Vet career possibility: Help?

[Eugine Wallabee]

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I have always wanted to be a vet ever since I was a little kid. I am a junior in high school. But I am starting to wonder if I could really be successful at this job. First of all: This summer I volunteered at a veterinary hospital, and I loved almost every aspect of it except surgery. I watched the vet perform certain surgeries, and I just didnt like the atmosphere of it. I guess I could deal with it, but i dont know. That is just a concern for me; does that mean this profession would not be good for me?

Also, I am worried of being overwhelmed in vet school. I hear people say that it is nonstop studying and blah blah. I do not mind school, actually I kinda like learning about sciences. I am a straight A student in honors classes, but I usually do not perform well in school when I get overwhelmed. Do you just end up getting through it because in the end you will be at your dream profession?

And yes, I know I am thinking very much ahead of myself (being only a junior in high school), but I really want to start thinking about what I will truly become when I am older.

 

[OneDay81]

What didn't you like about surgery (that will tell us more if it is something that you can work around or something that is essential to the profession)? And what makes the career of being a veterinary appealing to you? If you like animals and science but don't like the medical aspect of the career, there are still a lot of other options, such as zoologist, animal trainer, groomer, zookeeper, wildlife biologist, etc.

I don't think junior year is too early to start thinking about what you want to do. But don't be discouraged if you change your mind, even multiple times. In fact, exploring all of your interests and career options is a very good idea. You will have time during your undergraduate years to explore through academics and extracurricular activities.

I suggest you volunteer/shadow at another veterinary practice when you get the chance, and try a different kind (if the last one was dog and cat, try a mixed practice or zoo or something) so you can see a different aspect of the field.

Oh, and the academic rigor/ curricular structure vary between the schools, so you may find one school "overwhelming" and another not so much. This is something you can look into more when you get close to applying and after you see how you handle undergraduate courseloads.

Regardless of what you may or may not ending up settling on, make sure to keep your grades up from the start so you don't end up like some of us, who are now working our butts off trying to make up for mistakes from our younger years!

 

[Yorkie Paws]

Well, why do you want to be a vet?

You can choose to not do surgery after graduation; however, it could be harder to find a job and/or you may get paid less than what you otherwise could be (some vets get paid extra for the surgeries they do). Are you sure it wasn't just the way this particular hospital did things that you didn't like? I plan to do little if any surgery, but I'm much more interested in non-invasive internal medicine, immunology, and nutrition.

I have no answer for you on what it is like in vet school, but perhaps you just need to find a way to manage your stress level instead of allowing yourself to become overwhelmed?

 

[Lab Rat83]

Don't freak out over everything just yet. Get into undergraduate university and get a feel for the workload there. Get your degree in something that will be applicable to veterinary medicine as well as a wide variety of alternative careers (med, pharmacy, research lab, government lab...etc). While you're in university shadow several different vets that will expose you to various different categories of veterinary care (ie. horse, cow, dog, cat, wildlife, marine or whatever else you can get your hands on). Maybe, it was just that one clinic you didn't like or maybe it's small animal surgery that's unappealing to you.

As for the overwhelming amount of work that's involved with vet school...get a feel for what university is like and make your decision from there. Undergrad can get overwhelming at times but you learn to push your way through it.

Just don't rule out veterinary medicine just yet 🙂 And good luck!

 

[New Foundland]

I can't imagine many high school juniors who would be particularly fond of surgery..
It is after all, cutting an animal open and manipulating its innards 👍

Don't worry about it. You're young, and have several years of university before even applying to vet school..
stick with it, keep volunteering, and see how your feelings change over the years.

 

[168135]

I wonder if it has to do with that clinic in particular?

I didn't feel very comfortable when I first started watching surgery... mostly because some of the vets didn't make their patient a priority and they weren't too concerned about sterility and cross-contamination. I stuck with that clinic though because a bad experience is better than no experience at all. I then started volunteering at a clinic that was AMAZING and the discomfort went away!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

There a billions of veterinary jobs that do not include doing surgery. Especially if you want to specialize. I was never comfortable with surgery. Which makes me wonder why I'm totally cool with necropsy, but that's just me. If you wanted to specialize without having to do a lot of surgery, you could do pathology, radiology, microbiology, nutrition, dermatology, toxicology, reproduction, feedlot medicine, etc. Or you could go into research, you could work for the USDA, etc...lots of options.

