Large animal experience

[squirrelsrule]

I shadowed a large animal vet for the first time today. It was way different than I thought it was gonna be. I was amazed at how similar it is to small animal medicine! I was imagining these huge needles and syringes and all kinds of strange meds. and operating rooms. It wasn't like that though. Some of the meds. were different, but for the most part everything was the same.

Just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience.

Also, I got in 6.5 hours today and I am pretty sure that's gonna be all the hours I get, do you think that is enough large animal vet experience (I do have about 200 animal experience hours with horses volunteering at a petting zoo)? The main vet said that I could come in for today, but she reserves the weekly shadow positions for those with extensive horse experience that are planning to become a large animal vet. I am planning to be a small animal vet, not large animal and will have about 700 small animal vet experience hours in when I apply this year.

Do you guys think I need to see about getting another day or two in or leave it go? I didn't ask her today because I am just grateful she let me come in the one day because all the other large animal vets have told me they don't have room for another shadower .

I did meet some race horses today, first time I have ever seen one in person . Plus a draft horse came in, I never realized how BIG those guys are !

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[WhtsThFrequency]

If it's only 6.5 hours....I honestly wouldn't even put it on the resume. That's not even a full day.

Are there any other vets more willing to take you on ride-along?

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I shadowed a large animal vet for the first time today. It was way different than I thought it was gonna be. I was amazed at how similar it is to small animal medicine! I was imagining these huge needles and syringes and all kinds of strange meds. and operating rooms. It wasn't like that though. Some of the meds. were different, but for the most part everything was the same.

Just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience.

At first I was all ...WHAT? Then I realized you must have shadowed a horse vet, not a food animal vet

 

[lostbunny]

The first time I shadowed, I was all "Omg poor cows!" when they were going in the cattle crush. But after a few, I realized its really the equivalent of restraining an angry cat with 4 people lol. Probably less stressful as well!

And aren't draft horses the best! <3 !!!!!

Not really sure what to say about your question whether you should put it on or not... maybe give it another go, commit to a weeks work of shadowing (20-40h), so that if you're asked about it in an interview you can at least talk a bit about it.

For me, I'm applying to U Sydney, and we have to fill out these 'commitment statements' that just have a list of things you've seen or done and you have to check them off. So in my case, I put the cattle (very little) experience I have, because it involved me checking off a box.

 

[gone2dogs]

If it's only 6.5 hours....I honestly wouldn't even put it on the resume. That's not even a full day.

I can't tell tell you to not worry about getting more hours (because I wish I had applied with more), but for what it's worth, I applied with very minimal large animal hours (something like 100 hours with a therapeutic riding center, 8 hours with a mobile equine vet, 18 hours at a LA hospital). And yes, I did put both the 8 and 18 hour experiences on my application, because without them it would have been all small animal! I figured at least I showed an interest in getting exposure to something different, even if I wasn't able to rack up a bunch of hours.

But take that info with a grain of salt... it took me three tries to get in! I don't really think it was lack of LA experience that was holding me back though.

 

[alexjones]

Really...

 

[squirrelsrule]

Yeah, sorry guess I should have mentioned equine. I have called all the places within an hours drive of my house and this was the only large animal place willing to let me shadow . Maybe I will call her back sometime and see if I can come another day this summer. She seemed really nice and didn't seem to mind having me there.

 

[LetItSnow]

And yes, I did put both the 8 and 18 hour experiences on my application, because without them it would have been all small animal!

I did too. I had two days with some farm vet that I put on there. At the time I remember thinking "this is kinda silly."

But on the other hand, it's legitimate - if brief - experience, the school can decide how much value to give it, and the advice I had gotten from one extremely high-placed individual at the school was "If you've ever touched an animal, put it on your application."

I'd be hard pressed to say it will help much to include short-term experiences like that, but the flip side is that I can't imagine it hurting your application to include them.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I did too. I had two days with some farm vet that I put on there. At the time I remember thinking "this is kinda silly."

But on the other hand, it's legitimate - if brief - experience, the school can decide how much value to give it, and the advice I had gotten from one extremely high-placed individual at the school was "If you've ever touched an animal, put it on your application."

I'd be hard pressed to say it will help much to include short-term experiences like that, but the flip side is that I can't imagine it hurting your application to include them.

yeah, it def can't hurt, and at least it shows that you tried. i'd say it'd be silly if that's all you had for vet experiences in general... but esp if you're a non-trad and esp if you're in an urban/suburban environment, adcoms generally understand that it's hard to find LA opportunities.

can you send the vet a thank you note, and explain how you really enjoyed the experience, and that though you understand that she reserves weekly shadow opps for LA/equine oriented pre-vets, that you would love it if she could let you know if slots open up on certain days of the week that you're off from work/school (even last minute?).

