Aaaargh need some opinions!!

I have almost decided, after a lot of painstaking thought, to give up my lifelong dream of becoming a doctor and study vet science instead.

This has been a very difficult decision for me as medicine has been the only thing I've ever really wanted to do.

However, lately, I've realised that I'm just a lot more interested in animals!

The thing that really worries me is that from everything I've heard and been told, nearly 80% of vets don't make it through their first year out of university because it is so traumatic.

Do you think I should do it, and try to learn ways to cope with the inevitable pain, or forgo it completely? I am a more hysterical mess when I comes to sick or injured animals than anyone I know, and yet I feel that if I study vet science I could use that degree towards a career working with animals, without necessarily having to end up becoming a full time vet.

Ohhhhh decisions, decisions - what do you all think?

I did the same thing......

I my whole life was sure i was going to do something in the psychology field....

I spent a few years in college for it.....and read millions of books about it.....I wanted to do bereavement, child psychology, crininal psychology, parapsychology.....

then one day Johns mom said...."Hey why aren't you doing something with animals, you are so good with them"

after that comment, i had a long long inner discussion with myself...and now...

I am in my first semester of vet technology in college.......and i love it

So from a person who was in your position not too long ago..I say if you are interested..go for it....the animal medical world would be lucky to have such a great person as you in it.......

I would do whatever it is you really really want to do. I went to medical school even though I love animals too and have never regretted it. I have admittedly not heard about such a high dropout rate in vet school. That is certainly not the case here - it is competitive to attain acceptance so once you do, I guess no one would dare leave, I don't know, lol Why would vet school be any more traumatic than regular medicine? I don't understand that - I know there is stress is euthenizing animals but I am an oncologist and even if I were not, dealing with death and serious disease and terrible injuries is something people in all medical fields do - unless one chooses something like psychiatry or dermotology and that specialty has the highest suicide rate. I can't imagine that vet med would be any different than say someone doing pathology.

If I were you, I would talk to vets and doctors and get a feel for both professions. How far along are you in your studies? If you are pre med, most of those courses are also required for med school so that should not be a problem.

Good luck in your deliberations.

Wow Bridget that is such a lovely thing to say!! I'm all goose-pimply!

I'd like to start off doing Vet nursing or something like that - you know, not necessarily jumping straight in at the deep end. But I'm still trying to decide - it's pretty scary going back to full time study when you're used to having a steady income!! But I don't want to be a secretary for the rest of my life and I'm not getting any younger!

The lady I work with's youngest daughter is a vet. She had to give it away because she couldn't handle it emotionally - in a clinic, that is. But check this out, she now works at the zoo here in Perth, and is shortly going on a field trip to Peru to study exotic animals. How fantastic would that be???

Just a thing i need to say...that they told us the first day of class...

vets do not make as much as doctors....

and vet techs can start out at a sad 8$ an hour.......

i know you mentioned the income thing...so i wanted to bring this up.....this is something to think about with college loans and such......

but if you decide to do vet tech stuff...most community colleges offer these degrees and they are inexpensive......

just somethings to think about......

If you are not in univ now (sorry I do not know your situation at the moment), you could study for a BSc in Nursing and that way, you would have the typical prerequisotes (bio, org chem, anatomy and ohysiology, etc) for acceptance into medical and vet school and nurses earn a good income - here anyway. If you are in Australia, I do understand many still do the diploma route which we no longer do in Canada (You MUST have a degree) and it is true in most states as well.

I admittedly have no idea what vet techs earn tho I do have a cousin who is/was a nurse pratitioner (which means a Masters of Science in Nursing, an extra year post her BscN) and she loves animals so much that she works as a vet tech for my vet actually and loves her work. She liked nursing too but she has so many animals that she feels the discount sort if makes up for the loss of income, lol That said, if income is an important consideration, her husband has a great position but she does say if she divorced, she would have to return to regular nursing.

I think vets can earn a good income and it does not take as long for vet school. (Not sure of what it is there tho) Here, it still requires a science degree (in most cases, if you have really good grades, you can sometimes get in with the prerequistes and 2-3 yrs of study). Then it is a 3 year program compared to a 4 year medical degree. There is of course internship. Then if you specialize...

I'm not actually concerned about the final income for vets - its never been about money for me, neither has medicine. Just about the income and trying to survive while I'm actually studying!! That does worry me a bit...lol.

Cyberkitten - I'm currently working full time in a hospital as a practice manager for a Gastroenterologist. I've been here four years and had a pretty good inside view of what it's all like to be a specialist. I was actually going to be quitting full time work and beginning Medicine next year - and I would have specialised in radiology or anaesthesiology if I had've gone on with Medicine and finished my undergraduate degree. There is no way I would have been a general practitioner.

And I deal fine with the patients here who die and have horrible gastric cancers etc - I'm okay with people, just a wreck when it comes to animals. But I guess it's something you learn to cope with, like anything else.

Maybe you could spend some time volunteering in a vet hospital. That way you could see what it's like and get a better idea of whether or not you could handle it.

I agree with marie-p, try it out first and see if you can handle it. Hopefully there is a 24-hour clinic somewhere near you that would let you shadow and volunteer there in the evenings, while keeping your job for the mean-time.

Having been pre-vet in my undergraduate work, I met a lot of people who thought they wanted to be vets, only to do the work and discover they couldn't handle it. And while the "blood and gore" didn't bother me, I realized that I wouldn't be able to take it if I lost a patience due to my negligance. So my own career path has changed a bit, towards research and possibly veterinary research, but not clinical medicine.

Best of luck with your decisions, and know that just because you try one thing, doens't mean you can't try another! If you really feel that vet medicine is your calling, its not the end of the world to try it and go back to medicine if you decide its not right! Of course, by the same token, you can still go back to vet medicine years from now even after medicine.

Originally Posted by Sandtigress

I agree with marie-p, try it out first and see if you can handle it. Hopefully there is a 24-hour clinic somewhere near you that would let you shadow and volunteer there in the evenings, while keeping your job for the mean-time.

Best of luck with your decisions, and know that just because you try one thing, doens't mean you can't try another! If you really feel that vet medicine is your calling, its not the end of the world to try it and go back to medicine if you decide its not right! Of course, by the same token, you can still go back to vet medicine years from now even after medicine.

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I, too, agree with Marie-p and Sandtigress. This way, you get a real taste of what that career may hold for you. Then you will be able to sit down and really ask yourself for the truth; Could you handle this? Or should you stay on the path of human medicine, and put vet medicine on the back burner for now. Like Sandtigress said- you can always go back to vet medicine.

This is a career that you are already aware of how much emotional strength it demands. Do you feel so very strongly in your heart that it's your calling? Or do you figure that it makes sense because of how much you love animals? Your compassion may actually work against you in this profession. You would need to learn (for your own survival) how to let the bad things that happen at work go. I can't even imagine volunteering in a shelter because of the heartache, let alone veterinary medicine (although I always wanted to be a vet specializing in horses).

I think your best first step would be to look into a volunteer position at an animal hospital. Give that a go, then start asking yourself questions.

Good luck!