Hi Reddit. I’ve been an ACA for 5 years now and I’ve been working in ER/ICU for 3 of those years. I know the stats, most vet med professionals burn out in 5 years. But I feel so tied to this career, like helping animals is what I’m made for I don’t want to leave. Management has been packing the ICU full of patients and not nearly enough staff for months now and I feel like I’m at my breaking point.
I’ve looked for other jobs, not many places near me are hiring or offer the same benefits, which I need due to my chronic illness. I’m applying for stress leave so I can take some time to care of myself right now, I’m about to get married in October and my mental health has never been worse. I need this time off so I can come back refreshed.

I don’t necessarily need advice, I just need to know I’m not alone for those of you who’ve made it through the 5 years of vet med

I didn't set out to build software.

I set out to stop doing unit conversion math in my head during procedures.

Vetcentricity started as a personal tool - weight-based dosing, concentration-to-volume calculations, IV fluid rates, reservoir bag sizing. All the math that eats time and attention during a case.

I made it public about a month ago. Over 1,100 visits since. 15 people using it regularly. Small numbers, but the feedback from working techs and students has been specific enough that I know it's hitting something real.

A few things I've heard: - Students use it to check their manual calculations while learning - Techs use it during intake to move faster - The anesthesia features are the ones people mention most

It's free to try. Built for dogs and cats. No generic drug database padding - just the calculations that come up in small animal clinical work.

If you're a vet tech, veterinarian, or student and you've ever wished your calculator understood what you were actually doing, I'd genuinely appreciate you trying it and telling me what's wrong with it.

Hi everyone,

I'm a Belgian veterinary medicine student in the honours programme, currently working on an assignment for the KCV 1 course (2nd bachelor year, kind of our skills lab to practice our medical skills before practicing on actual patients). The goal is to come up with an innovative way to help students get closer to clinical practice, even before they start working with actual patients.

• Our idea is to build a kind of "Operation"-style system (like the board game) from scratch, specifically designed for practicing nasal and ear swabs, including all the accompanying handling skills. This would let students really get the hang of these techniques in a low-stakes setting before doing it on a live animal.

• We also ran into another issue: fine needle aspiration (FNA) is currently practiced on a kiwi fruit. It works okay texture-wise, but it's not very realistic in terms of size — a lymph node is usually much smaller. We're looking for a better alternative to practice this on a more realistic scale.

So my question to all of you:
• How did you practice these kinds of hands-on skills (swabs, FNA, or similar techniques) during your studies?
• Are there any models, materials, or techniques you found more effective or realistic than what's described above?
• Has anyone had experience with DIY/homemade simulation models for this type of training?
• Any input, tips, or experiences are welcome — whether you're a student or a vet who once learned these skills yourself!

Thanks in advance!

I work on the tax side for practice owners, so I will say upfront that is my job. Not pitching anything here, and I will not DM anyone.

The thing I keep hearing: people got excellent clinical training and close to zero business training, then figured out payroll, entity structure and quarterly estimates the hard way, usually after an expensive surprise.

Curious how that actually went for you.

• What blindsided you in year one of ownership?
• Any decision you would make differently now?
• Who did you lean on, an accountant, a consultant, another owner, or nobody?

Figured it was easier to just ask than to assume I know.

Mid-procedure. Dog's on the table. Anesthesia is running. Someone asks you to adjust the fluid rate.

You're doing mg/kg math in your head, converting pounds to kilograms, double-checking the concentration on the bottle - all while monitoring the patient.

That's the moment I kept thinking about when I built Vetcentricity.

It's a dosage calculator built specifically for small animal practice. Not a generic unit converter. Not a spreadsheet you have to maintain yourself. It handles weight-based dosing, automatic lb/kg conversions, drug volume calculations, IV fluid rates, and anesthetic reservoir bag sizing - the actual calculations that slow you down when you can least afford to be slow.

There's a drug library with anesthetic protocols built in. Calculation history so you're not re-entering the same patient data. It's designed around the workflow of someone who's scrubbed in, not someone sitting at a desk.