 

[jmo1012]

I put my 6 hours of EMC equine experience on my app because thats about all i had managed to get between horses and large animals (not many farms in suburbia and negative time at school unfortunately). idk if anyone cared, but i hoped at least they knew i tried (i had the same issue with being turned down but more because i was only around when-apparently-nothing was going on and its tough when places are 45+ mins way)

"She reserves the weekly shadow positions for those with extensive horse experience that are planning to become a large animal vet"

wasn't going to say anything earlier but since i have another comment i'll throw this out there too. this REALLY rubs me the wrong way. how can she (or you no offense) possibly know that you will 100% be going into small animal?? people change, they realize they like something different, they fall in love with something else. she should be promoting her field to you as someone learning rather than shutting you out. just my opinion-okay i'll get off my soapbox now

 

[squirrelsrule]

yeah, it def can't hurt, and at least it shows that you tried. i'd say it'd be silly if that's all you had for vet experiences in general... but esp if you're a non-trad and esp if you're in an urban/suburban environment, adcoms generally understand that it's hard to find LA opportunities.

can you send the vet a thank you note, and explain how you really enjoyed the experience, and that though you understand that she reserves weekly shadow opps for LA/equine oriented pre-vets, that you would love it if she could let you know if slots open up on certain days of the week that you're off from work/school (even last minute?).

That is a really good idea. I told her how much I appreciated it when I was leaving and handed her my resume, but I think a thank you note might help .

 

[squirrelsrule]

"She reserves the weekly shadow positions for those with extensive horse experience that are planning to become a large animal vet"

wasn't going to say anything earlier but since i have another comment i'll throw this out there too. this REALLY rubs me the wrong way. how can she (or you no offense) possibly know that you will 100% be going into small animal?? people change, they realize they like something different, they fall in love with something else. she should be promoting her field to you as someone learning rather than shutting you out. just my opinion-okay i'll get off my soapbox now

I agree with you, she should keep some room open for people not totally into horses, but who want to get out there and experience everything because I haven't been around horses much, so it is possible I could get totally hooked on large animal medicine. Stranger things have happened! Plus, in my browsing of schools and stuff I found that Ohio State had a critical care for foals internship for recent vet school graduates and I was like I would so love that! Critical neonatal care would be like a dream job for me and if you think about it, horse people are willing to pay for that for their foals because they are worth thousands, but on average dog and cat and other small animal owners simply aren't. So, that could totally be something I am into. Probably not enough to turn me into a large animal vet, but you never know, caring for babies could help me get to know horses better and I could like them. I never used to like opossums, but now that I rehab babies they are one of my favorite animals.

I do understand that there are so few places that deal with large animals around that she feels the need to save the slots for horse people though. I'd be really mad if I found out there was a wildlife vet around and even though I am totally into wildlife, I couldn't shadow more than 3-4 times because there were tons of other people with no interest in wildlife that were shadowing as well. So I understand her thoughts and appreciate that she let me come out for the one day, she could have refused to even let me do that like the other large animal vets have.

 

[sunshinevet]

I agree with you, she should keep some room open for people not totally into horses, but who want to get out there and experience everything because I haven't been around horses much, so it is possible I could get totally hooked on large animal medicine. Stranger things have happened! Plus, in my browsing of schools and stuff I found that Ohio State had a critical care for foals internship for recent vet school graduates and I was like I would so love that! Critical neonatal care would be like a dream job for me and if you think about it, horse people are willing to pay for that for their foals because they are worth thousands, but on average dog and cat and other small animal owners simply aren't. So, that could totally be something I am into. Probably not enough to turn me into a large animal vet, but you never know, caring for babies could help me get to know horses better and I could like them. I never used to like opossums, but now that I rehab babies they are one of my favorite animals.

Actually, one of my good friends lives at a clinic which, while is also a typical smallies clinic, does a LOT of repro work - they are known as a repro clinic here in perth. Because they do so many caesereans, (2-3/week) they actually do a LOT of neonatal CC. Though in general, its all pretty much done by the live in students (vet students) - i get the impression that once a treatment plan is made, there's actually not a lot you can do but feed them, drug them and keep them in the humidicrib?

