Doubts about Vet Med

[BSLisBull]

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So please hear me out before casting me down to the gates of hell for feeling like this...

For the past few months I have had an internal conflict of switching from my prevet path to premed. While shadowing I have noticed that I don't "coo" over patients and puppies like the other vets and techs. For me, it is just a dog, just a patient, it is an embodiment of a problem that needs to be fixed. I find it hard (pretty much impossible) to create these emotional connections with patients. I feel as if I'm wrong for this. Am I not as passionate about the profession as I should be? (Some have even suggested aspergers, which I take no offense to.)

And here is the terrible part. The part that I am ashamed to admit and don't dare mention to anyone that knows me... With this lack of emotional connection I see patients as "just a dog" or "just a cat." Sometimes I feel as if I would be better putting my abilities towards human medicine, where my work might mean something more. I feel terrible for this already, and as much as I love learning about veterinary medicine, being in the clinical setting brings these thoughts up again. I ultimately feel stuck while all the while feeling like a crappy human being 🙁

 

[hazelmoo]

I don't think you're a terrible person for thinking like this.. Everyone is different. I personally don't see a cat or dog as "just a cat or dog", I see them as more; an important member of a family who deserves the same amount of care as a person. But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to make a good vet. There's a lot more to it than that (I also think that these thoughts can stem from cultural and family pressures that say animals just aren't as "important" than people). However, I do think that it's going to be harder for you to not get burnt out doing something you're not super in to in the first place. If you can see yourself caring about people more, and being more passionate for human med, I would seriously consider switching just to save yourself the heartache later when you have gotten in too deep.

 

[pp9]

I don't necessarily think you're not fit for the job because you don't baby talk animals. However, if you are lacking compassion/empathy, you won't go too far in human medicine, either. Try to get experience in human med and see how you like it. You do have to like what you do at the end of the day. Why did you choose to be prevet in the first place? What got you interested?

 

[pp9]

Also, unless you have been formally diagnosed with Asperger's, don't assume you have it (and don't let random unqualified people tell you that you do). Having a sister with diagnosed Asperger's, I get highly annoyed when someone jumps to the autism spectrum to define any person who seems 'different' to them. Maybe you do have it, maybe you don't.

I think, as a veterinarian, you would have to at least see the inherent value (emotional and financial) that any animal can hold. If animals weren't considered valuable, we wouldn't seek a veterinarian for their health care, and we'd be out of the job (well, the jobs that deal with companion animals, at least).

 

[Shreddr22]

You don't have to coo...but do you care??? care when they are hurting, care to fix their pain? Maybe you are just bored with clinical medicine? What type of practice are you shadowing in?

I sometimes find myself blanking out (dare I say bored??) when it comes to everyday appointments....itchy skin, vaccines, Sparky ate 1 tbsp less of food today, etc. I still love the animals though and want to hug all of them. How much experience do you have and from where? I'm guessing you are young and have lots of time to discover your passion... I cannot imagine going forth into veterinary school (hopefully next year) if I didn't feel emotion with my patients...that emotional connection is a large part of why I've chosen veterinary medicine, or it chose me or whatever nonsense. Otherwise it would be just another job, just another day to get through, another problem to solve and move on from....I really don't advocate making a career of animals if you feel no emotion for them. I work with a few people that appear to be just as unemotional as you describe, and they are so unhappy, mean to others, and all kinds of potential human resources complaints.

 

[BSLisBull]

I don't necessarily think you're not fit for the job because you don't baby talk animals. However, if you are lacking compassion/empathy, you won't go too far in human medicine, either. Try to get experience in human med and see how you like it. You do have to like what you do at the end of the day. Why did you choose to be prevet in the first place? What got you interested?

I do love animals and have even been involved with rescue but it seems that it just doesn't transfer over in the clinical setting. I see the other techs and vets with a heavy emotional involvement and I just don't have that. Maybe it's a coping mechanism? I don't know.