 

[Eugine Wallabee]

I did not like the feel of the surgery area, like smell and, well, I do not know for sure. I did not like orthopedic surgeries (saw a few of those) but I know that you do not have to do those as a vet (could send referrals to other vets i guess). I think I could deal with minor surgeries, like spays and neuters, but I really do not think I could do some serious ones. And scarcelyheard, you make a great point. The clinic I volunteered at did not make much of a big deal about sterility in the surgery area. I am not sure if that was why I did not like it, but it is a possibility. And I did like the medical side of it, like going into the rooms and diagnosing, examing, taking blood, prescribing meds, and basically all of that side of it. Also, I am looking into other medical and research careers as well.. Just being around animals in a job would seem great. Also, the main reason why I want to become a veterinarian is that animals do not have a voice where they can tell you whats wrong.... They can't take themselves to the doctor when they hurt. I just want to be there for them and help them get better. Of course if I chose a different career I would always be volunteering and helping out at an animal shelter.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Yeah I didn't like ortho - quite "violent" surgery. I have no problem dismembering a dog or horse on the floor, but the surgery never fit with me - I don't like the rooms, the lights, the pressure...if I make a small mistake on the necropsy floor, say cut a small artery on dissection...no biggie...if I do it in surgery, the animal dies. I'm too much of a nervous person to do that. Plus having painful postop animals around me all the time was miserable. They hurt and they don't know why, they only know you did it.

You sound like you'd be a good fit for the profession IMO. Trying to diagnose something that can't tell you what is wrong is difficult and fascinating! As a practicing unspecialized vet, any surgery you do not feel comfortable doing you can send to a referral. There is nothing wrong with that. Most surgeries in private practice are pretty basic.

Or if you really want to sink your teeth into super complex diagnoses and such, you can specialize in internal medicine. And remember also, of course, that you will becoming more comfortable with them during the course of school. I wouldn't agonize too much over it.

 

[BeagleOne]

Ooh, don't let anyone tell you a spay is not a major surgery! 🙂 It is actually a very complicated procedure, but some of us vets do it so often that it can look routine.

Don't give up on being a vet just because you don't think you will not like surgery. I agree with the suggestion of shadowing as many vets as possible and seeing as many different areas of the profession as you can. You have several years before you even need to think about applying to vet school, so you have plenty of time, but an important part of your application is animal experience, so you want to get as much as you can.

I would also STRONGLY advise you to do a full four-year degree before going to vet school, too. Some vet schools allow people to apply after just two years of undergrad provided they have completed all the prereqs. I would discourage you from doing that. Enjoy your undergrad years, take some classes just for the heck of it, and don't rush yourself.

You will also want to familiarize yourself with some of the non-medical aspects of vet school...like student debt, which is growing to the point that typical starting salaries are not adequate. Also, the profession is changing rapidly as more women of child-bearing age become vets...a lot of them want to have families, and either take time off or work part-time or job-share, and the profession needs to evolve to accommodate that demographic change. And low-cost spay/neuter/wellness practices are cropping up all over the place, and having a great effect on private practice.

You might want to join VSPN, the Veterinary Support Personnel Network. It's free and designed for support staff like techs and assistants. I don't know if they would accept a membership request from a high school student who is not actively working at a clinic, but there's no harm in asking. That would be a way for you to learn about some of the issues confronting the profession...not from a vet's point of view, but from the points of view of other areas of the profession.

Good luck to you whatever you decide to do! You can make a huge difference for animals without becoming a vet and shelters are always looking for dedicated volunteers.

 

[bbeventer]

There is always a need for vets in research!

 

[OneDay81]

There is always a need for vets in research!

Researchers do surgery sometimes though, I would think. Say, for instance, I have read about research in the development of new ACL graft materials and they did the research using pigs... Then again I don't know if the pigs were alive or not (it wasn't specified)!

 

[laitmanvet]

Research vets can definitely still do surgery. Theres a vet I know who does the lymph node cannulations in her own sheep. The sheep have a little container on their sides so the draining lymph fluid/cells can be collected.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

That's true. And a high proportion of those surgeries are terminal as well. The b/f, although not a vet, goes through quite a number of mice every week to recover fetuses for DNA sequencing. I had to sack quite a few for a nutritional study I did. There's also the research training that is done with cull animals, i.e. surgery to practice a research technique such as carotid catheter placement, etc, followed by euthanasia (which is fine by me since they are culls, as long as ok pain management is used - throw a bunch of Rompun in em, some local Lidocaine, and KCl to stop the heart at the end). Mostly in sheep and pigs for that. Although, like I said, that is done more in the training period - usually once you get the project underway and have practiced placing them, you recover them and don't have to sack them till the end. Better to practice on an old cull that's gonna be euthed anyway than an expensive pig.