Also, just IMO, equine =/= large animal.Its just such a different beast (haha) and the people that go into equine/you deal with in equine tend to be very different to food animal. I do think it sucks that she has that policy, but in my experience equine isnt something that people fall in love with - they can fall out of love with it though! (so if you were going to put it down as experience, i'd put it down as equine not LA)

 

[sunshinevet]

P.S. Just something more on getting LA experience - there was a horse stud over here offering the chance to OBSERVE foaling (NO hands on, JUST watch - they were quite adamant about that in their email).

BUT you had to PAY the, $50!!!!

What do you guys think of that? We thought it was a joke!

 

[jmo1012]

P.S. Just something more on getting LA experience - there was a horse stud over here offering the chance to OBSERVE foaling (NO hands on, JUST watch - they were quite adamant about that in their email).

BUT you had to PAY the, $50!!!!

What do you guys think of that? We thought it was a joke!

The Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, VA charges shadow students like $30 for a day of following a vet around (which depending on the vet can be a total joke)

 

[breenie]

Wisconsin said to my face not to bother putting anything under 25 hours on the app, but I put stuff like 6 hours helping out with c-sections on research pigs because... well... it was cool. And I didn't make them angry enough to reject me, so I say put it down. It wasn't my only swine experience, though.

 

[Bacci]

Wisconsin said to my face not to bother putting anything under 25 hours on the app, but I put stuff like 6 hours helping out with c-sections on research pigs because... well... it was cool. And I didn't make them angry enough to reject me, so I say put it down. It wasn't my only swine experience, though.

I did the same! Haha what else was I supposed to put on the supplemental?

 

[jrwinsto]

I am trying to get more LA experience, but I am having trouble finding one! They either don't do shadowing or they are completely booked. Is is normal for LA vets to be so hard to "get into"? I have a good amount of LA animal experience; I just need some vet hours.

 

[lostbunny]

P.S. Just something more on getting LA experience - there was a horse stud over here offering the chance to OBSERVE foaling (NO hands on, JUST watch - they were quite adamant about that in their email).

BUT you had to PAY the, $50!!!!

What do you guys think of that? We thought it was a joke!

Thats really stupid! Pay $50 to watch people's butts getting in the way of foals being born! Might as well go on YouTube or MareStare!! I was looking at some volunteer wildlife hospitals in Malaysia, and one was over 2500 POUNDS! now THATs a joke! Not to mention the wait list was over 2 years long, and you'd probably be fed rice for breakky, lunch and tea!

 

[LetItSnow]

Not to mention the wait list was over 2 years long, and you'd probably be fed rice for breakky, lunch and tea!

Which part of the day is tea?

On the positive side... I did some volunteer work in Brazil for a year, and we were fed black beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I came back in the best shape of my life.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Which part of the day is tea?

On the positive side... I did some volunteer work in Brazil for a year, and we were fed black beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I came back in the best shape of my life.

I did pretty much volunteer work (more like slave labor) in Texas for 7 months, and on many a days I lived on the fruits donated for the monkeys. I lost like 20-25 lbs in 3 months (on a 5 foot tall frame), and couldn't fit into my bride's maid's dress. It was supposed to have a laced V in the back... but I had to pull those laces so hard to get the dress to stay on that it looked zippered shut. I told the seamstress I was going to lose weight over the summer so she should give me the smaller size. She just said "that's what they all say. you'll thank me later!"

 

[Chinola]

I did pretty much volunteer work (more like slave labor) in Texas for 7 months, and on many a days I lived on the fruits donated for the monkeys. I lost like 20-25 lbs in 3 months (on a 5 foot tall frame), and couldn't fit into my bride's maid's dress. It was supposed to have a laced V in the back... but I had to pull those laces so hard to get the dress to stay on that it looked zippered shut. I told the seamstress I was going to lose weight over the summer so she should give me the smaller size. She just said "that's what they all say. you'll thank me later!"

Did they not provide food or did you not have money for food?

I always find when I go to places that don't offer a lot of food I lose weight...until I find the bakery or ice cream shop. When I was in the Galapagos the first week I started losing weight...then I found the baker and went daily after breakfast to get "snacks" for the day and gained it all back

 

[sunshinevet]

Which part of the day is tea?

Tea is dinner. I dont know if its an australian term or not, but its pretty common to call dinner "tea" over here

 

[Mohorsegirl]

Around here, vets tend not to take on shadowers for food animal, because of the liability. I had to look two hours away to find a cow doctor I could shadow.

The same with the horse doctor, she probably appreciates the help of a horse-knowledgable person a LOT more than someone just getting into it, which can also be a liability. Believe me, it is a lot of stress having someone around horses that doesn't "know" horses!

