Are you interested in specializing?

[Nechochwen]

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Not really... because in 4 years time you'll be all wanting to kill each other for those internship/residency positions... And then kill each other for employment opportunities... have fun chickies!

Yeah, (sigh), it's a little depressing. You work hard through high school and undergrad, focus on grades and extracurricular activities, finally obtain a seat at a vet school... and your back to the same mind set you started with.

Despite the rat race that may be my future, I still want to go for it.

There do seem to be a lot of zoo med posts...

 

[alliecat44]

I'm in a competitive specialty, but not zoo. When I'm picking a resident I really don't care where they got their DVM, as long as it's an accredited school. More important is where they did their internship. But even there, I mostly want to make sure they have a good background in fundamental medicine and surgery. They need to know how to do a H&P, interpret a CBC, read a chest x-ray, tie knots, search and interpret the literature. We're going to teach them everything we want them to know in the specialty.

If you want to be competitive for a residency focus on getting the best grades possible in vet. school and do well in a good internship.

Bill, I'm so so dying to know what specialty you're in...does it happen to be under the ACVIM umbrella??

 

[Royal811]

I'm not completely sure what I want to go into yet, but it's about a 95% chance I'll go into equine medicine and I'm really fascinated by biomechanics/sport medicine. The way horses move has always enchanted me and I would love to work with that. Nothing geeks me out like the force-plate at the U of MN's Equine Center. I just about go into geek spasms and drooling fits when I see it.

 

[parietal]

I'm not completely sure what I want to go into yet, but it's about a 95% chance I'll go into equine medicine and I'm really fascinated by biomechanics/sport medicine. The way horses move has always enchanted me and I would love to work with that. Nothing geeks me out like the force-plate at the U of MN's Equine Center. I just about go into geek spasms and drooling fits when I see it.

It is pretty damn awesome! 😀

 

[nitheninny]

I bounce back and forth between a lot of things. Sometimes I think I'll just be a general vet, but then there are days where I'm like, "But XYZ IS SO COOL."

I waver between surgery, orthopedics, behavior, zoo, ophthalmology, everything. I'm hoping I can narrow things down by the time I have to actually start, you know, doing this stuff.

 

[purplesaurus]

I definitely want to specialize. I'm the kind of person who has to know everything about whatever she is interested in.

Right now, I want to do neurology, nutrition, or pathology. Neurology used to be #1, but nutrition just becomes more and more and more fascinating as I learn more (I'm sure my sister's interest in human nutrition helps because we get to nerd out together talking about nutrients and metabolic pathways). It is definitely taking over my interests. However, when working in vet clinics, pathology reports were always the best part!

I wonder if I could merge nutrition and pathology somehow...

 

[Tobysgirl81]

Definitely want to specialize, just not 100% sure in what yet. I'm VERY strongly leaning towards small animal surgery, but I'm interested in neurology and internal medicine as well. That and I haven't spent a bunch of time in the other specialty areas yet, so who knows...Maybe I'll get into Derm and love it (hahahahahahahahahahaha).

 

[Kara31191]

I just love avian/exotic medicine. Avian medicine fascinates me! Still in undergrad, but I can't wait!

 

[CurrySpice]

I've been considering specializing, but I'm not entirely sure what I would want to do...

I find surgery really cool, especially orthopedic surgery, but I'm not sure I want to spend most of my day in the surgery suite.

Most of my animal experience is with horses, so I've been thinking that might be a direction I would want to head.

I definitely know that I don't want to do emergency care (my body loves a regular sleep schedule), or pathology (microscopes make me nauseous, even adjusted correctly). I find nutrition interesitng, but I have more of a holistic/all-natural view of nutrition and I'm not sure how well this would fit with the veterinary community.

If I end up working in a generalized clinic, I definitely want to be working with companion animal "exotics" (iguanas, snakes, rodents, etc).

Some days I just want to open up a mixed animal clinic out in the boondocks and treat anything and everything that walks in the door. Then I realize how frustrated I would be without knowing everything about each species.

 

[twelvetigers]

KARA! Long time no see!! How have you been??

 

[skittles12]

I'm currently leaning strongly towards orthopedic surgery and physical therapy. I did some shadowing here at UTK in the physical therapy department and found it to be really interesting. They actually offer a certification in canine and equine physical therapy for veterinarians and vet students in their 2nd year or later. If I can make the time--I'd definitely love to become certified!

I'd like to practice in a mixed animal clinic--hopefully just not somewhere with a lot of sheep. Sheep and I don't get along so well... Haha!

