I've heard the same from my vet friend. She's mentioned that if she wanted to make a lot of money, she would've gone into human medicine: just as much school, less stress, more appreciation, more money. She loves her animal patients though. :)
My dog has seen a cardiologist- huge props to those of you who specialize. I never disclose that I'm a nurse for various reasons but the way they explained what was going on was perfect. Not only do you have to deal with people but you have people with all backgrounds and explaining everything in relatable terms can be difficult.
myth number four makes me feel very lucky i work in the vet. dept. of an animal shelter - although it has the negatives of no owners to deal with (no information on the animal, the emotional wellbeing of the animal in a kennel all the time, etc) its very convenient to not have to necessarily ask permission to help the animal. if they needs meds, we give them - if they need a basic surgery, we do it, if they need simple tests, we do that too! its very stressful and sad but it has its pros too
Here's another myth: "Vets are great at carving the Christmas turkey because they are skilled at surgery". Not true (for some!). Doing nurse triage calls over Christmas, the vet I worked for very kindly re-routed the emergency phone to his house and invited me to Christmas lunch with his family. Very kind of him and we all sat round the table expecting a masterclass in carving the festive bird. Not a bit of it! Even he admitted "How is it I can perform delicate surgery requiring precise movements with a scalpel yet make such a mess of carving the turkey?". Expectant faces all around the dining table nodding solemnly in agreement. 😆😎
I'm starting veterinarian medicine school on the 10th. I'm nervous 😬 3:30 here in Brazil we have a saying "it might be easier to get in university, but it's harder to get out"
Yeah, we love that. The thing is, sometimes, it can really threaten the pet's life or well-being. Last week, a client brought me her dog and wanted me to prove that her dog had hypothyroidy (I probably spell that incorrectly, sorry, I'm not a native English speaker^^), she was sure of it.. But it was pretty clear to me that her dog had multicentric lymphoma, her thyroid wasn't the biggest problem even if she had been right ... But the client would turn down every test for multicentric lymphoma, she wanted every test about thyroid, even those that are more accurate in human medicine than in vetmed... And she was so angry at me for not giving her the prescription for the "obvious thyroid problem" of her dog but palliative meds instead. I think she wasn't ready to accept her dog might have a really serious disease, it felt kinda sad, I tried not to judge her. But damn, it's tiring sometimes.
@@julieb8311 hi Julie . I am a vet also and I had a similar case just last week . A 11 month old German shepherd pup that was under weight even though on a good diet and parasite control - the dog trainer for the pup diagnosed ‘ a thyroid problem’ . Told the owners to ‘tell me ‘ to do thyroid testing . Regardless after talking with the owners we thinking it’s a mal absorption problem and looking at fixing that . I feel your pain - that’s really sad for your patient .
Video ideas: 1. Genetic testing. Do/Can Vets get useful info from it? Or is it just building a database somewhere? As you may recall, I had my girls tested and there are (I think) different sets of results that either the owner gets, or that you can send to your pet's Vet. Is it just more medical heavy or is there data in it that we as owner's need to know? (I'll be happy to email our results to you for review if you need some to look at.) 2. Do we really "know" what dogs see, think, hear, feel, etc.? 3. Things owners do that drive you/fellow vets INSANE. Maybe have a guest Vet join in on the video?
I am a vet in Canada and just found ( and subscribed ) to your channel. Every thing you have said in this video is so true . Keep the vids coming please .
I have a 3.0 right now and I’m in my second year of undergrad. After I graduate from this college I’ll have 240 hours of preceptorship practice and I’m going to work at a vet clinic throughout my senior year so I’ll have a lot of practice. Do you think that along with a decent gpa could possibly get me into vet school? Being a vet has been my dream my whole life..
@@DVMCellini It really is weird! Im only a vet student, but I have had a lot of female vets tell me on placement that even though there are so many female vets every now and then there will be that one client that refuses to see female vets, only male vets. And that there is a myth (not sure if its necessarily true or not) that if you're a male new grad vet, the male grad is more likely to be hired than the female grad. But I've had some people tell me that too.
