For veterinary specialists: What is the best and worst part of your specialty?

[meoc22]

Id love to hear from all kinds of specialists!

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[KCgophervet]

Haven't taken/passed boards yet but I'll play!

Specialty: Lab animal medicine

Pros: Diversity of species (monkeys, rodents, and everything in between), supporting biomedical research, working with scientists (vs. general population), working with animals with a "job" vs. pets, decent work hours (usually, compared to GP), residency pays more than most other specialties (on NIH scale)

Cons: Having to euthanize healthy animals or animals with a treatable condition that cannot be treated due to the research, working with challenging research models or scientists

 

[VIN-Foundation]

Specialty: Neurology (at a veterinary teaching hospital)

Pros:
1. Working with students, residents and interns is fun and rewarding
2. Neurosurgery. Also fun and rewarding
3. Chows rarely seem to get neurologic diseases

Cons:
The very small minority of referring veterinarians who won't refer cases appropriately; for example, sending patients/clients without calling first for appointment. Pretty annoying during the COVID when we're emergency only.

 

[SocialStigma]

Specialty: surgery, small animal (private practice)

Pros:
- Immediate gratification/ability to "fix" a problem...nothing more satisfying than watching a dog that presented with a fracture walk out of the hospital <24 hours postop.
- Knowing what the problem is 90-95% of the time and not having to perform an extensive diagnostic workup. Some might consider that a con if they love being a diagnostician but I'm impatient. I love when patients are referred to me with their problem already diagnosed and I just have to address it surgically!
- Working with and managing cases with other specialists - surgical cases often involve ECC, IM, oncology, and neurology specialties in particular.
- High demand for surgeons right now, which translates to high salaries and ease of finding jobs.
- It's a field where there will always be CE opportunities and ways to improve oneself as a surgeon..there are always new surgical techniques, minimally invasive techniques, new implants, etc.
- I rarely have to euthanize patients.

Cons:
- On call life
- Not enough cats for cat lovers (I'm a dog person myself so I don't mind as much)
- You have to sell yourself to some degree..clients will ask how many of these surgeries have you done, what is your success rate, etc.
- Have to enjoy (or at least not hate) performing CCL surgery because that will be at least 80% of the caseload in private practice.

Pro and con:
- Relationships with patients/clients are very short term - most of the time you never see a pet again ever after the postop recheck. This is probably true of some other specialties (ECC, cardio, etc) but others tend to have longer term relationships (IM, oncology, neuro for seizure patients). It's awesome for the aggressive dogs you never want to have to deal with again but there are some patients that are really cute/sweet with nice owners that I wish I had longer term follow up with just to see how they were doing.

 

[JaynaAli]

Specialty: Clinical pathology (diagnostics)

Pros:
-Hours and work life balance, especially for me in diagnostics. I am fairly efficient at cases and the latest I’ve ever stayed in the year I’ve been working was 5:04, and that was in a day I voluntarily did 1.5x my usual number of cases. Usually I’m done between 3-4. There’s no on call and I’m not ever contacted outside of my work hours. Since I am in diagnostics I also don’t have to spend evenings grading or preparing lectures...once I go home I don’t think about work until I show up the next morning. I miss teaching a bit, but I love all my free time even more right now.
-My day is predictable. I know I’m going to get a set number of cases every day. No more (unless I ask for more), and usually no less. I show up, my cases are given to me, I do them, and I go home.
-I really like that my “clients” are vets. They’re really understanding most of the time and we can talk doctor to doctor. I don’t have to “sell” my services or plan and I don’t have to talk money.
-We’re finally starting to go digital, which means we’ll be able to work from anywhere and we won’t be limited to large cities with laboratories. Anatomic path has been there a few years but clin path is finally getting the technology to do it on our samples too.

