What are you interested in doing in Vet Med?

[Kiki_1717]

I’m interested in learning about what others are wanting to do once they enter the Vet Med field! My interests are internal medicine, emergency medicine, and surgery. I’m not sure yet if I want to work with large, small, or mixed animals, but I’m sure I’ll find out later

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[JaynaAli]

I think this thread will be a fun discussion, but everyone just be aware that interests VERY often change throughout school. But it’ll be fun to come back to this thread in a few years and see if y’all just starting school have changed or are the same. Many of my classmates came in with certain interests and have ended up in drastically different fields. Of course there are also lots of people who stick with their original plans, but just keep an open mind and know there’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, even late in vet school or at any point after graduation!

I always thought I’d be a rural mixed animal vet in the area I’m from. As an undergrad, I took a job in the pathology lab because my mentor helped arrange it. At the time I didn’t even know pathology was a specialty and that people could be a vet clinical pathologist. Flash forward five years of part time path lab employment, and in the summer after my second year of vet school, I spent half of each week in the path lab at the school the half working as a tech at a rural mixed clinic back home and I realized which I preferred. Started down the path track then and didn’t look back. Went the pathology internship/residency route despite having that “dream” rural mixed job offer, and now I’ve been a boarded pathologist for almost five years. Since digital pathology has come around in the last 5 years, I’ve been able to move back “home” to my little rural area and work remotely and make excellent money, which is more than I ever could have dreamed of back as a child or as a pre-vet.

 

[battie]

During vet school, I had a couple of thoughts. My family owned pet stores at the time, so going back and joining the family business was one thought (closed our last stores, so that changed). Working for dog food companies. Animal welfare auditing (theres a lot more to animal welfare than activism and/or shelter med).

I then went into GP thinking I'd love it. I hated it.

Now I'm in ER and love it.

 

[spied5748]

I found a passion for agriculture through college, I’m from a city area but fell in love with production animal med especially dairy. I always said I’d be a dairy vet but there’s one problem, I hate the cold that the cows love. Realistically I’d do mixed animal but I’m really open to a non-clinical nontraditional position as I’m interested in welfare and research as well. In my interview at the school I’m attending they asked where I see myself in 5 years and I told them I’m really not sure, but that I enjoy really any aspect of vet med and even if it’s not my favorite, I can always see another perspective of the industry and might uncover something I really like.

Oh I also love anything repro in both small and large animal. I find myself understanding anything repro easily and I’m a pretty darn good at breeding cattle 😎

 

[battie]

I’m interested in welfare and research as well.

I highly encourage you to participate in the Animal Welfare Judging Contest hosted by the AVMA! The in person contest is every November and the virtual is every April. My favorite part of vet school! I still participate as a practicing doctor. If I ever leave clinical med, getting boarded in animal welfare (ACAW) would be my goal

 

[ali9280]

I am keeping an open mind to everything at the moment since I'm a first year however, I do see myself working in small animal medicine most likely. I had thought for a while I would specialize in radiology but I feel like I might miss the clinical aspect. Now, I'm thinking I may do an internship, go straight into GP, or work in ER (after a little bit). But honestly, all I can think about is hopefully making it through vet school right now

 

[renacuaja]

I fully accept that I don't really have a clue lol. I've done a lot of emergency as an assistant and if residency (or internship) isn't in the cards for me in the future, I would be happy as an ER vet. I'm itching to learn more about cardiology and internal medicine and I haven't even touched equine and large animal so I want to learn about that too.

 

[honeypot999]

Looking at doing exclusively food animal and equine medicine. I can’t see myself working in a GP clinic at all. If I do SA it would have to be ER. I’m leaning towards residency in internal medicine, or sports medicine, but we will see about that

 

[max_wildlife]

I started out and still remain wildlife focused. My specific vision has evolved a little, though; I'm interested in designing a non-profit community component that focuses on exotic patients, though I imagine that'll be a ways in the future. And while I'm grateful to have some really solid mentorship in wildlife, I'm also considering some relief medicine to help make ends-meet -- and maybe some writing.

There was one thing that changed though; I started vet school toying with the idea of specializing in pathology; I'd really enjoyed my time spent in the field as a technician. But then I spent a summer largely doing wildlife necropsies, and I learned that while I'm happy doing occasional necropsies, I don't want it to be my entire life.

 

[puppydogtor]

In my 2nd year of vet school and so far I have not changed what I want to do - shelter medicine! I don't think being a full time shelter vet will be feasible with loans, so I will probably start in GP for a few years and volunteer at spay/neuter clinics and such. There are many paths I can see myself taking, but I know as long as I'm involved with the shelter community in some way I'll be happy.

 

[lizardman]

I’m interested in shelter med, low cost care/community practice, and companion exotics! Also the overlap between those things, as niche as that is— accessible care for exotics is a major unmet need pretty much across the board from what I’ve seen. Curious how my time in school will shape my interests as I’ve purposely spent a good chunk of time in a lot of aspects of vet med, but it’s obviously different exploring things as a vet student vs support staff.