 

[Kaisand]

LA! Especially cattle. I think they are beautiful-and I grew up visiting stinky feedlots with my dad, which might have turned a more *normal* person off to them. But I think they're lovely, especially Jerseys and Highlands-they look like gentle horned bears 🙂. I'm really hoping I'll be able to mix in some work on smaller ranch herds with the factory farm stuff (not exactly my favorite place to see cattle, but I hope I can help keep them healthy and well cared-for).

 

[Pomegranate]

I have been wanting to specialize in anatomic pathology since I started working at a pathology lab. I really like the variety of animals we got, especially when we recieved exotics like elephants, giraffes, a hippo, and big cats. I really enjoy comparitive anatomy, it facinates me.

I also shaddowed a poultry vet and I liked that field as well, not so much variety though, but the people are really nice. I know they in desperate need of more poultry vets to enter the field so I'm also considering that.

 

[chris03333]

We also know 90% of people going in don't end up doing what they're first interested in.

Where in the world did you come up with this one?😕

 

[Bill59]

Where in the world did you come up with this one?😕

I'm guessing transverse colon. Maybe even cecum.

 

[alliecat44]

Where in the world did you come up with this one?😕

Actually, it's something that pre-vet advisors and vet school people tell pre-vets and new vet students all across the country. I've heard this more times than I can count, though the percentage I usually hear is 70-80%.

I bought it before vet school, but now I'm not so sure. 🙂 I know a few people who have changed their mind about what they want to do and/or were sure but now are not, but in my own personal experience it seems to be way less than 70-90%.

 

[crittergal]

SA ER/CC all the way. I'm an adrenaline junkie and love the rapidly changing pace and unexpected nature of the ER. I do have a strong fondness for wildlife/zoo medicine, but I think I'd prefer to make my living in the ER and volunteer time with the rehab centers.

 

[nyanko]

^^If I had to pick a clinical specialty it would definitely be emergency too crittergal!

I know where I want to end up, but I don't really know what my path will be to get there. I'm interested in relating the principles of population genetics to individual and breed health in companion animals mostly, through clinical and basic research. I want to ultimately remain in academia, which I had originally figured I would need to finish a Ph.D. in order to do. I have a really extensive background in and understanding of quantitative and population genetics and genomics now, and my current plan is while in vet school to try to relate it as much as possible to what I'm learning and kind of see if anything sticks out to me. It may be that I end up doing a therio residency/Ph.D. or maybe a straight genetics Ph.D. or maybe a different residency or maybe just a research postdoc. I really don't know.

 

[HandD42]

No interest in specializing here.

As an older student I really have no desire to add on another 4 years to the 4 year break from reality I am already going to be taking🙄

Seriously though I would love to work in a small town/very rural area seeing equine and maybe mixed equine/production (not sure if that is too realistic). I'm literally counting down the days until I get to leave the metropolis I currently work in and am hoping never to have to return to one!

 

[Morganator]

I'm guessing transverse colon. Maybe even cecum.

Or maybe talking to some board certified vets...jackass. Sorry if I got some bad information, but I've been told on more than one occasion that a high majority of people think they know what they want to do before they start vet school and end up changing their minds after being exposed to the different specialties. The percentage was made up, perhaps I shouldn't have used an exact number - I'm so sorry.

 

[twelvetigers]

Bill is one of our only (if not THE only) veterinarian this forum with real world experience. I love having him around to answer questions that the rest of us can't answer. He was just being facetious - don't take it personally. Humor is often lost in words.

Rudeness, however, comes though perfectly clear.

(And I'm like 99% sure that Bill *is* a board certified vet...)

 

[Tco87]

Is that percentage possibly influenced by people pretending to change their minds? I mean, I've heard of applicants feigning an interest in an underserved field, such as large animal, and then "changing their minds" after they start school.
Or maybe some of those people didn't really know what they wanted to do when they started and then made up their minds in vet school and that counted as changing their minds?

 

[nyanko]

Morganator admitted to making up the 90% number, it wasn't meant to be taken as fact.

 

[eventualeventer]

Does anyone have an idea of how many places are actually running LA ECC residencies? The AVCECC website has a list of places that are certified to have residencies, including some private practices like Hagyard, but I've checked a bunch of places and their websites don't reflect active programs (including Davis and Hagyard; Penn has one person who did a surgery residency and is doing an ECC fellowship). There are none listed on VIRMP for this past year. I've always liked the critical cases, and one of the IM residents at work mentioned that there were multiple ECC residencies (I had thought for some reason that Penn was the only one). It's a loooooong way off, but now that I've gotten in to vet school I'm already obsessing about the next stage. 😀

 

[Tco87]

Morganator admitted to making up the 90% number, it wasn't meant to be taken as fact.

