Why vet medicine over human medicine?

[Hollycozza]

you can do sooooo much for disadvantaged communities, and human health, as a vet anyway. Helping animals (both pet and production) can definitely do a huge amount to help people.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[VelcroSky]

Animals don't fake being sick or injured.

Yeah, unfortunately they are often really good at faking not being sick or injured.

 

[Hollycozza]

Yeah, unfortunately they are often really good at faking not being sick or injured.

sooo true! And so unfortunate when it means they get to you horribly unwell!!!

 

[wivet2011]

sooo true! And so unfortunate when it means they get to you horribly unwell!!!

True, but more often than not the animals show up in a very sad state because the owners didn't think to take them to the vet when the problem started. I love those Sat. morning calls (an hour before close) from "Max's" panicked owners that want him seen immediatly because he's been vomiting and having diarrhea since Monday! Grrrrrrrrr.

 

[bubbles525]

I agree with so many of the statements already made. I just knew this was what I wanted when I was little and the more experience and knowledge I gained the more determined I became to go into this profession. Two things I didn't see mentioned, though I may have missed, are that I cannot get HIV or other nasty diseases from my patients. The zoonotics are typically not fatal, you know?

Secondly and a big deciding factor for me (and I may get flamed here) is our ability to use euthanasia. There comes a point in serious illness and in plain old age where pain and suffering can't be mediated anymore, a point where quality of life has diminished so much that I think it is selfish to push on for more time. I feel so blessed in vet med that the clients and I can put a stop to pain and suffering and the loss of quality of life in a painless humane manner. I will have the ability to just make the pain stop. Not only do I just plain not want to work on humans for so many of the reasons already stated but I could not function if my sick and dying patients had to wither away in pain and confusion toward and inevitable death I could do nothing to stop and nothing to hasten.

 

[Bill59]

1. I don't want insurance companies, HMOs and malpractice lawyers telling me what's best for my patients. I'll make that decision thank you.

2. I like the challenges of a broad scope of veterinary practice -- different species, procedures, and types of diseases. I think it would be very boring to be a "left index finger surgeon" for example.

3. Anything an animal can do, a human patient can do more of, stinkier, and grosser.

4. Our patients are usually braver, friendlier and more appreciative than most human patients. And anyone who say's our patients can't communicate doesn't understand animals.

5. We still have to deal with people, some of whom are demanding, thoughtless or just plain nuts, but they usually love animals and people who love animals are my kind of peoples.

 

[hoodle]

Secondly and a big deciding factor for me (and I may get flamed here) is our ability to use euthanasia. There comes a point in serious illness and in plain old age where pain and suffering can't be mediated anymore, a point where quality of life has diminished so much that I think it is selfish to push on for more time. I feel so blessed in vet med that the clients and I can put a stop to pain and suffering and the loss of quality of life in a painless humane manner. I will have the ability to just make the pain stop. Not only do I just plain not want to work on humans for so many of the reasons already stated but I could not function if my sick and dying patients had to wither away in pain and confusion toward and inevitable death I could do nothing to stop and nothing to hasten.

I totally agree. Funny, because when I was first contemplating human/animal medicine, the necessity of putting animals down scared me a bit. Now, after volunteering at an ER while my grandmother dies at hospice...

every time an animal comes in pain and can be gently put down, I weep a bit inside but I'm happy for them. The pain is gone. THE PAIN IS GONE. It's so important. Yes, there are the people who are too quick to jump to euthanasia, but that's a price I'm willing to pay for the ability to end suffering, painlessly.

The definition of euthanasia is HUMANE, and what we do to elderly, dying people is not HUMANE (even though you'd think humans are entitled to humane treatment, based on etymology alone. It's maddening.

So, like many others here, why vet medicine?

1) variety - health of many species is more exciting to learn, more complexity of inner microbial ecosystems, for example, more ability to do varied things, even as a specialist you do variety (say I'm a vet dermatologist - I can see large animals, small animals, exotics, public health outbreaks, etc)

2) importance - in my mind, public health is often synonymous with animal health. I care deeply about human medicine, in an infectious disease setting. That's all animal/zoonoses related.

3) ability to cease pain forever (euthanasia)

4) independence (less insurance problems, less red tape, more autonomy)

5) quality of people involved

6) just love animals...

I'm not sure how many of these reasons I'd tell to a vet committee (I don't think they'd be happy to hear that I wanted to practice vet medicine because I didn't like red tape, as that sounds like I'm a freak on the loose... similarly, saying "doctors tend to me nasty people" and "i've always loved puppies " seem like bad reasons to go into vet medicine!)

Basically, at this point, I just can't imagine anything else. And I was choosing vet/human med (I even have the MCAT books). For whatever reason, I know my calling. isn't that powerful enough?

 

[proceedings]

The zoonotics are typically not fatal, you know?

Off the top of my head - psittacosis is one to look out for, particularly with a recently demonstrated case of horse to human transmission. So its not just a disease for which the avian vets must be careful. For the most part, however, I think you're right. Its probably less likely for me to get sick from seeing animal patients as compared to human patient exposure.

