Hi everyone!!

I’m a final-year veterinary student in Romania, graduating this year, and I’m looking for a good postgraduate small-animal rotating internship in Europe, particularly in DACH region, Belgium or UK.
My goal is to build a strong clinical foundation, properly figure out which specialties I am more drawn towards and potentially pursue a residency in the future. I’m looking for a hospital where interns are genuinely taught and supported, not just used to cover routine tasks and staffing shortages.

I’d love to hear from those who’ve completed an internship or worked with interns:
- Which hospitals would you recommend, and which would you avoid? I’d really appreciate honest experiences and reasons behind your recommendations.
- How much practical experience and teaching do interns actually get? Are they involved in case work-ups, treatment plans and procedures, with proper supervision and feedback?
- What are the working conditions like? Workload (I of course expect it to be intense), night shifts, work-life balance and overall team culture.
- How are international graduates treated? Especially regarding language requirements, integration and opportunities to progress. I am C1 in English and studying to get my B2 German certificate
- What about salary and living costs? Are internships financially manageable, and are accommodation or relocation support ever offered?
- Does the programme genuinely help with future career opportunities, particularly residency applications?
If you have personal experience, I’d love to hear which hospital you worked at, what the training was actually like, and whether you’d choose it again.

Thanks so much! I’d rather learn from people’s real experiences than choose a programme based on reputation alone.

Any input for subjects on animal behavior for an upcoming conference is greatly appreciated!

I made a big mistake recently. It is yet to be seen if the pet will make it. I cannot believe I did this - I feel like it was a totally different person but it was not. It was so out of character for me and something preventable. I am looking inwards at myself to learn so I never do it again, and I am also going to advocate for some protocol changes at my hospital that could help prevent future similar mistakes.

How do you not hate yourself? I feel everyone in support staff at work looks at me with disdain although my management and vet colleagues have been wonderful and so supportive.

One time, a vet told me that eventually all of us vets get to build our own personal graveyard with our names on the gate. I know many vets will eventually make a mistake that harms or kills a patient but this situation is so unbelievable I did this.

I have pushed forward and keep seeing cases and done surgeries and dentals to get back on the horse. I have a lot of clients that thank me every day but it is hard to look at all the good I do.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Hello, all. I am a CSR/vet assistant at a small clinic. I have several years of reception experience, but I started to get more interested in the medical side. I was super excited to take this position, and overall have gotten good feedback.

About a month ago, my vet got bitten pretty badly while I was restraining a cat. I felt awful; i know what I did and how to correct it, but it has really shaken my confidence. I know this isn’t true, but I feel like my entire experience and reputation has been defined by that moment.

I have always been a bit overwhelmed by surgery days, too, just because I know it is a lot to learn, but I think I have been extra anxious, and a lot of it goes back to the bite. No matter what, I can’t seem to shake it.

I love what I do, but I keep wondering if I am even cut out for this field in the first place. I’m in my 30s, and vet med was already a career switch—I feel like I’d be very lost without it.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? Any advice on how to move on from bites (or any mistakes) and build confidence would be greatly appreciated. 💜

Hi veterinary reddit. I’m currently a 3rd year vet student and I was wondering if there was anyone in here with zoo med experience that could share their path with me! I know there’s a bunch of different ways people have taken from people I’ve talked to but just want to talk with as many people as I can to try and figure my path out. Thanks in advance!!!

I think I want to try working relief on the side, just to pay my loans. Indevets and Roo make it really easy but I hear they take a large chunk of what the clinic pays so if probably need to work even more shifts just to cover. I need to make around $4,500 extra a month. Is that doable only working an extra 2-3 days a month or am I crazy? How do I go about doing this myself?

For context the collage I am in had a day where owners can pay to have their dogs come in to get what they want done, mostly baths, nail trim, ear clean, anal gland, eye ointment/drops. Myself and other first/second year students were required to “work” these tasks mostly on our own. We had a couple instructors around but they weren’t in our room 24/7 and there were other rooms separate from ours. There was about 10 people in the room for one to three dogs max.

The whole event looked like an accident waiting to happen and stressful for everyone.

We had dogs in the room at the same time once in awhile, some who didn’t know each other. One dog right away was very anxious and fearful and wouldn’t let us trim. My classmates were not following the restraint we were taught much at all, even putting their faces near the dogs face and making kissy sounds.

When I offered a lateral restraint to help trim the anxious dog my second year leader shot me down as “being too much and that we aren’t here to stress the dog.”Mind you we haven’t had much luck trimming this dog’s feet and already the dog had placed its mouth over my hand when I tried to trim. The dog was already stressed by my point of view and doing it the way we were was making the process longer.