Not all research vets have to do surgery though - many work in purely molecular studies.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Oh and by the way.....vet students, just like medical students, will exaggerate about "Oh, how HARD it is and oh, studying is TAKING OVER MY LIFE, etc etc".....

You do not have to study 24/7 in veterinary school. I had more than enough time for a normal life, other activities, with the exception of test weeks here and there. Fourth year is another matter, but you will not be spending all your time in books years 1-3. Is it difficult? Or course it is. You're becoming a doctor. But it won't take away your ability to live a semi-normal life with friends, activities, sleep, relaxation, unless you let it by being disorganized, unprepared, and letting stress drag you down.

You will be overwhelmed sporadically, but most of the time, you'll just be "whelmed" 😉 It's very doable. See how you do in college - explore many types of biology areas. You might end up with a fascination for anything from biomedical engineering to conservation to epidemiology in addition to vet med. Take your time Padawan 😉

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

There is always a need for vets in research!

I think this gets sold to students far too much, especially considering it's not entirely true..

During my fourth year and now in my residency, having done a lot more networking, I have realized....Vets are not in supreme demand with research. Period. No more than any other person with any other degree. Academia and/or industry research are NOT banging down the door for veterinarian researchers. Pathologists, maybe at best.

Not to say that DVMs cannot have great research careers once they also get their PhDs....but to somehow think there is this great burning desire in the research world for people with a DVM is untrue. Your DVM means c**p to them, it doesn't make you any more special than a highly decorated PhD with postdocs.

Maybe I'm just bitter because this was repeated to me over and over and over....and I'm realizing the DVM research path may be way too much effort for few results, and this whole "everyone will want you, you're guarenteed a job!" thing is BS. I don't want to start my first job at 36 years old having spent 6 of those doing a PhD which was the only thing that researchers care about, my 150K DVM being only a small feather in my hat.

Sorry for the OT....if anyone wants to discuss further we can make a new thread.

 

[OneDay81]

Whts- I appreciate the insight, considering I am wanting to go into research. I would like to end up doing something along the lines of comparative pathobiology, and I've debated (and still debate, at times) whether to pursue that career through a DVM + PhD or MD + pathology residency or what. I think that I would really "enjoy" veterinary school, although human medicine has a different degree of fascination since you are looking into "yourself", and I think I would enjoy the rotations but would never want to actually practice, unless I could work with Dr. House 🙂 Although he and I are probably too similar and would clash tremendously.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Comparative pathobiology is big in vetmed. It's what i do every day 😉 How is this disease process different in a camel, horse, cow, sheep, cat, human, bird.... We have residencies dedicated to 'comparative med' proper, as well as pathology, actually. I debated the same as you, whether to do vet or med, and ultimately chose vet - the variety of species is amazing (and yes, we have to know human applications as well such as zoonotic dz). As much as human medicine also fascinates me, I love the variety in what I do/see every day. I chose vet because think about it, almost every treatment or medicine in humans was tested and tried in animals first - I wanted to go to the source. Feel free to PM me if you want.

 

[LivestockDoc]

Comparative pathobiology is big in vetmed. It's what i do every day 😉 How is this disease process different in a camel, horse, cow, sheep, cat, human, bird.... We have residencies dedicated to 'comparative med' proper, as well as pathology, actually.

I've just been a bystander in this discussion, but I have to say comparative pathobiology sounds fascinating. I hadn't considered it. Well, I didn't really know it existed actually. Guess I'm going to be exposed to all sorts of careers that I didn't know about. Worries me almost b/c I know the cows need me! Can I do comparative pathobio on the side? 😳

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Hah, well pathology is essentially comparative pathobiology itself since we see so much, but some programs are actually integrating human med into as well and are actually called Comp Med programs. A lot of classical veterinary pathologists who take the research route are heavily involved in human med and its relation to animal as well. Colorado has a cool Comp Med residency I believe, as well as some others. Haha LivestockDoc I know how you feel...I was so close to doing food animal ambulatory, I wish I could do that on the side!! 🙂