Secondly and a big deciding factor for me (and I may get flamed here) is our ability to use euthanasia. There comes a point in serious illness and in plain old age where pain and suffering can't be mediated anymore, a point where quality of life has diminished so much that I think it is selfish to push on for more time. I feel so blessed in vet med that the clients and I can put a stop to pain and suffering and the loss of quality of life in a painless humane manner. I will have the ability to just make the pain stop. Not only do I just plain not want to work on humans for so many of the reasons already stated but I could not function if my sick and dying patients had to wither away in pain and confusion toward and inevitable death I could do nothing to stop and nothing to hasten.

Well said!

 

[Emio]

4. ...And anyone who say's our patients can't communicate doesn't understand animals.

thank you!!

5. We still have to deal with people, some of whom are demanding, thoughtless or just plain nuts, but they usually love animals and people who love animals are my kind of peoples.

aaaaaand Bingo! haha, i wanna be juuuust like you when i grow up, Bill!

really though, thanks for coming around these here parts.

 

[MelliSpirit]

LOL... easy choice for me too- the sight of human blood makes me very dizzy and sick!! But I can handle anything animal related! My brother teases me about it all the time- he is in nursing school and likes to describe his clinical cases in graphic detail to me over the phone... ewww!

I'm with you on that one! Although its not so much the blood that sickens me...more like the piercing/cutting of human skin (with a needle, or scalpel) that I just cannot handle. When I go to the doctor and need a vaccine or blood draw, I honestly cry for about 40 minutes until I calm down enough for them to proceed. It's terribly embarassing but I just cannot help it, it's a phobia.

When I first considered veterinary medicine as a career, I was worried that my fear of needles would get in the way. But when I started volunteering I realized that I was fine with it.

My mom (a family practice doctor) and my brother (who will be starting med school this fall) both tease me when I cringe while watching Grey's Anatomy. They think I'm crazy that I can't watch dramatized human procedures but I love to tell them about the cool surgeries I have seen performed on animals at work.

 

[pressmom]

1. Contagious diseases
2. Malpractice suits (the higher volume)
3. Malpractice insurance (the high cost of it)
4. Patient insurance (the need for more staff to take care of it--more cost to own a practice)
5. Gross anatomy (carving up a dead person--ewwww )

 

[philomycus]

I teach Human A&P I and II at the community college. Although I don't mind it to break up the other things I teach, I turned down a full time CC job to teach all A & P.

Just don't like it as much.

 

[PdxYOSHI]

Vet med. , in my opinion, has the potential to be far more outreaching than human med. Personally, I am really interested in the potential applications of vet med. in wildlife, conservation medicine and management. Vet med can reach many more species, domestic and wild included. Plus, these issues speak to me more than human medicine does. Humans have done alot to animal populations and the environment already and who's going to look out for their health. Also vet med. provides a means to develop human med. So you can still be interested in human medicine but find that your efforts may be spent caring for the animals that allow medical research to move forward.

 

[ShelterGirl]

Secondly and a big deciding factor for me (and I may get flamed here) is our ability to use euthanasia. There comes a point in serious illness and in plain old age where pain and suffering can't be mediated anymore, a point where quality of life has diminished so much that I think it is selfish to push on for more time. I feel so blessed in vet med that the clients and I can put a stop to pain and suffering and the loss of quality of life in a painless humane manner. I will have the ability to just make the pain stop.

4. Our patients are usually braver, friendlier and more appreciative than most human patients. And anyone who say's our patients can't communicate doesn't understand animals.

These are two of my major reasons, stated much more eloquently than I could. The third for me is the variety involved - of species, systems, cases, etc. Nothing I can see in human medicine, with perhaps the exception of emergency medicine, comes close.

 

[ratbandit]

A local vet put it best: "Animals are blameless because they don't know any better. Humans on the other hand, can be held responsible. How can you feel sympathetic for diabetic patient who smokes 2 packs a day, drinks heavily, eats McDonalds for virtually every meal and refuses to commit to walking 20 minutes per day?"

good point

 

[JIKJen124]

A local vet put it best: "Animals are blameless because they don't know any better. Humans on the other hand, can be held responsible. How can you feel sympathetic for diabetic patient who smokes 2 packs a day, drinks heavily, eats McDonalds for virtually every meal and refuses to commit to walking 20 minutes per day?"

I don't think I could have summarized better myself as to why I had no interest in human medicine. Additionally, I sort of have a privacy complex with people.

 

[InfiniVet]

Why vet med or human med?

Because owners flood the clinic weekly with homemade brownies/cookies/doughnuts, and I won't even get into the holiday season onslaught of goodies

Nah...its because I believe I would be good at it. Not everyone is cut out to be a veterinarian, and those that can't do it ought not to, and those that can, should. I feel ethically obligated to be a practicing veterinarian.