Cons:
-Pay. Pathologists are at the lower end of the specialist pay scale. I make slightly more than a GP despite spending 4 years doing extra training. But I make enough to live on and the pros are great. (Edit: I don’t mean this as anything negative against GP...you all are rockstars and I couldn’t imagine doing your job!)
-Sometimes monotonous. On the flip side of my day being predictable, sometimes it’s monotonous. There are days where it seems like every sample is lymphoma or a mast cell tumor or a lipoma or a freaking liver aspirate. But there’s still usually enough variability or a crazy case here and there to keep me on my toes.
-Very sedentary. I sit or stand at my microscope all day. If I didn’t purposely seek out some physical activity, I could easily only walk 1,000 steps a day. Also when you’re sedentary it’s easy to snack all day...I’ve gotten in the habit of not bringing food to work because I tended to just mindlessly eat at my desk.
-It can be lonely. I have my own office in a big laboratory, but there have been several days in a row where I don’t talk to anyone. It’s hard to make friends at work because we all work alone in our respective spaces.

 

[meoc22]

thank you, guys! this has been very enlightening so far, I can only hope more people answer!

 

[Minnerbelle]

-It can be lonely. I have my own office in a big laboratory, but there have been several days in a row where I don’t talk to anyone. It’s hard to make friends at work because we all work alone in our respective spaces.

hey, this can be a pro on the social distancing at Work front!

 

[JaynaAli]

hey, this can be a pro on the social distancing at Work front!

Definitely! They initially told us we had to even wear masks alone in our office, but like...really? In the end they said if the masks hindered our jobs we could take them off only if we locked our office doors and put on a mask before letting anyone in. I tried several styles of cloth masks and disposable ones but on all of them my breath would fog up my microscope oculars so I was happy they compromised.

 

[MOOSEygoosey]

Super loving this thread!

 

[allygator13]

Merely a brand new first year resident so take my response with a grain of salt but I've experienced private practice and academic radiology.

Specialty: Radiology

Pros:
- For the most part you never have to talk to owners (the BIGGEST pro in my book haha). I have shadowed at a private practice where owners were present for ultrasounds and the radiologist would go over results with them in the room, but I think that's the minority.
- Becoming proficient in multiple imaging modalities (radiographs, ultrasound, CT, MRI, fluoroscopy, nuclear medicine). It's just so cool 🙂
- Essentially working with all species, but from an imaging standpoint
- Being an integral part of case work-up and management. My favorite is case discussion with other clinicians about the best modality to use, results, potential next steps
- Basically diagnose (or rule out, you often don't get a true diagnosis with imaging) and then give it back to the overseeing clinician.
- If you work telerad you can work from home in your underwear all day. Or can work anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection.
- Salary is really good and quality of life is great
- "Nothing dies in radiology!"

Cons:
- If you work teleradiology, a lot of the imaging studies you receive are sub-optimal quality and can make your job very difficult/frustrating
- A lot of the histories provided for studies are less than helpful, and can make your job very difficult/frustrating
- Difficulty with clinicians not using adequate sedation/anesthesia for studies, or when you recommend a certain modality because it would be more appropriate for the case but they choose something else
- Have to learn physics 😛

 

[Trilt]

- "Nothing dies in radiology!"

Have you met birds?

 

[allygator13]

Have you met birds?

Hahahah true. But... When that happens we just hand it back to the overseeing clinician and it's their problem 😛

 

[battie]

Have to learn physics 😛

Biggest con in this whole thread, tbh

 

[DVMDream]

Have you met birds?

Reminds me of my ophthalmology rotation in school where the clinician was all "welcome to the rotation where you won't have to euthanize anything." And I was all.... "hold my beer" and proceeded to have a case that ended up euthanized.

 

[Ariel-Li]

Specialty: Clinical pathology (diagnostics)

Pros:
-Hours and work life balance, especially for me in diagnostics. I am fairly efficient at cases and the latest I’ve ever stayed in the year I’ve been working was 5:04, and that was in a day I voluntarily did 1.5x my usual number of cases. Usually I’m done between 3-4. There’s no on call and I’m not ever contacted outside of my work hours. Since I am in diagnostics I also don’t have to spend evenings grading or preparing lectures...once I go home I don’t think about work until I show up the next morning. I miss teaching a bit, but I love all my free time even more right now.
-My day is predictable. I know I’m going to get a set number of cases every day. No more (unless I ask for more), and usually no less. I show up, my cases are given to me, I do them, and I go home.
-I really like that my “clients” are vets. They’re really understanding most of the time and we can talk doctor to doctor. I don’t have to “sell” my services or plan and I don’t have to talk money.
-We’re finally starting to go digital, which means we’ll be able to work from anywhere and we won’t be limited to large cities with laboratories. Anatomic path has been there a few years but clin path is finally getting the technology to do it on our samples too.

