news is that half of these will leave in the first five years of practice. I have written about this equine veterinary shortage and made the podcast "Houston, We Have A Problem" (podcast #23). Unfortunately, this is a crisis for horse owners, especially in rural areas. Because of this, I wanted a different perspective from someone involved in academia and the selection process of future veterinarians. Dr. French offers his thoughts in this casual conversation. ********** TheHorsesAdvocate.com is a website to learn about horses, horse barns and farms. There is a membership side of the website where horse owners can attend live meetings to ask questions and get a deeper understanding of things they have learned on the site. Membership helps support this message, helping to spread it to everyone worldwide working with horses. HorsemanshipDentistry.com is a website that discusses how and why I perform equine dentistry without immobilization or the automatic use of drugs. I only accept new clients in Florida. Make an appointment in FL. HorsemanshipDentistrySchool.com is a website for those interested in learning how to perform equine dentistry without drugs on 97% of horses. There are eight spots a year for interested students PLUS, there is a separate online course for those wanting to learn how to do this but can never get to South Florida for hands-on training. Show support for The Horse's Advocate by wearing a hat or shirt or drinking from a cup, all with the official logo. Go to this link for our swag (https://the-horses-advocate.creator-spring.com/). Please give a thumbs up or 5-star review and share these everywhere. I know horse owners worldwide listen, and the horses need every one of you in "Helping Horses Thrive In A Human World."