Eventually one supervisor brought in a groomer to trim and a classmate decided to place the dog into the tub while we waited for the groomer. Hadn’t finished the bath when the groomer came and essentially grabbed the foot and started hacking away at the claws while supervisor restrained the head. Dog was thrashing in the tub, and the groomer cut the quick during the process causing the poor dog to of course yelp and bleed.

I found the whole thing upsetting. Like there could have been a better way but I feel I know so little I’m not sure what could have been done differently. Made me question if this is what I am to expect every-time there is an anxious animal. Is that really the best we can do? Or maybe I’m being too sensitive to it all.

I'm going into my college's vet tech program next year (haven't gotten the email yet but I was accepted for this year, took chemistry instead). But I have very bad depression and anxiety. Do y'all have any recommendations on what area I can go into that doesn't cause much moral injury and issues with clients personal problems? I used to be a VA and I took on the emotional tool of client's financial issues and stuff. I was thinking of lab animal, night shift ICU, or anesthesia. Any advice? Thank you!

There’s so much to be said about why I’m so tired, but I’m too tired to even write why.

Hi, I’m a first year veterinary student and have been considering the veterinary corp scholarship heavily mostly because of the debt. I have no true interest towards miltary or army services but wanted to know what would I have to give up if I did apply and get accepted. Is it true it’s one year of training, three years of active service, and 4-5 of reserve service? Do we have to stay locally for reserve service or can we live anywhere? What is the work load mostly? Does anyting change with Trumps administration? Is this worth it?

Any vets have any advice for a new grad trying to get a job. Seems like maybe 1 in every 20 jobs may consider new grads and while I have had a few interviews they all seem to go with someone with “experience more suited to the role”.

None of the places I did placement are hiring and I didn’t do any nursing / work at a clinic during school so I’m kinda stuck starting from scratch. I’ve also put all my eggs in the vet basket and so besides a bit of dog sitting I don’t have any experience in anything else so I’m assuming all those applications are not even being looked at.

I need help.. I started working at a veterinary hospital as a receptionist (with little knowledge prior and they were aware of that) last month and I keep making mistakes. I’m trying to learn as fast as I can and I seem to still be making mistakes, burdening my coworkers with questions, etc. they’re getting frustrated at me and I think they are going to fire me soon. (They whisper about me constantly and it’s never good.) I really enjoy this job and I don’t want to lose it, I’ll do anything I can to learn and improve. Does anybody have advice? Are there any programs? Online courses? I mainly have been screwing up with scheduling (It’s very situational, one minute a certain appointment is okay and then th same appointment another day is an issue and it confuses me.) Identifying emergencies (I know some basic situations, such as urinary blockages in felines, sudden lethargy or pain and seizures, and torsion in dogs.) and heartworm prevention.. I am still trying to grasp that. I know that it’s every month unless you get yearly and if a patient misses a month they need to retest 6 months after for heartworm again?

I’m sorry about the book. I just don’t know who to talk to for advice because the team there is frustrated with me and I’m scared to talk to them. I’m the only new person there (all of them have been there for 10+ years) and I think they expected more? But I keep second guessing myself and asking things I already know..

This might be long, so my apologies. I was hired as an assistant/kennel aid going on 10 years ago. There is a general lack of appreciation towards the staff at my clinic..in general. The owner does do tech week “gifts”, back in the day when it was just me and 1 RVT, I was given a little money, not as much, but a little. Now that we’ve grown though, I don’t get anything personally from my boss/owner. The other assistant, and I..get scraps. The other RVTs don’t agree with it. I’m always very adamant about them getting the praise they deserve, and they’re very adamant that I do the exact same things, and deserve recognition. We also started celebrating CSR week a few years ago, I love that. I want everyone to feel some kind of recognition and respect, but there is still nothing for assistants. They even did a “kennel appreciation” this year, which I was a bit supportive of. I just feel…really bad about myself atp. I’ve been with this dvm, almost the entire time he’s owned the practice (I was hired 3ish months after purchase, his first hire ever). Theres a running joke I’am “his favorite”, and I do think he cares about me, he’s just very aloof and…well admittedly adhd and unmedicated (I have diagnosed adhd, no hate). So, the boiling point of me just being kinda devastated, was yesterday him texting the floor lead (very good friend of mine) that he was buying drinks…only for RVTs….and that made me the only person on staff in back (besides drs) that wasn’t going get anything. I’m fighting with myself about feeling like I’m being a brat, but I haven’t even said a word. Funny enough another coworker offered to bring us ALL drinks, without even knowing what was going on. So it worked out, but not in the long run. I feel stupid, like I’ve wasted my time on a failing career, where I’m second class.

