If I become a veterinarian, can I specialize in whatever I want?

Question

Okay, so I know im going to become a vet when i'm older. But, I was wondering, I want to treat house pets, and I want to treat a lot more kinds of animals like farm animals, wild animals, exotic, and zoo. But am I allowed to do this? Will I have to take more classes? If I can't treat that many, I want to treat house (including horses), farm, and wild animals for sure. So please help me with this. Sorry I have so many questions but, also, if I want to have my own animal clinic, do you have any info or tips? Please give as much info as possible. Also, please rate this question as interesting and give it stars. Best answers get 10 points!

Answer 1

Specializing means you are an expert on treating animals of one group or species usually..specializing does not mean you treat EVERY type of animal which is what you listed.  Either you will be a small animal vet treating mostly cats, dogs, maybe rabbits, and other animals people keep as pets.  If you wanted to be a zoo vet, then you would not treat domesticated animals at all, or if you were a large animal vet, you would treat farm animals: pigs, cows, sheep, goats, etc.  Decide what group of animals you want to work with and then stick with that. Zoo vets work in the zoo, they do not own their own office.  Most vets starting out, are not able to open up their own practice right away, you will most likely work for another vet for a couple or several years before you would have enough money and experience to build your own clientele to open your own practice.

Answer 2

ND DVM had a good answer.

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Wow, it kinda sounds like you want to treat every kind of animal. ;-p

I'm pretty sure you can specialize in what ever you want. But it will require more schooling.

If you want to treat house, farm, and wild animals at your own clinic, it might be to many animals to treat by yourself. You'll defiantly want to have other Vets to help share the load.

You might also want to see about becoming a mobile Veterinarian.

http://www.housecallvets.org/

http://www.mobilevet.org/

http://www.efn.org/~hkrieger/vet.htm

http://www.mashpetcare.com/index.htm

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

What are some of the fields in veterinary medicine?

Answer 3

This is a hot topic in veterinary education right now, so there may be changes by the time you get to professional school.  Right now, all veterinary students learn about all species:  classically, you were expected to know about farm animals, dogs, cats, etc.  Most colleges in the US do permit some form of "tracking" so that you can focus or take ADDITIONAL classes in areas that are of special interest to you.  But presently you cannot limit your studies to a single area, nor completely exclude areas you don't like.  Some people are in favor of changing this, as the sheer volume of material in veterinary education is almost overwhelming.

But many times, you don't end up doing what you intended, and I think it's very good to have a broad knowledge base so that you will be prepared if your career takes a different turn along the way.  How sad would that be to devote all your efforts to horses, for example, then become terribly allergic to them (this has really happened in several cases), and be unable to practice in a different area because you didn't do the classes when you had the chance?

Actual specialization (board certification) usually does require additional training past the four-year veterinary training (and that's AFTER your 3-4+ year preveterinary curriculum.)  So a specialist usually has about 8-10 years of college invested.

See this link for more information about approved veterinary specialties:  http://www.avma.org/education/abvs/defau...

Hope that helps.  Best of luck to you.

Answer 4

You can specialize. You will need to either have enough money or get a partner with the same interests or buy an existing practice covering those slections to get you started. The advantage of a partner is that you can split the workload so you can have a life and not just a career (like taking a vacation etc).

I have a relative who is a vet for only exotic birds. Since that is unique in his geographic area it is working out well. Most of his specialized skills were OJT working with another doctor.

Answer 5

Yes you can specialized in whatever you want as long as it is related to animals.

I mean you can select whatever field of specialization you want, it is of course imposable to be an specialist of every thing.