 

[MintyMoose]

I'm interested in large animal medicine or wildlife/zoo. Haven't started vet school yet so I'm going in with an open mind. Just know that I don't want to do SA for sure. Really just wanna work with all different kinds of ruminants (wild and domesticated) and camelids though, but we'll see where the future takes me 🤷‍♂️

 

[thenontraveler]

I am very interested in Lab Animal medicine and epidemiology/pathology. I haven't made it to vet school, but I have done a lot of my animal work in these areas and absolutely love it. That isn't to say I won't change my mind, but I do know I am not the biggest fan of General Practice after shadowing at one.

 

[maxride14]

Currently an undergrad prevet, but for now emergency med sounds most interesting to me. I've worked as an assistant in GP and shadowed a bit in ER, and I like the pace of ER but I also didn't have any responsibility as a shadow. I'd also like to learn more about pathology! I also want to dabble a bit with the business side of vetmed, and I like learning about everything behind the scenes of practice ownership. But I am very very curious to see how vet school changes my interests.

 

[eleanor713]

I love lab animal medicine, but the company I work for as a tech is on a working farm, so days where we don't have a project going on, I'm involved in the typical large animal medicine world and I really enjoy it. I could definitely see myself working in path, lab animal, or epidemiology. I am not a small animal GP girlie so if I ever went into small animal it would be ortho or neuro I think, but who knows.

 

[greasydeli]

I’m interested in shelter med, low cost care/community practice, and companion exotics! Also the overlap between those things, as niche as that is— accessible care for exotics is a major unmet need pretty much across the board from what I’ve seen. Curious how my time in school will shape my interests as I’ve purposely spent a good chunk of time in a lot of aspects of vet med, but it’s obviously different exploring things as a vet student vs support staff.

This x100! Accessible veterinary care and information for exotics is so important. Reptile pain management is also an interest of mine

 

[FrogAndToad]

I really want to get into shelter medicine, I love low resource "in the trenches" type medicine. However, I have a family to support so we will see how feasible that path is financially. I also love emergency medicine which pays well, but I've seen a lot of burnout and poor work life balance in that field. Surgery is something I LOVE, but to specialize requires a 1-2 internships and a long residency for basically no pay. Not sure if I can swing that long without money at this life stage.

 

[Rem99]

Equine medicine, particularly sports medicine, has always been my plan. I’m fully prepared for the challenges of this field but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also adore emergency medicine. I’m starting to worry that the draw of better pay and a less physically taxing career might start to sway me. In a perfect world, I wish there was a way I could do both justice.

 

[Halocat]

I’m interested in shelter med, low cost care/community practice, and companion exotics! Also the overlap between those things, as niche as that is— accessible care for exotics is a major unmet need pretty much across the board from what I’ve seen. Curious how my time in school will shape my interests as I’ve purposely spent a good chunk of time in a lot of aspects of vet med, but it’s obviously different exploring things as a vet student vs support staff.

100% agree exotic pet care is under met. I have exotics and its hard to find them a vet that can get get them in within a reasonabe time frame. I came in wanting to do exotics for that reason although vet school is really making my love of zoo, international and wildlife medicine come out so I would also like to do that in some capacity.

 

[SkiOtter]

I don't think being a full time shelter vet will be feasible with loans

In theory, you may be eligible for PSLF as a shelter vet so if you do go that route, definitely look into it and make sure you have your ducks in a row so it can hopefully work for you. I believe they recommend submitting the form yearly so that you make sure you’re still on track, but I don’t have personal experience with it.

 

[VeggieTrex]

Brains and behavior. In undergrad I studied Psychology concentrating in behavioral neuroscience (Illinois only recently developed a true neuroscience bachelors). I really love how you see evolution in the brain, more complex information processing added as another layer. The externalization of the inner world is also a fascination of mine.

I also just love the human-animal bond. The fact that I will get to help people through a traumatic experience with their best friend means the world. Whether that's a scary hospitalization or just not knowing what a reverse sneeze is the bond is there and important!

 

[MouseDoctor]

At risk of stating the obvious I'm a lab animal guy. 🐭 The opportunity to watch over research animals and make sure they're happy and healthy while driving research that saves lives is immensely appealing to me. Fell in love with the field working as a lab animal tech.

 

[Doctor Ham]

Equine medicine, particularly sports medicine, has always been my plan. I’m fully prepared for the challenges of this field but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also adore emergency medicine. I’m starting to worry that the draw of better pay and a less physically taxing career might start to sway me. In a perfect world, I wish there was a way I could do both justice.

There's no reason you can't. Equine medicine has the most fun emergencies, but you can also balance small animal ER if that's your jam. Don't let people tell you that this career can't be whatever you want it to be.