My wife, a veterinarian of 45 years, has devoted her life to helping animals and their owners. We have both sacrificed hundreds of thousands dollars in wealth to fulfill her responsibilities and oath.
You could own your own practice, or be a hospital worker, i don't know, if you do own your own practice though, or know someone who does, can you do a video on the process of what it took to get there? Process being business wise, who you had to talk to, consult with, hire, etc.
Owning your own practice isnt any more cost efficient because you have the office rental costs, staff wages, equipment etc to pay for. I guess if you dont like having someone above you then it's good.
Can you do a video on the process of going from highschool to undergrad, to grad, to then specializing if you choose to? I'm currently in my senior year of highschool, and I've been accepted to a university in pre-vet sciences. I understand most of the process up until it comes to switching from undergrad to grad.
Just a general comment for video ideas...I'd like to see some actual surgeries in real time. Another vet channel you probably know, does this, but they publish a non-graphic version for those who don't want to see the surgical field, and an unedited version for those who want to see everything.
@@DVMCellini Vet Ranch...his name is Matt. He's here in Texas and went to Texas A&M Vet School. His dad is also a vet (Lee) and I recall that Matt bought his dad's vet practice. Matt's sister recently got her DVM and is on the channel frequently. They have a vet med charity to provide care for animals that might otherwise be humanely euthanized. Matt has a couple of other non-vet med channels. One is demolition ranch (a firearms channel) and another called Off The Ranch (just a bunch of CRAZY stuff). He never says he's a vet on his other channels...it's like he's a different person. He has millions of subscribers. (2.9million on vet ranch 10.2 million on demolition ranch 4.11 million on off the ranch) I would be willing to bet that he'd LOVE to do a collaboration with you on his vet channel. I'd also be willing to bet that your subs would grow from 2.86K to over 500k in short order...probably a LOT higher. I'm pretty sure he went into practice right after graduation, so he'll appreciate your credentials as a board certified neurologist. I think the two of you would hit it off personality-wise, too. (Like I know either one of you personally outside of your videos!) You come across very well on your channel and I think you just need some exposure on a larger channel to get your subs higher.
“Big dog food “ 🤣😂🤣. One of my faves- between the interwebs and the kid at the pet store owners know WAY more than I do about medicine and nutrition and I am so tired of all the money and vacations from the “big dog food and big pharma” payoffs 🙄🙄
Weird. I wrote a comment on another video that is word-for-word what you said in this video when comparing vets to human doctors. Great minds think alike?
It is true that veterinarians make on average about $60,000 per year. There is a shortage of men in the field that vet schools are trying to address mostly because men cannot support a family on that income. Women are often the secondary income of the household so it is a field dominated by women at the moment. It is a shame and hopefully someone can come up with a solution to this problem. Specialty fields seem to do better but is a fact that you go into the field as an animal lover...not to get wealthy.
My husband (not a vet) loves when I use the term "Big Kibble" as my term for "Big Dog Food". Such a misconception and one of my biggest soap box points when talking to owners is to not follow fad diets. Thanks for posting this video 🐾
I live in Canada and i know at one time (not sure if it's still the case) there was a huge shortage of vets for farm animals. They were actually offering to pay for vet school/loans for people who wanted to specialize in care for farm animals. I know there are loads of vets for cats and dogs but how come not many go into small animals, exotics and farm animals? I understand farm animals to an extent because most farms are somewhere rural so you would have to live somewhere rural but the others i dont understand.