And as far as the aspergers I should have clarified. My doctor did suggest it but that was it and no follow up was made. I have been diagnosed with depression though.

 

[BSLisBull]

I don't think you're a terrible person for thinking like this.. Everyone is different. I personally don't see a cat or dog as "just a cat or dog", I see them as more; an important member of a family who deserves the same amount of care as a person. But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to make a good vet. There's a lot more to it than that (I also think that these thoughts can stem from cultural and family pressures that say animals just aren't as "important" than people). However, I do think that it's going to be harder for you to not get burnt out doing something you're not super in to in the first place. If you can see yourself caring about people more, and being more passionate for human med, I would seriously consider switching just to save yourself the heartache later when you have gotten in too deep.

Most of my education was completed in a rural town where animals were regarded as property or working dogs, horses, etc. I recently transferred to a city up north where I guess you could describe it as the pets are very much these people's children. Which there's nothing wrong with that, I just have a very hard time relating to the clients. It's hard for me to be emotionally invested in Mrs Jones fluffy with a minor skin issue when I saw some terrible things in practice down south (gun shot wounds and HBC were just about a daily occurrence).

 

[pp9]

I do love animals and have even been involved with rescue but it seems that it just doesn't transfer over in the clinical setting. I see the other techs and vets with a heavy emotional involvement and I just don't have that. Maybe it's a coping mechanism? I don't know.

And as far as the aspergers I should have clarified. My doctor did suggest it but that was it and no follow up was made. I have been diagnosed with depression though.

IMO, it could be that you just don't like clinical medicine. It's worth pursuing other areas of vet med in addition to human medicine to see for yourself. Some people actually might wish they had less emotional involvement with each patient they see.

As long as people aren't just randomly slapping you on the autism spectrum because they see you handling situations differently than they would, I'm cool. Lol. It's just one of my pet peeves.

 

[jestry]

Most of my education was completed in a
rural town where animals were regarded as property or working dogs, horses, etc. I recently transferred to a city up north where I guess you could describe it as the pets are very much these people's children. Which there's nothing wrong with that, I just have a very hard time relating to the clients. It's hard for me to be emotionally invested in Mrs Jones fluffy with a minor skin issue when I saw some terrible things in practice down south (gun shot wounds and HBC were just about a daily occurrence).

I relate to this, having been brought up in a family that did not value pets at all. I had to beg my parents so hard for my mice and turtles, and no way was I ever going to be allowed to have a cat or dog. I definitely have moments where I look around at school and think, "man I don't love animals enough to be in vet school compared to everyone else" and feel a little bit bad about having potentially taken a spot away from someone who probably wanted it more than I did.

I spent a lot of time watching Nat Geo as a kid so I think that's where my love for animals comes from. It's more of about how cool they intrinsically are rather than forming a personal relationship with them. I got most of my vet hours working in research labs, so I guess that's how I knew there was something in vet med that I truly enjoyed. I also know I'm a super introvert, and need my job to be a technical one. I'm thinking lab animal or pathology right now. I get pretty excited about understanding the mechanisms of why things work, and I think I'd find that a lot more enjoyable than stressing out about clients all day.

I think there's a place for me in vet med. I did a lab animal externship this summer where every day I thought "Dang, I totally would have done this for free but you're paying me! I guess this is what having a job you love feels like!". But I also think that, unlike some of my classmates who've dreamed of being a vet since they were 5, it wouldn't have been the end of the world had I not gone to vet school. I think I could have been totally happy as a med student or engineer had I chosen to go those routes. I didn't, it's fine, no regrets., but it's interesting to think about when I juxtapose my own feelings to everyone else who is "living the dream".

I think you'll find your place in vet med if you choose to go the vet med route, but it probably won't be the end of the world if you don't. Hope that helps!

 

[wheelin2vetmed]

If you can treat each and every patient with the utmost respect, and do everything in your professional power to ease pain and suffering, then I don't see an issue.

