Vet experience question

[lissette10]

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Hi. I'm new here and have a couple questions about vet experience.
1. I am currently working as a farrier's apprentice. Could this count toward my vet experience hours?
UC Davis' site says "A minimum of 180 hours of veterinary experience are required to have your application considered for admission...... Your experience may come from a job or volunteer service. You may acquire experience by working with veterinarians in private practice, farms, ranches, animal shelters, zoos, aquaria, laboratories, etc."
2. Also what is the best way of keeping track of my hours? I have been keeping a log book but not sure if that is the best way.
Can anyone help me?
Thanks!

 

[pressmom]

If the farrier has a DVM, then it counts as veterinary experience. If he/she does not, then it is animal experience.

Some people have kept track in excel spreadsheets, in journal/note books, or I kept track in a calendar. It's whatever you feel comfortable with. If I could go back, I'd probably do an excel spreadsheet, but make sure you back it up to a thumb drive or external hard drive or email it to yourself periodically in case your computer crashes.

 

[Steelmagghia]

Like pressmom said, if you're working under a DVM, it is vet experience. On that note, if it is working with animals, but not under a DVM (or PhD as some people have corrected me on...I never had that problem though 🙂) then it is animal experience. If there are no animals involved, then it is job/extracurricular.
I really wish that I had SOMEHOW logged my vet experience. I mostly relied on what I could remember when filling out my apps and I realized later that I had left out a lot.
Excel spreadsheets are great because you can log things in categories and it is less likely to get randomly misplaced. I did log my last 300 hours or so in a notebook, and that worked fine for me.
Just make sure however you do it that you write down what you did, which animals were involved, anything interesting that happened, who the experience was under, and about how long it took.
Also make sure that you have a variety of experiences. You don't want all large animal or all small animal experience. It's good to have an emphasis in the one you are most interested in, but you want to have at least some experience with a wider variety (I'd especially make sure you get some bird experience, just because they are SO different and restraint/handling is just odd...since you do some avian work in vet school, you don't want to look like a total ***** when it comes to birds).

 

[lissette10]

Thanks for the help. I'm still a sophomore undergrad so I'm still figuring things out. Does anyone have any ideas for large animal experience? We don't have many large animal vets in my area and they usually only let you go on 1 or 2 ride alongs.

 

[projekt]

What's your area?

The vet experience thing doesn't necessarily require all species. Many people have a little of one and a lot of another. Heck, most of my experience is with rats and mice. On that note, is there a research university or med school near you? They might be able to give you experience with laboratory animals, which can range from mice to monkeys to sheep.

 

[lissette10]

Modesto, Ca.

My area of interest is large animals though so thats what I need the most of. I have a couple universities near by but not med universities. My problem is I have plenty of large animal experience but very little veterinary large animal experience.

 

[Steelmagghia]

Even a couple of ride alongs should be enough if you have a large amount of large animal experience. Also, if you can work on a ranch and maybe assist with some of the veterinary visits, those assists count as veterinary experience.

 

[Hobiecat1642]

i called around to a lot of the other small animal hospitals, and asked the vets I work with to give me hints for large animal experiences. I don't know if this is feasible for you, but I did several animal internships and they helped me pick up a lot of hours. You might be able to do an internship w/ large animals in another area. Many internships are unpaid, but some have stipends and or housing. university of vermont's animal science page has a good list. That's where I got a bunch of mine.

 

[fargeese]

I blindly sent out letters to all the LA vets near the area where I was going to live that summer, and one called me within 24 hours to snap up the prospect of an entire summer of free labor. Some of the vets I worked for said that I needed to be paid because I was on the premises working, but this one either didn't know or care. Some of the solo practices or rural ones might be your best bet as they usually need the help the most.

The farrier thing is good, but doesn't count, sorry. I just wrote everything down in a journal, so I could also note interesting procedures, questions I had etc.

 

[lissette10]

Thanks everyone for your great advice!

You might be able to do an internship w/ large animals in another area. Many internships are unpaid, but some have stipends and or housing.

Do you mean with vets or interships in general like at a ranch or stud farm?

Thanks again!

 

[david594]

Thanks everyone for your great advice!



Do you mean with vets or interships in general like at a ranch or stud farm?

Thanks again!