There's a lot of reasons for it. A large one is that working with livestock species is a lot less financially sustainable. Farmers and ranchers have to make a profit or they lose everything. If it costs more to save a cow than they will recoup from her, then they frequently chose to put her down instead. Compared to the family dog, that people will shell out thousands and thousands for to keep them going for just a few more months. Vet clinics have huge operating costs, so it is a lot harder to balance keeping medicine accessible and feasible for livestock producers, and staying open. This means that most vets working in a rural mixed practice (meaning dogs/cats plus your common farm animals) make notably less than a suburban/urban vet seeing only dogs and cats. At least in the US, the cost of vet school has skyrocketed the past few years and is still climbing rapidly. New grads are graduating with an average student loan debt well over $100k. It's not unheard of for debts around $300-400k if you don't have an in-state school or weren't accepted to it. This kind of debt is very hard to pay off even on a good vet salary. Nearly impossible in rural farm animal practice which tends to be some of the lowest paid veterinary jobs. This is why they have to provide so many financial incentives to convince people to go into it, and they still struggle to find anyone. Some other factors include how hard it is on your body. Working with 1000+ pound animals that really don't like you and have no intention of cooperating can be extremely hard on the body. Injuries are common. Wear and tear on the body is harsh. I think people are a lot more conscious of the toll it takes on the body and not as willing to be broken down by age 50. There is a different mentality around livestock than around pets. In general, all the livestock producers I've been around care very deeply about the welfare of their animals, but as mentioned above, they still need to turn a profit to take care of their family. It isn't like with dogs and cats where many people will do everything they can to save them. Very often a farm animal could be saved, but doing so would be expensive, or make them unable to be marketed later, and so they are culled instead. This can be a hard mentality for people who grow up loving animals and wanting to save them all no matter the cost. I think part of this also ties in to far fewer kids being raised rural and on farms these days. Fewer people grow up in this culture and seeing the realities of animal production and so are less willing to go into it. Finally, the work-life balance tends to be a lot worse in rural practice. In an urban area, there is very, very likely to be an emergency-only vet clinic within a reasonable driving distance. A majority of vet clinics have moved away from having on-call vets, and instead refer you to the nearest emergency clinic after hours. This has been a major improvement for the mental health of the vets involved. In rural practice, this model often doesn't work. Cattle love to have birthing complications in the middle of the night. Horses love to get hurt over the holidays. There are no emergency clinics for hours around, and they wouldn't drive to you even IF they saw farm animals. Livestock vets frequently have on-call hours. They get dragged away from children's sports games, away from dinner after the first bite, out of bed at all hours of the night... Frequently after a very long day of work and with a very long day ahead of them too. Even when they're at home, they can't really relax because some part of them is always expecting the phone to ring, and they need to be quickly available to drop everything when it does. It's tiring. It can easily take a toll on personal life, family relationships, and mental health. But that farmer still expects you to show up and save their cow, because she and the calf will both be dead by morning if you don't. Long story short, working with livestock in rural areas adds a lot of extra difficulties to the life of a vet (and joys if it's your cup of tea). But when a newly graduated vet has a mountain of debt hanging over them and they receive two job offers- one for a rural practice working with livestock and everything I mentioned above, and one for a suburban vet clinic with no on-call hours, less physically damaging work, less chance of being permanently injured by one of your patients, etc. etc. and for $10-30k more per year... it's a hard sell to get people to accept the rural position.
@@b.w.5828 thanks for explaining. What about small animals, exotics and avian vets? I used to have birds/parrots and the closest avian vet is 45 mins away meanwhile there's a dog/cat vet every few blocks. Additionally i know people with reptiles and rodents who have a hard time finding vets for them too. There's only 3 or 4 vet schools in Canada and actually a lot of our veterinarians in Canada came over from overseas. My dogs' vet is originally from India and he's fabulous.
