animal vs. vet experience

[sunnex3]

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so i'm probably going to sound REALLY REALLY stupid for asking this...

but what kinds of things go under "animal" vs. "vet" experience? i'm guessing that VET experience is when a vet is involved - whether it is research, or clinical experience etc.

animal is just with animals? like volunteering, equestrian, dog care, etc.?

i had another question - as a undergrad student, i really haven't had the chance during the academic year to get much ANIMAL experience (although i have some vet experience from being a research assistant for 2 vet related projects at school) I'm planning on starting to volunteer for the humane society in the city that I go to school in, and I've been riding horses since I was 9, have had my own dog since I was 14, done random dog sitting stuff here and there since middle school-ish, volunteered at a therapeutic riding center, and volunteered at dog rescue groups (the latter 2 being in high school only)...

is my lack of animal experience thus far going to be damaging to me in any way? I'd like to volunteer at the zoo in the future sometime as well as something equine related...but I feel like I don't have much animal experience. I do have other vet - related experience, as I'm a tech at a SA general practice plus the research experience...but I feel like my animal experience is lacking.

i don't know if my question was even that clear...😕

 

[Konfetkette]

I think that as long as you get the required hours of volunteering (and maybe above it too), it wouldn't matter when you volunteered. I'm in the same situation kind of. I will be a senior next year and zero experience. I'm starting at an animal shelter next week.

 

[sunnex3]

are there "required" hours of VOLUNTEERING specifically?

i did most of my animal related volunteering in high school, but i hope to do at least a little bit at the humane society while i'm on campus at least for the next couple years (while school's session) and maybe some over the summers (just a little) i'm hoping not to have to commit a ton of time to volunteering, unless the volunteering involves vet experience.

 

[r00]

I am in a similar boat as I have just recently (within the last 6 months) decided to seriously pursue become a vet and as such have almost no experience. I spent 2 months at the SPCA getting "animal" experience before I found a clinic that was willing to let me be a volunteer tech.... At this point I haven't been back to the SPCA in 4-5 weeks (I am going to keep my commitment of 8 hours a month to them), but I have racked up just shy of 60 hours of "Vet" experience in the process...


As far as I am concerned i have enough dog/cat experience owning pets all my life and the only "Animal" experience that I need is with horses and other animals that I have never been around for any extended period of time...

 

[InfiniVet]

Try to remember that animal ownership isn't really going to cut it for animal experience.
I mean if you have 3 ferrets, 2 snakes, a guinea pig, 5 dogs, and 2 cats then yeah you could get some points for that...
But volunteering at a search & rescue with your dog? Yes, big time points. Or breeding prize winning rabbits. Or competing in sheepdog trials.

They're going to assume that everyone has pets, loves laying on the couch with their dogs, etc. What do you do on top of that sets you apart from the pack?

They want you to have the experience before getting your medical license to be able to relate to at least a fraction of your specialty clients.

That you'll understand how important arena footing is to dressage clients for example.
Or perspectives & attitudes breeders tend to have towards veterinarians.
Or that all female ferrets are always sold spayed, and why that is.

 

[sunnex3]

my main question was is my lack of "animal experience" going to necessarily hurt me when i'm really focusing on trying to get a lot of "vet experience?"

it just seems like there isn't enough time for me to get both sufficient hours of animal AND vet experience and i'm starting to get real nervous about the experience that i have so far.

when i'm at school, there's only so much animal/vet experience i can get outside of what's available at school (with my 2 work study jobs, classes, clubs, etc. but i'm volunteering at the humane society). and when i'm at home during the summer/winter i'm so busy trying to get vet experience, it seems that i can't get much "animal" experience in besides like dog care here and there and caring for my own pet, as well as riding, etc.

i mean i know how to handle different types of animals, but that's mainly from my veterinary experience.

ahh! 😱

 

[r00]

Try to remember that animal ownership isn't really going to cut it for animal experience.
I mean if you have 3 ferrets, 2 snakes, a guinea pig, 5 dogs, and 2 cats then yeah you could get some points for that...
But volunteering at a search & rescue with your dog? Yes, big time points. Or breeding prize winning rabbits. Or competing in sheepdog trials.

They're going to assume that everyone has pets, loves laying on the couch with their dogs, etc. What do you do on top of that sets you apart from the pack?

They want you to have the experience before getting your medical license to be able to relate to at least a fraction of your specialty clients.

That you'll understand how important arena footing is to dressage clients for example.
Or perspectives & attitudes breeders tend to have towards veterinarians.
Or that all female ferrets are always sold spayed, and why that is.

Haha, well my wife has hit her limit with a dog and a cat - so ownership like that is way out of the question... Where, then, can I (and others like me) get the "right" animal experience?

 

[bunnity]

All the VMCAS really says to differentiate the two is that vet experience is supervised by a health professional and animal experience isn't. So if you are working under a vet (or something similar, like I included work under a wildlife rehabber) that is vet experience. If you are working under someone like a barn manager, a volunteer coordinator at a shelter, or something like that, it is animal experience.

