Veterinarian - good career?

[dangermom]

Thanks, Eddy and smokin, for the information. To Eddy in particular, you may have noticed from my tone that I am very pessimistic about my relative’s chances at this, and you’ve said pretty much what I’m thinking. She probably does have vague expectations of magic wands. But she’s DangerDad’s kin, not mine, and I don’t want to start a rant on someone else’s thread, much as I’d like to. However, I’ll be encouraging her to find work in a kennel or clinic as a volunteer, so that she can at least get a taste of it.

I’m really kind of in despair over her. I just find it so depressing to contemplate her future, and I wish I could get her to get her butt in gear. Her mother is no help at all. OK, I’m really going to keep my mouth shut, really. Thanks, all; any other suggestions are welcome!

[holdmytail]

@bluethree

What about being a zookeeper or a biologist/zoologist?

I used to yearn to be a veterinarian, too, and was talked out of by well-meaning people.

Many years later I discovered that there are such things as zookeeper schools (the L.A. Zoo is supposed to have a good one) where you can learn to do what you always wanted: work with animals.

You know how you see those nature shows where the family has cute, little tiger cubs living with them? Wouldn’t you love to take care of baby wild animals? Look into zoology/biology or zookeeping.

That’s what I wish I had done, and what I might do some day when I retire from my office job.

Good luck!

I don’t like the zoo for the most part and I want a career in which I can be a real proffesional and have a really thorough education (I’m considering neurologist and animator too).

My goal in my career life is to just be really useful and see the fruits of my labor (happy little critters in this case). I want to be in charge, in control, and very skilled and I’m willing to work hard to get there. I have a 4.0 GPA and also juggle violin, painting, volunteering, and boyfriend. So the fact that becoming a vet is hard doesn’t discourage me.

What I was worried about most is not being able to support my family or not being able to go on nice vacations or not having enough time to spend with my kids.

[CrazyCatLady]

Dangermom, what’s required varies from clinic to clinic. Some clinics don’t even want to talk to you unless you’re certified (sadly, merely being certifiable didn’t get me anywhere with these places ), and others are willing to train you from the ground up. In some clinics, the techs/assistants do everything, from walking dogs to answering the phone to blood draws and lab work. In other clinics, there’s a strict hierarchy of ancillary staff: kennel help, receptionists, assistants, and technicians. (Hoo boy, and do some certified techs get bent out of shape about the non-certified being referred to as technicians! They don’t care if that’s your official job title and you do the exact same work as they do, they’re techs and you’re but a lowly assistant. :rolleyes: )

The only standard requirements are a willingness to work hard and a healthy dose of gumption. No clinic staff, vets or techs, has any use for someone who’s lazy or who you have to constantly direct. We’ve got one of those right now, and if it were up to me, her ass would already be out the door. I have too much to do to stand over her saying, “Go do this, go do that, it’s time for you to check on the other, what the hell do you mean you’re going out to smoke? Get your thumb out of your ass and come hold this dog for me.”

Me, I found a place willing to train me from the ground up so I could get practical experience for applying to vet school. I learned a lot of good, basic stuff there, and then went on to a place where they were willing to give me more training and more responsibility. When we moved, I started working for the specialty/emergency clinic, where they taught me even more and gave me even more responsibility. Although my education and training isn’t quite equivalent to going to tech school, it’s close enough to keep the clinic running.

Other people choose to go to tech school. I highly recommend working for a bit before tech school, so you don’t spend two years in school, only to get out and discover you hate, hate, hate the job. It happens, you know. We had a tech extern last year who, it turns out, didn’t “do” poop, hating touching dogs and cats, was grossed out by blood, and couldn’t stand the smell of urine. What in the ever-loving hell she was doing in tech school, I’ll never know, but she clearly didn’t belong there.

Can you live on a vet tech’s pay? Sure. Can you live well on it? Define “well”. Hard numbers vary wildly by area and often by clinic. It’s better than working at Mickey D’s, but not as good as, say, factory work.

[holdmytail]

Do you have to be a tech before you become an actual vet?

[CrazyCatLady]

You have to have at bare minimum a few months of handling a variety of animals in a medical setting to get your application considered. The more experience you can get, the better.

[Calliope]

Many Vet schools also want you to have experience with a variety of species and settings. Cornell, for example, will turn down anyone who does not have large animal experience. If at all possible, get experience working in a veterinary setting, but also work with zoo animals, farm animals, horses, and exotics.