@@Lemonade_Stand_ I suppose I'm speculating a bit on the topic of small exotic pets, but some things I can think of... They are much more challenging to treat for one. Drawing blood on something like a hamster is a lot more challenging than on a large dog. The super small species, birds, and reptiles can require some different equipment or equipment sizes that you wouldn't need for dogs and cats, so there is some investment and planning ahead involved. I think money could be a factor for some of the more common exotics too. It's hard to convince someone to pay even a deeply discounted $200 or $300 for lifesaving surgery for a hamster they paid $15 for and only lives 2-3 years. A lot of people have the opinion that they can just go buy another one for $15, so it's ridiculous to pay more than that for vet care. I've encountered many people with an odd opinion that because the pet was cheap, the vet care cost should match it and that's unfortunately just not how it works. Of course not true for everyone, and there are plenty of people that are willing to pay to give their hamster, or rat, or even fish the care they deserve, but it's a harder sell than on most cats/dogs. People with expensive parrots or rare snakes or even just longer-lived exotics are probably more willing to spend more on vet care, but they are pretty few and far between compared to dogs and cats. I'd also like to add that there is a HUGE jump in things you need to know between treating just dogs/cats, and treating exotics like birds and reptiles. There are many differences between dogs and cats, and horses and cattle. But in the end, they are all mammals and tend to also have a whole lot of overlap. A lot of memorizing different drug metabolisms and different diseases or predispositions between them all, but most organ systems function very, very similarly. When you jump over to birds and reptiles, you add entire new organs and some large differences in metabolism and anatomy. Birds can be especially sensitive to stress or poor handling and many drugs. Reptiles have a very slow metabolism so any drugs used often need to be adjusted greatly to account for this. From different blood cells to different immune responses to brand new diseases and vastly different drug protocols... all the way to needing to obtain a whole new set of skills in competently and safely restraining animals that range from tiny, to extra fragile, to potentially venomous. There is a LOT of work involved in adding new species to be treated, especially when they are vastly different from the most common species. A lot of vets don't feel that they have a solid enough background on these differences to be able to give all exotics proper care and so responsibly decline to try. A lot of vet clinics lack the equipment, facility, and training needed to be able to treat exotic species. If you only see exotics every once in a while, and for half of those you do see the owners fight you on spending anything on them anyways, it doesn't make good financial sense to have equipment and tools and drugs and space for them sitting around rarely being used, nor to expect the doctors to always stay on top of current medicine for them when they could instead focus on dogs and cats which make up the majority of their patients anyways. It's a lot easier to let a few scattered clinics decide they want to go that route and focus on it, so they can actually get enough clients to make it worth it. If every small animal clinic tried to stay stocked and trained for it, suddenly it wouldn't be worth it for any of them.
There is too much knowledge in veterinary field as well but we think we can do everything as a vet because if something goes wrong "it s an animal, not the same burden as a human being". Every week we get at least 2 major published papers in every vet small animal specialty. But still the residency positions are so few and si competitive, that only few of the vets end up specializing. It s time for specialization even in animals.
Specialization in human medicine is a double edged sword. Frequently it leads to an inability to see the patient as a whole due to lack of communication between the various specialists. This problem is compounded by the fact that in the US medicine is an industry and there seems to be a lot of pressure to get as many patients as possible through the assembly line. I laugh when people tell me “your job is harder because animals can’t tell you where they hurt “ because , in my experience, it’s rare for “real doctors” to actually take the time to listen to their patients. Sorry if this opinion sounds cynical but it’s based on having followed my mother through lengthy cancer treatments, my husband through various treatments for atrial fib and my special needs son for the last 18 years and all were treated at institutions which had excellent reputations.
As a vet tech I can tell you I don’t know anyone who works in the veterinary field making lots of money or is in it for the money
x2
I've heard the same from my vet friend. She's mentioned that if she wanted to make a lot of money, she would've gone into human medicine: just as much school, less stress, more appreciation, more money. She loves her animal patients though. :)
My dog has seen a cardiologist- huge props to those of you who specialize. I never disclose that I'm a nurse for various reasons but the way they explained what was going on was perfect. Not only do you have to deal with people but you have people with all backgrounds and explaining everything in relatable terms can be difficult.