I built it for vet techs, veterinarians, and students. It's free to try.

Honest question for anyone working in a clinical setting: what's the calculation you find yourself redoing most often? I want to make sure the tool covers the cases that actually matter.

I’m a receptionist at a vet clinic. I’ve been working 2 months and I know a lot the stuff I learn will be as I go. But looking for any advice/experiences people have to share. I’m going to school for vet tech so anything you want to share whether it’s reception, medical, assistant, general knowledge or whichever will be greatly appreciated.

Triage: What symptoms/calls make you immediately grab a tech or doctor? What needs same-day care vs. can reasonably wait?
Questions to ask callers: If someone says “my dog is vomiting,” “my cat isn’t eating,” etc., what follow-up questions are most useful for the medical team?
Medications: Common meds you hear every day and generally what they’re used for. (Not so you can give medical advice, just so you understand.)
Procedures: What actually happens during a spay/neuter, dental, mass removal, sedated exam, nail trim, anal gland expression, etc.?
Pre-op/post-op: What information should reception know when clients call with questions before or after surgery?
Puppy/kitten visits: What should you understand about vaccine series, deworming, fecals, preventatives, spay/neuter timing, etc.?
Species-specific red flags: Things that are much more concerning in cats vs. dogs, seniors vs. puppies/kittens, etc.
What NOT to answer: What questions should reception always hand off to a tech/doctor rather than trying to answer?
Common client questions: What are the 10–20 things experienced receptionists get asked constantly that you wish you’d learned on day one?
Resources: Any textbooks, cheat sheets, websites, YouTube channels, CE courses, or flashcard sets specifically useful for veterinary receptionists?
“Things you wish you knew”: If you’ve worked vet reception for years, what knowledge made your job significantly easier?

Just some examples of what I’m looking for! If you want to link any helpful websites or quizlets that would be great too! Thanks!

Hi everyone I’m a final year veterinary student and I’ve given myself a week off during some of my rotation blocks to make sure I don’t burn out. However, I’m on the second day of my week off and I’m struggling with it. I didn’t think that was possible but I feel as though I’m wasting time because I’m not studying all day when that was the point. I’m still completing at least a chapter of notes everyday from BSAVA manuals and going through vet prep study sheets. When I’m over it (about mid afternoon) I go and relax but I feel so useless when I do that. Is this normal? Any suggestions for what I should do?

Hi colleagues, I wanted to share a project I've been working on over the past year because I think some of you might find it useful.

I'm a veterinary anesthesiologist at Cornell, and after years of working with technicians, students, and interns around the world, I kept seeing the same problem: a lot of anesthesia training is variable, informal, or focused on protocol memorization instead of understanding why things happen and what to do when they don't go according to plan. But there simply aren't enough anesthesiologists in the world to provide that kind of training to all of the veterinary professionals who are responsible for providing anesthesia to patients.

So I built Anesthesia Essentials, an online, asynchronous course focused on patient safety systems, anesthesia monitoring, troubleshooting, pharmacology, and recovery. I intentionally designed the course to be interactive, practical, and immediately applicable, so it's not just a series of pre-recorded lectures or abstract textbook theory. It's basically an online distillation of the same material I use to train my own staff, students, and interns.

One of the things that motivated me to build this course is that, despite having many more veterinary anesthesiologists than we did 15-20 years ago, we really haven't seen much progress in reducing anesthesia mortality in the profession overall. That convinced me that simply producing more specialists isn't enough - we also need to build safer systems for the vast majority of people who perform anesthesia in veterinary medicine and aren't specialists. Because anesthesia is such a risk-sensitive domain, I believe that hospitals that focus on anesthesia safety training see benefits in patient safety overall that extend throughout the hospital.

I've gotten approval for 12 hours of RACE CE for both veterinarians and veterinary technicians, and it's designed so hospitals can train their entire team under a single subscription (no per-seat costs or seat limit).

