Veterinary surgeons and clinics fear a supply shortage of essential intravenous fluids will lead to animal deaths.
The shortage, also being felt in hospitals, is forcing vets to ration the product and limit their services.
Sue South manages a busy vet practice in Forbes in Central West NSW and said the shortage was threatening to blow out surgical waitlists for sick animals.
“We have very, very limited stock,” Ms South said.
“We are booked out for surgery five times a day, five days a week, from now through until January. We just can’t afford to make our backlog any worse.”
Sodium chloride, commonly known as saline, and sodium lactate solutions are administered intravenously to human and animal patients to treat or prevent dehydration, and flush wounds and catheters.
Without sufficient stock, Ms South said the practice will have to cancel emergency surgeries and re-schedule general procedures.
“That would impact animals and ultimately lead to deaths, unfortunately,” she said.
Veterinary practices are feeling the impact of the global shortage of IV fluids as they use the products in animal surgeries. (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)
Supply chain woes
As supply of IV fluids has dwindled, the price has risen.
Ms South said typically a carton containing six one-litre bags of fluid would cost about $30.
She was recently quoted $1,380 a carton.
“I was stupefied,” she said.
“We are trying to source it in whichever way we can and we are hopeful we can still get dribs and drabs in.”
The IV fluid shortage is impacting both humans and animals across the country. (ABC Central West: Emily Middleton)
Critical shortage
The Australian Veterinary Association said it was first made aware of the IV fluid shortage about seven weeks ago.
“Initially, we were told it was a global supply shortage but it now looks to be a regional shortage,” the association’s president Dr Sally Colgan said.
“The impact is significant and is impacting clinics differently depending on how they have been able to conserve the fluid they have.”
Dr Colgan said some clinics were triaging each case and already some elective surgeries had been deferred.
“We are very concerned if this continues we will have impacts on case load, and the ability for clinics to do routine and emergency procedures,” she said.
Dr Colgan said while there was no indication of when the fluid shortage would ease, one plan in place was the importation of unregistered fluid into Australia in the next two months.
“Wholesalers are working with the regulator to import fluid for animal use. They may not be registered for humans but are okay to be used in animal patients,” she said.
“This is a short-term fix, though, and longer term we need better planning around supply management to avoid these shortages in the first place.”
The shortage of sodium chloride used as IV fluid has seen prices soar in recent weeks. (ABC News: Dean Faulkner)
‘Sit there and cry’
While all efforts were being made to conserve IV fluid stocks, Ms South said emergencies were most likely to be affected.
“Not being able to perform after-hours emergency surgeries could ultimately lead to [animal] death,” Ms South said.
“Being from the land I understand that with life comes death, but you just sit there and cry.”
