Quality of animal experience

[SquirrelSam]

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Does anyone know how vet schools look at animal and vet experience? I have over 1500 hours working with various wildlife rehabilitation centres supervised by RVTs. According to the definition of veterinary experience, none of these hours would count as vet hours because there was no supervising vet. I have few veterinary hours in comparison and I’m worried that I’ll be rejected because of that. I want to specialize in wildlife and unfortunately there are only 2 wildlife vets in the province and they only work part time so most of work is done by RVTs and animals in need of surgery are transported to the vet. All of the wildlife work I’ve done has been medical in nature (SQ injections, vaccinations, IM medications, physical exams, etc.).

So my question is, do vet schools look at the quality of experience regardless of whether or not it’s considered animal or veterinary experience? Do you think they would be understanding that I have most of my experience as animal experience in the wildlife field and less vet hours in small animal and exotics clinics?

 

[CoffeeQuestionMark]

Does anyone know how vet schools look at animal and vet experience? I have over 1500 hours working with various wildlife rehabilitation centres supervised by RVTs. According to the definition of veterinary experience, none of these hours would count as vet hours because there was no supervising vet. I have few veterinary hours in comparison and I’m worried that I’ll be rejected because of that. I want to specialize in wildlife and unfortunately there are only 2 wildlife vets in the province and they only work part time so most of work is done by RVTs and animals in need of surgery are transported to the vet. All of the wildlife work I’ve done has been medical in nature (SQ injections, vaccinations, IM medications, physical exams, etc.).

So my question is, do vet schools look at the quality of experience regardless of whether or not it’s considered animal or veterinary experience? Do you think they would be understanding that I have most of my experience as animal experience in the wildlife field and less vet hours in small animal and exotics clinics?

I do not have knowledge of procedures for Canadian schools. That being said:
From what I understand, non-vet animal experience counts a lot less than you would think.
Is it ok to have more animal experience than veterinary experience? Of course.
But lack of veterinary experience combined with lack of diversity may very well hurt you.
Do not limit yourself to working with wildlife, no matter your future goals. SA and LA vet experiences are invaluable because those WILL be your primary species in veterinary school.