myth number four makes me feel very lucky i work in the vet. dept. of an animal shelter - although it has the negatives of no owners to deal with (no information on the animal, the emotional wellbeing of the animal in a kennel all the time, etc) its very convenient to not have to necessarily ask permission to help the animal. if they needs meds, we give them - if they need a basic surgery, we do it, if they need simple tests, we do that too! its very stressful and sad but it has its pros too
Here's another myth: "Vets are great at carving the Christmas turkey because they are skilled at surgery". Not true (for some!). Doing nurse triage calls over Christmas, the vet I worked for very kindly re-routed the emergency phone to his house and invited me to Christmas lunch with his family. Very kind of him and we all sat round the table expecting a masterclass in carving the festive bird. Not a bit of it! Even he admitted "How is it I can perform delicate surgery requiring precise movements with a scalpel yet make such a mess of carving the turkey?". Expectant faces all around the dining table nodding solemnly in agreement. 😆😎
I'm starting veterinarian medicine school on the 10th. I'm nervous 😬 3:30 here in Brazil we have a saying "it might be easier to get in university, but it's harder to get out"
You got this
@@DVMCellini thanks for the support 😊
The rise of the internet has made people think they’re genuinely smarter and know more about veterinary care than vets 🙄
I’m sorry but there’s no possibly way you’re going to gain anywhere near the amount of knowledge a vet has but doing research on the internet
I know it’s pretty great
Yeah, we love that. The thing is, sometimes, it can really threaten the pet's life or well-being. Last week, a client brought me her dog and wanted me to prove that her dog had hypothyroidy (I probably spell that incorrectly, sorry, I'm not a native English speaker^^), she was sure of it.. But it was pretty clear to me that her dog had multicentric lymphoma, her thyroid wasn't the biggest problem even if she had been right ... But the client would turn down every test for multicentric lymphoma, she wanted every test about thyroid, even those that are more accurate in human medicine than in vetmed... And she was so angry at me for not giving her the prescription for the "obvious thyroid problem" of her dog but palliative meds instead. I think she wasn't ready to accept her dog might have a really serious disease, it felt kinda sad, I tried not to judge her. But damn, it's tiring sometimes.
@@julieb8311 hi Julie . I am a vet also and I had a similar case just last week . A 11 month old German shepherd pup that was under weight even though on a good diet and parasite control - the dog trainer for the pup diagnosed ‘ a thyroid problem’ . Told the owners to ‘tell me ‘ to do thyroid testing . Regardless after talking with the owners we thinking it’s a mal absorption problem and looking at fixing that . I feel your pain - that’s really sad for your patient .
Video ideas: 1. Genetic testing. Do/Can Vets get useful info from it? Or is it just building a database somewhere? As you may recall, I had my girls tested and there are (I think) different sets of results that either the owner gets, or that you can send to your pet's Vet. Is it just more medical heavy or is there data in it that we as owner's need to know? (I'll be happy to email our results to you for review if you need some to look at.) 2. Do we really "know" what dogs see, think, hear, feel, etc.? 3. Things owners do that drive you/fellow vets INSANE. Maybe have a guest Vet join in on the video?
Those are all great ideas. I did an embark panel on my dog Bernie I’m just trying to figure out how I want to present a discussion about the panel.
You deserve a million subscribers and I’m going to try to help you get there by sharing your videos wherever I can.
let's do it.
I am a vet in Canada and just found ( and subscribed ) to your channel. Every thing you have said in this video is so true . Keep the vids coming please .
Thanks and welcome
Ok the dog food spiel had me howling 😂
interesting video! lol i have literally no interest in becoming a vet but these kinds of vids are still so insightful
😂 thanks !
I have a 3.0 right now and I’m in my second year of undergrad. After I graduate from this college I’ll have 240 hours of preceptorship practice and I’m going to work at a vet clinic throughout my senior year so I’ll have a lot of practice. Do you think that along with a decent gpa could possibly get me into vet school? Being a vet has been my dream my whole life..
I got in with a 3.2 from georgia tech in 2005. So....definitely can be done.
Good to see you again doc
you as well
Can't wait for the "the man must be the vet" stereotype to age out. Can't tell you how many times I've had to deal with that one.
how is that even possible when the field is so woman dominated though? like i don't get it.