Now if you can manage to find experience in a variety of fields with a variety of animals, all supervised by a vet I think that would be fine. Since that is usually hard to accomplish that is where the animal experience comes in so you can get good at handling types of animals that you can't get vet experience for. For example, the vets at my shelters didn't "do" rabbits other than spay/neuter, but I was able to get experience as part of the rabbit volunteer group and learn about another species as "animal experience."

Bear in mind that it doesn't all have to be volunteer time; if you can get paid it still counts. Of course, it is good to have some be volunteer time because that really shows that you are putting in the effort and enjoying it for something other than the money. But there are so many hours in a day and if you "graduate" from being a volunteer to an employee somewhere I don't think anyone would hold that against you!

 

[vnair2]

My impression is that while animal experience is nice, schools care much more about veterinary experience. If you have lots of veterinary experience then relax. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

On my app, I had no animal experience, everything was vet (and by everything I mean both things).

 

[sumstorm]

My impression is that while animal experience is nice, schools care much more about veterinary experience. If you have lots of veterinary experience then relax. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

On my app, I had no animal experience, everything was vet (and by everything I mean both things).

I would disagree with that, at least for some schools. NCSU CVM strongly recommends a minimum of 100 hours of animal experience beyond the required minimum of 400 hours vet experience. They also prefer 'multiple activities of long duration.' I believe part of this is to expose you to the variety of viewpoints surrounding animals/vet med.

From the website:
1. Veterinary Experience A minimum of 400 hours of clinical, medical, agribusiness, health science or medical related scientific research experience is required by the time of application. However, supervised experiences in three or more different areas are highly recommended for a competitive application.. Experience in three (3) different areas (small animal, large animal, research, food animal production, exotic, aquatic, wildlife, zoological medicine, etc.) of the veterinary medical profession is preferred. The work can be either paid or voluntary and must be completed under the supervision of a veterinarian (or PhD scientist if scientific research). Applicants will be evaluated on duration, level of duties, and diversity of the experiences.
2. Animal Experience All other animal related experiences will also be evaluated, such as working with livestock, breeding/ showing dogs or similar, working at a zoo, aquarium or pet shop, equestrian activities, volunteer time at an animal shelter/rescue, etc., and these should be included in the "Animal Experience" section of the VMCAS application.
Like veterinary experience, animal experience will be evaluated on duration with at least 100 hours or more contact time highly recommended; multiple activities of long duration are preferred. This category doesn't include pet ownership.

 

[sunnex3]

does animal experience in high school count? i had a lot of "animal" experience in high school, while more "vet" experience in college

 

[sumstorm]

does animal experience in high school count? i had a lot of "animal" experience in high school, while more "vet" experience in college

I didn't see any time limits on experience. In other words, I would say yes, it does. I included experience from growing up on a farm pre-high school.

It does ask you for the dates the experience occured, how many hours/wk, and total hours of each experience.

 

[david594]

my main question was is my lack of "animal experience" going to necessarily hurt me when i'm really focusing on trying to get a lot of "vet experience?"

Nah, and this coming from the guy who only reported having 20 hours of animal experience on his application(but had like 2500 hours veterinary experience).

Veterinary experience kind of supersedes animal experience, and its going to be the most highly considered experience you can get.

 

[sunnex3]

yeah so far i have at least 760 hours of vet experience plus 2 research jobs at the vet school and i don't even know how much animal experience if i include all the volunteering/horseback riding/dog care i've done since elementary school really...

luckily i'm only a sophomore in college, so i still have a bit of time to rack up hours during summer/winter breaks.

does vet experience include research assistant jobs done under supervision of a PhD at the vet school? or just research assistant jobs under supervision of DVM.

 

[eventualeventer]

Yes, most schools consider any research under a PhD to be vet experience.

 

[California1]

If your research involves animals then it is approved by IACUC. Even though a vet may not ever be in the room with you, your work is still under vet supervision.

 

[sunnex3]

is this research that i specifically do? or does it include assisting in research... the research assistant positions i hold, i don't necessarily come up with the research idea, i just help them actually do the research.

 

[sumstorm]

If your Working w/animals under PhD/DvM/MD, I was told = vet experience, but remember variety/breadth do matter.

 

[InfiniVet]

Veterinary supervised does supersede animal experience, but you still need animal experience outside pet ownership. Be sure to get at LEAST 100 hours of milking cows/horse riding lessons/pet sitting/deer hunting in.

 

[sunnex3]

Veterinary supervised does supersede animal experience, but you still need animal experience outside pet ownership. Be sure to get at LEAST 100 hours of milking cows/horse riding lessons/pet sitting/deer hunting in.

since high school experience counts (thankfully!), i easily have hundreds of hours of animal experience too...been riding horses since i was 9, and did pet sitting here and there since middle school, plus freshman/sophomore year of high school i volunteered at therapeutic riding center and junior/senior year of high school i volunteered at dog rescue groups...

the only thing is i haven't really had animal experience since i've been in college...