Survey: What kind of vet do you want to be?

[Emio]

ponies. and more ponies. not only ponies though. maybe a barn dog here or there.

and lizards. love lizards.

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[sambone]

Lab animal or pathology...

But I do love those small ruminants! too bad there's not much of a market for small ruminant vets. (One crazy vet I work with says the best medicine for sheep is a gun, since they're worth almost nothing BOOOO)

 

[aspiringDVM]

Mainly equine, with a side of caprine/small ruminants (I have goats, and it is ridiculously hard to find a decent goat vet). I'm also very interested in surgery, but I'm not sure I'll want to pursue a specialty or board certification after another 1 1/2 years of undergrad and then vet school.

 

[david594]

(One crazy vet I work with says the best medicine for sheep is a gun, since they're worth almost nothing BOOOO)

If cost to treat > value of animal.....

You just need to work with sheep used for things other than food/wool.

 

[LVT2DVM]

The scary similarities strike again, Truth. I too am leaning towards mixed rural small animal, farm animal medicine. I have worked so long in small animal general practice, Im definately looking for something different. Thought I might be into surgery for awhile, 'til I worked for a vet surgeon and OMG...its so boring. The same thing, knees and backs, day in and day out. Its like working in an assembly line. I definately love surgery and dentistry so Ive also thought about doing something in that area, but well have to see.

I was into Therio a bit ago (and I kinda like Toxicology, too), but I'm moving more toward being a rural area jack of all trades, myself.

After shadowing and volunteering in a rural area, it seems more like a fit for me. No, I'm not a James Herriot nut. I just don't see myself in a primarily small animal clinic, or emergency clinic.

 

[LadyHitokiri]

The scary similarities strike again, Truth. I too am leaning towards mixed rural small animal, farm animal medicine. I have worked so long in small animal general practice, Im definately looking for something different. Thought I might be into surgery for awhile, 'til I worked for a vet surgeon and OMG...its so boring. The same thing, knees and backs, day in and day out. Its like working in an assembly line. I definately love surgery and dentistry so Ive also thought about doing something in that area, but well have to see.

Iowa seems perfect for your interests! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the both of us!

 

[CatTech]

well... i'm nowhere near application time yet, so this could change some...

but, i'm definately more of a small animal person. i don't hate large animal, and i appreciate the experiences i do get, but it's just not my cup of tea.

other than that, feline medicine, cardiology, and shelter medicine all interest me. i like surgery too, but i don't know if i could do only that all day... i think i probably would get bored.


btw, to the OP, this was a great thread idea!

 

[rachroo]

I have so many interests it's hard to decide!!

My plan for now (which I know could very well change or may be unpractical to find all together) is to be at a practice that sees small animals/exotics/wildlife that has call in-emergency office hours available for clients (Dr's rotate who's "on-call").

I'd also like to be on the Board of Health for whichever city I live in.

And then....I want to use my vacation time to travel the world and spend some time helping those in other countries while volunteering some of my time as a veterinarian (the possibilities for where I'd go and what I'd actually do are endless here!)

 

[Truth74]

The scary similarities strike again, Truth. I too am leaning towards mixed rural small animal, farm animal medicine. I have worked so long in small animal general practice, Im definately looking for something different. Thought I might be into surgery for awhile, 'til I worked for a vet surgeon and OMG...its so boring. The same thing, knees and backs, day in and day out. Its like working in an assembly line. I definately love surgery and dentistry so Ive also thought about doing something in that area, but well have to see.

I know! We just think alike! I'm so disappointed you didn't apply to Illinois. Stupid GRE deadline. We would so mesh!

 

[primatevetjess]

Lab animal, for sure. And yeah, like someone else said, it's really nice to see others interested in the field

 

[badcats]

Right now I am thinking either zoo animal or equine, but maybe something research related rather than a practice. Specializing in obstetrics would be pretty amazing too.

 

[chyactnate]

Equine specializing in either reproduction, or internal medicine.........

