Pre-Med needs Vet Advice!

[MiniMoo]

Hi everyone,

My sister is considering career options and was thinking about going after her DVM. However, she does not think she would enjoy typical vet practice -- she dislikes dealing with pet owners and is uncertain/squeamish about having to perform surgery on animals. She also does not enjoy research. But she adores animals and would love a career centered around them.

What other options of vet practice are available? Is wildlife animal rehabilitation something that she could go into? Do all regular practicing vets have to perform surgery? If so, is it possible to get over being squeamish? And how common or uncommon is it to go into a non-traditional veterinary field? Would it be difficult to secure work in such a field?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

-Minimoo

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[PrimalMU]

You said she's unsure about veterinary medicine. My advice would for her to get a job at a hospital. Not only is this a requirement for applying to vet school (usually a minimum of 300 hours, though the more the better), but it will give her hands-on experience. Of course, to REALLY get a good idea of what its like she'd probably need to work at several clinics. Still, the best advice would be to get some hands-on experience in the field.

Do all regular practicing vets have to perform surgery?

They'll have to during vet school, but otherwise no. I work with a vet that doesn't do ANY surgeries by choice (she's not the only vet at the practice, so its not really an issue).

If so, is it possible to get over being squeamish?

Most people get over the squeamishness after watching their 2nd or 3rd surgery. Vet students would certainly be over the squeamishness after first year anatomy lab (which involves dissecting cadavers).

And how common or uncommon is it to go into non-traditional veterinary field? Would it be difficult to secure work in such a field?

Define non-traditional. There is a WIDE range of fields you can enter with a DVM that isn't private practice. Do you mean specializing? Just like human medicine, that involves an internship followed by a 3-7 year residency, depending on specialty. Things such as zoo medicine are very difficult to get into, and zoo vets are poorly paid compared to private practice. There's also an option in public health. There are many other options, too.

 

[HopefulAg]

She could become specialized in a non-surgery/owner field. Radiology, or pathology, or some such. They generally just deal with other vets and don't talk with owners much.

 

[MiniMoo]

You said she's unsure about veterinary medicine. My advice would for her to get a job at a hospital. Not only is this a requirement for applying to vet school (usually a minimum of 300 hours, though the more the better), but it will give her hands-on experience. Of course, to REALLY get a good idea of what its like she'd probably need to work at several clinics. Still, the best advice would be to get some hands-on experience in the field.

Do all regular practicing vets have to perform surgery?

They'll have to during vet school, but otherwise no. I work with a vet that doesn't do ANY surgeries by choice (she's not the only vet at the practice, so its not really an issue).

If so, is it possible to get over being squeamish?

Most people get over the squeamishness after watching their 2nd or 3rd surgery. Vet students would certainly be over the squeamishness after first year anatomy lab (which involves dissecting cadavers).

And how common or uncommon is it to go into non-traditional veterinary field? Would it be difficult to secure work in such a field?

Define non-traditional. There is a WIDE range of fields you can enter with a DVM that isn't private practice. Do you mean specializing? Just like human medicine, that involves an internship followed by a 3-7 year residency, depending on specialty. Things such as zoo medicine are very difficult to get into, and zoo vets are poorly paid compared to private practice. There's also an option in public health. There are many other options, too.

Thanks for the response! I know she's volunteered in a couple of vet clinics already. Not sure how many hours she's accumulated, but she's been there long enough to know that pet owners can be difficult to deal with (ie: owners not wanting to pay for necessary care, owners bringing old animals in to be put to sleep just because they're old). She likes working with the animals, just not the people involved I guess. She's observed 3 surgeries already and still feels very squeamish, although she is absolutely okay with "cutting open dead things", as she puts it. Do vet students actually perform live animal surgery themselves during their training? Or is it primarily just cadaver work?

Things like wildlife care, conservation, animal rehabilitation, captive breeding programs and such interest her. But I guess I'm just trying to find out if there are any fields of practice where there is limited interaction with pet owners and little to no surgery. The people and the blood scare her.

She could become specialized in a non-surgery/owner field. Radiology, or pathology, or some such. They generally just deal with other vets and don't talk with owners much.

Are these specialties extremely difficult to get into? I'm assuming they require internship followed by more training?

I know pretty much nothing about the veterinary field, so it's difficult for me to give my sister advice. So I really appreciate your guys' help.

 

[frozen_canadian]

But I guess I'm just trying to find out if there are any fields of practice where there is limited interaction with pet owners and little to no surgery. The people and the blood scare her. QUOTE]

Most vets end up in general practice. This, for the most part, involves interacting with animal owners and surgery. I don't understand why someone would be interested in veterinary medicine if they did not enjoy both of these aspects of the profession?? What attracts her about veterinary medicine?

 

[MiniMoo]

Most vets end up in general practice. This, for the most part, involves interacting with animal owners and surgery. I don't understand why someone would be interested in veterinary medicine if they did not enjoy both of these aspects of the profession?? What attracts her about veterinary medicine?

She likes the clinical/preventative medicine aspects of veterinary practice (think primary care for animals). Just not the surgical aspect.

 

[HopefulAg]

Well there are parts of the profession where you don't have to deal with surgery and owners, but to get to those parts, you have to get through the parts that do.

Are these specialties extremely difficult to get into? I'm assuming they require internship followed by more training?

Can't really say, as I don't know much about them. They do require an internship and a residency, and I believe those themselves are competitive, so I'd say fairly difficult. Don't know about extremely though.

She's lucky as the one specialty she wants to avoid (Surgery) is also the most competitive. Also one of the highest paying.

