Suggestions about what to do with my life?

[Chapelle]

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[lalzi22]

So what you're saying is you want to be a veterinarian and not a veterinary researcher...
So all you have to do is decide what type, like LA, SA, exotic, wildlife, zoo etc.

 

[HopefulAg]

I'm kind of the same way. Pretty sure I want to do a mixed practice but then public health kind of appeals to me too...if they ask I'll probably tell them exactly that and that I need more information (from vet school itself) to finally decide which route is best for me.

In other words: you may simply need to go through vet school to figure out what you really want to do. There's a lot of people that come out with a totally different goal than what they had going in.

 

[Chapelle]

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[HopefulAg]

You might look into public health. There's no set definition of it, but it's more than just food inspection and the ilk. One of my professor's, a DVM, was involved with Epidemiology of a disease in an African village. They set up a model to track it through animals, found what it was, what was spreading it, and educated the locals on what not to do. May not be a wide spread impact, but significant all the same. I think something like that would combine what your interests seem to be.

 

[Chapelle]

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[lalzi22]

Maybe my perception of wildlife medicine is wrong though...I guess I kind of see it as just helping rehabbers...but I suppose it's so much more than that. It's helping to manage whole species...that sounds awesome! Any other hopeful wildlife vets out there?

I worked at a wolf conservation center, and a veterinarian came in at key points to make sure everything was going well. We didn't rehab the wolves, we keep them and breed them in hopes of being able to put them into the government release programs in Yellowstone and New Mexico. The vet that came to us would check out the pups the day after birth, 6 weeks and 5 months, and then come in to give them boosters and check them before release or transport, so it was truly wildlife and not simply rehab. Although, I think if you were a wildlife, it would be a combo of rehab/conservation, as it will be VERY hard to make a living just doing conservation, unless you wanted to travel a LOT...although that could also be cool.

My advice is just to see what you tend to gravitate towards in vet school and take externships from there to see where you end up.

good luck!

 

[GellaBella]

That sounds really cool! Only downside is, doesn't your prof also spend lots of time sitting in his office writing grant proposals and getting rejected 9 times out of 10 like most profs?

Do you know how he got involved in this project and where the funding came from?

any type of funding has to come from somewhere.

Maybe you should look into working for the CDC or something like that. My perception of govt job like that would be that since you are in a government position, funding is much more accessible (ie. people that work at NIH often get funding from NIH and if you are working as an epidemiologist you'd be working on something the government is interested in finding answers to, so they will give you the money/opportunities to go out there and find those answers.)

I do not know whether you would have to submit grants for that sort of thing. My instinct says no since you'd be dealing with public health issues that need to be looked at NOW. but i can't say you'd never have to write a grant.

 

[bunnity]

One way to get paid to do wildlife is to work at a shelter that has its own wildlife department or center. You could work with regular animals too, probably wouldn't see too many exotics, and would feel like you were really helping. I would LOVE to work at Best Friends (well if it wasn't in Utah) and they have wildlife, farm animals, small animals...

 

[OtakuVet]

Im going to be a total nerd. I am one of those crazy people who love research and public health! Epidemiology is so awesome because you get to branch out to animals and people and find ways to make communities better rather than just one patient. I understand that there are a ton of impact one can do for one patient. But when you help an entire city or town? That is just awesome. =D And of course, Vets are needed in this field. So that we can expand more to comparative medicine. Im hoping to go this particular route that way I can help animals and people at the same time. But I know some options for you if you wish to talk about it. Im taking a class right now on it. Really opened my eyes.

 

[sofficat]

You really don't have to know what kind of vet you want to be when you go to vet school. It's also not bad to say at your interview "I really don't know- I'll keep an open mind and see what interests me in the next 4 years."

So many of our professors tell us we are probably not going to end up doing what we think anyways... "I just KNEW I wanted to be a small animal vet and I ended up being an equine surgeon!" "I just KNEW I was going to work with cattle and here I end up as a lab animal vet and reseacher" "I just KNEW...." You get the point. You never really know and that's completely ok.

 

[nyanko]

So what you're saying is you want to be a veterinarian and not a veterinary researcher...

A veterinarian who does research is still a veterinarian.

 

[lalzi22]

A veterinarian who does research is still a veterinarian.

Yes I know, but it seemed the easier way to say it than veterinarian in a clinic vs veterinarian who does research. I assume everyone knows what I mean in my head since it doesn't always come out as clear as I want. apparently FAIL