 

[thereservoirdog]

Seems like a lot of people want to get into wildlife med. I really want to do Wildlife / Public Health. I'd be happy with just cats and dogs though.

 

[autumnmuse]

Ooh, obstetrics! Forgot about that one. Okay, it's added to my list .

 

[Ben and Me]

Lab animal or pathology...

But I do love those small ruminants! too bad there's not much of a market for small ruminant vets. (One crazy vet I work with says the best medicine for sheep is a gun, since they're worth almost nothing BOOOO)

What about alpacas? I shadowed a mixed animal vet--a large portion of his business was from alpaca owners. Some of those are worth 5 and 6 figures--he had one client with around 250 of them, and had a standing appointment with her once a week to deworm, trim hooves and teeth, etc. Apparently the alpaca bubble is about to burst though (people are realizing that alpaca fiber isn't really worth enough to justify spending $25,000 for one) so that might not be the best solution.

Or, you could plan on practicing abroad. I think some of the vet schools over in the British Isles have mandatory lambing for all veterinary students.

 

[r00]

I wanna be a good one.... lol


But in all seriousness I can't say that I know enough about all the different kinds to tunnel myself into one. I have been thinking more and more lately about the fact that I live right near Animal Kingdom and SeaWorld... I love diving so maybe working at SeaWorld wouldn't be a bad idea... idk... I have also considered emergency vet hospital work.... in the end I figure I could always work with cats and dogs in a regular old clinic and I think I'd still be very happy...

 

[stang21]

Rural large animal with a emphasis in bovine reproductive physiology. I pretty much want to work with cows all day.

Also LadyHitoKiri, I love the Brown Swiss avatar. My favorite breed of cattle. Can't wait to start my own herd.

 

[LadyHitokiri]

Rural large animal with a emphasis in bovine reproductive physiology. I pretty much want to work with cows all day.

Also LadyHitoKiri, I love the Brown Swiss avatar. My favorite breed of cattle. Can't wait to start my own herd.

Heh, thanks! They're my favorite breed too. A friend once told me that I was like a Brown Swiss...big eyes, big eyelashes...lol

It's great that you are set in your veterinary field goals. Good luck with everything!

 

[LivestockDoc]

Given my screen name, I guess saying anything more would be redundant!

Good luck to everyone who's awaiting THE ANSWER in the next month or two. I don't get to apply until next cycle.

 

[Kat0303]

anatomic pathology for me

 

[robeezy08]

Hi all aspiring veterinarians! Just wanted to run a little survey to see what kind of medicine everyone wants to pursue. I myself am most interested in avian/herp, zoological, and conservation medicine (not necessarily in that order). Definitely want to board certify in avian medicine though !

Hi! Started off behavior med (esp after watching movie "shelter dogs" heartbreaking documentary but worth watching esp if interested in shelter/behavioral med) Then changed to emergency med after working in a 24hr/Specialty/Referral Center for awhile...Then (long story short!) moved to Philly for Master's in Lab Animal Sc program at Drexel Univ. So for me:
Lab animal medicine w/ an interest in pain management!

 

[soxbox]

lab animal here! it's one of my few choices to have a shot at paying back my ridiculous OOS tuition (plus i really enjoy being able to act as an advocate for the animals used in research)

 

[tnpfan]

lab animal here! it's one of my few choices to have a shot at paying back my ridiculous OOS tuition (plus i really enjoy being able to act as an advocate for the animals used in research)

I was talking with the cheif campus vet here at my university and she said it's very rare that someone goes straight into lab animal after graduating. Is that true? And are you?

Also, did anyone here get experience as a lab animal caretaker in undergrad? I'm considering going into lab animal and I assume that's a good way to get experience...

 

[soxbox]

I was talking with the cheif campus vet here at my university and she said it's very rare that someone goes straight into lab animal after graduating. Is that true? And are you?

Also, did anyone here get experience as a lab animal caretaker in undergrad? I'm considering going into lab animal and I assume that's a good way to get experience...

