Well, this is totally off topic in regards to JB/GFF. However, I just can’t not respond to this post! Yes, it is true that the vast majority of vet students can’t handle a horse, cow or pig. But they will also never need to in their careers…they will be small animal vets (75% of graduates), researchers, work for drug companies, etc. Yes, that will make them seem “incompetent” to you working in the barns as they will not know how to put on a halter, run a cow into a squeeze chute, lip snare a pig, etc. These students did not have the luxury to grow up on farms…that does not make them incompetent vets lacking common sense…just makes them not knowledgable with handling large animals. Do you know how to restrain a parrot? Restrain a snake? Get blood from a turtle? Bet not. I would not call you someone without common sense…just no knowledge of how to handle an exotic animal.
Every classmate of mine that became an equine vet had grown up with horses…some English, some Western. Every classmate that became a livestock vet grew up with cows and pigs. Every classmate that grew up with birds and snakes went into exotic medicine. It is just what you are familiar with.
For the poster regarding a shortage of large animal vets…that is true. As more women enter this field we want decent working hours, decent working conditions, decent wage. It is dramatically changing the world of veterinary medicine. These women want to work AND raise their families. Back in the days of only male vets working 60+hr work weeks was the norm but they didn’t also try to raise their families…they were just the bread winners. That is changing…as it must.
In regards to the poster that feels that new vets can’t palpate and only rely on U/S…that is trueto an extent. Palpation, physical exam and diagnostic skills improve with experience. So yes, someone out 10 years is much more skilled than the recent grad. However, we are graduating and taking CE in the world of modern medicine and that includes imaging tool. Personally, I would much rather an U/S that counts follicles, measures follicles, recognizes CLs, uterine edema, uterine fluid, etc. when using frozen semen with no LFG that cost $1K. These tools have advanced our skills and success as veterinarians…and yes they do have a higher fee.
[QUOTE=daisycutter87;6792864]
As an Animal Science graduate who did not persue a vet career; I can honestly say it’s a SCARY sight to see “what” actually makes it into vet school. The majority of students who persue vet school (and I say the majority) are extremely book smart but have zero common sense when it comes to working with large animals ex: horses, cattle, sheep, etc. The majority of them have a dog or cat at home but have never touched a large animal.They can barely put a halter on a horse, they are extremely smart. They go to college and study the “science” of animals in a classroom and rarely actually learns the necessary animal skills to work with them.
I went to school and graduated with an associates and a bachelors in A.S. because I had worked with large animals since I was very young and I wanted to make a career out of it. I have a lot of common sense large animal knowledge that I gathered frommy years and years of working with these animals. I was never good in a classroom or studying and I hated working in lab conditions. I was the type of student who’d much rather be in the barn getting my hands dirty. With that being said; I had no interest in vet school because I never had a 4.0 GPA and I was never going to make it in if I applied. When we were working in the barns, hands-on, with any animals I always found myself assisting the non-experienced pre-vet students with any and all of the activities they had to do. They were simply-put: clueless. I wasn’t the only one to notice;it was an ongoing joke with my fellow classmates about the pre-vet students. Extremely book smart but no skills when it actually came to working with the animals they would one day be working on.
The above story doesn’t cover all vet students; there are a handful out there who have the entire package: brains and real-life working with animal skills.
The fact remains and it’s the honest truth: the majority of vet students or recent graduates are in-fact pretty “dumb”; you’d probably be scared for your horse’s life if you witnessed their “skills”[/QUOTE]
