Good Goat/Sheep/Farm Animal Schools

[baker324]

Hello!
I am a current Purdue Undergrad Sophomore and I am starting to look into vet schools I want to apply to so I can knock out the pre-reqs. I really love my goats and sheep, but I am not sure just yet if I want to specialize in them or be a regular farm vet. Are there any schools that really stand out with great Farm Animal and or Goat/Sheep programs?

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[Emmy Senpai]

Hello!
I am a current Purdue Undergrad Sophomore and I am starting to look into vet schools I want to apply to so I can knock out the pre-reqs. I really love my goats and sheep, but I am not sure just yet if I want to specialize in them or be a regular farm vet. Are there any schools that really stand out with great Farm Animal and or Goat/Sheep programs?

Veterinary schools will prepare you to go into small animal, large animal, equine, etc. so anywhere you go, you will get a good education in regards to becoming a large animal veterinarian. Your in state school should be your first choice if it is the cheapest school for you. Iowa state has a tracking program where you can pick your main interest of study. However, that means that you won't get a variety of experience. Personally, I would keep an open mind. You never know what you'll want to do when you get to vet school. You may like large animals now, but in vet school you could think that turtles are the best and go for exotic medicine.

 

[genny]

Iowa state has a tracking program where you can pick your main interest of study. However, that means that you won't get a variety of experience.

I don't know what you're smoking, but that hasn't been my experience at ISU at all.

 

[deleted676737]

Veterinary schools will prepare you to go into small animal, large animal, equine, etc. so anywhere you go, you will get a good education in regards to becoming a large animal veterinarian. Your in state school should be your first choice if it is the cheapest school for you. Iowa state has a tracking program where you can pick your main interest of study. However, that means that you won't get a variety of experience. Personally, I would keep an open mind. You never know what you'll want to do when you get to vet school. You may like large animals now, but in vet school you could think that turtles are the best and go for exotic medicine.

We only "track" during the clinical year, and even then, we still have at least a couple of services in each major field (small animal, food animal, equine) in our required block that all students must rotate through regardless of our declared interest. So even if someone elected to do the Food Animal option, they'd still have multiple small animal and equine rotations that they'd have to take and therefore they'd get at least some experience working with those species---see here, for example: Food Animal Option - Class of 2020 | College of Veterinary Medicine.

For the didactic years, there is no tracking at all and everyone must learn about all of the major species. Of course, there are species-specific electives offered, as well as various wetlabs and other hands-on opportunities through clubs. But, yeah, the core curriculum has us study everything.

 

[Emmy Senpai]

I have only known "tracking" to be a program where you pick a selected field you want to go into and your classes are more focused on that particular area of study. I did not apply to Iowa State and this is literally the only thing I know about the school. I said in the beginning of my post that any vet school you pick, you will receive a good education regardless of what type of medicine you want to practice, and my wording was off in that I meant there might be less opportunity for exploration of a different field if you're involved in a tracking program. Obviously I was wrong, but this was just my interpretation of a "tracking" program and again, I didn't apply to Iowa State so I'm only vaguely familiar with this part of the program from the bits of information I've picked up through this site and from briefly visiting Iowa State's website. My intention wasn't to offend anyone who attends Iowa State, nor do I think that this school is inferior to other schools based on the tracking program.

 

[cheathac]

Every vet school is going to prepare you to come out and work small animal or large animal. There's none that I know of that "specialize" in small ruminants. Some schools like Iowa State are known for pigs and K state for cattle. I suppose you could specialize AFTER vet school in those species. Go to the cheapest school and apply strategically. Look at your grades and experiences, and apply to places where you'll feel like you will have the most success at. Look at OOS class size, how they view cum GPA vs last 45, are they holistic in their review or do they mainly look at grades, etc. Good luck!

 

[pinkpuppy9]

Veterinary schools will prepare you to go into small animal, large animal, equine, etc. so anywhere you go, you will get a good education in regards to becoming a large animal veterinarian. Your in state school should be your first choice if it is the cheapest school for you. Iowa state has a tracking program where you can pick your main interest of study. However, that means that you won't get a variety of experience. Personally, I would keep an open mind. You never know what you'll want to do when you get to vet school. You may like large animals now, but in vet school you could think that turtles are the best and go for exotic medicine.

Agreed with the bolded. You just never know. You may go through vet school and still be intent on working with sheep/goats, or you may change. I have classmates who came in dead set on farm and switched to small animal, zoo and switched to mixed, etc. It's hard to know exactly what you want beforehand since you never stop being exposed to new things while in vet school.

 

[HorsesRLife]

At okstate we have a close by university we collaborate with that has a pretty large goat herd. We do a castration lab first semester first year there. We also have a small ruminatant elective and club. During 4th year depending when you take food animal you'll see tons of preg tox/goat c sections (I think they had 4 c sections just yesterday). But like someone else said do the cheapest option. That being said, if you gain in state residency in Oklahoma it's one of the cheapest options and you usually have a 1:2 chance of getting in since in state applicants are so few.

 

[VeiledChams]

UF and Auburn have good food animal programs.. I've worked at UF, mainly in the dairy side, for the past 3 years and will be starting as school in the Fall.. great food animal stuff!