New mixed animal practice resources focus on care and team use
Bottom line
Mixed animal practitioners got a new set of practical, species-spanning resources this month as Today’s Veterinary Practice published its 2026 Mixed Animal Practice Edition, led by editor-in-chief Jamie Kopper’s October 1 editorial, “Resources for a Mixed Animal Mindset.” In that piece, Kopper frames mixed animal work as both energizing and uniquely demanding, especially as veterinarians move between companion animals, horses, pigs, goats, and other species in a single day. The package pairs that editorial with hands-on clinical and practice management articles, including guidance on vomiting in potbellied pigs, obstructive urolithiasis and neurologic signs in goats, equine pain management, and better use of credentialed veterinary technicians in mixed practice. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this isn’t just another themed content package. It lands at a time when rural food-animal and mixed-animal veterinary shortages are still persisting across many U.S. communities, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service. One of the edition’s clearest operational themes is team utilization: in a companion article, Chad Brown argues that mixed practices can’t afford to underuse credentialed veterinary technicians, particularly when delegation rules differ by state. That emphasis aligns with AAHA’s technician utilization guidance, which says practices that delegate appropriately to credentialed technicians see an average 36% revenue increase, and with JAVMA research linking nonveterinarian staff to higher productivity and revenue in mixed and companion animal practices. (ers.usda.gov)
What to watch: Expect more attention on workforce design, technician scope-of-practice rules, and practical cross-species education as mixed animal practices look for sustainable ways to keep serving rural communities. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)
Today’s Veterinary Practice has released its 2026 Mixed Animal Practice Edition with an editorial, “Resources for a Mixed Animal Mindset,” that speaks directly to clinicians juggling multiple species and care settings in the same workday. Published October 1, 2026, the editorial by Jamie Kopper positions the issue as a practical toolkit for veterinarians moving between dogs, pigs, horses, goats, and other patients, often within a single shift. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)
The editorial arrives against a broader workforce backdrop that helps explain why mixed animal practice is getting renewed attention. USDA’s Economic Research Service said in a September 10, 2026 report that shortages in food-animal and mixed-animal veterinary services have persisted across many rural areas for more than a decade, despite federal and state efforts to address those gaps. That makes mixed practitioners unusually important in communities where one veterinarian may be covering companion animal care, herd work, equine calls, and urgent cases that no specialist is likely to absorb. (ers.usda.gov)
Kopper’s editorial is less a research paper than a curated roadmap. It highlights a package of articles designed to be easy to reference in practice, including clinical guidance on vomiting in potbellied pigs, obstructive urolithiasis in small ruminants, neurologic presentations in goats, and pain management options in horses. It also points readers to a practice management piece on maximizing the use of credentialed veterinary technicians, signaling that the publication sees staffing and workflow as inseparable from clinical readiness in mixed practice. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)
That technician-utilization article adds useful context. Author Chad Brown, now at Iowa State University’s Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center, draws on 16 years in Appalachian mixed practice and argues that practices should focus on what only the veterinarian can do, while building protocols that let credentialed technicians work fully within legal limits. He notes that scope-of-practice rules vary meaningfully by state, using West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio as examples, and says those differences directly shape how teams can function on farm calls and in clinics. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)
Industry guidance and published evidence support that argument. AAHA’s 2023 Technician Utilization Guidelines say practices where veterinarians rarely perform tasks that credentialed technicians can legally do show an average 36% revenue increase. A 2022 JAVMA study similarly found that nonveterinarian staff increase both revenue and veterinarian productivity in mixed and companion animal practices, and identified staffing ratios associated with stronger outputs. Meanwhile, the American Association of Bovine Practitioners has published guidance on using credentialed veterinary technicians in bovine practice, reflecting a wider push to formalize technician roles beyond companion animal settings. (aaha.org)
There’s also a pipeline angle here. A 2024 Colorado State University livestock veterinary workforce report found that 85.7% of surveyed students who entered veterinary school interested in livestock or mixed animal medicine still held that interest at the time of the survey. But the same report says compensation, financial support, backup coverage in case of injury or illness, workload, work-life balance, and physical risk all influence whether students stay interested in rural or livestock-facing careers. In other words, interest exists, but retention depends on whether the job feels sustainable. (vetmedbiosci.colostate.edu)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the significance of this editorial package is that it treats mixed animal practice as a systems problem, not just a clinical identity. The challenge isn’t only keeping up with medicine across species. It’s building workflows, staffing models, and continuing education habits that let a small team deliver safe care across very different patient populations. For practices in rural areas, especially, better technician utilization and practical, species-specific reference material could help expand capacity without simply asking veterinarians to work longer and harder. That’s a meaningful message at a time when access gaps remain stubborn and mixed practitioners are still being asked to cover a lot of ground. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)
What to watch: The next signal to watch is whether more publishers, associations, and veterinary schools build mixed-practice resources around workforce sustainability, not just medicine, and whether states continue clarifying technician scope-of-practice rules in ways that make delegation easier and safer in rural mixed settings. (todaysveterinarypractice.com)