Emotions can cloud one's judgment, can they not? Nonetheless, you say you look at cats and dogs as "just a dog" and "just a cat." We all know how animals can touch our hearts. I really think it would be impossible for you to practice veterinary medicine without being emotionally moved by a handful of patients. It's just bound to happen.

I don't coo over every animal either, but that doesn't change the fact that I want to help and heal them.

 

[Jess Monster]

I don't coo and baby talk to animals in public, in front of clients, etc. At home with my own animals, it's different, but when I'm presenting myself professionally, I'm not comfortable engaging in those behaviors. Granted, most of my vet experience is in public health and government which is a very different environment from a clinical setting.

I also learned at a young age when raising animals that it's possible to love your animals as a group while being emotionally neutral when you're dealing with an individual animal. It's practical to compartmentalize your emotions in a way that allows you to make quick and often difficult decisions based on facts and not feelings. For me that usually involved getting rid of animals that had no show or breeding value.

 

[CalliopeDVM]

There are many different types of relationships that people have with animals -- from employees to surrogate children -- and a good clinical vet will respect them all. And if you can relate to clients in a way that will get them to relax and trust you, regardless of their relationship with their animals/your patients, you'll have more broad based success. By that I mean there will be clinics that specialize in treating their patients like the surrogate children their clients believe they are, and there are clinics that don't foster that feeling and treat animals more as companions or employees - but if you can be flexible in your presentation, you can handle both. If you can't handle both, it will be harder to find a well-fitting job, but it's hardly the end of the world.

(By being flexible in behaviour, I don't mean lying or being false as much as I mean being charming and indulging others' expectations - the same way someone might comment on the hairstyle of someone they know to be a little vain, ask someone about their business if they know that person is a workaholic, or comment to a grandmother that she must be proud of her grandson's school achievement.)

As others have said, you have to care about the health and well-being of your patients. You do not have to love your patients, and you shouldn't care more about them than your clients do. You also don't have to coo and cuddle.

 

[lailanni]

As someone mentioned above, maybe spend some time in human medicine settings and see how you're feeling about that. Is that more engaging and rewarding?

Don't feel guilty about having or not having an emotional connection with the patients. People relate to animals in different ways. What about vet-med appealed to you the most in the beginning? Does it still appeal to you? Are there species in particular that are more interesting to you? Or certain parts of medicine you like more?

For me, I love exotic mammals. I think they're freaking awesome magical creatures of joy! Every. Single. One. But someone else (even other vets) will look at a rabbit/etc and say "Why does anyone have these as pets? They have no personality. It's just a rabbit." And then I'll look at horses and cows and say "why would anyone want to work with these things all day long?" Point is, no one is wrong. We just have different preferences/views and different niches. Different things make different people enthused about various aspects vet med.

Instead of feeling bad about your thoughts, maybe use them to hone in on what you do/don't like about vet med. Try and see if you can pin-point what sparks your interest. And if all the looking inward has made you see that maybe you don't like it as much as you anticipated, that's ok too. It's not a crime to change your mind. You have the right to follow your own interests and not feel trapped by the ideology that you "should" feel a certain way.

 

[katashark]

I currently work as a vet tech, but I am only doing it to gain clinic hours for vet school, and sort of round out my experience. Ideally, I'd experience all areas of vet med, but that's not possible for me at the moment. I have mostly wild animal and research experience, and I do not baby talk animals. I don't see it as necessary, and I don't really understand it all that well. I don't mind when the other techs do it, but I personally don't, and they think I'm weird for not baby talking/cooing. I didn't grow up with cuddly pets, but I did/do have a lot of fish and some tortoises. From my job experience, I do not believe that I'm fit for private/clinical practice. However, I do think that there is a place for me in veterinary medicine, it just happens to be a different route. I just don't have that intense emotional connection with pets.