Vet Career?

Question

I have recently been thinking about becoming a vet. Most of the time I thought it would be way too sad, putting down animals, seeing neglect hurt, pain and surgery. I have incredible grades and with them could get into vet school. What is being a vet like? Does a regularl vet do surgery? How much do you make? Is it a bad job for a full fledged animal lover? Do you get satisfaction out of helping the animals? Please, I need ALL the info I can possibly get.

Thanks so much and God bless♥

Answer 1

Well you will see animals in pain a lot and though most of the time you can help the animal you must remember that it all depends on what the client wants and can afford. You might have to put down perfectly healthy and/or saveable animals just because the client wants you to. You will do lots of surgery daily. This is truly a labor of love the average salary is 60k but the average debt of most exiting students is 106k. I am OVER 200k. You do gets lots of satisfaction in helping the animals however it is peppered with frustrations. You also should know that you will be required to work on all animals in vet school. So if you dont want to work with animals that are in a production setting (aka will be dinner later) this is not the job for you. You will dissect preserved cadavers and probably do terminal surgeries (depending on the school). No matter how good you are as a vet ANIMALS WILL DIE. It will at sometime be your fault but that comes with the job. These are just some facts that you will have to be able to internalize and deal with. Not sure where you are in your schooling but good grades are NOT everything. I have seen MANY 4.0s turned down FLAT out. You need experience in small, large, research and exotic areas (all must be under veterinary supervision in order to count, ie you cant own something and it count or you cant go to a farm and have that count). I would recommend going and volunteering at a local veterinary hospital and seeing what they do on a daily basis. You should spend at least a week there, since no day is an average day. I would also try to view at least one euthanasia to make sure you can handle that. You dont want to get 20k - 40k in debt and decide that its not your thing. Like I said not sure where you are in your schooling but vet school is 4 years undergrad and 4 years vet school. Good luck in your decision.