Vet Programs With Large Animal Emphasis

[jtom]

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I findly found a veterinarian that would hire me a few weeks ago after searching all over my area. This vet happened to be a mixed animal vet and he decided to make me his large animal technician. I contacted him initially for the purpose of vet school admissions in terms of having a diversity of experiences.

Up until this point, I had always been set on pursuing small animal vetmed and only considered large animal as something I had to pursue to get into vet school. After a few weeks of working for this vet, I have changed my mind and want to become a large/food animal veterinarian. So far I have about 60 hours in about 10 days of large animal (mostly horses but he said the second half of the summer I will be doing alot of cattle). So far I have 124 hours of total vet experience but plan on working 50-60 hours a week there and will try to find another vet I could work with 1-2 days a week.

I had a list going of vet schools I was going to apply to but had made price my number one issue. I have decided to not make cost the largest issue and instead focus on vet programs that have a large/food animal concentration. I would prefer to have a background in small animal in vet school so I can at least do that if that is the only thing available employment wise but want to focus on large animal.

My IS school is Florida but I have 4 pre-reqs to make up and have spoken to many of the faculty there and their large animal concentration does not seem sufficient. I called them to inquire about shadowing and they said they do not allow that because they do not have enough clients to sufficiently train their own students so they would not allow additional observers.

So my question for you guys was what schools have a large animal/food animal concentration and what schools are known for this area. I know ncstate has one. I will look at all schools but thought I would ask here first.

Thanks!

 

[breenie]

Wisconsin is the dairy state. 🙂 And we have many equines in the greater Madison area!

ETA: we also have the cheapest OOS tuition 😉

 

[jpeterman13]

Iowa State has a very good LA/FA program. The new LA hospital is way awesome 😀. Also, the fact that it has tracking might also be attractive to you.

 

[HopefulAg]

Kansas. And Louisiana from my understanding.

 

[jtom]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes wisconsin was also on my mind for LA and also the cheap OOS tuition. Wisconsin does have a very low OOS acceptance rate however.

Iowa looks good as well, I believe they are one of two that allow you to track? Im not sure what school is the other one.

I prefer a high client load so i get enough experience. UF has a very nice LA hospital but as I said the faculty have been blunt with me concering their very low client pool.

Any others?

Thanks!

 

[breenie]

20/80 spots are given to OOS students, so that's 1/4 of the class. A lot of people apply because of the tuition, but they also tend to go a fair ways up the wait list, I believe.

So percentage wise it might seem like a low acceptance rate... but probably worth a shot.

 

[shortnsweet]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes wisconsin was also on my mind for LA and also the cheap OOS tuition. Wisconsin does have a very low OOS acceptance rate however.

Iowa looks good as well, I believe they are one of two that allow you to track? Im not sure what school is the other one.

I prefer a high client load so i get enough experience. UF has a very nice LA hospital but as I said the faculty have been blunt with me concering their very low client pool.

Any others?

Thanks!

Funny---you would think FL at least has a high equine load---especially in the winter months with showing and whatnot.

Also keep in mind that wherever you go, you can always do rotations/clinicals or summer work somewhere else and get the high case load you are looking for with regards to LA.

Not sure if you want to go abroad, though Glasgow has a pretty busy LA pool, but no tracking--you get to do it all 🙂

 

[HandD42]

MN also has a fairly largish large animal load although it is predominately equine and alpaca/llama. Their cattle case load seems a little low.

I agree IA, WI may be your best bet. Also CO is a good possibility although it is extremely competitive for OOS.

 

[cuitlamiztli]

Iowa State only tracks during 4th year; before that you get both LA and SA stuff, and can take electives according to your interest. We do, however, have a good caseload (I'm not sure on actual numbers). Lots of horses and cattle, small ruminants, pigs... and we're starting to see more camelids.

 

[futurecowvet]

Whew.. it's been a while since I have been on here.

Regarding UF Large Animal. I worked there and resigned recently to moved for vet school and the case load there is unpredictable (yes all vet med is but very much here). This winter was very slow there and we really didn't see the amount of colics/colic surgeries you would have expected, why? The economy. Most people aren't spending the money or don't have the funds or to be honest the animals are so far gone when we see them their prognosis is grave.

UF LA facilities are absolutely gorgeous and I am so fortunate to say that I worked there and got valuable experience at their facilities, but as sad as it is their patient load is rather low right now, and has been for quite some time. Our foal numbers were even low this year, if I was a betting woman I'd say probably one of the lowest.

Good luck with your endeavors!

 

[parietal]

Minnesota also tracks beginning in third year. The food animal caseload is probably smaller than Iowa's (we're in a more urban setting), but we have our own 150-cow dairy and swine teaching herds as well as partnerships with small ruminant, poultry and beef operators. We also seem to get quite a few camelids at the large animal hospital, if that interests you at all. Here's some more info on Minnesota's food-animal program.

I really don't think you could go wrong with Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin. All are excellent schools with lots of large animal opportunities. 🙂

Some of the other Midwest schools -- Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri come to mind -- would also be likely to have strong food animal programs, I would think. I just don't know much about them.

 

[jtom]

Thanks for the replies! I will definetly apply to wisconsin, I really am hoping I can get my hours up to competitive levels. I will also look at all the other recommended schools.

Thanks alot!

 

[breenie]

I might be a little biased, as I'm an ISer who goes to UW-Madison for undergrad... (I keep worrying whenever I type that, that someone is going to know who I am!)

But sometimes they seem a little random? You can't definitively say they prefer grades/GRE > experience or the other way around. I've known people with spectacular grades who got in with little experience, and people with not super grades (~3.2 GPA, not great sGPA) and really really great experience who got in a year early. That's all IS stuff, but I figure they probably evaluate the OOSers the same way. If you're weak in one area, I definitely think Wisconsin is receptive to making up for it in another. 🙂

Just my two cents and gossip.

 

[jtom]

I hope that is the case. Right now I have 140 hours of vet experience with 120 being a large animal technician. However, I had no experience at all before last month. I put in about 50-60 hours a week there so I am doing everything I can to get as many hours as possible. My goal right now is to pretty much work the entire time the clinic is open each week. Fortunately my hours are really counting as I am getting one on one time with the vet because were out in the field all day. Right now it is mostly horses but I asked him and he said that the second half of the summer they have to do alot of cattle work so I am looking forward to that. I also have a list of vets I am trying to call that specialize in dairy and hopefully I can do that once a week.

So we will see, I also have read that alot of schools will accept students who do not fit the common mold that they accept. It does not help matters by any means when I make my list of schools though!