2 days ago
As Australia's natural disasters worsen, ‘vets carry on, even while their own clinics are under water'
'Horrific' was how veterinarian Dr Stacey Rae describes what she saw while helicoptering above south-west Queensland farmland in the aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in March.
Scores of livestock were scattered across the formerly dusty plains – some still alive, many dead.
As flood waters receded, animals struggled in the thick sludge, slowly succumbing to starvation, exposure and illness.
Because rain struck just before shearing time, sheep carried full fleeces, which made the impact 'tenfold' worse, Rae says.
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She estimates the final death count of stock stretches into the hundreds of thousands, though that cannot be determined until surviving sheep are shorn and cattle mustered.
'I've not seen this in my lifetime.'
Recent figures suggest 150,000 stock losses so far.
After the floods in remote Queensland, New South Wales also experienced record-breaking rainfall in May, flooding the Hunter region and mid-north coast. Farmers in the area were forced to bury their dead stock.
Rae worries about the wellbeing of farmers. 'It's these months where reality sets in, mental health issues really come to the top.'
Veterinarians face complex challenges too – natural disasters are increasingly exhausting those working in rural Australia.
The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) set up a hotline in March to offer advice to flood-affected graziers and vets in Queensland, which remained open until early June due to demand.
Calls initially focused on urgent trauma and delivering vital resources such as medicine to suffering livestock.
But months later the hotline was still buzzing as sandfly plagues, emerging plant toxicity, chronic disease, viruses and bacterial infections emerged.
The role of vets in regional Australia goes beyond serving as a 'small animal wizard', veterinarian Dr Jeannet Kessels says.
'Veterinarians feel very deeply … I've probably shed a tear with every client that came in for euthanasia,' she says. 'Vets carry on, even while their own clinics are under water.'
Kessels, the owner of a carbon neutral vet hospital in Springfield, Queensland, founded the group Vets for Climate Action after the black summer bushfires.
In March, VfCA hosted Veterinary Voices to Parliament – A Call to Action event in Canberra urging for formal recognition of the impact the climate crisis has on animal welfare.
The former chief veterinary officer (CVO) of NSW and inspector general of biosecurity for Australia, Dr Helen Scott-Orr, says extreme weather events are having 'massive economic, animal and vet welfare effects'.
She says major animal health issues – infections, disease and insect-borne illnesses – flourish in extreme weather and euthanising animals amid large-scale natural disasters is 'heartbreaking'.
When she was a veterinary student in the late 1960s, Scott-Orr recalls being taught that paralysis ticks didn't exist south of Sydney Harbour – but now, they are found as far south as Gippsland, Victoria.
A 2018 study estimates about 10,000 dogs and cats are treated annually for tick paralysis, with unquantified but growing impacts on livestock and wildlife.
Rural vets bear the brunt of treating animals in extreme weather events, adding pressure to a worsening workforce crisis – with a veterinarian shortage in regional Australia.
There are vet shortages in every state, especially in large animal and rural practice, according to a 2025 report by Jobs and Skills Australia, while a 2024 NSW parliamentary inquiry into the veterinary workforce shortage indicated an urgent need for better workforce data and planning.
Job vacancies linger longest in the bush: 44% of regional vet jobs remain open for over a year, compared with a lower 28% in metropolitan areas.
Research shows vets suffer from high emotional strain, moral conflicts, chronic underpayment and alarming suicide rates, while 42% of vets in remote areas work more than 50 hours per week.
'The veterinary profession already has a higher-than-average suicide rate,' says former Queensland CVO, Dr Ron Glanville – one of 33 former Australian CVOs and senior animal health officials lobbying the government for stronger climate action.
Glanville also warns that the threat of climate-related disease is becoming more serious – the spread of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), used to be limited to the Top End, he says. 'Now we've seen outbreaks right down into South Australia.'
In 2022, an outbreak swept through more than 80 piggeries across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Domestic animals were infected and three people died.
'We had to make difficult decisions,' Rae says, recalling the catastrophic Queensland floods.
'Some stock weren't able to be saved and it was more humane to destroy them.'
One producer, she recalls, had to shoot 80 bullocks in one paddock out of the helicopter.
'That's hundreds of thousands of dollars just gone, they were booked in to go the following week … It's not like a flooded home you can insure.'
Rae encourages Australians to volunteer with BlazeAid, or visit the regions to help local economies. Practical donations are also welcome, including initiative Pay 4 a Panel, helping rebuild fencing.
Rae says there has been an 'amazing' community response but many vets and farmers feel forgotten – as if the nation has simply has 'moved on'.