Not that anyone can neccesarily be a doctor either, but there are unique parameters to veterinary medicine that don't gel with human medicine:

Must like animals, must have a strong back, must be able to euthanize an animal - not a lot of euthanasia in human med!, must not be easily discouraged by the circumstance of a silent patient whose vitals are pitifully low and no medical history - not too common in pediatrics, flexible personality to work with clients to design a treatment plan taking into account a difficult factor "How valuable is your pet to you?" which we sure as **** couldn't ask as a pediatrician, and genuis enough to be a business owner, doctor, and manager if you own your own small clinic...which is just one of a hundred options to choose from to practice veterinary medicine. In med school you are a: Bone surgeon at a general hospital, a dermatologist in a downtown highrise building, etc...kinda limited.

So, because I know I can be a vet, I feel I owe it to the world to contribute the most that I can to veterinary medicine. And thats the reason I gave in my personal statement.

 

[Emio]

So, because I know I can be a vet, I feel I owe it to the world to contribute the most that I can to veterinary medicine. And thats the reason I gave in my personal statement.

so InfiniVet... i think we might be twins. my personal statement was VERY similar. and we're both metal fans . that's all we need for twin status, right? lol

and p.s. i thought it was no problem to get into vet school either

 

[pressmom]

So my last post in this thread was a little tongue-in-cheek, so I'll give the real reason because it's my day off and I feel like opening up.

My mom had polio when she was a child. She basically lived in hospitals, and this was before children had many of the comforts they do now. She was only allowed to see her family for a couple of hours twice a week. (Seems ridiculous now when parents can basically live in the hospital with all but the sickest of children.) There are other situations that turned my mother against human medicine, and this dislike was passed down to me. Then I was in a severe car accident. I have had 11 major surgeries since the accident. Many of my doctors have said I would make a good one, but still, despite many of my good experiences, I still had this negative perception of human medicine. Our patients carry many similarities to pediatric patients and I feel each time I can make them and their owners ("parents") comfortable, I am doing justice to my mother.

So that's my answer.

 

[InfiniVet]

I asked my 65 yr old boss why he chose vet med over human med...he said one of his reasons was (direct quote):

"You can sneeze into the open cavity of a dogs abdomen, squirt a lil gentomycin on it afterwards, sew him back up, and he'll be fine. With human surgery, you can't fart in the room without having to re-sterilize the whole god damn place."

I laughed pretty hard

 

[Capella]

I asked my 65 yr old boss why he chose vet med over human med...he said one of his reasons was (direct quote):

"You can sneeze into the open cavity of a dogs abdomen, squirt a lil gentomycin on it afterwards, sew him back up, and he'll be fine. With human surgery, you can't fart in the room without having to re-sterilize the whole god damn place."

Haha. I love how vet med is a bit more...practical...to put it nicely.

Anyway, my reason for vet med instead of human med magically jumped out at me when having a conversation with a pre-med student:

Pre med student: "I couldn't handle working with animals because when they're hurt and in pain and scared they can't understand that you're trying to help them."

Me: "I couldn't handle working with humans because when they're hurt and in pain and scared they can understand exactly what's going on. Too emotional and stressful for me."

 

[mtrl1]

For those of you who are listing contagious diseases as reasons, I have to disagree. Yes, as vets, we're less likely to be exposed to HIV (unless you're a research vet working on primates), but you're more likely to be exposed to Leptospirosis, Brucella, Chylamidia (Psitticosis), Bartonella henselae (cat scratch fever), bovine tuberculosis, Giardia and ringworm....that's just off the top of my head.

The veterinary staff are often more lax about wearing gloves for procedures that would expose them to these agents...

 

[polo vet]

i recently just got back form a school study abroad trip program in southern india. I have never even considered human medicine and animals have always been my passion. But How I delt with all poverty, and pain that surrounded me in India was buying dog biscuits which i proceeded to give to all the stray dogs we encountered. This did not make me popular with my friends bc I kept attracting stray dogs. But it was the one little thing I could do on a daily basis to perhaps make the world a little better.

 

[tarcan]

--

 

[VelcroSky]

why vet medicine ? : cause i got nothin better to do

Sheesh! I wonder what you're doing when you're not bored.

 

[The best]

hi every one

i am from egypt in the second year of vet med

i can say in this topic that veterinarians do much more

we veterinarians are key players in all areas of public health, as well as animal health and welfare

and we are different and do what human med cannot do

and our aim is all people but human med aim is ill people only alwayes

 

[hirdDVM]

1) The health care systems in this country are disgusting
2) I do not want to be part of such a horrid system where insurance companies decide what my patients need
3) I like spending time with clients (I went to an ortho doctor once who had 5 other patients in the same appt. time as me. He literally spent a solid 10 minutes in the room, would not let me get a word in edgewise, and then proceeded to tell me I may have MS (I was there for a pinched nerve in my neck from playing polo!!!))
4) When I worked at a small animal clinic, I actually gave records to people when they asked, rather than giving some whacked reason as to why I had to pick them up in two weeks, like most M.D.'s do

That's just a few...plus I would rather pick up after animals rather than people I am a professional manure shoveler, I'll have you know

-V