What type of veterinarian do you want to be?

[kitty613]

I thought I would start this thread to get some of us thinking about our future as vets! So... what type of vet do you hope to be? Do you want to specialize? What type of environment do you want to work in?

Here's just a list off the top of my head. I know some of these thoughts overlap with each other, and I am sure I am missing some as well! So, feel free to add more ideas!!

Types of Veterinarians
Wildlife
Researcher
Equine and Farm
Exotics
Small Animal Practioner
Emergency Care
Marine

Any specialities?
Pharmacology
Nutrition
Denistry
Surgery

Enviornments
Zoo?
University?
Private Practice?
Lab?

Thanks for sharing!!

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[DVMDream]

Types of Veterinarians
Wildlife
Researcher
Equine and Farm
Exotics
Small Animal Practioner
Emergency Care
Marine

Any specialities?
Pharmacology
Nutrition
Denistry
Surgery
Dermatology
Oncology
Internal Medicine

Enviornments
Zoo?
University?
Private Practice?
Lab?

 

[kitty613]

Types of Veterinarians
Wildlife
Exotics
Small Animal Practioner

Any specialities?
No

Enviornments
Zoo
University
Private Practice

I can't narrow it down anymore. I always thought I wanted to be a small animal practitioner, but now I'm not so sure. If anyone has additional information about any of the categories, I'm all ears! I can be easily swayed.

 

[Howister]

So far, in my experience with vet med, I want to get a specialty in emergency/critical care. This is the area I am most passionate about and enjoy the most. I just love love love emergencies!

However, I am also trying to dip my feet into research and am definitely considering becoming a research vet or going into lab animal medicine. So I am applying for a ton of research positions, but hopefully will get to work with either lab animal vets or neuroendocrinology.

I was considering focusing on marine mammals, but I decided really quickly after volunteering with sea lions, dolphins and seals that it wasn't a good fit for me.

One of the biggest reasons I want to become a doctor is to give back and I want to work with volunteer organizations and hopefully use my skills to give back to the community. I would especially love to volunteer my time to spay/neuter animals and give health care to needy animals. So no matter what path I go down, I will find some way to help.

 

[Coquette22]

I want to go in private practice emergency care. There's a need for it in my area (current emergency care is at least an hour in any one direction), and I don't plan on having husband/children that would prevent me from doing the weird hours that emergency care comes with. I also think I'm more suited to the varied cases that turn up in emergency care as opposed to more routine appointments.

I've also considered specializing in microbiology, but there's zero demand for that in this area and the nearest labs are 2 hours away, and with two parents who aren't in the best of health, I really don't want to move away from my home base if I don't have to. Plus the lab is in a god-awful jacked off little town that I previously went to school in and hated.

The above is subject to change though, as I haven't even gotten to vet school yet!

 

[idahoequestrian]

I would like to be an equine veterinary, and would definitely like to specialize and become board-certified. However, I don't know what the specialty is yet! The most common for equine practice are internal medicine or surgery, but we'll have to see. I'd like to work in private practice or at a university hospital. Let's hope it can start happening this application cycle...WSU interview here I come! EEEEE!

 

[psilovethomas]

Public health and herd health

 

[fromthebox]

Types of Veterinarians -I'm really not sure yet on types, but I did research as an undergrad and loved it, really like zoonoses.
Wildlife
Researcher
Equine and Farm
Exotics
Small Animal
Emergency Care


Any specialities?
Surgery - not sure yet about others, but I love surgery. LOOVE


Enviornments - any, really.
Zoo?
University?
Private Practice?
Lab?

 

[bbeventer]

Types of Veterinarian
Equine


Any specialities?
Sports medicine
Surgery -Either more internal or orthopedic focused


Enviornments
Preferably private practice, however, working at a university wouldn't be to shabby.
I have also considered in my dream world of doing the the FEI certification, to maybe one day (in dream world) work with the US equestrian team horses. I did mention it was my dream world right?

Really though I want to do equines. I do eventing and I am just fascinated by the equine athlete, and would love nothing more then to spend the rest of my days keeping them healthy.

 

[Dsmoody23]

I'm dead set on being incredibly poor for the rest of my life, so I'm planning on working in shelter medicine.

I guess that's a subset of small/companion animal, but I feel like it deserves its own category.

Anyone else interested in taking their loans to the grave?

 

[bbeventer]

Anyone else interested in taking their loans to the grave?

Not to the grave... possibly up to the week before I get taken off life support. That seems to be about my luck.

What has drawn you to shelter medicine?