[holdmytail]

Most places won’t let you handle animals until youre 18 though!

[CrazyCatLady]

Yeah, but you can’t apply to vet school until you’ve completed the pre-reqs, and those take at least 3 years, generally.

[holdmytail]

@CrazyCatLady

Yeah, but you can’t apply to vet school until you’ve completed the pre-reqs, and those take at least 3 years, generally.

Oooh, ok. How long is vet school?

[CrazyCatLady]

Vet school is four years. Most people are at least 21 before they apply (starting college at 18 and going through 3-4 years of undergrad work), so new grads generally range from 25-26 on up. The first year I applied, there was a 57-year-old first-year at Auburn. Hell, after we get done paying off Dr.J’s loans, I might think about applying again, and I’ll be 33 by that point. Chill, you’ve got plenty of time.

[Hello_Again]

“handling” large animals could include working in a barn, cleaning stalls, turning horses out to pasture, etc. Believe me, MANY people under 18 hold this job (we’ve had a few through our barn take a job mucking out the barn specifically for their vet school application).

[richardb]

If you want some further resources to find out what it takes to be a veterinarian, here is a site with some basic info, as well as links to some kid-based books you can get at Amazon, and links to a few veterinary schools for older inquirers:

WHO WANTS TO BE A VETERINAR(ian)?

As far as a vet tech, others posts here are very correct. In the Los Angeles area, there is a school (Pierce College) that has a vet tech program, but many clinics are willing to hire people with no formal training. Depending on the situation where you live, it may be an advantage to be a certified tech, but in some areas it may actually make it more difficult to get a job because you would be expected to earn more.

There are some things that legally certified techs can do that non-certified techs cannot do (don’t ask me what, as I don’t know). A skilled technician (who knows how to draw blood, do some tests, take x-rays, monitor anesthesia, etc) is more valuable and will earn more than a non-skilled tech, who can only clean cages, bathe animals, and walk dogs. As several others have said, if you can get an entry level position with the right hospital (and entry level can also mean a volunteer) where they will take the time to train you, you can gradually learn more difficult things and gradually make yourself more useful, and thus increase your earning power.

And to repeat what many others have said as well, if her college grades and test scores are not good, she has little chance of being accepted to Vet school. If she is still in high school, and has bad grades, it may be possible to get into a half decent college somehow (perhaps by doing well at a two-year community college first to be able to get into a half-decent school she could graduate from) and doing well enough there to get accepted to Vet school. From your description, she has an uphill battle, but if this is something she truly wants, perhaps it will motivate her to turn her academic attitude around.

As the page I linked to above puts it in an FAQ about the vet career:

WHAT KIND OF GRADES ARE NECESSARY FOR ADMISSION INTO VETERINARY SCHOOL?

High school grades are not considered. How one does in high school gets one into college. How one does in college is what gets one into veterinary school and that means as close to straight A’s as possible. Veterinary school admission is quite competitive with approximately five applicants for each place. On must show knowledge of the profession by working with animals on an extracurricular basis and working in an animal hospital or with a veterinarian. This is not a career one applies for casually.

Good luck.

[KarlGrenze]

Being a vet tech is not necessary for vet school. I was always a volunteer, never paid. At the clinic I was in, like CrazyCatLady said, there was a strict hierarchy in paid jobs, starting with kennel help. Umm… having done my share of kennel help, knowing what it entailed, I decided to stay as a volunteer, which in that clinic gave you more exposure to the clinical parts of the job than the kennels.

That was my second volunteer job at a clinic. I obtained my first one because my family was concerned that I still wanted to be a vet at 16 ( ), and my brother arranged a meeting between a vet friend of his and I. It worked out well, he wrote one of my recommendations and has always supported me.

Another way to get experience in a variety of animals is doing research and/or taking classes in college where you have to work with other animal species. I got lots of experience that way (as well as stories to tell one day).

Dangermom, a volunteer opportunity for your niece may show her that veterinary medicine is not for her. Many classmates (in elementary and high school) wanted to be veterinarians, but they soon gave it up since they couldn’t stand the blood and guts part of it. Others changed careers once they saw their first surgery. Me? I was hooked.

I don’t know if a shelter work may help, though. I volunteer at one, the grossest thing I do is cleaning up cat puke and cat litter. It’s my soothing job, where most of what I do is play with cats. For guts and blood I went to other places.