I know... but like Alliecat said, high percentages get thrown around a lot by pre-vet advisers, professors, etc. I don't remember if I've ever been given an exact percentage, but I've heard multiple times "Most people change their minds about their specialty" or "The majority of vet students choose a different specialty before they graduate". I'm just wondering how accurate those percentages are.

 

[BlacKAT33]

Depending on what you specialize in, does it take a different amount of years? Someone mentioned school for another 4 years, do ALL specialities take 4 years or are some less? I could see something like surgery being 4 years, but lab animal medicine is what i want to go into..how would they possibly make that last so long lol

please inform me 😀

sry EE i have no idea the answer to your Q, too specialized for me lol

 

[Tco87]

Depending on what you specialize in, does it take a different amount of years? Someone mentioned school for another 4 years, do ALL specialities take 4 years or are some less? I could see something like surgery being 4 years, but lab animal medicine is what i want to go into..how would they possibly make that last so long lol

please inform me 😀

sry EE i have no idea the answer to your Q, too specialized for me lol

I know you can be a lab animal vet without getting board certified, so technically you don't need an extra 4 years. I'm not 100% on whether you would have to do an internship/residency before taking the boards for lab animal med.

 

[jpeterman13]

Depending on what you specialize in, does it take a different amount of years? Someone mentioned school for another 4 years, do ALL specialities take 4 years or are some less? I could see something like surgery being 4 years, but lab animal medicine is what i want to go into..how would they possibly make that last so long lol

please inform me 😀

sry EE i have no idea the answer to your Q, too specialized for me lol

I think that the 4 year specialty is including a 1 year internship (which can be substituted for a year in private practice). I might be wrong though 😀

 

[cuitlamiztli]

Depending on what you specialize in, does it take a different amount of years? Someone mentioned school for another 4 years, do ALL specialities take 4 years or are some less? I could see something like surgery being 4 years, but lab animal medicine is what i want to go into..how would they possibly make that last so long lol

please inform me 😀

It depends... some residencies don't require you to do an internship, others do, some residencies are 3 years, some are 4, etc.

Take zoo medicine, for example:
4 years vet school + at least 1 year in private practice/1 year in non-zoo internship + 1 year in zoo internship + 3-5 years in residency

Versus pathology:
4 years vet school + a minimum of 3 years in residency (not sure on the range)

Also, as far as I know, you have to publish a minimum number of papers, etc. to become board certified in most (all?) areas. Preparing for the certifying exams also takes a long time, so those are where at least some of the residency time is going.

...so technically you don't need an extra 4 years. I'm not 100% on whether you would have to do an internship/residency before taking the boards for lab animal med.

I'm sure there would be specific criteria you would need to fill before you could sit the certification exam. Most places require a certain number of years practicing in that specialty, a certain number of publications, etc. You can't just take it straight out of vet school.

 

[BlacKAT33]

ok thanks Tco, jpeterman, and cuitlamiztli! ive never heard of the min. number of published papers before, that's good to know ahead of time!

 

[chris03333]

Actually, it's something that pre-vet advisors and vet school people tell pre-vets and new vet students all across the country. I've heard this more times than I can count, though the percentage I usually hear is 70-80%.

I bought it before vet school, but now I'm not so sure. 🙂 I know a few people who have changed their mind about what they want to do and/or were sure but now are not, but in my own personal experience it seems to be way less than 70-90%.

That has to be one of the largest loads of crap (from these advisors)I have heard in a while. I remember my own prevet advisor saying that "many" change their minds, but to quote a percentage....well I have to agree with Bill where those stats came from.

 

[chris03333]

Bill is one of our only (if not THE only) veterinarian this forum with real world experience.

**Ahem** 'scuse me??? am I just chopped liver (currently board eligible)?

Nothing against Bill 🙂

 

[chris03333]

Depending on what you specialize in, does it take a different amount of years? Someone mentioned school for another 4 years, do ALL specialities take 4 years or are some less? I could see something like surgery being 4 years, but lab animal medicine is what i want to go into..how would they possibly make that last so long lol

please inform me 😀

sry EE i have no idea the answer to your Q, too specialized for me lol

http://www.aclam.org/certification/requirements.html

Cheers!

 

[twelvetigers]

**Ahem** 'scuse me??? am I just chopped liver (currently board eligible)?

Nothing against Bill 🙂

Nawh, not at all. I just meant he's been done and settled for a while, and you're still a resident - not that we don't value that viewpoint as well. The comment just seemed diected at him and not so much at you is all.

No liver here!