@@DVMCellini It really is weird! Im only a vet student, but I have had a lot of female vets tell me on placement that even though there are so many female vets every now and then there will be that one client that refuses to see female vets, only male vets. And that there is a myth (not sure if its necessarily true or not) that if you're a male new grad vet, the male grad is more likely to be hired than the female grad. But I've had some people tell me that too.
My wife, a veterinarian of 45 years, has devoted her life to helping animals and their owners. We have both sacrificed hundreds of thousands dollars in wealth to fulfill her responsibilities and oath.
Wonderful video as always, Sir 👏
Thank you!
Veterinarian is more of a doctor then a dentist.
Shots fired!
Yet there's a such thing as veterinary DENTISTRY. LOL 😂
Very interesting and informative video thanks for sharing 😊👍
Thank you!
I thoroughly enjoy your videos.
thank you!
My toxic trait is responding to people on the internet that think vets are bought out by “big kibble.”
Mine too
I’m astounded at the number of people who believe vets are in league with pet food companies to keep pets sick in order to make money treating them.
@@Debbie338 if that were true, all the cases we see would be GI XD
You could own your own practice, or be a hospital worker, i don't know, if you do own your own practice though, or know someone who does, can you do a video on the process of what it took to get there? Process being business wise, who you had to talk to, consult with, hire, etc.
Owning your own practice isnt any more cost efficient because you have the office rental costs, staff wages, equipment etc to pay for. I guess if you dont like having someone above you then it's good.
I would need to interview a practice owner.
Congratulations doc this channel completed 100k views 🤩🤩
ha thanks for letting me know!
Awesome video as always.
I appreciate that
Obviously, I really liked the video!
Lol the second myth had me fucking dying 😂 🤣
Lol....love your dig on your radiologist 💉 bro...🤣
Always
Can you do a video on the process of going from highschool to undergrad, to grad, to then specializing if you choose to?
I'm currently in my senior year of highschool, and I've been accepted to a university in pre-vet sciences. I understand most of the process up until it comes to switching from undergrad to grad.
Did you go straight into being a vet after the broad exam -- did you have that mentor or other's that helped you get to where you are today?
Straight in to being a vet.
How’s Tattoine treating you these days? Rough out there…. ☀️ ☀️
Just a general comment for video ideas...I'd like to see some actual surgeries in real time. Another vet channel you probably know, does this, but they publish a non-graphic version for those who don't want to see the surgical field, and an unedited version for those who want to see everything.
What channel?
@@DVMCellini Vet Ranch...his name is Matt. He's here in Texas and went to Texas A&M Vet School. His dad is also a vet (Lee) and I recall that Matt bought his dad's vet practice. Matt's sister recently got her DVM and is on the channel frequently. They have a vet med charity to provide care for animals that might otherwise be humanely euthanized. Matt has a couple of other non-vet med channels. One is demolition ranch (a firearms channel) and another called Off The Ranch (just a bunch of CRAZY stuff). He never says he's a vet on his other channels...it's like he's a different person. He has millions of subscribers. (2.9million on vet ranch 10.2 million on demolition ranch 4.11 million on off the ranch) I would be willing to bet that he'd LOVE to do a collaboration with you on his vet channel. I'd also be willing to bet that your subs would grow from 2.86K to over 500k in short order...probably a LOT higher. I'm pretty sure he went into practice right after graduation, so he'll appreciate your credentials as a board certified neurologist. I think the two of you would hit it off personality-wise, too. (Like I know either one of you personally outside of your videos!) You come across very well on your channel and I think you just need some exposure on a larger channel to get your subs higher.
I mean yeah I’d love to meet the guy 😂
“Big dog food “ 🤣😂🤣. One of my faves- between the interwebs and the kid at the pet store owners know WAY more than I do about medicine and nutrition and I am so tired of all the money and vacations from the “big dog food and big pharma” payoffs 🙄🙄
awesome video!
Glad you enjoyed it
Wow only 30 vet schools in our country? Why is that? We need alot of Vets just as we need alot of physicians for people!
