Want to be a Vet so Bad... But I can't

[LikeDiscoSuperfly]

I worked at a vet since I was 15(almost 21 now). I just recently quit last month. I started out low and worked my way to assistant/surgery tech from on the job training. my advice to ANYONE wanting to be a vet is to work at a vet first! SERIOUSLY! we had sooo many new girls come in and quit within a week. it is NOT a glamerous job. you clean poop and pee all day, as well as vommit and blood. animals die.. A LOT. and not all just "go to sleep" peacefully. animals struggle all the time since they dont understand what is going on.. animals bite and claw, espcially cats.. when I was 16 I had a doctor think I was suicidal! LOL!

Clients will be really nice or overly rude/mean..you get people crying or yelling on a daily basis. you have to see how badly some people abuse animals, even with just waiting too long to bring them in ... which brings me to you better like blood, guts, and maggots because you will be seeing A LOT of them.
I worked for a VERY nice vet who helped pay bills for people, but not all vets will be that way, and not all vets can since they might not own the clinic -- so be prepared to turn people down when they really do need help.

it's a really sad job, I have many happy ending stories and MANY bad, disturbing ones. I have cried A LOT as well as had to leave rooms so I did not yell my head off at some stupid idiot who shouldnt have an animal..
but it is a good job in that you NEVER see the same thing every day.. and its rewarding.

you should look into being an animal behavorist.. I always thought that would be kinda fun =]

[Drift]

^This.

I started out when I was 14, and I'm 20 almost 21 now. Same thing, I did Kennel for years and am now a Technician and I assist in Surgeries. We don't have just Surgery Tech's, we all do everything so it's even.

Death is the hardest subject in the veterinary field. Even a peaceful euthanasia can be hard when you've been struggling with the family for a year battling kidney disease. Or when you have an emergency come in and the animal passes away while you're trying to save it.

You have to remain calm while someone is crying over bad news, or while someone is screaming at you about prices you don't control.

Or watch someone decline treatment for something so simple because they can't afford it.

Forget enjoying the holiday with your family, because someone has to go in and take care of hospitalized patients. I just spent 2 hours at work this morning and I'll be there Christmas too.

There's been times I've gotten up at 1 am and went in to check on hospitalized patients because I couldn't stop thinking about them.

Like LDS said, if you are even thinking about being a Vet I would try working for one first. You're looking at around 1/4 million in school loans to become a Vet. It's not something you want to dive right into just because you love animals.

A lot of people end up getting very frustrated in this field and end up leaving it. I'm about done. Everywhere I go I just get taken advantage of and never recognized for all the hard work I do.
On that note, don't expect to ever be rich in this field either.

To not be so negative. This field can be beyond rewarding. We had a kitten hit by a car who we thought was going to die. He was very happy and up walking around this morning.

[LikeDiscoSuperfly]

Ohhh Drift I forgot to mention the money thing.
You really dont make anything, most vets here dont even have benefits.

As a vet you can make good money working for a big corporation I have heard, but then you have to do thing the way they want, and what would be the point in going to school forever if you couldnt have your own clinic?

[vaygirl]

My girlfriend went to University of Pennsylvania to become a vet. It's a good school, but as was mentioned, the cost was insanity. We're close to 40 and she just paid her loans off a couple years ago.

I think in her second or third year, she couldn't handle the math involved in dosing so she decided to do Tech instead. She ended up working for GlaxoSmithKline taking care of their lab animals after years of bad experiences in the Tech field. Not with the animals really, mostly the Doctors. She takes everything kinda personally and she just couldn't handle it. She did end up with some nutjob doctors. It's a high stress job and they can be very high maintenance.

Disco and Drift are so right. Get in there and work kennels first. If you find a great vet, it can be amazing. If you find a nutjob, it can be a nightmare. :P

[Alex09]

I wanted to be a vet when I was a kid... Then I grew up.

[CodeRed]

What Alex said. It used to be my biggest dream, then I realized I'm terrible with blood, gore, death, and all the good stuff that comes with being a vet. I'm not suited to it at all. It's something that's hard to deal with, but there's plenty of other jobs out there that allow you to help animals without having to deal with death and blood.