I worked for about 5 years before starting vet school doing research... both in an academic setting as well as for a bio-pharm company in their pre-clinical dept. I became an AALAS lab animal tech (was not too hard... just need enough working/experience hours and pass the test). I definitely recommend trying to get involved in lab animal medicine before vet school if you can if you think you might be interested in it. It is definitely not a field for everyone and you really do not get much exposure to it while in vet school.

I like lab animal medicine because you can go straight from graduation into work and after 6 years of working, being first author on a paper, and taking the board exam, you can become boarded (you can check out www.aclam.org for more detailed info). There are definitely many advantages into going into a lab animal residency, but I am not sure if I could handle putting off repaying my loans for another 3 years!

I have a good amount of friends who went straight to work in the lab animal field right after graduating... maybe the vet you spoke with meant it is just uncommon that many people pursue lab animal right away? I know there is a tendency for some people to become a tad burnt out in the private practice world and turn to industry later on in their careers...

 

[winddolphin]

Small animal and equine, specializing in Tradition Chinese veterinary medicine.

 

[Pandacinny]

I was talking with the cheif campus vet here at my university and she said it's very rare that someone goes straight into lab animal after graduating. Is that true? And are you?

Also, did anyone here get experience as a lab animal caretaker in undergrad? I'm considering going into lab animal and I assume that's a good way to get experience...

I work in lab animal care right now. With my job, I get to move around a lot to different facilities so I've met a lot of vets and worked with all kinds of different species. I would definitely recommend it - I think this has been great experience for me and I've enjoyed it a lot.

Of the vets I've spoken to, many of the older ones seem to have practiced in some other part of the field before going into lab animal. Some of the younger ones went straight into it, but I think they had residencies first.

 

[Kanashimi]

What kind of vet?
Hmm...
My dream is to open my own animal sanctuary one day... and then I'd be able to care for my own animals. But that's a long-term thing... and honestly, vets don't make enough money for me to finance that sort of expedition.

I'd love to be able to work at a zoo, caring for ALL sorts of animals. Especially exotics. Right now, I absolutely love caring for my sugar gliders. When one of them got sick, I finally realized how much I wanted to be a vet. I'm going to have to overcome my needlephobia and aversion to any kind of animal testing or dissection, though. I hate the idea of hurting or killing animals for research... heck, I'm a vegetarian.

 

[Electrophile]

Boarded veterinary nutritionist doing mostly small animal holistic consults with some food animal consults for producers interested in grass fed "natural" or organic production, particularly smaller family farms. I'd get bored all day doing calculations on carbs, proteins, vitamins, and minerals, so doing general mixed practice stuff too on small animal, equine, food, and exotics would be fun. I love working dogs (police, military, search and rescue), so rehabilitation and nutrition for those guys would be cool too. Definitely want to own my own practice!

 

[ponio]

ER/CC, geriatrics, or shelter medicine

 

[david594]

Strictly pediatrics. Puppies and kittens from new born up until 1 year old only. After that I intend to send all my patients to someone else's wellness clinic for their care.

 

[Kanashimi]

Strictly pediatrics. Puppies and kittens from new born up until 1 year old only. After that I intend to send all my patients to someone else's wellness clinic for their care.

hahahahhahahha... wow. That's kind of... err... well... hahahaha. I've never known a vet that did that.

 

[Emio]

Strictly pediatrics. Puppies and kittens from new born up until 1 year old only. After that I intend to send all my patients to someone else's wellness clinic for their care.

my brother had a get-rich-quick scheme along those lines: adopt lots of tiny little beagle pups, charge admission to oglers of their adorableness, gas them all at 12 weeks and start over.

sardonic, i know, but humorous when you consider the ridiculousness.

 

[Kanashimi]

my brother had a get-rich-quick scheme along those lines: adopt lots of tiny little beagle pups, charge admission to oglers of their adorableness, gas them all at 12 weeks and start over.

sardonic, i know, but humorous when you consider the ridiculousness.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Don't hurt da puppuhs.....

