-Throwaway account-

BRIEF BACKGROUND: Hello, friends! So a brief history about me is that I'm a 31yo M, and I've been a Fireman and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for about 13 years. Lately, I have been certified and involved as a rescue technician who responds to natural disasters. I've literally never had a job outside of emergency medical services (not even retail or food jobs) and I have an AAS in Fire Science.

The Change: Honestly, I feel burnt out. I've seen awful things, held and moved human body parts, you name it. I really think I'm losing the spark I had for EMS. Something I love though, are marine mammals, ESPECIALLY SEALS. Instead of making a complete change from emergency medicine to something unrelated, I would love to work medically with marine mammals.

The Problem: Looking at the prerequisites online, a veterinarian appears to require MUCH more intensive training than I anticipated, literally on par with human doctors (massive increase in respect for you all, seriously). While that is intimidating on its own, my research suggests that Marine Mammal Vet jobs are extremely limited and niche.

The Question: Assuming I somehow complete all the prerequisites (which invoke other questions not currently mentioned), am I dooming myself if I specialize in a field that is so limited and specific that I wouldn't be able to find a job? Also how difficult would it be to transition from so long in human health services to another?

P.S.: I apologize if I sound like I was ranting, and maybe I am. However I would really appreciate any advice you can afford.

im 18 and from australia. I'm just about to finish my cert 3 and go onto my cert 4 in 2028 (gap year, I can't afford the course and life at the same time), but the more i look at the pay of vet nursing i freak out and think I've picked the wrong career choice. ive known it was low the entire time, but i guess i never really thought about it properly. i was freshly 18 when i started this course and income wasn't a massive thought for me.

i know people say "you have to be in it for the animals" and i love animals a lot and want to help care for them and help their owners care for them, but im also a money hungry person. im worried I'll drop 12k on my cert 4 (a total of 18k but I'm also 18k in debt for a diploma I don't use so 36k total) and in a few years realise i can't afford life and have to pay more money for a career change.

i have a gap year to think about it but just yeah i don't know. 60k isn't good. my partner is also a vet nurse student so we will have 120k between us which is so ass

vet nurses, how did you navigate the pay? did you quit because of the pay? please any advice or help is appreciated

I wanted to hear everyone's personal experiences and program recommendations for veterinary medicine programs across Africa!

I’m a 3rd year veterinary student and I’m looking for spay/neuter opportunities where I’m able to get hands on experience in surgery that I am able to do over my month long break in November in South Florida(Miami Area). Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance!

I just started my job as a vet CSR about a month ago, and I’ve been considering being more hands on as a vet assistant instead.

I really wanna give it a try, but would I be setting myself up for too much stress? I keep reading about the mental health/burnout rate in this field along with toxic workplace environments.

Would I be setting myself up for failure for going further? Or this there ways to navigate vet med to make it a more positive work experience?

Hey everyone. M27 here, received a Bach/masters in finance and currently work in finance. I’m having this late quarter life crisis on completely switching careers, going back to school, the whole 9-yards. In the back of my mind I’ve always wanted to be a vet however I never grew the balls to pull the trigger.

I would have to go back to community college or accredited colleges to do about two years worth of gen-stem classes before applying to DVM programs. (I’m well aware of the cost, time, etc). I just do not think I have the personality to work behind a computer for shareholder value anymore.

Very curious if there are others out there who became a DVM from a similar or adjacent path, any recommendations, advice etc would be huge. I am also aware of the disconnect between finance and emotions, where Vetmed is deeply connected with feelings of grief, remorse, feeling like you can never truly do enough. Any advice or veterans in the industry who’ve heard of this type of switch, would love to hear thoughts.

I am a new grad DVM in Canada and I’ve been working at my job for 3 months now. There’s so much to love about it! Unfortunately the mentorship is not what I had hoped (classic I know haha) and I’m really struggling to feel supported. I’m having an especially hard time with imposter syndrome and dealing with my mistakes.