 

[twelvetigers]

Pathology, represent! Maybe, hopefully, someday, anytime...

 

[Dsmoody23]

What has drawn you to shelter medicine?

I got my start in urban shelters.

And I've always been a huge sucker for low pay and lost causes.

I guess if you picked a place in the veterinary world where you could alleviate the most suffering and do the most good, that would probably be it.


What are some of the justifications for you guys and your previously listed choices?

 

[Howister]

n

 

[thedogisgreen]

I'm dead set on being incredibly poor for the rest of my life, so I'm planning on working in shelter medicine.

I guess that's a subset of small/companion animal, but I feel like it deserves its own category.

Anyone else interested in taking their loans to the grave?

Yep, that's my plan too
As long as I have enough money to eat and hopefully travel a little bit, I'm good. But a rich husband would be a nice addition

 

[cuitlamiztli]

What: Zoo and/or wildlife, aiming for board-certification.
Where: A zoo or an established rehabilitation center.
Why: I love my non-domestic critters. Give me a raptor over a cow any day!

We'll see how it pans out .

 

[Chinola]

So far, in my experience with vet med, I want to get a specialty in emergency/critical care. This is the area I am most passionate about and enjoy the most. I just love love love emergencies!

However, I am also trying to dip my feet into research and am definitely considering becoming a research vet or going into lab animal medicine. So I am applying for a ton of research positions, but hopefully will get to work with either lab animal vets or neuroendocrinology.

I was considering focusing on marine mammals, but I decided really quickly after volunteering with sea lions, dolphins and seals that it wasn't a good fit for me.

One of the biggest reasons I want to become a doctor is to give back and I want to work with volunteer organizations and hopefully use my skills to give back to the community. I would especially love to volunteer my time to spay/neuter animals and give health care to needy animals. So no matter what path I go down, I will find some way to help.

Have you ever thought about shelter medicine? Other than the research it combines the two other fields you mentioned: emergency care and the giving back that you want to do. I work at a large public shelter (36,000 animals impounded per year). Two of the three vets that work full time there were emergency vets previously. They have to care for all of the animals in the shelter so they have to handle the hit by cars, abuse cases, injuries and everything else that is found as a stray (and sometimes those that are owner surrenders). At our shelter it is hard for them sometimes because we are a high kill shelter. However, they do get to see a huge variety of cases and are always kept on their toes!

 

[karmapple]

Anyone else interested in taking their loans to the grave?

Nah, not to the grave. If you practice shelter medicine, you should be eligible for the ten year public service loan forgiveness plan. At least that's what I'm banking on to make shelter medicine a choice that isn't complete financial suicide.

 

[kitty613]

I find it interesting that very few of you chose small animal practicioner in private practice as a possible avenue. Usually most people automatically associate vets with this particular area of medicine. Anyone care to offer any thoughts as to why you are not interested in small animal medicine/(possibly)private pratice. I have some reservations myself, but I'll wait to hear what you guys have to say!

 

[SocialStigma]

Small animal + exotics surgery
or
Emergency surgery

 

[DVMDream]

Small animal private practice + exotics.

I really would like to specialize in either dermatology (I love me some skin issues), surgery, or internal medicine (go challenging cases!!)

We shall see where vet school takes me.

 

[deleted266066]

.

 

[EllieGirl89]

Types of Veterinarian
Equine


Any specialities?
Sports medicine
Surgery -Either more internal or orthopedic focused


Enviornments
Preferably private practice, however, working at a university wouldn't be to shabby.
I have also considered in my dream world of doing the the FEI certification, to maybe one day (in dream world) work with the US equestrian team horses. I did mention it was my dream world right?

Really though I want to do equines. I do eventing and I am just fascinated by the equine athlete, and would love nothing more then to spend the rest of my days keeping them healthy.

You stole my dream! Like, to the letter you stole my dream!

 

[kitty613]

Preventive medicine: Working in spay and neuter clinic? Public or private? Interest anyone?

 

[Niteangel]

Laboratory Animal Medicine and/or Veterinary Pathologist (If I can land a residency)

 

[GellaBella]

Lab animal vet/infectious disease research/pathologist for the win!

 

[GreennWhite]

Exotics - mostly surgery, but may have to start off with small animal until my boss expands so I can bring in exotics. I'm also very interested in emergency medicine so may do an 'on-call emergency' type thing for our clients.
Eventually I think I want to go into academia!

