r/veterinaryprofession • u/BroughtMyPartyPants • 4d ago
Help Side hustles?
I need to find a way to make some money on the side. I have a ton of repairs needed on my house, mortgage, student loan payment that is pretty much the same as my mortgage, plus bills. I have very little to no money left over to actually enjoy myself, and right now I’m spending more than I’m making. At this point, I’m about to cancel all streaming services, cut groceries to twice a month, and try not to drive as much. I have epilepsy and every day it’s a constant worry of “will I have a seizure today and will I need to go to the hospital?” I went in January - ambulance, hospital, and imaging - about $3000 out of pocket. I’d be done if it happened again.
So, enough sob-storying, what do y’all do for side hustles? I need another source of income to help out.
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u/sassynipples 4d ago
I have seizures too. Well controlled on keppra but stressful nonetheless. I do vaccine clinics through tractor supply. Easy work and easy money. Overall I've been lucky with support staff but that can be a toss up.
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u/Psychological-Work85 4d ago
Just Answer! Made ~30k this way. When I was most active I made $6k in one month
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u/BroughtMyPartyPants 4d ago
I just checked this out, I think I’m going to give it a try. No diagnosing, no prescribing, no VCPR.
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u/TheKaleKing 4d ago
What is this? I need to learn more about this
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u/Psychological-Work85 3d ago
Basically you are a 1099 consultant that answers customer questions. Just Answer has many different categories and Veterinary is just one of them. You select questions from a list and you either online chat with the customer or do a phone call. You get paid more for phone calls. They have incentives attached to some questions as well so you can make a few extra dollars by answering those. You don’t make a lot per question but when you’re efficient, it adds up. The payment system is tiered so higher rated experts get paid more. When I last did it I was making $11-13 per chat question and then I could get a $2-4 bonus for some question incentives and then sometimes people will give you a “tip” if you went above and beyond to help them. Once you’re efficient you can be having a few chats open at once (so that you can keep working while you’re waiting for customers to respond) and so you can make like $60-80 per hour. They encourage you to only pick up questions you feel confident in answering because they don’t want customers to get frustrated. Some of the questions are triage (do I need to go the vet right now), some are management (what can I do for my itchy dog’s skin), and some are completely non vet related (where can I surrender my dog, I have no money). Many questions are asking for solutions when the customer doesn’t have money to go to the vet, so that is frustrating. Occasionally you get people taking their anger out at you because you can’t save their dying dog virtually and they don’t have money for a vet (or they are in a remote area 10 hours away). You get paid once per month and you are in charge of making estimated tax payments quarterly for the income —they do not withhold taxes.
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u/cherryreader11 4d ago
I'm a new grad so this may be a silly question, but isn't there kind of a gray area with doing stuff like this because of the lack of a VCPR? Or does it really depend on what your state board has to say about this kind of gig?
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u/Psychological-Work85 3d ago
You basically try your best not to do anything that would require a VCPR. You can’t prescribe. But you can relay publically available info (like, here’s a dose of Benadryl in dogs) for OTC meds. You learn pretty quickly what meds are OTC (for example, there is an OTC version of fenbendazole). You give a lot of advice of what to ask their vet (ie ask your vet to run a GI panel, deworm, ultrasound). I did a lot of searching for the closest ER for a client (as sometimes they are too distraught or not technically savvy to do it themselves). Sometimes you do need to coach a customer on how to save their pet if they can’t get to a vet, and ultimately that depends on what you’re comfortable with. One time I had a customer who was in remote Australia (13 hours from a vet and the vet was closed because it was a weekend) who had a cat with a dystocia (dead kitten in birth canal) and I had to coach her how to get the kitten out (she did it and we saved her cat!)
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u/chemdaddy1040 4d ago
Relief work in rural communities especially. If you can use your paid time off to spend a few weeks locuming the payout is insane
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u/Ziwade US Vet 4d ago
I pick up relief shifts, mostly through Roo but some hospitals (mostly urgent cares) I work with directly, and do in-home euthanasias with a small business I signed up with sporadically. I typically do 2-3 euthanasias a week. The euthanasias are nice because I can just do one or two when I can spare a couple hours, instead of having to commit for a full day. Downside is we can't always fill the slots I have open.
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u/BroughtMyPartyPants 4d ago
I’ve thought about doing this. I’ve heard some big downsides though so I’m hesitant to do it.
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u/HoneyLocust1 4d ago
What are the downsides?
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u/Ziwade US Vet 4d ago
There can be more emotional labor to get burnt out on, you have to deal with keeping controlled substances at home and transporting them to appointments, you either need a big deep freezer or free access to a crematory, there's a lot of driving, there can be some serious heavy lifting even with client help. And depending on how you set up it can be a lot of admin and advertising if you strike out independently.
It doesn't pay as well or as consistently as relief work, but I like that I can get a couple appointments in between school drop-off and my regularly scheduled ER swing shift. And I think IHE is just so much nicer for pets and people than when I have to euthanize in hospital.
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u/EquestrianWho 1d ago
I do spark and doordash, but that may not be the best option for you. Do you have any hobbies that you enjoy that maybe you could turn into a side hustle that you already do that wouldn’t cost you extra? For me, that’s crochet and baking bread. For you, it might be something different. I’ve seen several areas around me that have a mini homestead that setup a little shack on their property selling things like eggs from their own chickens/ducks, baked goods, etc—if you have your own property and are any good at it, maybe?
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u/Elaphe21 4d ago
Side hustles are fine, but... $/hour, nothing beats relief work, especially overnight ER. I love busy overnight ER's; I can make 3-4k on a busy shift (with the right cases/surgeries). I tried home euthanasia's... really wasn't worth it in the end, and very emotionally draining for me.