You want to find something working directly with a vet. A ranch of a farm where a vet might come out once weekly will be good animal experience, but with the minimal vet exposure will take you ages to reach the 180 hours required by UCD.

You are also going to need recommendations written by at least 1 veterinarian and you will want it to be someone who knows you well and not just in passing.

 

[lailanni]

Just a note of caution....you probably already saw it on the website but I thought I'd bring it up just in case.

You'll want to overshoot the 180 hour minimum. From what I understand about Davis, most people that are accepted have tons of experience. I'm sure there are definately exceptions but....

"A minimum of 180 hours of veterinary experience are required to have your application considered for admission; however, admitted applicants have an average of 3,000-3,500 hours of quality "hands-on" experience in the veterinary field."

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/studentprograms/subpages/faqs.html#q23

That was directly from UCD's vet med website. On the same FAQ page they state that veterinary experience counts for 25% of your app.

We don't have a lot of large animal vets in my area, but I know that further out the large animal vets are usually happy for an extra hand. I have a friend that stays with family in a more rural area and helps at a mixed animal practice over the summers. They took her in a heartbeat!

A way I kept track of my experience was to keep a log of my hours and at the end of each day I made a little list of things I did. It helps when you're filling out your app, so you can just list off things you assisted with and you won't accidently forget anything.

 

[lissette10]

Yes I read that part about the hours. That's why I'm a little stressed. To get that many hours I will need to get about 24 hours a week. I was talking about it with others students today and none of them knew how many hours they were going to need, other than the required 180. I think I created a few more stressed students!🙁

 

[david594]

Yes I read that part about the hours. That's why I'm a little stressed. To get that many hours I will need to get about 24 hours a week. I was talking about it with others students today and none of them knew how many hours they were going to need, other than the required 180. I think I created a few more stressed students!🙁

Should have let them keep thinking 180 hours is plenty. You don't need to be helping the competition. 😉

 

[lissette10]

Should have let them keep thinking 180 hours is plenty. You don't need to be helping the competition. 😉

Crap I did think about that!😡

 

[VAgirl]

Should have let them keep thinking 180 hours is plenty. You don't need to be helping the competition. 😉

And what exactly are you doing right now? Life's nicer for all if we think friendly and help each other in the small ways that we can. 🙂

 

[lissette10]

And what exactly are you doing right now? Life's nicer for all if we think friendly and help each other in the small ways that we can. 🙂

I think david594 was just kidding. I was.

 

[david594]

I was half kidding. I have full respect for everyone on here and am more than willing to help anyone on here.

Its a very different story though when I am at school in an animal science class with 150 freshmen, 130 of whom want to be vets, and only 25 of whom will actually finish all the pre-reqs before they graduate. On the other hand I will help any of the other non-traditional students in my classes as I feel they at least have a more of an appreciation for what they are doing.

 

[ShelterGirl]

Another thing if you are focused on UC Davis ... they don't mandate that you have a bunch of experience in ALL areas of vet med (e.g. x hours in large animal + x hours in small animal + x hours in research + ...). They prefer that you get good in-depth experience in an area of interest or two, plus some breadth to show that you understand multiple areas of vet med. That's what they told me at my post-mortem interview last year, at any rate. If you're not interested in large animal, for example, then you should be ok with fewer hours there. Good luck!

p.s. I'm surprised there aren't more large animal opportunities in Modesto. Maybe if you're willing to travel up or down the Central Valley more?

 

[lissette10]

p.s. I'm surprised there aren't more large animal opportunities in Modesto. Maybe if you're willing to travel up or down the Central Valley more?

Thanks for the info. I actually live in Turlock. There are some large animal vets in town but the ones I know don't take many people on. I am looking into others outside of my immediate area though.

 

[Pouches Rock]

If I were you I would try to get as much veterinary experience as possible not matter what type of practice or situation. The important thing at this stage is to have an impressive application.

Additionally I have been told by DVM's that have been on selections committees that an applicant who is already determined to do a particular specialty can be a negative against them. It may be different at other schools. All I know is that this person said that it made the committee feel that the applicant was naive, inflexible and lacking understanding of the profession.

I can understand how an alternate view of the situation would be that a student that didn't have a specialty in mind is wishy washy. If you can I would research to find out the opinion of your schools of interest.