I don't quite know how to ask this, but with lab animal medicine, is there any areas where the ethics of animal....argh, I don't want to say 'rights' and 'treatment' can be a confusing term, but what I am thinking of is the studies where harsh chemicals were sprayed in rabbit eyes and left untreated, etc....do lab vets stumble into those situations?
I can't speak for your specific situation, but there definitely some reasons why I know that lab animal medicine wouldn't be right for me. I mean, I see the need for it, but I just wouldn't want to be the one to do it. Sure the pay is great, the hours reasonable, and the demand high, but Robeezy is right, you'll have to deal with ornery PI's who want to approve protocols that you may not be crazy about. And most lab animal vets deal mostly with mice. Just due to sheer numbers. Plus they're cheaper and it's a lot harder to get a protocol with dogs or primates approved than one with mice. I work at a lab at a big research university, and I worked in their University Lab Animal Resources for a few months before, and it definitely got to me a little. I know that if I had a baby with a disease, I would want them to do everything to cure it, but it's another thing to see primates in small cages with little enrichment, beagles in small enclosure that make you think, I wish I could take that one home! But no, they're destined to be sacrificed. And they have never seen the light of day. And mice in tiny cages with no wheels that cannabalize their own pups. The rats can't even fully extend vertically in their cages. And a pair of mice on each rack "sentinels" that will be "sacrificed" to test for internal parasites, etc. Plus, a lot of the animal care technicians aren't paid very well, and I've seen rats with teeth grown into their mouths that weren't reported and dead mice that accidentally went through the cage wash.
Call me soft, but after a while, the mice we intentionally bred to have seizures and die young just made me sad. To me, it's sort of like the meat industry. Yes I eat meat, but no I really wouldn't want to be the one to kill thousands of cattle daily, every day, so I could eat.
As a lab animal vet, you will have to deal with a lot of population health, which some people really enjoy. You will decide to quarantine rooms with MHV or EDIM outbreaks to the displeasure of PI's and to sacrifice mice that test positively and to put infected rooms on lockdown.
The lab animal vets I knew seemed to like their jobs though. The one mentioned that the mice at universities, etc are much healthier than the ones you can buy at petshops. Especially at a big university, you can feel involved with furthering research and get to see different species and go home at a reasonable time with a nice paycheck. You generally don't have to deal with crying owners when euthanizing, although some of the animal care technicians get attached to the larger animals. It's true though that if a mouse is sick, most PI's just have a tech like me sack it. I have a lot of respect for lab animal vets, but I just personally don't see it as my calling. Maybe this will change? I hope this is somewhat helpful and not offensive. My university follows all of the housing standards and everything, I just still have a soft spot for the research animals, bad for a future vet I know
That being said, who knows what kind of vet I'll be
🙂