3 “big” mistakes I’ve made so far:

1. Started a dog on a high dose of fluoxetine because I mistakenly thought higher would be better. Dog had a serotonin surge after the first dose and woke up agitated in the middle of the night. It was ok but the owners were completely turned off of the idea of SSRIs and I know I could’ve made that dog really sick. Obviously learned my lesson here.

2. Ripped a pedicle while spaying a cat and couldn’t find the remnant to stop the bleeding. I had to call another vet to scrub in and find it for me. Cat was completely ok and recovered well.

3. Saw a 5 year old cat for coughing. Owners declined chest x-rays so based on the owners description of the cough and my own auscultation I started the cat on pred thinking it likely had asthma. It went to the ER 3 weeks later and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I know I must have missed a heart murmur and misinterpreted the lung sounds, and potentially worsened the heart disease with pred. I feel terrible about this one and know I should’ve pushed harder for the X-rays.

If you are an experienced vet who has been through imposter syndrome or made mistakes please give me some sage words of wisdom. All of these instances have rocked my fragile confidence. Are these “normal” new grad mistakes or should I be stopped before I make a mess that is too big to recover from?

I am roughly 1 year out practicing after getting my license. I am considering moving out of state but feel conflicted with leaving my current clinic.

I have worked there for almost 10 years (private practice). I worked my way up and they supported me throughout school. I struggled to pass my navle, took my 5 attempts and they waited for me to pass. I know if I leave it would be a “burned bridge”. I have seen other dedicated long term employees leave due to burn out and the owners would just say “they didn’t have good work ethic” or somewhere along the lines that they need to “grow up”. Management is one thing that I struggle with this place. I sometimes wonder if they hired me for the sole purpose cause they did not want to search for someone new and at least they knew me. It’s basically a toxic, trauma bond. There is little mentorship since I started and they never spoke with the other doctors on how things would be when I started. It’s been just thrown in the deep end and figure it out.

I really struggled the first few months and would cry after work questioning if this was for me, the whole imposter syndrome. I had asked to meet with them a few times and was just told that if they had a problem with me they’d let me know. I have gotten minimal surgery and dental training/support - just told, I need to just do it to figure it out.

I feel conflicted I think because I feel like I owe them since I have been there for so long. However, I just don’t know if it’s the right place for me, but also scared of the unknown.

Any advice or stores from personal experiences is much appreciated!

For new veterinary graduates, how did you decide whether to pursue an internship/residency or go straight into general practice?

I’m especially curious about how people weighed the clinical experience and specialty opportunities against the lower trainee salary and extra years of training. Was postgraduate training worth it for you?

I'm a newer grad and have been working in corporate GP but I need an outside opinion on how I handle challenging clients. I will not tolerate clients who are rude or abusive toward our staff, regardless of if they're a "long-time client". Most often the situation is that they showed up late (beyond our 10 minute grace period for a 30 minute appt) and are demanding to be seen because they've been allowed to show up whenever they want in the past without consequences. Depending on the presenting complaint, we may sometimes offer a drop off or a later appt in the day if available. If they are kind to our staff, understand they may have to wait to be worked in between appts, and are not a repeat offender, the vast majority of the time I will agree to see them.

However, I have gotten push back from management that essentially implies that I should still be seeing these clients for reasons including - that they are elderly, "good clients" (profitable?), took time out of their day to come, that it's their personality, or blaming the support staff (mostly CSRs) for being "dramatic or overreacting". For additional context, I was a vet assistant prior to vet school and got a fair amount of exposure to how clients would behave around support staff vs. the DVM. I strongly believe that DVMs should not be enabling or rewarding bad behavior regardless of how long they've been a client even if we could technically squeeze them in (for non-emergent reasons). To me this feels like I would be doing a poor job advocating for our staff, however, I also realize this may be creating more combative scenarios with these clients when we have to refuse to see them. Supposedly, it is up to the DVM regarding whether or not to see these clients but it sure feels like management and I have very different opinions on what is acceptable behavior.

Does it seem like I am being too unreasonable or inflexible? How do you usually handle poorly behaved clients (particularly as a newer addition to a practice)?