 

[alwayslistening]

Around here, vets tend not to take on shadowers for food animal, because of the liability. I had to look two hours away to find a cow doctor I could shadow.

The same with the horse doctor, she probably appreciates the help of a horse-knowledgable person a LOT more than someone just getting into it, which can also be a liability. Believe me, it is a lot of stress having someone around horses that doesn't "know" horses!

I agree, with the equine and large/food animal work, liability is huge. One misstep, and woops, the new person has a fractured foot, or worse. The way to get around the reticence of the veterinarian is to show them, however slowly, that you will not be a liability to them. Show them you know how to take directions and that you are serious, ask good questions, inform them of any skills you have (IMPORTANT), and then just roll with it. Eventually, they will see that you are not going to go off and get your ACL ripped apart by a kick from a horse, nor will you get crushed ribs from a 1000 lb+ beef steer. They will appreciate this, and begin to include you in more and more of the goings-on

 

[lostbunny]

Which part of the day is tea?

On the positive side... I did some volunteer work in Brazil for a year, and we were fed black beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and I came back in the best shape of my life.

Yeah its Dinner in Oz... I think its just an aussie thing, I just said it because I'm in Oz and trying to speak more fluently lol.

I feel like my field work should have gotten me in shape, but by supplementing that with pasta & bread every day ..... it didn't really work out lol.

 

[lostbunny]

I did pretty much volunteer work (more like slave labor) in Texas for 7 months, and on many a days I lived on the fruits donated for the monkeys. I lost like 20-25 lbs in 3 months (on a 5 foot tall frame), and couldn't fit into my bride's maid's dress. It was supposed to have a laced V in the back... but I had to pull those laces so hard to get the dress to stay on that it looked zippered shut. I told the seamstress I was going to lose weight over the summer so she should give me the smaller size. She just said "that's what they all say. you'll thank me later!"

Oh man lol- she probably ate her words after that!

There are monkeys in texas??

 

[Minnerbelle]

Did they not provide food or did you not have money for food?

$10/day didn't really give you much to live on when the nearest walmart is 30 miles away and you needed gas money. But I guess getting $10/day + housing is like hitting a goldmine compared to these other places mentioned where you have to pay $50/day just to observe!

There are monkeys in texas??

You'd be surprised. Texas is like a huge haven for exotic animal sanctuaries. There are so many out there!

 

[Will Scarlet]

I've worked at two clinics, one small animal private practice, and one spay/neuter clinic for the humane society. It's been a blast, but I'm quite excited now to be looking around for opportunities to get some LA experience. I think pigs, especially are fascinating.

I'm not sure how to go about finding these opportunities though. I'm planning on keeping my job at the shelter clinic, so I would only be able to do stuff on weekends. I think this might be inconvenient for vets, who do most of their work during the week? If I were to get a volunteer job at a farm/petting zoo type thing, would that still be considered 'Large Animal' experience on the application? More importantly, for those of you who HAVE done something of the sort, do you actually learn much other than animal behavior from jobs like that?

 

[KaibabVet]

Wisconsin said to my face not to bother putting anything under 25 hours on the app, but I put stuff like 6 hours helping out with c-sections on research pigs because... well... it was cool. And I didn't make them angry enough to reject me, so I say put it down. It wasn't my only swine experience, though.

UGA told me the opposite! I met the the admissions counselor and she said to mention every veterinary experience I had, even if it was only an hour of shadowing. Since I'd had several animal medicine labs that were guest-taught by veterinary professors, I was grateful she encouraged me to share these experiences.

I guess every school is different, but I'm really glad I mentioned all of my vet hours, even if some were minimal. The worst the school can do is disregard them if they're not extensive enough.

Also, I had zero large animal experience. I did, however, have extensive small animal, research, and wildlife exp.

 

[LetItSnow]

I'm not sure how to go about finding these opportunities though. I'm planning on keeping my job at the shelter clinic, so I would only be able to do stuff on weekends. I think this might be inconvenient for vets, who do most of their work during the week? If I were to get a volunteer job at a farm/petting zoo type thing, would that still be considered 'Large Animal' experience on the application? More importantly, for those of you who HAVE done something of the sort, do you actually learn much other than animal behavior from jobs like that?

Regarding finding opportunities, one source that I think people overlook is your state's vet-med association. When I wanted some LA experience, I contacted the MVMA and asked for suggestions of clinics vaguely near my location that did LA and were open to shadowers/volunteers. I got back a concise list of 3 places that the person said I should call.

A farm/petting zoo thing would constitute LA experience. But, I think application committees are probably more savvy than just adding up hours. They probably aren't going to value that experience as much as certain others.