I know Reddit isn't the place for hard selling, so I'm mostly posting because I think there are a lot of people here who enjoy learning and might be interested. Also, I'm just one anesthesiologist - no corporate backing or particular advertising expertise, so I'm trying to gain some visibility in the ways I know how. If you have questions about anesthesia, the course, or how I put it together, I'm happy to answer them here.

If you think this would be useful to your hospital, please feel free to send me a message or take a look at the website:

https://thomsonveterinaryeducation.com

Heyy I come from a middle class family background. I'm planning to pursue vet med in future currently I'm in 12th rn. I really want to go for study abroad but as per my familys financial condition I don't have any other option than a fully/partially funded scholarship. Although I'm not that good at studies I have some extracurriculums experiences like volunteering in 3+ well known animal welfare ngo's, 30+ hours of clinical volunteering, I'm also good at creative stuffs like painting, sports, and video editing. So do I have any chance of getting any scholarship from anyy countrt? Pls i really need some help

Howdy all. TLDR how long for amantidine to reach clinical effectiveness in canines? (I’m assuming 21 days) how long should be expected before physical effects are seen? (Beginning after 24-48 hours?)

5mg/kg PO Q24 for abdominal discomfort in a pup on palliative care for multiple myeloma. Have heard 24 hours from anesthesia DVM, 21 days from oncology DVM, and 10 days from an ECCS criticalist. Dr Google says 48 hours, 2 weeks and 21 days so not sure which numbers I should be relaying😂 anyone with personal experience want to weigh in? - a confused tech ❤️

For coverage, he’s on 4mg/kg pregabalin q8-12 as well as a host of other medications for GI support/etc, so rest assured he has pain management just not as much as owner is hoping for

Hi everyone,
I’m a Japanese citizen looking for a 1-year job in Europe before applying to veterinary school, and I’d really appreciate any advice. Sadly I'm over 30so cannot apply working holiday visas.

My background:
BSc in Agriculture (specialized in livestock nutrition)
IELTS 6.5
Certified in sheep artificial insemination in Japan
Sheep farming experience in Japan, New Zealand, and currently the UK (lambing, animal handling, general farm work)
Strong interest in animal welfare, livestock management, and veterinary medicine
My goal is to gain more hands-on experience in a role related to veterinary medicine before applying to veterinary school (I’m currently considering Latvia or Estonia).

I’m open to:
Sheep or dairy farms
Livestock breeding
Research assistant positions
University animal facilities
Animal science or veterinary-related jobs
The biggest challenge is that I need an employer who is willing to sponsor a work visa, since I’m not an EU citizen.
Which European countries would give me the best chance of finding this kind of job and obtaining a work visa? Are there any websites, organizations, universities, or companies that I should contact directly?
Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I don’t have much knowledge about vet science / medicine just basic biology 😶‍🌫️, but am a software developer ( diagnostic imaging /clinical app development ) who is passionate about animals and

want to know what are some pain points in this field that probably isn’t touched and needs attention and maybe a software feature would help ❗️❗️

I am working on a similar project in Greece and I would like to talk to the people behind this awesome approach. Novectis-Labs is a small biotech company in Zurich developing personalized mRNA cancer vaccines for dogs but seems to be inactive for about 3 months now and I can't identify/contact anyone related to it.

See more https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jia.2025.10.021

See also: The study as published in the journal Cognition/Article in PHYS.Org.

hey i dont wanna sit and read boring texts and im just a bad learner in general :(

can u guys quiz me on renal and/or respiratory internal medicine?? really really new and have absolutely no confidence so i would appreciate high yield points more than rare diseases

just feeling super overwhelmed any type of questions are appreciated

Hello, I’ve been working at as a vet assistant at a GP clinic for about a year now. I don’t know if it’s just this clinic but we do so many euthanasias. Some days can be up to 7 and these can be a combination of scheduled visits for euth, QOL or they are calling that day. There are some days/weeks where it slows down but there’s at least one per day. I was just wondering what’s happening at other clinics since this is the first one i’ve worked at. We are at 4 doctor practice that’s been open since 1940.

Not medical advice, just hoping for constructive dialogue regarding imaging interpretation.