Is Vet School Right For You? My Experience

Vet school!

Yeah!

I was one of those kids who always knew what they wanted to be.

Even when I was a little kid, it didn't bother me seeing

hands get sewn up or

really gross stuff being done.

And my dad was like, "Yea, you can be a doctor."

And now I'm a "doctor."

I had this little kitten and he died and I was heart broken when I was about 13 years old.

And a few months later the vet in town said,

"Hey, by the way, we got these kittens here. If you're ready."

I always remember

how

how loved I felt

by the vet in town.

That she knew that I was in pain

and that maybe it would be time for me to have another one

So then I was like, yea that's what I want to do.

Getting into vet school is very difficult

and one of the main reasons is that there are so few vet schools.

You still have all these people that want to go

just like that want to go to med school but there are a whole bunch of med schools

and not very many vet schools.

So, that's why the competition is so fierce to get in.

For somebody that's thinking about going to vet school

the number one thing I would do is

try to find a vet that you can at least shadow for a day.

What do we do all day? Is it playing with puppies all day like my instagram looks like?

No it's not.

We do a lot of paperwork. We do a lot of

lifting and dirty work too.

Once you've decided you want to go to vet school

you really have to have good grades to get into veterinary school.

Beyond that, having veterinary experience helps

but you don't have to have a particular major to go to veterinary school.

You could be a philosophy major. You could

be a biology major. You could be an english major and still go to veterinary school.

You just have to have a certain number of prerequisites.

And so looking at that when you get into college

a guidance counselor can help you figure out which things you need.

An interesting thing that has happened over the last even 20-30 years

is that veterinary medicine is now, much more a female profession than a male profession

and it's going even farther that way.

When I was in school my class was about 50-50 men and women

and now classes are 80-90 percent women.

And you go 20 years before I was in school and it was

maybe, you know, 90% men, so,

in a relatively short period of time

veterinary medicine has become very female heavy, which I think is awesome.

How long is vet school? Vet school is 4 years just like med school is.

You do four years of undergrad and 4 years of vet school.

Little bit different than med school is you don't have to do an internship or residency. Those are available

but you can go right into practice.

That's what I did. I went right in and was just like, put me in coach. I'm ready to play.

I got in early so I only did 7 years.

So I did three years of undergrad, was accepted early, and did my four years of vet school.

Because I'm super smart.

What other roles, what other jobs are around veterinary medicine that are not being a vet?

Obviously, veterinary technician or veterinary nurse is the number one thing people think of.

They do pulling blood, getting urine, clipping nails,

feeding animals, making sure that IVy lines are working properly,

putting in IVy lines. They do almost everything that we do under our direction

but don't do any diagnosing, don't do any surgery, and don't do any subscribing.

It's a very good job. It is difficult in that it is hard work.

You do have to have quite a bit of knowledge.

A registered technician will do usually two years of school after high school

and then, or even after college

can do two years of

work in veterinary nursing

and then become a registered technician.

Other things that you might do are receptionist or hospital managers are good jobs as well.

Yes, you get to deal with the animals a little bit but certainly

animals don't pay the bills, because they don't have any pockets,

so we really have to work with the people, so we need people with good people skills

that can help facilitate all that.

The entry level jobs would be an animal care taker.

somebody who walks the dogs and cleans up after them.

And those are usually trained on the job.

They don't pay as well, but they're certainly great jobs and can be very rewarding and very helpful for us.

So, I went to Iowa State University. I did my undergraduate there and my veterinary school there.

And then after veterinary school I graduated and moved to California for a few years and went on from there.

and if you have any questions about vet school or vet related things

please put them below and I'll answer them as best I can.