Question to vets

[Zelrond]

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Im currently studying medicine and it got me thinking how the hell can a vet deal with so many animals. As doctors we study until our kid thirtiest just to be experts in one small part of a human, how do u guys handle all animals. Do u study in less detail or something. Also when you specialise do u do it for each animal, so a specialist in chimps etc

 

[No Imagination]

You can specialize in some specific animals; equine being the main species that is doctor specific. You can also get minor (that's how I think about ABVP, probably offended someone saying that) species specialties in just about every other one. Lab Animal or Wildlife vets (specialties) typically would treat chimps (your example).

I defiantly think of veterinarians as a jack of all trades in that we do our own surgeries, anesthesia, radiographs, ect. on multiple species.

There is a cost to this however... 'Jack of all Trades, Masters of None' (unless of course you specialize, either formally via a residency or informally, with a strong interest in a subject). In my opinion, that is what make veterinary medicine so great... you get your degree and you can take it and do with it what you wish. The degree is the degree, as long as you are able to do what you are doing competently, you can practice on any animal and do any procedure (within ethical boundaries of course).

My wife is an MD, and while our first 2 years of school were very similar, her STEP 2 & 3 licencing exams was FAR more detail oriented than my NAVLE.

This is of course just my opinion... others may vary 😀 (I never used to be so PC)

 

[CalliopeDVM]

I agree that most vets are "Jacks of all trades, Masters of none", compared to MDs - what we learn and practice is generally broader than that of an MD, but not as deep (detailed) - at least at the GP level, since specialists have a much more in depth and focused knowledge. For those who will specialize (and many vets do not), the specialties in veterinary medicine are much like the human specialties - neurology, ophthalmology, internal medicine, surgery, dermatology, emergency/critical care, radiology, pathology, anesthesiology, etc. and there are some sub-specialties.

 

[katryn]

I'm not a vet yet, but I'm already finding this to be true in my studies, and maybe human med doesn't function like this. One of my favorite mentors pointed out to me once that the majority of what a vet does isn't knowing the signs of every specific disease in every animal. It's being able to recognize patterns (hey, it looks like this rabbit's heart is involved), and then knowing where to go find the answers (let's look up heart diseases in reference materials about rabbits, or call a teach hospital that has a rabbit expert). So we study a much broader set of topics in less depth, but a lot of what we learn is also how to go about looking for the right answers in the right places.