Same here. I was a whiz at biology, including some pre-med, but my not-so-great math skills made chemistry and physics a challenge. That was not uncommon for woman who went to junior high and high school in the early 70’s. The attitude was women didn’t need math, so there was no extra help if you fell behind.
I had the academic skills. But what I didn’t and still don’t have, is the emotional fortitude for euthanasia. I helped my vet put a literal pile of wee kittens to sleep for the local pound. I quit the next day.
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That would be hard. Some vets get callous about euthanasia. You have lots of empathy.
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This only works if you are in a part of the world with a local ER.
Where I live, as long as I can remember there has been a local ER, at times there has been more than one. Right now we have no local ER. It closed during covid because of lack of staffing and has not reopened. Before it closed it was always at capacity so turned everyone away. From what I have been told by others (thankfully I have not been in that situation yet), the ER in the adjoining cities (couple of hour drive) are pretty much always at capacity too.
Which I realize, the lack of vets and staff, is the topic of this thread.
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That was a big part of my reasoning, too. I cried when we put a pet chicken to sleep.
But also, I had the prospect of being paid (not well) to go to grad school, and then after a (poor paying) postdoc stint, getting a good, stable job that does not require me to be available outside of hours. I was shocked when I started my job in industry and asked about how to get into the building on weekends. They told me that I shouldn’t be working on weekends. Or I could have gone to vet school, had a ton of debt, and ended up making the same amount of money with poor hours and frustrating clients. I think many folks are making the same decision as me because of that.
A fellow postdoc in the last lab I was in was a DVM-PhD. That’s one way around the debt, but that’s a long, hard road. Even with his degree in hand, he’s chosen to stick with research because of the pay and hours. To me, that is very telling.
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Oh salary is definitely a factor. When I was a kiddo I didn’t care so much about those kinds of practical matters lol.
Even without the crippling student debt of vet school, the salary is certainly a deterrent. A quick Google search tells me that the median salary for vets in the US in 2020 was $99k. The time needed for a veterinarian education plus the understood working conditions… seems like a bad deal to me.
Feeling like I should offer to buy lunch for the vet’s office or something.
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Another factor is the huge cost of going to an out of the country Caribbean school, like Ross in St. Kitts. It’s in a resort destination, so on top of tuition, books, and other fees, you have to finance transportation, cost of housing, and living is super high,
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I should clarify: that is not the total cost of the visit, but just the exam fee - for them just to smile at you.
Prices - depending on services - go up exponentially after that. I can well imagine the average ER visit can cost around $2k.
Why I would never ever ever work - even as a receptionist - for a vet office. I would wind up either punching people out or running away in tears.
Now - that story made me cry and I feel like vomiting.
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The vet and I both cried. I was 14 or 15.
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The good vets always cry, whether it’s a catastrophic situation or a mundane one. It’s part of being a good, maybe great vet.
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Well, I temper that with the fact that they couldn’t do what I used to do - work in an ER with people dying feet from me. Or work 911.
@shiloh, the roles you filled require remarkable presence and skills. Thank you for your strength.
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And yet I turn into a giant bowl of sobbing, snotting pudding when it’s my pets. lol
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Same vet recently cried with my mother over a lamb they couldn’t save. I think he’s a great vet and a great human.
This whole thread has made me really sit and think. First off, I am beyond grateful for the wonderful vets I have, and have had. Both large and small animal. I always make sure to say thank you, to be kind, and pay on time.
Then, who the hell are these idiots who are so rude unkind and obnoxious to their vets??? I’d like to give them a comeuppance in manners 101 while strangling them!
My husband and I are contemplating moving to a much more rural area. In thinking all this over, availability of vet care is a high priority on my list. There’s a lot I can do, but so much I cannot.
Anyway, I appreciate my vets.
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Vet clinics need to be more empowered to fire clients that are abusive or unpleasant.
Unfortunate the invasion of corporate veterinary conglomerates hasn’t helped. A former classmate has said that she cannot find another associate veterinarian to hire at her private practice–the large companies are paying stipends and promise money to students still in school willing to sign contracts. Hard to compete with that.
I love my local veterinarians and part of the many options for equine vets is why I stay here, but even with a local veterinary university, the small animal side of thing is getting dire.
I had a puppy that was fine and then started a severe limp. Did the usual restrict/rest/leash control and no improvement within two days. My primary practice couldn’t get her in for weeks. The university said a month. ER would have been the option, but they said 8+ hour usual wait time. I didn’t want it to be that way. It’s taking like “urgent care” level of appointments and not really having a place to have animals seen.
Similar with another dog’s usual ear infections. I can stain and identify the organisms courtesy of my grad school education, but still unfortunate if the next available appointments are 7-10 days out. Doesn’t seem right to take a dog to the ER for that, but there’s that unfortunate void and then additional stress on the ER veterinarians that really do need to be seeing those absolutely critical cases.
I think additional loan forgiveness and then somehow maybe additional training for the CVT/RVT to handle some of these minor issues? Just thinking out loud. It’s just going to keep getting worse.
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I think that loosening up the telemedicine aspect (I believe in many places it is quite restrictive) would also help tremendously with stuff like this.
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Based on stories I’ve heard from my friends who sold their clinic, young vets coming straight from school have a different outlook on work. Some of it was good; some not. Two stories stood out. One young vet refused to work on a specific week day because she had a weekly club meeting at 5:00 that day. That was strange. You need the entire day off for a 5:00 meeting?
Another young vet resented being advised by my vet friend who owned the practice. He is in his 70’s and incredibly smart and knowledgable. One day, he gave her some feedback on a procedure she did and she quit on the spot. She walked out the door without a word. He told me it was really hard to retain vets because some just couldn’t handle the work schedule. I think as younger vets come into practice, we’ll see some big changes in how practices operate.
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My horse vet counsels me over the phone regularly. She does expect that I have taken vitals and have the common meds on hand, know how to drench and give IM and subQ injections, etc. Few small animal vets would do that though.
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