Not as much $ in it for everyone involved.
Collaboration with another vet in your office!
Trying!
Sorry to mention this but the music sounded like when you play a record at a slow speed😣
ok
@@DVMCellini 😊
Do you think heartworm meds are necessary for well-cared-for dogs?
Yes.
Mosquitos don’t care
A healthy diet and lifestyle won’t protect against injection of heart worm microfilaria into a dog.
Dexter has a few docs, only one was a male.
Weird. I wrote a comment on another video that is word-for-word what you said in this video when comparing vets to human doctors. Great minds think alike?
It is true that veterinarians make on average about $60,000 per year. There is a shortage of men in the field that vet schools are trying to address mostly because men cannot support a family on that income. Women are often the secondary income of the household so it is a field dominated by women at the moment. It is a shame and hopefully someone can come up with a solution to this problem. Specialty fields seem to do better but is a fact that you go into the field as an animal lover...not to get wealthy.
My husband (not a vet) loves when I use the term "Big Kibble" as my term for "Big Dog Food". Such a misconception and one of my biggest soap box points when talking to owners is to not follow fad diets. Thanks for posting this video 🐾
Big dog food ☠️
I live in Canada and i know at one time (not sure if it's still the case) there was a huge shortage of vets for farm animals. They were actually offering to pay for vet school/loans for people who wanted to specialize in care for farm animals. I know there are loads of vets for cats and dogs but how come not many go into small animals, exotics and farm animals? I understand farm animals to an extent because most farms are somewhere rural so you would have to live somewhere rural but the others i dont understand.
There's a lot of reasons for it. A large one is that working with livestock species is a lot less financially sustainable. Farmers and ranchers have to make a profit or they lose everything. If it costs more to save a cow than they will recoup from her, then they frequently chose to put her down instead. Compared to the family dog, that people will shell out thousands and thousands for to keep them going for just a few more months. Vet clinics have huge operating costs, so it is a lot harder to balance keeping medicine accessible and feasible for livestock producers, and staying open. This means that most vets working in a rural mixed practice (meaning dogs/cats plus your common farm animals) make notably less than a suburban/urban vet seeing only dogs and cats. At least in the US, the cost of vet school has skyrocketed the past few years and is still climbing rapidly. New grads are graduating with an average student loan debt well over $100k. It's not unheard of for debts around $300-400k if you don't have an in-state school or weren't accepted to it. This kind of debt is very hard to pay off even on a good vet salary. Nearly impossible in rural farm animal practice which tends to be some of the lowest paid veterinary jobs. This is why they have to provide so many financial incentives to convince people to go into it, and they still struggle to find anyone.
Some other factors include how hard it is on your body. Working with 1000+ pound animals that really don't like you and have no intention of cooperating can be extremely hard on the body. Injuries are common. Wear and tear on the body is harsh. I think people are a lot more conscious of the toll it takes on the body and not as willing to be broken down by age 50. There is a different mentality around livestock than around pets. In general, all the livestock producers I've been around care very deeply about the welfare of their animals, but as mentioned above, they still need to turn a profit to take care of their family. It isn't like with dogs and cats where many people will do everything they can to save them. Very often a farm animal could be saved, but doing so would be expensive, or make them unable to be marketed later, and so they are culled instead. This can be a hard mentality for people who grow up loving animals and wanting to save them all no matter the cost. I think part of this also ties in to far fewer kids being raised rural and on farms these days. Fewer people grow up in this culture and seeing the realities of animal production and so are less willing to go into it. Finally, the work-life balance tends to be a lot worse in rural practice. In an urban area, there is very, very likely to be an emergency-only vet clinic within a reasonable driving distance. A majority of vet clinics have moved away from having on-call vets, and instead refer you to the nearest emergency clinic after hours. This has been a major improvement for the mental health of the vets involved. In rural practice, this model often doesn't work. Cattle love to have birthing complications in the middle of the night. Horses love to get hurt over the holidays. There are no emergency clinics for hours around, and they wouldn't drive to you even IF they saw farm animals. Livestock vets frequently have on-call hours. They get dragged away from children's sports games, away from dinner after the first bite, out of bed at all hours of the night... Frequently after a very long day of work and with a very long day ahead of them too. Even when they're at home, they can't really relax because some part of them is always expecting the phone to ring, and they need to be quickly available to drop everything when it does. It's tiring. It can easily take a toll on personal life, family relationships, and mental health. But that farmer still expects you to show up and save their cow, because she and the calf will both be dead by morning if you don't.