 

[MSUspartan]

i want to go into small animal, for sure, and i've recently been thinking about specializing in oncology (ever since a friend/co-worker's dog was diagnosed with lymphoma back in august, and i was the one to find it).
hearing a prognosis of 4-6 weeks without treatment, and seeing her go through chemo and still be around and thriving right now is awesome and i'd love to be able to help pet owners get that extra time with their animals.

 

[BlacKAT33]

http://www.aclam.org/certification/requirements.html

Cheers!

ooooo perfect!!! thanks!!! 😀

edit: ogod, this is way more than i can think about now. it makes me not want to do lab animal hahah i should just save this link and look back in 3-4 yrs

 

[Bill59]

Or maybe talking to some board certified vets...jackass.

I apologize for my sarcasm.

If someone says "a lot of people change their mind" I would be cool with it. But when someone starts throwing out specific numbers, it makes it sound like there are actual data. Next thing you know other people start quoting that and before you know it, it becomes dogma. So it's just the made up percentages I have a problem with.

And BTW I'm only 93.67% jackass (95% CI, 92.4%, 94.3).

 

[NStarz]

It seems like a lot more people are interesting in specializing than seems to be the norm (of course, that can change and us SDNers are crazy overachievers). Anyone else think the dynamic of vet med is changing to fit the needs of society (ie, where people are more willing to spend money on their pets and thus have allowed the emergence of such specialities as oncology and such?)

I'm really interested to see where veterinary medicine is 20 years from now.

 

[BlacKAT33]

It seems like a lot more people are interesting in specializing than seems to be the norm (of course, that can change and us SDNers are crazy overachievers). Anyone else think the dynamic of vet med is changing to fit the needs of society (ie, where people are more willing to spend money on their pets and thus have allowed the emergence of such specialities as oncology and such?)

I'm really interested to see where veterinary medicine is 20 years from now.

i'm not sure if this reflects accurate numbers. i bet most people who aren't interested in specializing just didnt read this thread or feel like posting "i dont want to". Also, i know a lot of current vet students who wanted to specialize going into school but now that they have such high loans taken out they want to work a couple years right out of vet school before jumping into school longer. I don't mean they completely changed their mind about specializing, they just didnt want to do it right after graduating.

 

[nyanko]

And BTW I'm only 93.67% jackass (95% CI, 92.4%, 94.3).

 

[der2002]

Depending on what you specialize in, does it take a different amount of years? Someone mentioned school for another 4 years, do ALL specialities take 4 years or are some less? I could see something like surgery being 4 years, but lab animal medicine is what i want to go into..how would they possibly make that last so long lol

please inform me 😀

sry EE i have no idea the answer to your Q, too specialized for me lol

blacKAT, are you going to do the M.S. in lab animal medicine at penn in addition to the dvm?

 

[BlacKAT33]

blacKAT, are you going to do the M.S. in lab animal medicine at penn in addition to the dvm?

you know, i never knew the MS in lab animal med existed until i met someone in our c/o 2014 this summer and she is finishing hers. it sounds awesome. I wish i would have known about this before i did my fellowship!! although, i didnt know i wanted to do lab animal med until i did my fellowship lol.

For some reason i hadn't thought about doing this along with DVM. I'm not sure what the benefit would be. I think if I did to a masters I'd rather do one in public health. If i do decide to do lab animal in vet school and later get certified...i feel like the lab animal masters would have been a waste. Unless i can somehow overlap them so it would decrease the amount of time during residency?

ooo so confusing!! lol

does anyone else know about this?

 

[sumstorm]

does anyone else know about this?

Some LA residencies will include/encourage PhD pursuit during the residency

 

[MonkeyLove]

This is a little OT, but is anyone else a little worried about possibly balancing a residency and starting a family? I really want to do a residency in lab animal, but I will also just have turned 30 when I finish vet school and I have always wanted to start having kids in my early 30's... Most likely I will try to tackle both and hopefully succeed, but does anyone else have an opinion on this topic?
...it probably doesn't help that my soon-to-be-husband is already getting the paternal itch 🙄

Edit: i know there are probably several threads out there on this topic, but I was just interested in anyone's opinion today 🙂

 

[BlacKAT33]

This is a little OT, but is anyone else a little worried about possibly balancing a residency and starting a family? I really want to do a residency in lab animal, but I will also just have turned 30 when I finish vet school and I have always wanted to start having kids in my early 30's... Most likely I will try to tackle both and hopefully succeed, but does anyone else have an opinion on this topic?
...it probably doesn't help that my soon-to-be-husband is already getting the paternal itch 🙄