 

[Pennvet]

Not quite sure what kind of vet I want to be, but I know that I definitely don't want to be a Royal Dick Vet.

 

[ratbandit]

Not quite sure what kind of vet I want to be, but I know that I definitely don't want to be a Royal Dick Vet.

so funny....?

 

[NycVet]

maybe small animal or exotics probably large animal exotics but that may change with time, it soooooo hard to choose

Animals are the best whoo-rah!!!

 

[237397]

I want to be a poultry vet. I've met a few (pretty sure there are only a few in the world haha) and they really enjoy it. Plus, everyone in the poultry industry is so friendly.

Seems like food animal medicine isn't very popular, but it's great to see so many people interested in lab animals!

 

[rachroo]

I want to be a poultry vet. I've met a few (pretty sure there are only a few in the world haha)

You should talk to Dr. Sanders @ OSU (Ohio)!!

 

[Kanashimi]

I want to be a poultry vet. I've met a few (pretty sure there are only a few in the world haha) and they really enjoy it. Plus, everyone in the poultry industry is so friendly.

Seems like food animal medicine isn't very popular, but it's great to see so many people interested in lab animals!

For me, I'm a vegetarian, and I would have trouble working in an environment where the animals all have numbers above their heads counting down to slit throats. Have you ever seen a factory farm? It's disgusting. As an animal lover, I refuse to take any part in it. If I thought I could improve the conditions, then perhaps, but all those people care about is the profit.
Plus, I'm against animal research except in cases where the welfare is STRICTLY regulated, and where the reason for the research is to directly save lives, not to find out how much poison you can pour down a puppy's throat before it dies.

 

[david594]

For me, I'm a vegetarian, and I would have trouble working in an environment where the animals all have numbers above their heads counting down to slit throats. Have you ever seen a factory farm? It's disgusting. As an animal lover, I refuse to take any part in it. If I thought I could improve the conditions, then perhaps, but all those people care about is the profit.
Plus, I'm against animal research except in cases where the welfare is STRICTLY regulated, and where the reason for the research is to directly save lives, not to find out how much poison you can pour down a puppy's throat before it dies.

That attitude does not jive very well with wanting to be a veterinarian.

"I disagree with half of the market veterinary medicine serves"

and

"I disagree with the science that makes all of veterinary medicine possible"

 

[nyanko]

Plus, I'm against animal research except in cases where the welfare is STRICTLY regulated, and where the reason for the research is to directly save lives, not to find out how much poison you can pour down a puppy's throat before it dies.

Yeah, finding the LD50 of a given substance isn't ever important in medicine.

 

[Emio]

For me, I'm a vegetarian, and I would have trouble working in an environment where the animals all have numbers above their heads counting down to slit throats. Have you ever seen a factory farm? It's disgusting. As an animal lover, I refuse to take any part in it. If I thought I could improve the conditions, then perhaps, but all those people care about is the profit.
Plus, I'm against animal research except in cases where the welfare is STRICTLY regulated, and where the reason for the research is to directly save lives, not to find out how much poison you can pour down a puppy's throat before it dies.

"if you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

 

[VeganChick]

I would have trouble working in an environment where the animals all have numbers above their heads counting down to slit throats

I'm a vegan because I don't like animal suffering. If I could make even one of these animals' lives just a wee bit better before the inevitable, that is what is important to me. Do I approve of factory farming? Of course not. But as a (future) veterinarian, my priority is the animals, not the statement.

 

[Pandacinny]

Plus, I'm against animal research except in cases where the welfare is STRICTLY regulated, and where the reason for the research is to directly save lives, not to find out how much poison you can pour down a puppy's throat before it dies.

Have you been to an animal research facility? I mean been there, not just watched some 15 year old footage that PETA tells you still represents animal research today? I'm guessing no.

Animal welfare is strictly regulated in just about every research facility. Why? Because a lot of research relies on federal funding. In order to get federal funding, you must meet certain standards set forth by the animal welfare act and you must pass periodic IACUC inspections. I've been present for inspections at a couple of different facilities and I can tell you that they pretty much took a white glove to everything. They even quizzed employees on proper animal care and use. It was very thorough.