 

[Shadow23]

My plan is to work in small animal medicine for a few years then slowly transition over to aquatic animal medicine (as it would involve additional training either at an internship, residency, or masters in marine biology since pretty much no veterinarian gets into aquatics right out of vet school). Since opportunities are so limited, I will be open to any opportunity, whether in conservation medicine, research (perhaps on treating and preventing aquaculture diseases), rescue and rehabilitation, and/or working at an aquarium or zoological park. There are tons of ways to get involved with aquatic critters and I can't wait!

I do love small animal medicine and that is where the bulk of my experience lies, but a combination of factors leads me to believe I won't enjoy doing that forever. My aquatic animal experience comes from about a year and a half volunteering and interning at the Giant Ocean Tank of the New England Aquarium (diving with sharks and turtles = heaven).

But, I have absolutely no large animal experience, and I may love it when I experience it! You never know. I am definitely keeping my options open.

 

[Boilercowgrl]

I really want to be a large animal vet, specialty in reproductive medicine (equine) or a large animal surgeon. Hopefully working at a private practice.

 

[that redhead]

Equine was my first love, and it's still a contender. I'd be more interested in sports medicine/track medicine versus the farm call/lameness exam/pregnancy exam, though. I've also really taken a shine to lab animal, and would love to do pathology or public health. To be honest, though, all "fields" of vet med interest me in different ways, and I think I'd be happy doing just about anything

 

[Howister]

I find it interesting that very few of you chose small animal practicioner in private practice as a possible avenue. Usually most people automatically associate vets with this particular area of medicine. Anyone care to offer any thoughts as to why you are not interested in small animal medicine/(possibly)private pratice. I have some reservations myself, but I'll wait to hear what you guys have to say!

I am interested in focusing on small animal emergency medicine. The reasons I have reservations about owning a small private practice hospital are that the cost of keeping one up are very high. I think it is more practical to share an office with quite a few vets instead of having one or two vets with one xray machine, one ultrasound, etc. which is very common in my area. I do think that after working in a large and small practice that there are definite benefits to owning your own small practice. You form relationships with the clients and their pets and you get to track an animals health over it's whole life. You get sole responsibility and control over who is hired and what happens in terms of revenue and when appointments are scheduled.

 

[New Foundland]

I'm interested either in lab animals/research settings, or specializing in neurology

 

[chyactnate]

Types of Veterinarian
Equine


Any specialities?
Surgery-internal or orthopedic?
Sports Medicine
Opthomology
Havent really decided which one yet.

Enviornments
My dream would to be able to work at Rood and Riddle in Kentucky. Or at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Kentucky.
I also think working at a University would be great!

 

[pennyonthefloor]

I keep seeing the title of this thread and only can think of one response-- "A good one"

Don't know what I want to do. Leaning more toward large animal than small.... enjoy public health.... know I don't want to go into research.... government work isn't bad...

who knows?

 

[drwildlife]

Zoological Medicine and Research. I guess you could throw pathology in there too.

I've said this in many threads before but, I'm really interested in the reproduction side of zoological medicine - considering that's what I've been working on at my current zoo with African Elephants. It would be nice to get involved with the Smithsonian Institution with their research.

 

[clairbear]

I find it interesting that very few of you chose small animal practicioner in private practice as a possible avenue. Usually most people automatically associate vets with this particular area of medicine. Anyone care to offer any thoughts as to why you are not interested in small animal medicine/(possibly)private pratice. I have some reservations myself, but I'll wait to hear what you guys have to say!

That's where all but a few of my hours are, but its just not something that I can see myself being happy with forever. I think I would be happy with a mixed animal private practice though. Personally, I think the biggest reason for this is I don't like being inside, in one place, all day. I can take it for a day a week, but I don't think I could take it all day, everyday.

I also am interested in large animals, but I only have a couple of hours of vet experience with them (the vet I shadow only does maybe one or two large animal appointments a week because he's older, but he used to be more mixed.) I also know how busy the exclusively large animal vets that I've met are (getting up at 4:00 on a Sunday to go check cows and not coming home for a couple days at a time sometimes). I'm not sure if I would be satisfied doing that either, but I haven't tried it and I do think I like large animals better. However, I have almost no experience with horses. The bulk of my large animal experience is helping milk nice cows that have been handled often and with goats.

Specialty wise, I know that I like the orthopedic and surgery cases that we have.

I also want to practice in a somewhat rural area because I would like to be able to have a small farm and I love the relationships the vet that I shadow now has with his clients.

 

[hahatoofunny22]

Lab animal or maybe working for the EIS division of the CDC! No private practice for me IF I get in!