Cons:
-Pay. Pathologists are at the lower end of the specialist pay scale. I make slightly more than a GP despite spending 4 years doing extra training. But I make enough to live on and the pros are great. (Edit: I don’t mean this as anything negative against GP...you all are rockstars and I couldn’t imagine doing your job!)
-Sometimes monotonous. On the flip side of my day being predictable, sometimes it’s monotonous. There are days where it seems like every sample is lymphoma or a mast cell tumor or a lipoma or a freaking liver aspirate. But there’s still usually enough variability or a crazy case here and there to keep me on my toes.
-Very sedentary. I sit or stand at my microscope all day. If I didn’t purposely seek out some physical activity, I could easily only walk 1,000 steps a day. Also when you’re sedentary it’s easy to snack all day...I’ve gotten in the habit of not bringing food to work because I tended to just mindlessly eat at my desk.
-It can be lonely. I have my own office in a big laboratory, but there have been several days in a row where I don’t talk to anyone. It’s hard to make friends at work because we all work alone in our respective spaces.

Is it common for clinical pathologists to be a researcher at the same time, like, holding an NIH research funding, having his/her own research group with PhD students or interns, +/- teaching?

 

[Ariel-Li]

Biggest con in this whole thread, tbh

Honest question: is there any specialty/vet school classes that really need calculus as prereq? I'm very frustrated at having to take it this spring fearing that I may not even receive an interview invite from those schools I'm taking it for.

 

[battie]

Honest question: is there any specialty/vet school classes that really need calculus as prereq?

Technically cardiology because of volumes in the heart and stuff like that. And depending on the undergrad, youd need calculus to get through physics which is super important in a lot of specialties. Good for you if you get to take an algebra based physics and I am jealous.

 

[Ariel-Li]

Technically cardiology because of volumes in the heart and stuff like that. And depending on the undergrad, youd need calculus to get through physics which is super important in a lot of specialties. Good for you if you get to take an algebra based physics and I am jealous.

LOL our physics was algebra based indeed.

 

[JaynaAli]

Is it common for clinical pathologists to be a researcher at the same time, like, holding an NIH research funding, having his/her own research group with PhD students or interns, +/- teaching?

Most clinical pathologists in academia will have at least a small appointment for research, but as a whole the specialty is trending more towards clinical track professors with lesser research demands. Most I know of personally will have their clin path residents working on projects the pathologist is interested in but not a bunch of other students. Some CPs will also help with other researchers plan/interpret lab data that is part of the other researchers projects/clinical trials too...more of a consultation type role. However, there certainly are pathologists do have a larger research group and mentor more grad students (CSU has a big group for immunology/lymphoid neoplasia research, Penn does genetics stuff, there’s a CP at Purdue working with MicroRna biomarkers. Cornell, etc. to name a couple that come to mind immediately).

 

[JaynaAli]

Radiology uses lots of physics. Honestly you don’t need to know a ton to understand the very basics of it at the practitioner level, but radiologists need to know a lot of physics, especially for their boards.

 

[battie]

LOL our physics was algebra based indeed.

I am jealous. My undergrad only had one physics prof, and he only taught calculus based physics for the 4 or 5 physics majors in our sciences department -_-

Radiology uses lots of physics. Honestly you don’t need to know a ton to understand the very basics of it at the practitioner level, but radiologists need to know a lot of physics, especially for their boards.

Cardio this block has been making me realize why physics is a requirement (definitely the basics for GP), and it doesnt make me any less salty

 

[allygator13]

Radiology uses lots of physics. Honestly you don’t need to know a ton to understand the very basics of it at the practitioner level, but radiologists need to know a lot of physics, especially for their boards.

Yup. Unfortunately haha