Mixed Practice Vet Specializing in Surgery & Acupuncture?

[redtailedhawk]

I'm interested in becoming a mixed practice veterinarian specializing in both surgery and acupuncture.
Is this possible? I don't know of any veterinarians that specialize in both these skills.

I am an animal science major (undergrad/sophomore).

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[cowgirla]

By specializing do you mean board certified or just "likes and does lots of CE"?

Because on one hand you can do CE in whatever you prefer. But in most cases you can't call yourself a specialist without board certification.

Even ignoring the above, the financial aspects of mixed practice may not allow what you are interested in. I am a mixed animal vet in a relatively affluent area... Which means I make less than a strictly small animal practicioner would. And no way could I make a living on just surgery and acupuncture. There aren't many large animal folks out there paying for acupuncture on their cows.... And most of the equine people interested in acupuncture aren't at a surgical facility.

Again, you can do CE and have an interest in both aspects. But it likely won't be a true specialization. And you will likely end up with limited species.

I'm not saying it's not possible but may not fit within the general scope of mixed animal.
My favorite part of mixed animal practice is doing something different every day... Some days I see goats and alpacas and pigs...'other days it's cows and horses...'and other times it's dogs and cats. I do whatever basic surgery is required but most of the times it's wellness care, repro and medicine, not advanced surgical techniques or alternative medicines.

 

[sheltermed]

An ambulatory large animal vet I work with is certified in acupuncture. I might be able to get you some more information about it if you'd like! Just let me know of any specific questions you may have, and I'll pass them along

 

[ResoluteMike]

I'm interested in becoming a mixed practice veterinarian specializing in both surgery and acupuncture.
Is this possible? I don't know of any veterinarians that specialize in both these skills.

I am an animal science major (undergrad/sophomore).

There is a clinic like that is Omaha. It is a referral practice and just hired a surgeon. I don't expect he is going to be doing much acupunture though. It seems like a contradictory goal. Acupuncture is more of a GP veterinarian bonus certification than a specialization.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

I'm interested in becoming a mixed practice veterinarian specializing in both surgery and acupuncture.
Is this possible? I don't know of any veterinarians that specialize in both these skills.

I am an animal science major (undergrad/sophomore).

There is no specialty in acupuncture, though there is a certification. The specifics you've chosen would make for a vert limited employment field -- possible, but financially limited.

 

[twelvetigers]

If you choose to do surgery residency, you pick small animal or equine. Or, you can do food animal medicine and surgery, but those are lumped together I think. IF you want to do surgeries in general, sure - some things may need referral depending on how much training and experience you get. And you can take courses and become certified in acupuncture as well, separately, and potentially offer that at a practice. However, I'm thinking you will most likely need to do general practice stuff too - the colics, the diarrhea, the ADRs, vaccines, that sort of thing. If you want to JUST do surgery, you'd want to do a residency. And then acupuncture would be a bit outside your scope as a surgeon, I would think.

 

[BioNerd14]

Could I specialize in small animal surgery and do general practice for small ruminants as well?

 

[flameshock]

Could I specialize in small animal surgery and do general practice for small ruminants as well?

I think your wording is important here. As mentioned above, as a GP, you can have a passion in surgery and take lots of advanced training/CE to aim for a higher degree of competency. Completely valid professional track.

However, calling yourself a 'specalist' means you are board certified, which will take a minimum of 4-5 years additional post DVM training (rotating internship, usually a surgery internship, surgery residency) and passing the national board exam. It seems very unlikely to me to go through all that additional training and still spend a lot of working hours on small ruminant GP.

 

[LetItSnow]

I think your wording is important here. As mentioned above, as a GP, you can have a passion in surgery and take lots of advanced training/CE to aim for a higher degree of competency. Completely valid professional track.

However, calling yourself a 'specalist' means you are board certified, which will take a minimum of 4-5 years additional post DVM training (rotating internship, usually a surgery internship, surgery residency) and passing the national board exam. It seems very unlikely to me to go through all that additional training and still spend a lot of working hours on small ruminant GP.

Not as weird as you might think.

Two of our ER-only (not CritCare) docs are boarded surgeons who just decided they didn't want to do surgery full time. They still enjoy it, they just wanted a little more variety. One of them runs his own surgery practice out of the ER hospital that he's at - he is at one of our non-business-hours ERs (i.e. closed weekdays); he utilizes the space for his surgery practice during the daytime. He maybe does that once every week or so. Just enough to be fun for him.


One of my mentors from school was a boarded surgeon at school who left to go open her own private mixed practice. She now does a lot of referral surgery (she's in a fairly rural setting) from other GPs in the area who know she's a surgeon, as well as her normal mixed-animal clientele, which includes ruminants.

Acupuncture is just something you can pick up with some CE, like at the Chi Institute.

I mean, I agree with the general sentiment of the thread, but .... it <is> possible.

 

[twelvetigers]

Two of our ER-only (not CritCare) docs are boarded surgeons who just decided they didn't want to do surgery full time.

Did they pay off their student loans before they decided to do that?

 

[that redhead]

Could I specialize in small animal surgery and do general practice for small ruminants as well?

Technically speaking: yes.

The trouble is, after all of the years required for surgical specialization, your small ruminant knowledge will be terribly atrophied. You'd have to keep up with the small ruminant world while slogging through a surgical residency, which is tough enough on its own. Alternatively, you could practice mixed GP for a while and then go to be boarded or vice versa. It's just going to be difficult to be proficient in both aspects with the rigors of actual specialization.

 

[LetItSnow]

Did they pay off their student loans before they decided to do that?

Our ER docs? Mmm. One of them, for sure, because he taught in an academic environment. The other, no.

Things is, they're making pretty decent money. Based on location I can make a pretty solid educated guess that the one ER doc is making $110k plus whatever he makes with his private surgery stuff. That's not amazing (I don't think he really does THAT much surgery - maybe 1/wk - it's more hobby than anything), but he's the one who wouldn't have student loans to deal with. His wife is an ER vet as well, and they live in a low-cost rural area on a small hobby farm - they have a comfortable but not extravagant lifestyle. Very doable with their incomes.

But the other is in a location where he's making at least $180k. You can do fine off that and pay back student loans.

 

[twelvetigers]

Shet, if I pulled $180k a year I would pay off my loans in 3 years. I uh, don't make that much. Haha.

 

[LetItSnow]

Shet, if I pulled $180k a year I would pay off my loans in 3 years. I uh, don't make that much. Haha.

You can do well in ER if you can put up with the lifestyle and cases and all that. The doctors that are working only at our busiest hospital are easily clearing $180-$200k/yr, which is pretty decent for not being a boarded specialist and not being a practice owner. I'm not up in that range (about 1/4th of my time is at one of our slower ERs, and 3/4th of my time is at our second-busiest ER), but even then I still made easily double the average SA new-grad salary last year.

 

[twelvetigers]

I don't think ER vets make that kind of money here. I'm sure they make more than I do as a GP (I mean I hope they do) but yeah.