 

[Coquette22]

I find it interesting that very few of you chose small animal practicioner in private practice as a possible avenue. Usually most people automatically associate vets with this particular area of medicine. Anyone care to offer any thoughts as to why you are not interested in small animal medicine/(possibly)private pratice. I have some reservations myself, but I'll wait to hear what you guys have to say!

I think that vet students/pre-vets are different from the rest of the population because most of the population has only ever associated with a vet in small animal private practice. Your average suburban family doesn't think about herd health or zoonoses or may not even know that vets play a role in food safety. Once you start trying to be a vet, you get exposed to a lot more areas though, and some of them look better than standard small animal private practice.

I want SA/LA emergency care, because like I said, there's a demand for it in my area. Most emergency calls are handled on an "on-call" basis; the nearest dedicated emergency clinic is an hour away. There's a ton of people with horses and small hobby farms in the area who can't get emergency care within an hour. A huge percentage of the day-to-day cases that I saw in shadowing were spay/neuters, vaccines and check-ups. And while that's all well and good and puppies and kitties are cute, it wasn't something I could see myself doing day in and day out. I think emergency would give me more variety, while freeing up the vets with families to do the standard stuff.

 

[chii chan]

What I'm thinking so far after my first semester of vet school

Type of Veterinarians - Exotics & Small Animal

Specialty - Surgery or Cardiology (latter mostly for my dad who passed away 6 months ago from a heart attack)

 

[david594]

Nah, not to the grave. If you practice shelter medicine, you should be eligible for the ten year public service loan forgiveness plan. At least that's what I'm banking on to make shelter medicine a choice that isn't complete financial suicide.

Shelter vet's aren't exactly poorly paid though? Salaries are usually on par with associate pay for similar experience at private practices in the area(or at least that has been my understanding).

 

[Chinola]

Shelter vet's aren't exactly poorly paid though? Salaries are usually on par with associate pay for similar experience at private practices in the area(or at least that has been my understanding).

I was able to check how much shelter vets in my city make (county run = salaries are public information). In 2008 two of the vets were there for 9 years and for 7 years and they were making $108,000 and $95,000 respectively. Doesn't sound too bad to me!

 

[New Foundland]

shelter vets must have to do a scary number of euthanasias each day

Anyone choosing that would have to be pretty darn strong

 

[kitty613]

shelter vets must have to do a scary number of euthanasias each day

Anyone choosing that would have to be pretty darn strong

I couldn't do it. There is no way. I would have nightmares.

 

[Chinola]

In the state of FL the techs do the euthanasias. The vets only have to approve euthanasia on animals before their "due out" date. It's really being a tech that I find to be way more difficult in terms of dealing with death. Don't get me wrong, the vets have a tough job. We have 500+ animals every day in the shelter and they have to care for all of them + tons of other duties dealing with spay/neuters, emergencies and the public. But the techs are actually the ones that have to perform the euthanasias. I haven't taken the euthanasia course though so fortunately for now I get out of that duty.

 

[Armymutt25A]

My intent is to do military medicine (a mix of SA, LA, and public health) for 10 years, picking up a specialty of some sort during that time. I'll then retire and set up a mobile practice focusing on food animals. My wife will be a PharmD in a couple of years, so I'm not too worried about the money. Yup, married a sugar mama.

 

[jetikarabbit]

Mixed; food, equine, small
food, because my husband and I have a herd of 65 cows, and 15 rodeo bulls
equine because I enjoy rehabing tramatic injuries, and sports medicine
small animal to pay the bills


Specialty
Radiology because my current career as an xray tech

 

[LMMS]

International public health / zoonosis research with a double specialty in epidemiology/neurology (if I can manage to live that long).

A real dream would be to work with the WHO to stop the bushmeat trade... Would love to teach the people who partake about the dangers while helping the wildlife refuges who care for animals that are orphaned due to the hunting of the adults.

 

[Evie1923]

I want to work in public health as a Veterinary Medical Officer for USDA-APHIS. Hopefully as a VMO/Area Emergency Coordinator or a Zoontic Disease Surviellance Program Manager!

 

[twelvetigers]

Have any of you that mentioned somewhat specific goals been told that they were TOO focused and that hurt you somehow?

 

[LMMS]

Have any of you that mentioned somewhat specific goals been told that they were TOO focused and that hurt you somehow?

Nope - at least not yet. My current goal has formulated itself through years of different experiences so I'm hoping that helps me. Also, nowhere in my application did I get all crazy specific. Sure, I mentioned public health, exotics, etc... in my essays and PS. Also, I have a background in neurology and research. So I guess they would expect me to have a similar goal. However, if I get told otherwise, I'll be sure to let ya know.