To all the lab animal vets out there

[ItalianVet]

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I am having a bit of a crisis. I went in to lab animal medicine with no general practice experience strait out of school. I love what I do and I am a 100% convinced that all I want to do is lab animal medicine. But some of the vets that I work with went in to this field later in their career and have a past experience in private practice (both small animal and large). I am wondering if my lab animal medicine preparation would have benefited from from some general practice, if it would have made me a better lab animal vet. Sometimes I feel a little jealous of the clincal knowledge of the other vets and it puts down my morale alot. Although I have to say that they are all much older than me (I am 27 and they are in their 50-60's).

Is there anyone out there, resident or clinical lab animal vet or even path resident that had my same experience and can make me feel better about this?

 

[lailanni]

Sometimes I feel a little jealous of the clincal knowledge of the other vets and it puts down my morale alot. Although I have to say that they are all much older than me (I am 27 and they are in their 50-60's).

What you're jealous of is decades of experience, don't worry about it. We all feel it 🙂

I spent a month at a very large, well known academic LAM facility. I also toured several private LAM facilities. I got to meet and talk with most of the veterinarians there. Some did have private practice experience, some had none.

I actually asked if it was helpful to have that or not for your residency. I was told that they accept people straight from vet school. They also take people who have been practicing. The main difference is that the practitioners initially seem more confident diagnosing and treating (since that is what they've spent years doing).

On the other hand, the people straight from school have a better memory of what they've just learned. Especially all the pathology. They still are used to studying, writing papers, and academic life. It's a little harder adjustment for those in practice-land to come back into academia. (Which is necessary because you must author a paper to become LAM board eligible). The people who had been practicing were envious of those who still had detailed knowledge and study skills fresh in their mind.

Eventually it evens out. The non-practicioners become just as adept at diagnosing/treating. The practitioners transition back into academia. There's both advantages and disadvantages to both.

So next time you're feeling down, just try to shake it off. It's easy to get discouraged when you're just starting out and comparing your knowledge base with someone who has decades on you. Everything takes its time and you'll get there too some day.

 

[ItalianVet]

What you're jealous of is decades of experience, don't worry about it. We all feel it 🙂

I spent a month at a very large, well known academic LAM facility. I also toured several private LAM facilities. I got to meet and talk with most of the veterinarians there. Some did have private practice experience, some had none.

I actually asked if it was helpful to have that or not for your residency. I was told that they accept people straight from vet school. They also take people who have been practicing. The main difference is that the practitioners initially seem more confident diagnosing and treating (since that is what they've spent years doing).

On the other hand, the people straight from school have a better memory of what they've just learned. Especially all the pathology. They still are used to studying, writing papers, and academic life. It's a little harder adjustment for those in practice-land to come back into academia. (Which is necessary because you must author a paper to become LAM board eligible). The people who had been practicing were envious of those who still had detailed knowledge and study skills fresh in their mind.

Eventually it evens out. The non-practicioners become just as adept at diagnosing/treating. The practitioners transition back into academia. There's both advantages and disadvantages to both.

So next time you're feeling down, just try to shake it off. It's easy to get discouraged when you're just starting out and comparing your knowledge base with someone who has decades on you. Everything takes its time and you'll get there too some day.

Thanks for the reply. Those were nice words. I already feel a lot better.

I think at the end I have to look at what I have to do in my field, for example I don't really need to know how to do knee surgery on a dog, but I definitely need to know how to recognize signs of pain and distress in a rat, or similar things like that.

The only frustration is that in practice they are forced to see ton of cases with that particular disease, instead in lab animal you rarely see it and worse you rarely end up treating it. So it becomes hard to create that brain memory about that disease and how to treat it etc. They can look at an animal and tell you what the animal has and how it should be treated, or they never miss anything on a physical. Instead many times I second guess my self and I have to consult my books continuously. They also know all the empirical cheap treatments for this or that disease.....and I always end up proposing the most expensive one instead (from consulting books).

But like you said they have decades of experience and there is other advantages of been fresh out of school. I have noticed it a few times. Plus I am there to learn too and suck as much experience from them as I can.

Again thanks much for the encouraging reply.