Vet Tech or Veterinarian

[Doolitto]

First I want to begin by saying I'm fully aware that this is a personal decision requiring hands on experience and shadowing to determine. I'm reaching out to the community for Your opinions on whether someone who has no interest in surgery should trouble themselves with the debt, time, and tears that come with veterinary school. I definitively wish to pursue physical rehabilitation with canines. I know that I can do this with a degree in vet tech, veterinary, or physical therapy. One factor I'm unsure of is the salary difference between a veterinarian pursuing this vs the vet tech. Obviously the veterinarian is projected at a higher salary, but is this only in the case that they are performing surgery? Would I end up pursuing a DVM to not make the projected salary because you are practicing physical rehabilitation. Or on the other hand, get into physical rehabilitation as a vet tech and regret not having a DVM because of a severely slashed salary. Another obvious factor is the time spent before getting to dive into practice. I could begin canine rehabilitation much sooner after finishing vet tech. Ultimately I know if I regret not getting a DVM I can go back to school; but would feel the wasted credits and money. Salary is important but not all important to me. On a last note, I merely don't desire to do surgery as my day job. It's not that I cannot handle the rigor of Veterinary school, or that I think it's icky. Thanks ahead of time for the feedback.

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[Dinashadow]

First I want to begin by saying I'm fully aware that this is a personal decision requiring hands on experience and shadowing to determine. I'm reaching out to the community for Your opinions on whether someone who has no interest in surgery should trouble themselves with the debt, time, and tears that come with veterinary school. I definitively wish to pursue physical rehabilitation with canines. I know that I can do this with a degree in vet tech, veterinary, or physical therapy. One factor I'm unsure of is the salary difference between a veterinarian pursuing this vs the vet tech. Obviously the veterinarian is projected at a higher salary, but is this only in the case that they are performing surgery? Would I end up pursuing a DVM to not make the projected salary because you are practicing physical rehabilitation. Or on the other hand, get into physical rehabilitation as a vet tech and regret not having a DVM because of a severely slashed salary. Another obvious factor is the time spent before getting to dive into practice. I could begin canine rehabilitation much sooner after finishing vet tech. Ultimately I know if I regret not getting a DVM I can go back to school; but would feel the wasted credits and money. Salary is important but not all important to me. On a last note, I merely don't desire to do surgery as my day job. It's not that I cannot handle the rigor of Veterinary school, or that I think it's icky. Thanks ahead of time for the feedback.

You don't need to do surgery as a veterinarian and I know of quite a few veterinarians who don't.

A vet tech job and a veterinarian have very different responsibilities. As a technician you'll be doing most of the actual handling of the animal as well as the treatments. Not sure if this is how it always works in canine pt but at the place where my dog goes the veterinarian meets with you and examines your dog and the technicians do the actual physical therapy.

I worked as a 'technician' for three years before vet school. I use quotes because I didn't go to tech school, nor was I certified but I was doing the same work as the technicians that worked there. We all got paid very poorly (certified or not) and most of my coworkers have left to either pursue more schooling/change careers/or work at a larger hospital.

So yes you will probably make substantially more as a veterinarian but vet school is very expensive and most people who go graduate with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans.

My biggest piece of advice is make sure this is definitely the field you want to go in before you commit to vet school. Find a tech job or do long term shadowing so you can really see what this field is all about. And if you can be happy going in to human medicine I would honestly do that. You'll graduate with much less debt while still making a good salary.

 

[genny]

First I want to begin by saying I'm fully aware that this is a personal decision requiring hands on experience and shadowing to determine. I'm reaching out to the community for Your opinions on whether someone who has no interest in surgery should trouble themselves with the debt, time, and tears that come with veterinary school. I definitively wish to pursue physical rehabilitation with canines. I know that I can do this with a degree in vet tech, veterinary, or physical therapy. One factor I'm unsure of is the salary difference between a veterinarian pursuing this vs the vet tech. Obviously the veterinarian is projected at a higher salary, but is this only in the case that they are performing surgery? Would I end up pursuing a DVM to not make the projected salary because you are practicing physical rehabilitation. Or on the other hand, get into physical rehabilitation as a vet tech and regret not having a DVM because of a severely slashed salary. Another obvious factor is the time spent before getting to dive into practice. I could begin canine rehabilitation much sooner after finishing vet tech. Ultimately I know if I regret not getting a DVM I can go back to school; but would feel the wasted credits and money. Salary is important but not all important to me. On a last note, I merely don't desire to do surgery as my day job. It's not that I cannot handle the rigor of Veterinary school, or that I think it's icky. Thanks ahead of time for the feedback.

