How much chemistry do you actually encounter in vet school?

[fdvet]

Hi! I will be starting vet school in the fall. I took o-chem and biochem during the pandemic and do not feel confident at all in my knowledge of either subject. Does vet school content touch on chemistry content in depth? Will this material be re-taught in vet school? Thank you!

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[puppydogtor]

I'm only in my first year but I've encountered a good bit of gen chem, biochem, and o-chem in my physiology, immunology, and pharmacology courses. I wouldn't say I feel confident in my biochem/o-chem knowledge either, but I'm doing well. The material we use from those courses is typically general/broader concepts that you probably know more about than you realize. Or it's something you can quickly review with a youtube video. I wish I didn't listen to the people who told me you don't use certain prereqs for vet school. I loved biochem and my background knowledge helps me grasp certain topics faster in physiology, whereas in pharm I had to go back and review some chemistry. You'll be fine either way. I wouldn't recommend studying before vet school, just review the topics you need to know as they come up in lectures. It's rare that I have to go back and review things from prereqs, but I do it occassionally

 

[emantis2]

Anything related to biochem/chemistry has been in context with other things which really helps — i was never great at chemistry but there really hasn’t been much. Pharmacology is the closest to having heavy biochem/chem topics but I did well in the pharmacology i’ve had so far!

 

[PetVet23]

4th year here, chemistry wasn't my strong point and I had some gap years between undergrad and vet school. You'll definitely encounter a LOT of these concepts but in my experience everything was touched on in context with pharmacology/immunology/etc. and having a more big-picture, this-is-why-it's-important approach definitely helped things click more to have an applicable reason for needing to understand them. I wouldn't worry about trying to review everything before starting, your time would be better spent once you encounter these topics and figure out if you have any weak spots to work on then.

 

[Minnerbelle]

After first year, very little.

 

[supershorty]

Agreed with Minnerbelle, my program has (or at least used to have, the curriculum has changed since I went through and I'm not sure this is a standalone class anymore) biochemistry during first year, but then minimal chemistry after that. Even my pharmacology courses really didn't have much in the way of chemistry - it was more applied chemistry principles than anything else.

Ochem, pretty much none at all.

 

[JaynaAli]

If you specialize, there’s often a fair amount of detailed biochemistry concepts on boards. My general pathology section of boards were very mechanism and biochemistry heavy. But in general for vet school, your undergrad prerequisites just lay a foundation for the “how and why” things happen in physiology and pharmacology and as you progress it’s not things you use on a daily basis. Mechanisms become less important and you use a certain drug because it works and you don’t care about the specific mechanisms of action.

 

[babyvet]

Basically none. I had zero o-chem concepts. There were some biochem type things with pathways, but it wasn't that complicated and easy to review. Nothing from my undergrad helped me other than some more advanced biology courses and anatomy/physiology.

 

[JeffreyDorsey]

I'm a first-year student, and I've faced biochemistry, general and organic chemistry in some courses, and sometimes it's hard for me. I'd say that we study something that is complicated, but I've never been good at it in general. But you know, some extra effort and it's possible to do all tasks or understand the material.