Anyone trying to decide between MD and DVM?

[Lefty Doodle]

I'm a nontrad doing my prereqs right now. I originally wanted to be an MD, but the idea of becoming a vet occasionally wafts into my thoughts. I love animals and am a lot less grossed out by their blood, guts and poop than I am by human stuff (I saw a woman collapsed on the street with blood dribbling out of her mouth last week and I am still sick to my stomach about it). I like it how animals' health problems are not due to poor and self-destructive choices (you know what I mean!).

I also just really like the students and professors I've encountered at my school who are zoologists/interested in zoology compared to all the premeds, and admire them for their belief that, on earth, humans may be more powerful, but are not superior, to other species. Premeds can often be a specific type of person and that type of person...I'm not sure I want to spend the rest of my life around.

I guess I may ultimately choose medicine because I get the impression that I would have a lot more flexibility about where I could get a job if I were a doctor, and because I am developing some allergies to furry animals. But, I don't know. Has anyone else been struggling with this (or maybe MD vs dentist?). It's also kind of difficult to decide where to volunteer (have been really busy with other commitments so haven't started volunteering yet...).

I'd also be curious about what other people pursuing veterinary medicine have observed about the professional culture (I know, I'll eventually post in the pre-vet forum I just want a non-trad view first).

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DrMidlife]

Vets spend a lot of time dealing with owners. Bad choices by people are a given, either way you go.

There are a lot of varied vet & vet student opportunities, academic, agricultural, international, etc. You can do a post-doc in pathology or radiology or whatnot. You can work at the CDC or for the military, and you can get into public service loan forgiveness programs.

I'd recommend doing shadowing on both sides, and take the time to figure out which way you want to go. Vet schools are just as insanely competitive as med schools, and they expect animal-related ECs and preferably animal-related research on top of a solid academic past. Hard to manage both animal & human ECs, imho.

Best of luck to you.

 

[wholeheartedly]

I'd definitely second shadowing both sides.

As for volunteering, if you're in the cities area there are some groups that train animals to be service dogs for people with disabilities etc. You get to work with the dogs and the people. I was going to do this, but I live to far away.

 

[sunshinevet]

I like it how animals' health problems are not due to poor and self-destructive choices (you know what I mean!).

I also just really like the students and professors I've encountered at my school who are zoologists/interested in zoology compared to all the premeds, and admire them for their belief that, on earth, humans may be more powerful, but are not superior, to other species. Premeds can often be a specific type of person and that type of person...I'm not sure I want to spend the rest of my life around.

I guess I may ultimately choose medicine because I get the impression that I would have a lot more flexibility about where I could get a job if I were a doctor, and because I am developing some allergies to furry animals. But, I don't know. Has anyone else been struggling with this (or maybe MD vs dentist?). It's also kind of difficult to decide where to volunteer (have been really busy with other commitments so haven't started volunteering yet...).

I'd also be curious about what other people pursuing veterinary medicine have observed about the professional culture (I know, I'll eventually post in the pre-vet forum I just want a non-trad view first).

Just a few points...

If you don't like how humans can make themselves sick due to poor and self destructive choices (which I don't either - one of the reasons I don't want to be a human doctor) its important to remember you're going to spend a lot of time treating illness that could have been prevented, but owners were too lazy/stupid/etc to do anything about. For example... over 50% of pets are obese. Illnesses that could have been prevented with vaccination, desexing, etc. People who refuse to treat arthritis. Behavioural issues people ignore. And this isn't even beginning with real cases of neglect and abuse you WILL see. It's hard to watch humans make bad desicions - its even harder to see them enforce those desicions on helpless animals.

The first point I've bolded is a good one - I feel the same! However, I am definately the minority in my class and out of the veterinary people I've met, so don't assume everyone is in this category.

The second bit I've bolded about being allergic to animals - I would say don't let this stop you. I used to be terribly allergic to cats - thats faded, but Burmese cats still set me off horribly. However, it never crossed my mind to change career paths. You'll find a lot of vets have allergies of some description, and deal with them different ways. If you search for threads in the prevet forum, you will see this has been discussed many times.

I think the most important thing you can do atm is to shadow vets and doctors. Veterinary medicine is a very different medicine to practice than human med - and its important to understand this before making a desicion. Also, if you choose to persue vet med, unlike human med, they tend to require much more animal and veterinary experience - most students work in practices for several years before they go to vet school and have 1000's of hours of experience, where many premeds only have a couple of hundred in volunteering/shadowing.

Something else you need to consider - and it might sound a bit terrible, because people always say not to do it for the money - but the differences in reimbursement are huge, given your opportunity cost is probably the same. There are many vets out there making good money, but it is peanuts compared to their human med counterparts. So, if loans etc are going to be prohibitive to you in the first place, you might struggle paying them off on a vets wage.

That said, vet med is amazing - I love it to death, and while we don't get all the toys that human med do, you honestly do get to see the circle of life a lot better. I've worked in practice for 6 years now - I've seen tragic losses of peoples beloved pets, and then seen them come in ~6 months later with a new puppy to be vaccinated, and it does really warm your heart, and keeps you coming back for more. I couldnt imagine doing anything else.