What is it that attracts you to physical therapy? Because I think that is a big factor in the answer to your question. If you like working directly with animals, getting onto the underwater treadmill with dogs, doing exercises, working on flexibility or massage, the you'd probably want to go the technician route. If you like evaluating a patient, designing a rehab program for their specific needs, discussing the program and the patient's progress with clients, then you probably want to go the DVM route. I don't know any veterinarians in my area that are exclusively rehab - but I'm guessing you could find that in a major metropolitan area. I know one vet who has a treadmill that she deeply regrets spending money on because it definitely hasn't paid for itself in the years she's had it because we get so few rehab cases here. The ones that we do get want to go to the major referral center and talk to the ortho docs.

 

[battie]

Obviously the veterinarian is projected at a higher salary, but is this only in the case that they are performing surgery?

This question is exactly why we recommend people get exposure to the field prior to fully committing to vet med. There are a ton of veterinarians who haven't done surgery since vet school or their internship year. And there are vets who do surgery that make less than those that don't. It's all about career goals and where/when/how people make those goals happen. No vet tech will make more than any veterinarian (in similar economic areas), regardless of whether or not that vet is doing surgery.

As has been stated, the best way to know is to find peeps and shadow. Find vet techs, vets, and physical therapists that are involved in rehab and make it their day job. See what they feel the pros and cons are, especially since this is a growing field.

A lot of the rehab at my school is done on dogs recovering from surgery or neuro deficits. It's done pretty exclusively by the techs that went through the rehab certification at Tennessee. They're guided by the orthopedic surgeon or neuro peeps as far as treatment plans are formulated though. This techs almost exclusively do the rehab. The surgeon and the neuro peeps do not exclusively do rehab. The neuro peeps are mostly neuro med with some surgery in there. The surgeon is self-explanatory.

 

[mmmdreamerz]

First I want to begin by saying I'm fully aware that this is a personal decision requiring hands on experience and shadowing to determine. I'm reaching out to the community for Your opinions on whether someone who has no interest in surgery should trouble themselves with the debt, time, and tears that come with veterinary school. I definitively wish to pursue physical rehabilitation with canines. I know that I can do this with a degree in vet tech, veterinary, or physical therapy. One factor I'm unsure of is the salary difference between a veterinarian pursuing this vs the vet tech. Obviously the veterinarian is projected at a higher salary, but is this only in the case that they are performing surgery? Would I end up pursuing a DVM to not make the projected salary because you are practicing physical rehabilitation. Or on the other hand, get into physical rehabilitation as a vet tech and regret not having a DVM because of a severely slashed salary. Another obvious factor is the time spent before getting to dive into practice. I could begin canine rehabilitation much sooner after finishing vet tech. Ultimately I know if I regret not getting a DVM I can go back to school; but would feel the wasted credits and money. Salary is important but not all important to me. On a last note, I merely don't desire to do surgery as my day job. It's not that I cannot handle the rigor of Veterinary school, or that I think it's icky. Thanks ahead of time for the feedback.

Do you have any experience in vet med? If not, with exposure you might even like surgery...that said there are plenty of people who hate surgery and never do it after vet school. There are also lots of people who go to vet school with a plan of what they want to do and end up changing their minds completely (myself included!)

 

[Minnerbelle]

I definitively wish to pursue physical rehabilitation with canines.

I think this is your biggest issue. The people I see fail most often are those who start out with a very narrow vision for their future when they barely understand the broader profession. You may feel strongly about this now, but trust me, things will change.

Just go and spend some time with both vets and techs who do rehab, and see what their daily routine is like, ask how they got to where they are now and evaluate if that’s a reasonable path for you, and ask about their schooling costs and their current earnings and see if that’s realistic for you. You can’t just look at one person and see that they’re doing well and decide that will work out for you. There are techs who accrue $100k in debt for their schooling (which is NOT sustainable), and there are vets who accrue $300+k in debt for their schooling. Then there are others who accrue nothing. When it comes to niche fields, many people chance into it rather than actively pursue an opportunity in it. And rehab isn’t necessarily a very lucrative field either.

In the meantime, spend time with techs and vets in other fields and see if you can see yourself doing what they do. The broader, the better. You won’t do well if you say you can only see yourself doing canine rehab or zoo medicine.

 

[that redhead]

At our local ortho referral place, they have one vet who does exclusively rehab stuff so it’s certainly possible, and they do have residencies and certificate programs.

Something to consider is that rehab med is a niche within a specialty already - you may have trouble finding a job as a a rehab-only vet unless you can find a specialty or academic center to take you on, which will be tough without experience.

The tech side of things is likely very fulfilling as well, but definitely will yield less pay and you would likely be asked to do more than JUST rehab stuff- you’d probably be working with a team in surgery, neurology or even GP where the patients are originating. Finding a rehab-only position is still possible but again, fewer positions to choose from.