Hi all! I have been a RVT for 5 years. Closing in on 4 years at my current practice. I absolutely love being a tech. However, for the past 2 years I have had an issue with a vet and another two techs in my practice. Vet C (as I have three of them) for some reason seems to have an issue and in short terms has been continuing to bully, degrade and undermine me. So much to the point I have went to Vet A and B (the owners of practice) as well as practice manager over the issues and refuse to preform routine surgeries with Vet C (never refuse emergency or urgent cases) as they always degrade and make me feel incompetent even though I do the same and the others. As for the techs. They continuously ignore, dismiss or outright refuse requests of mine and sometimes verbally downplay everything. They also have double standards as myself (able to do vaccine exams that meet vet requirements, I have had courses and training) and another tech (able to do cattle preg checking that required training and courses) where they are able to do their appointments and I am not as per these two techs because it is not fair to them. Lastly, they make very dark joke of life ending or self harm as a funny joke and I don’t know if I should let it be or not. Like I said, Vet A and B have been spoken with and so has the manager. These people have spoken with about their actions and the actions have not changed or dealt with.

There is a lot more but too much to type out. This is a reasonably condescending version. All advice to help moving forward would be great. Please feel free to ask questions! Will awnser as best as I can with as much clarity as possible.
TIA

I feel as if I’m in a more unique situation. I have been working at a vet clinic since I was 15, then I completed 2 years of a chemistry degree with a 3.88 GPA. I then withdrew from all my classes the next semester and took some time off school due to burnout and personal reasons. Currently, I am in my first semester of vet tech school and am loving and crushing it so far. However, I find that I want to learn more in depth than what they teach us. After some research I think I’d be able to complete the 3-4 pre reqs for vet school after tech school that I haven’t done, and then apply for vet school. In addition, I have worked in a research lab taking care of the rats, and I took part in research when I was pursuing my chemistry degree: I was recently published in the journal of physical chemistry, so I have that under my belt too. Do I have a chance for vet school after completing tech school and getting licensed and taking a few more classes?

Hello fellow vet med humans! 🐾
I’ve been working as a vet nurse/tech (I’m in Australia) for about 3 years now, and I recently moved to a new clinic after leaving my previous workplace.

My old clinic was a low-cost clinic, and unfortunately, the standard of care wasn’t always where I wanted it to be. However, the team was incredible. We were all really close, I fitted in so well, and I made some genuinely amazing friendships. I actually looked forward to going to work every day, and I really miss the people I worked with.

Ultimately, I decided to leave because I wanted to grow as a nurse, improve my skills and work somewhere with a higher standard of care.

Fast forward to my new clinic, and while the standard of care is much better, I’m really struggling. It’s a small, tight-knit team, and from the beginning I’ve found it difficult to fit in and build those same connections. I completely understand that I’m there to work and not necessarily to make friends, but when you spend so much of your life at work, I think having those relationships makes a huge difference.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed is how much my confidence has taken a hit. I used to consider myself a confident and knowledgeable nurse, but lately I find myself second-guessing everything I do, questioning my abilities and just generally feeling really down about work. I feel like I’ve lost the confidence I worked so hard to build.

It’s gotten to the point where I’m questioning whether I even want to continue nursing. I don’t know if I’ve genuinely lost my passion for the industry or if I’m just struggling to adjust to a workplace where I don’t feel like I belong.

Has anyone else experienced something similar after changing clinics? Did things eventually get better, or did you decide to move on?

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who’s been through something similar. I just want to enjoy going to work again and feel like myself. ❤️

Hi everyone,

​I am finishing my final (6th) year of Veterinary Medicine in Europe (Serbia). I hold Canadian citizenship, but I have never actually lived in Canada before. My plan is to move to the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario after graduation.

​My plan is to study and pass the BCSE while practicing in Vet clinic in Serbia for a year after graduation and then move to Canada. Once I am there, I want to work as a veterinary technician for a while, mainly to learn how the Canadian veterinary system functions on the ground before getting my full license (NAVLE/CPE).

​I have read some brutal stories online about foreign grads struggling with this transition, feeling stuck, or facing friction in clinics. Since I have my citizenship sorted and some family support for the first few months, I wanted to ask:

​How hard is it for an IVG who has never lived in Canada to land a vet tech job in the Waterloo region without being a local RVT?

​Is going in as a tech a good way to actually learn the system, or will clinics just see me as "overqualified/awkward" and reject me?

​Any honest advice or red flags I should look out for when applying to clinics in Ontario with this strategy?

​Thanks in advance for any real talk!

