So, you read about all my whining and complaining in the last blog. Being a vet is TOUGH. Understanding that you can treat an animal without having the exact diagnosis and without choosing the same treatment as any other vet (there will never be full consensus on treatments for any disease, ever) takes a long time of feeling like a failure, staying up nights worrying that you didn’t treat something right, wondering if you should have gone with the high dose, short therapy or the lower dose long therapy. Are you causing antibiotic resistance? If you don’t send an antibiotic home, will the owners hate you? Will you get a bad review because, even though you spent hours researching and worrying, the animal didn’t get better, or another vet threw you under the bus? So, why even try? Why enter this field?
Because it’s FREAKING AMAZING!! That’s why!
Reasons it’s FA (freaking amazing): The animals, obviously. Granted, you LOVE animals, but must accept that they hate you. You must just understand that you’re doing it for your love for them, and not to win their love (though I handily try with multiple treats and a slow approach). It’s much like being a mom or a religious leader. You care for and are responsible for others, but they might not like what you have to say or do. Occasionally you get the adorable puppy/kitten, but sometimes you have to deal with the jack-wad pet. If you are companion animal, most of your patients will be middle to older aged animals with skin, ear, endocrine issues. If you are large animal, most will be reproductive, preventative health, and emergency. Most of the animals are happy with you anyway, especially if you keep pushing the treats.
The SCIENCE – if you love science and seeing things work like you read about, you will love vet med. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, it feels MAGICAL – and it works out most of the time. You get a rush of dopamine (this is not proven, just theorized) when you hear back from a patient you’d been working on and hear that they’re SO much better! Even when it’s just an older dog with probable arthritis and the owner didn’t think it was pain but was willing to do a trial of pain meds. They call back and go on and on about how much like a puppy their old Bella has become. It makes my insides smile.
You can FIX things! Sometimes this feeling is amazing! Female intact dog walks in, sick as, well, a dog, you find it’s a pyometra (uterus is huge and full of pus). The dog looks like death, but with a 30 minute surgery (spay), the dog is back to almost 100% overnight! Laceration repair can be tedious, but is like creating a work of art. Indoor/outdoor cat comes in with a swelling and a fever – cat bite abscess – super rewarding to drain the abscess and the cat is back to normal by the next day. There’s nothing like the feeling “hey, your animal has this problem, but don’t worry, I’ll fix it!” The feeling only gets super frustrating when the owner chooses not to treat for one reason or another (finances, chronic issues that require multiple rechecks, long-term medication). Then, this leaves you totally frustrated – “but I can fix it…”
Learning all the time. You may think this sounds tedious and awful, but it’s not. Again, learning something new that you can immediately apply to a case, whether it’s researching for a current case and finding an actual answer or going to continuing education conferences and learning a new fabulous (and low cost) new treatment regimen, actually gives you a rush. As a vet you are (or should be) CONSTANTLY learning, researching, RE-learning and it’s actually fun. There are always new things to learn and ways to check your pride and try a different methods and while you’ll find yourself frustrated in the moment, and may take awhile to institute the change, you’ll be elated when it all falls into place. Because – science.
The clients! (okay, there are some sour lemons, but with the current demand for vets and long waiting list to get an appointment, we have the luxury to “rehome” clients who are naughty) Are you a people pleaser? Do you get a physical giddy sensation when you make someone happy? Vet med *can be* for YOU! For the most part, clients are extremely polite, understanding, and grateful for what you do. I think it helped my client communication skills to be a large animal vet for awhile. When you’re stuck standing over a newly gelded colt, waiting for him to get up, you learn how to chat with people and not feel awkward. Depending on the client’s attitude toward me (the more positive, they more they get), I will go to all sorts of lengths to make sure they and their animal are getting free samples, internet sources, brochures, under the table treatments (slip in a free nail trim), etc. If a client is cold and dismissive, they will get what they ask for and that is it.
Then there’s the not so obvious perks to being a vet; Comradery – Everyone in the vet world is stressed and many take it out with a twisted sense of humor. When you find the right clinic, it’s like getting together with your friends every day – joking, griping together, getting excited over gross things, inappropriate humor. Everyone working in your field (or at least the vast majority) love animals and share the common goal to help people and their animals. I’m sure there are others, but how many other work places do you have where everyone in the company has the same interest? Want to talk about your cat’s cute way she chirps to you? So does your co-worker!
Something for everyone. You like working with your hands? Large animal is perfect for you, prefer indoors with more meticulous skill? Surgery is for you! Like both? Do both!! Don’t like working with your hands? Medicine. Pathology. Teaching. Like people? General or referral practice. Don’t like people? Pathology, lab animal medicine. Want to practice medicine everyday, great! Don’t? Government work! Like people, but only your kind, and not general public? Become a drug representative, traveling to clinics telling them about all the new products coming out! Want to work all day everyday, and be on call – don’t worry, there’s plenty for you! Only want to work 3 days a week? Pick up relief shifts! Night owl? Work emergency overnight shifts. ***These examples are all highly generalized, and I’m 100% sure vets working in all of these fields will have something to say, but my point is there’s a job out there for anyone with a Veterinary degree, don’t just envision working at a clinic***