Edit: i know there are probably several threads out there on this topic, but I was just interested in anyone's opinion today 🙂

i also think about this 🙁 ive come to the conclusion that there will never be a "perfect" time for a baby and ill just have to take things as they come. once i graduate in 2014 im sure ill have a better idea lol

 

[sunshinevet]

This is a little OT, but is anyone else a little worried about possibly balancing a residency and starting a family? I really want to do a residency in lab animal, but I will also just have turned 30 when I finish vet school and I have always wanted to start having kids in my early 30's... Most likely I will try to tackle both and hopefully succeed, but does anyone else have an opinion on this topic?
...it probably doesn't help that my soon-to-be-husband is already getting the paternal itch 🙄

Edit: i know there are probably several threads out there on this topic, but I was just interested in anyone's opinion today 🙂

Yesssssss.... worries me incessantly. Mainly because first and foremost, I want to be a stay at home mum, and then work part time when my kids are in school. So idealy, I would want to do residancy and have some experience before having kids. But I don't want to do residency straight away. And I want a lot of kids. I am very young - only twenty - but I have another 4 years of vet school to go (cuz im doing research honours) + a few years in practice + 3 years residency and suddenly it doesnt seem like long til im 40...

 

[BlacKAT33]

Yesssssss.... worries me incessantly. Mainly because first and foremost, I want to be a stay at home mum, and then work part time when my kids are in school. So idealy, I would want to do residancy and have some experience before having kids. But I don't want to do residency straight away. And I want a lot of kids. I am very young - only twenty - but I have another 4 years of vet school to go (cuz im doing research honours) + a few years in practice + 3 years residency and suddenly it doesnt seem like long til im 40...

you're 20? wow thats young! so basically from the timeline you said (4 yrs vet school+1-2 yrs practice+3 yrs residency) you will be 28-29 NOT 40!!! you are basically able to start your family just how you'd like to and just how we wish we could lol

 

[UM2014]

This is a little OT, but is anyone else a little worried about possibly balancing a residency and starting a family? I really want to do a residency in lab animal, but I will also just have turned 30 when I finish vet school and I have always wanted to start having kids in my early 30's... Most likely I will try to tackle both and hopefully succeed, but does anyone else have an opinion on this topic?
...it probably doesn't help that my soon-to-be-husband is already getting the paternal itch 🙄

Edit: i know there are probably several threads out there on this topic, but I was just interested in anyone's opinion today 🙂

You could take the opinion of the jack*** of a vet I worked for in Colorado that told me he thought all female vet school applicants should be spayed before matriculation in order to prevent us from getting pregnant and 'wasting' our degree. He told me he thought it was ridiculous any women would ever have kids after graduation and choose not to use her DVM or only work part time because it 'stole' a seat from a person who would have used their degree that cycle. I pretty much just stood there like this:😱.

Weird part is that I don't even want kids and have no plans to ever procreate but I laid into him so hard that day I'm surprised I wasn't fired on the spot. Sorry, that was slightly off topic but I'm still amazed he actually said those things to me (and I'm sure many other female vet school hopefuls!).

 

[sunshinevet]

you're 20? wow thats young! so basically from the timeline you said (4 yrs vet school+1-2 yrs practice+3 yrs residency) you will be 28-29 NOT 40!!! you are basically able to start your family just how you'd like to and just how we wish we could lol

But I want to have like, 6 kids... and if you leave like, 2 yrs between each baby like your supposed to, i'd turn into a little baby factory to squeeze them all in lol. But yeah, I acknowledge I'm really young and so probably shouldn't worry about it as much as I do. And I should probably worry about finding someone to have babies with first!

 

[lyndaelyzoo]

My dream job started out as a zoologist in Africa, to a zookeeper, to a zoo vet (Nechochwan and I think alike). Then for some unexplained reason, I became a high school teacher! Although I wouldn't trade those ten years teaching high school for anything...I learned a lot and it was about as close to a zoo as I could get!!! (a joke, please no offense intended) I am interested in veterinary pathology and have a MS in forensics, so would love to be able to work for the US fish and wildlife crime lab investigating poaching cases!!! That would be awesome, but since there is only one animal crime lab in the country, I have to be realistic and will probably go into equine medicine (though I am also interested in forensic entomology), so maybe will study veterinary entomology!!! Of course, I also am interested in zoo medicine, pathology, human health, equine sports medicine, avian medicine, and parasitology!! Wow, hopefully I will figure it out when I get to vet school!! For now, I have definitely eliminated one option: No small animal private practice and no children (being a teacher is the best contraceptive ever invented!!) (a joke..not intended to offend). That's what I love about veterinary medicine...so many choices!!