Animal/Vet Experience Questions

[hboothe]

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Hi,
I'm a sophomore and I'm probably going to double major in biology and earth science. I should graduate in 2016 but I may take a year off between applying to vet school. I have a lot of animal experience, I worked at a dog boarding kennel full time all summer and I volunteer at the local shelter. Some questions I have about animal experience are about riding horses. I've ridden, owned, and showed horses my whole life and I'm also on my schools equestrian team. How much of that can I count as animal experience? So far I have very little vet experience. I'm going to try to get a job at a small animal clinic in the winter but I wanted to know how I could get a job as a vet or tech or assistant so I wont be cleaning kennels all day. I already have a lot of experience with that from the boarding kennel and I really need more experience with a vet. I'm going to look into shadowing some equine vets in the spring as well because I'm really interested in that. I'd like some advice on what to say when I'm calling vets and asking them to let me shadow. Also, I've heard that lab research experience to have so if anyone can tell me anything about how to get into that, I'd be very grateful! Thank You!! 🙂

 

[that redhead]

Some questions I have about animal experience are about riding horses. I've ridden, owned, and showed horses my whole life and I'm also on my schools equestrian team. How much of that can I count as animal experience?

I would do your best to count the hours that you spent working with horses in any setting - grooming, training, riding, showing. Those definitely count as animal hours.

I'm going to try to get a job at a small animal clinic in the winter but I wanted to know how I could get a job as a vet or tech or assistant so I wont be cleaning kennels all day. I already have a lot of experience with that from the boarding kennel and I really need more experience with a vet.

Well, many people here believe strongly in earning your chance to work directly with a vet. If that means cleaning kennels to get your foot in the door, so be it. If you have very little clinic experience to start with, it isn't really fair to expect a clinic to pay you and train you on the job. Most clinics are too busy for from-scratch training. Instead, you might offer to volunteer/shadow there first to get a hang of the place and then try to wrangle a paying position. Or you can start from the bottom (cleaning kennels) and work your way up from there. But very few places will just hire someone with no experience.

I'd like some advice on what to say when I'm calling vets and asking them to let me shadow.

I'd bring your resume and cover letter to the places you'd like to be. Explain that you're interested in going to vet school and would really value getting to spend some time in the clinic getting an idea of what its all about. You can emphasize your previous work experience but I wouldn't say "But I don't want to clean kennels." Then follow up frequently.

Also, I've heard that lab research experience to have so if anyone can tell me anything about how to get into that, I'd be very grateful! Thank You!! 🙂

I got all of my lab experience at my undergrad university. Most large universities have research (and therefore lab animals) going on, it's just not heavily publicized due to public perception and whatnot. If you're interested in research, you can talk to some of your professors and ask if they have any reserach going on and if there are any positions available in their lab. You can also try to find out who your campus' lab animal vet is and contact them to see if they have a position available (emphasizing that you're interested in vet school and not some PETA nut fishing for information, haha). A lot of that is cleaning, though, and if you aren't interested in cleaning kennels you probably won't like changing mouse boxes any more 😉 But it's a place to start!