 

[sunshinevet]

She likes the clinical/preventative medicine aspects of veterinary practice (think primary care for animals). Just not the surgical aspect.

She's going to see some far grosser stuff in "clinical" practice than surgical practice - think abscesses exploding when you scruff cats, people who've tied rubber bands around ears, maggots, anal glands, anal gland abscesses, bloody diahorrea, dogs that eat their puppies... apart from a really stinky pyometra or two, I've encountered nothing gross in surgery - its just blood and tissue. Can she handle the other aspects, just not surgery? Because if its anything gross she baulks at I would probably suggest that she finds another field. If she can deal with that, maybe she could go into path or large animal or something.

I would personally say that her biggest hurdle is going to be getting into vet school disliking interacting with clients. I think a lot of vet schools would have a problem admitting someone with that mentality - because there ARENT a lot of jobs in wildlife/rehab etc, they are EXTREMELY competative to get into, and the likelihood is that she would end up in small animal practice.

I agree with HopefulAg - path if she can handle gross stuff (unless she just goes into the microscope stuff). Radiology you might not have to. Wildlife, zoo, captive breeding etc you might not have clients per se, but you are accountable to far more people, whom you should treat like clients.

 

[Bill59]

She's observed 3 surgeries already and still feels very squeamish,

Only 3 surgeries? I wouldn't worry about that. Many people have similar feelings and they almost always get over it with experience. One of the best surgeons I know fainted -- literally -- one of the first times she watched surgery.

She's been there long enough to know that pet owners can be difficult to deal with (ie: owners not wanting to pay for necessary care, owners bringing old animals in to be put to sleep just because they're old). She likes working with the animals, just not the people involved I guess.

This sounds like more of a problem. If she doesn't like working with people in general, she needs to find a different field. But if she is just frustrated by the economic constraints of practice she still has a lot of options. Almost everyone has similar frustrations to some degree and with training she may learn to deal with this. If not, there are a lot of options other than private practice.

 

[MiniMoo]

Thanks guys for all of the great input and advice. I'll email my sister a link to this thread so she can read the responses herself. Much appreciated.

 

[sumstorm]

Yeah, if she doesn't like dealing with people in genera, she isn't going to like most of the specialties.

As for wildlife rehab, it can be hard to obtain a paid position, especially without clinical experience. Even with, the jobs are few and low paying & deal with donors, rehabbers, volunteers.

even in industry, she will have to deal with clients of one sort or the other...

 

[shortnsweet]

Veterinary Research is another option?? I can't speak for the US programs, but I know Glasgow has a BioVets program, which prepares you to work strictly in the veterinary research field. They don't have to go through dissections or surgery or anything and end up with a BVSci. Just another option thought I would throw out there

 

[twelvetigers]

The gross stuff will come out during school, no matter what- pretty much unavoidable I think. But, relatively short term.

I feel like this is one of those things where you just have to try it to see if you like it. She should try and get a little experience in every area she can manage - large animal medicine, research, zoo/wildlife, shelter... she needs to see the nitty gritty in each field. If she doesn't like it, that's fine, as long as she can explain it reasonably (beyond just saying she doesn't enjoy it) and maybe give an idea about what she might be interested instead. The nice thing about vet med is the huge variety of jobs you can go into - definitely worth some research and thought.

Also, note that many (I wanted to say most, but that might be misleading... only marginally though) vet school applicants have 1000+ hours of varied veterinary experience plus some general amount of animal experience, which falls into a separate category. So, she should try and pursue as many volunteer opportunities as she can.

 

[eventualeventer]

It is definitely worth shadowing more vets in different fields. I'm a large animal person and couldn't imagine being a small animal primary care vet for the rest of my life (no offense, SA people). If I had only been exposed to SA practice, I might have concluded that I didn't want to be a vet. Also, the average owner personality is somewhat different in SA vs LA and in different demographic areas. Food for thought. However, no matter what part of veterinary medicine you are in, you still have to deal with the fact that money and insanity can be issues for a lot of owners -- either putting down the pet that could be fixed, or continuing to poke and prod and "treat" animals who have no real hope of recovering and living a happy life.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

She could become specialized in a non-surgery/owner field. Radiology, or pathology, or some such. They generally just deal with other vets and don't talk with owners much.

Radiology sure, clinical path probably, but not anatomic pathology....if she does not like blood and surgery, I doubt she'd enjoy necropsy.....

What about anesthesia?

All of these specialties do require residencies post-DVM, though.

 

[sumstorm]

She could become specialized in a non-surgery/owner field. Radiology, or pathology, or some such. They generally just deal with other vets and don't talk with owners much.

Radiology sure, clinical path probably, but not anatomic pathology....if she does not like blood and surgery, I doubt she'd enjoy necropsy.....

What about anesthesia?

All of these specialties do require residencies post-DVM, though.

And sometimes dealing with other vets can be challenging to!
Such as the animal that is finally referred and you realize the case has been treated with pred again and again rather than acually figuring anything out.

 

[168135]

Back when I was in high school, I asked around about other animal-related careers. Shelter work is high stress and the pay is usually pretty low. I looked into wildlife rehabilitation. It's a one year program you take after you get your tech degree.

Has she done any dissections? I was squeamish for my first spay, then I was okay. Then I held puppies while their dew claws were chopped off, saw bone surgery, and I saw bladder stones being removed. Those all made me feel pretty sick! I just did my first dissections a few weeks ago and now I CAN'T WAIT to get back in the surgery room.