I suggest you educate yourself a little first hand. Start with IACUC's website, then see if you can get some actual time working with lab animals.http://www.iacuc.org/

 

[LadyHitokiri]

I want to be a poultry vet. I've met a few (pretty sure there are only a few in the world haha) and they really enjoy it. Plus, everyone in the poultry industry is so friendly.

Seems like food animal medicine isn't very popular, but it's great to see so many people interested in lab animals!

Awesomeness. I work at the poultry research farm at my University, and I have to say that I enjoy doing what I do (even if it's just feeding them and picking/sorting/cleaning eggs, and avoiding being pecked to death by the roosters guarding their hens! It's not the Leghorns that give me a problem...the Rhode Island Reds don't know me well enough so they like to attack me to protect their property) I also did a paper on Avian Influenza for my microbiology course last year, and I enjoyed researching that as well (although you are more knowledgeable on the subject!) My main focus is working in public health on a government level (CDC, USDA, etc.), but if I had to pick something else, it would be straight-up food animal medicine (still public health...lol).

I saw elsewhere that you were interested in ISU. (It's my top choice, I'm OOS) It's such a great school for large/food animal....also great for small animal too, and public health. Good luck!

 

[tnpfan]

Plus, I'm against animal research except in cases where the welfare is STRICTLY regulated

What do you think lab animal vets do? http://www.aclam.org/http://www.aclam.org/

 

[Kanashimi]

I wasn't asking to be attacked. There are plenty of places for a vet to work other than places where the main goal is profit. I understand that, in some cases, sacrifices have to be made. But I'm not interested in "sacrifices" so that we can have better makeup, or "sacrifices" to tell us that bleach and smoking are toxic. We know that. I want to help animals, and I just don't have the heart to work in an environment like that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, because I know that the vets there work hard to ensure the animals' welfare- I said IT'S NOT FOR ME. Thanks for reading closely, guys. I really appreciate the assumptions.

 

[VeganChick]

Assumptions aside, I think it is kind of ironic that you make these statements as a "vegetarian". As far as I understand the term, vegetarians don't eat meat. They do not exclude milk, eggs, cheese, soups made with chicken broth, wearing leather or using products that are not animal-tested nor have any components that are animal-tested. So, it seems to me that, as a vegetarian, you do participate in the practices of which you are so disdainful.

 

[nyanko]

Hey VeganChick, sorry if this has been discussed here before but how do you reconcile using medications and such that have obviously undergone animal trials and probably research using animal models at the basic science level before even making it to trials with your beliefs?

You seem like a really levelheaded type so that's why I feel comfortable asking - I'm not trying to put you on the spot or grill you or anything, just curious.

 

[VeganChick]

research using animal models at the basic science level before even making it to trials with your beliefs?

I recently read a book called The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge (great book!) A lot of it discusses how much we've learned about the brain and how we learned these things. In one part, it talks about discovering the links between the brain and the nervous system; the discoveries were made by cutting the nerves to the fingers of monkeys. Yes, I hate that the monkeys had to endure that. But think of all the progress we have made in medicine from that discovery! I believe the monkeys made a great sacrifice for the future of medicine. That's how. It's the "greater good" that I believe in I guess.

how do you reconcile using medications and such that have obviously undergone animal trials

This is along the same lines. Medications save many people and animal lives. We would not and could not know this except for trials. It would be great if there was some sort of testing that did not involve living creatures..but there isn't. It is almost a symbiotic relationship. Vets and Vet Techs and Rescue Volunteers and so, so many others do whatever they can to take care of animals. Maybe it is a way the animals try to repay us?
As we have covered previously, the animals in testing institutions are treated and cared for well. I think people understand the sacrifice these animals are making, are respectful and try to make sure they keep their dignity.
Like research studies, testing on animals makes progress for everybody - humans and animals. Taking the medications that these animals have tested for us is actually a nice way to honor them.