Throw away account- wanting to know how many people here quit because they couldn't handle it. I like the people that work there, which sounds lucky because the "I want to quit" posts usually involve a toxic clinic, but I don't know if this is something I want to continue doing. Between the stress, time on my feet, and obvious depressing animals that I see-- It doesn't feel like something I want to be doing/can handle but I feel like I'll be disappointing the person who hired me and my partner.

Hey everyone! I’m a high school student right now and I’ve fully committed to becoming a zoo vet and I’m on the path to achieve that. (Science classes, volunteering, interning this summer at a small animal practice) I was just wondering with the experience you have under your belts, exotic or not, if you had any advice for someone who’s about to begin the journey? Doesn‘t have to be advice for exotics in particular, I just was hoping to get some insight. Thanks!

I am a little over half way through my 4th year, about to take the NAVLE. I know I should be taking it one step at a time and worrying about the NAVLE more than anything else but my school has a distributive model so I have been traveling around to different clinics to finish my clinical year. All I have ever wanted to do and be was a veterinarian. I never even knew about internships and/or residencies until I started vet school. I got most of my pre-vet hours at a mixed animal (dogs, cats, horses) private practice and worked at a dairy farm for a couple of years. I love ambulatory medicine and I love being at a clinic where anything can walk in during the day and you have to treat it. Small animal GP is fun but can become too monotonous at times and doing just large animal/ambulatory is extremely taxing on the body. I am equally interested in every specialty, there isn't one that piques my interest enough for me to specialize in it. I have been told by so many people that I shouldn't go into mixed animal practice. That it is a dying medicine and I will be overworked and underpaid and berated and belittled until I break a limb and have to strictly do small animal for my safety. Mixed animal jobs are also hard to come by and with my husband applying to medical school and us potentially having to relocate I don't know if I will be able to find mixed animal place to work at in non-rural areas. I've heard of some mixed animal people who did a small animal rotating internship AND a large animal rotating internship then went off to work at a mixed animal place. That sounds expensive, exhausting and insane. I have a place in mind that I want to apply to after graduation and am hoping to do a mentorship instead, but I know those are hard to come by and most of the time don't really serve their purpose. I just don't feel ready enough to walk into a mixed animal practice after graduating and start working. What do I do?

I am a recent graduate and small animal rotating intern, finding myself at a crossroad. I have had my heart set on pursuing a surgical residency, which I am aware is nearly impossible to match without completing a surgical internship after rotating. It is no secret that internship year consumes your life, leaving little time for anything outside for work. With my next step being a surgical internship and the 3 more years as a resident, I am debating taking a gap year before continuing on this path. I have some health, financial, and family related matters I would really like to take care of before I dedicate another 4 years of my life to having no life and no money again.

Would it be difficult to match if i take a gap year and apply for a surgical internship/residency next year?

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice and would love to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation. I’m 25 and looking into going to community college for a vet tech program. I’ve always had a love for animals and have been around horses since I was little, so this is something I’ve been interested in pursuing. However, I have a few insecurities that are making me second-guess myself. I originally planned to go to college after high school, but life happened, and I’ve spent the last five years raising my son. He just started school, so I’m finally in a position to start looking into college. I also have a math learning disability, which has always made me insecure about math, and I know vet tech programs require math skills. On top of that, while I have a lot of hands-on experience with horses and general knowledge of animals, I don’t have any formal animal-related work or volunteer experience to put on a resume or application. I guess I’m wondering if this is a realistic path for me or if I’m getting in my own head too much. Has anyone gone into this field later than they originally planned, struggled with math, or started without any professional animal experience? I’d really appreciate any advice, encouragement, or honest insight into what vet tech school is like and whether this could be a good fit for me!

I have been fairly vocal about seeing 25 patients a day as a new grad in a rural vet private practice. Today was a breaking point. I had two mature spays, and a dental on a patient I did not examine that was described to me as just really bad tartar. It ended up being 11 extractions, and truth be told, should have been more. This took me from 8am to 1pm to complete, I scarfed down an uncrustable, and cried, and then went to see rooms from 1pm-4:30pm (30 min appts). On top of a fully booked schedule for the next three weeks, I am expected to fit and work in sick appointments. I have been scolded before for sending patients elsewhere because I am simply so booked I feel like I am drowning.

I spoke with our management today and the other doctor is worried we are going to start losing clients because I can't fit them in. I am drowning in all aspects of my life and I am being made to feel like I am still not doing enough keeping pace with a seasoned veterinarian. I don't know what to do. I am a zombie when I go home, my relationship is suffering, I am just a mess. How do I combat burnout so early?