Does volunteering at a humane shelter contribute to the experience necessary?

[Backwoods Boy]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Well, I am sure this has been asked before but I was just wondering. I have talked to my local vet and they said they already had a volunteer for this summer so I could do is observations and that was welcome whenever I wanted to.

I know my local humane shelter is always in need of help so I thought about doing that this summer. Will this count toward my experience?

Also, my neighbor has an apprenticeship for a horse training program she runs. She is looking for someone (no experience necessary although I have quite a bit in this area as she knows) who would like to like to learn her style of training in exchange for stable work. I have called her but so far no response. I expect one tomorrow. Would this help with my experience? Even if it doesn't I would probably do it anyway if she wanted me to.

 

[bunnity]

Backwoods, for your application you need two types of experience: vet experience and animal experience. Volunteering at the humane society and working with the horse training would both be good types of animal experience, and observing the vet (even if you don't "do" anything but observe) would be vet experience. So it sounds like if you did some observing with the vet and then did one or both of the other activities, you would be getting a good breadth of experience.

 

[Backwoods Boy]

Backwoods, for your application you need two types of experience: vet experience and animal experience. Volunteering at the humane society and working with the horse training would both be good types of animal experience, and observing the vet (even if you don't "do" anything but observe) would be vet experience. So it sounds like if you did some observing with the vet and then did one or both of the other activities, you would be getting a good breadth of experience.

Ok. Thanks. I thought I had read somewhere on here that a lot a schools wouldn't count observing. Maybe I just misread something. I figured that both the human society and horse training would work.

 

[bunnity]

If you look at the "What do you do at your clinic" thread there is a lot of variety in what people are allowed to do, and a lot of that depends on that state's rules and what each vet is comfortable with. I think if you start out observing, chances are you will slowly be allowed to start helping out with things. If that doesn't happen, your experience observing will probably help you get a position with another vet that will let you be more hands on.

 

[Backwoods Boy]

Ok, thanks for the quick replies. I may give it a shot at observing a couple times and see if I could work my way up from there.

 

[DVMorBust]

Ok. Thanks. I thought I had read somewhere on here that a lot a schools wouldn't count observing. Maybe I just misread something. I figured that both the human society and horse training would work.

Shadowing is one of the best ways to see what a vet does. Working in clinics will get you great experience in the field, but staying on a vet's heels all day will show you what the profession's about, not just the field. I've never heard of a school not acknowledging this and counting it as veterinary experience.

 

[eventualeventer]

To emphasize what DVMorBust said, I think that it's good to do more than just nursing type stuff at vet clinics and actually spend some time shadowing or in jobs where you are directly assisting the vet almost all of the time. It shows you what a VET does, as opposed to what a TECH does, in their entire day-to-day routine -- their paths often overlap, but they are not the same. You get to see more interactions with clients than if you stay in the back most of the time and (hopefully) listen to them talk about how they approach each case, which educates you about the way that vets think about and experience their work. Of course, it's also good to see what techs/assistants do and experience it so that you'll have perspective when you get out in the real world and have to communicate with and use techs/assts.

I hope that made sense!

 

[meadow36]

I would get out the phone book and start calling other vets, especially the emergency clinics and the large animal docs. Nothing you mentioned is going to hurt you, but it's not setting you apart from everyone else either. You want some experience that's really going to "pop" on your application.

 

[Backwoods Boy]

Got a call back today from my neighbor (the horse trainer). She said I could definitely help out and she said I can begin Friday when she needs help getting a wild mustang from the BLM.

I will probably get in contact with some emergency and large animal clinics. My vet is mainly a large animal doctor. I am going to have to check where the nearest emergency vet is.