Long story short, working with livestock in rural areas adds a lot of extra difficulties to the life of a vet (and joys if it's your cup of tea). But when a newly graduated vet has a mountain of debt hanging over them and they receive two job offers- one for a rural practice working with livestock and everything I mentioned above, and one for a suburban vet clinic with no on-call hours, less physically damaging work, less chance of being permanently injured by one of your patients, etc. etc. and for $10-30k more per year... it's a hard sell to get people to accept the rural position.
@@b.w.5828 thanks for explaining. What about small animals, exotics and avian vets? I used to have birds/parrots and the closest avian vet is 45 mins away meanwhile there's a dog/cat vet every few blocks. Additionally i know people with reptiles and rodents who have a hard time finding vets for them too.
There's only 3 or 4 vet schools in Canada and actually a lot of our veterinarians in Canada came over from overseas. My dogs' vet is originally from India and he's fabulous.
@@Lemonade_Stand_ I suppose I'm speculating a bit on the topic of small exotic pets, but some things I can think of... They are much more challenging to treat for one. Drawing blood on something like a hamster is a lot more challenging than on a large dog. The super small species, birds, and reptiles can require some different equipment or equipment sizes that you wouldn't need for dogs and cats, so there is some investment and planning ahead involved. I think money could be a factor for some of the more common exotics too. It's hard to convince someone to pay even a deeply discounted $200 or $300 for lifesaving surgery for a hamster they paid $15 for and only lives 2-3 years. A lot of people have the opinion that they can just go buy another one for $15, so it's ridiculous to pay more than that for vet care. I've encountered many people with an odd opinion that because the pet was cheap, the vet care cost should match it and that's unfortunately just not how it works. Of course not true for everyone, and there are plenty of people that are willing to pay to give their hamster, or rat, or even fish the care they deserve, but it's a harder sell than on most cats/dogs. People with expensive parrots or rare snakes or even just longer-lived exotics are probably more willing to spend more on vet care, but they are pretty few and far between compared to dogs and cats.
I'd also like to add that there is a HUGE jump in things you need to know between treating just dogs/cats, and treating exotics like birds and reptiles. There are many differences between dogs and cats, and horses and cattle. But in the end, they are all mammals and tend to also have a whole lot of overlap. A lot of memorizing different drug metabolisms and different diseases or predispositions between them all, but most organ systems function very, very similarly. When you jump over to birds and reptiles, you add entire new organs and some large differences in metabolism and anatomy. Birds can be especially sensitive to stress or poor handling and many drugs. Reptiles have a very slow metabolism so any drugs used often need to be adjusted greatly to account for this. From different blood cells to different immune responses to brand new diseases and vastly different drug protocols... all the way to needing to obtain a whole new set of skills in competently and safely restraining animals that range from tiny, to extra fragile, to potentially venomous. There is a LOT of work involved in adding new species to be treated, especially when they are vastly different from the most common species.
A lot of vets don't feel that they have a solid enough background on these differences to be able to give all exotics proper care and so responsibly decline to try. A lot of vet clinics lack the equipment, facility, and training needed to be able to treat exotic species. If you only see exotics every once in a while, and for half of those you do see the owners fight you on spending anything on them anyways, it doesn't make good financial sense to have equipment and tools and drugs and space for them sitting around rarely being used, nor to expect the doctors to always stay on top of current medicine for them when they could instead focus on dogs and cats which make up the majority of their patients anyways. It's a lot easier to let a few scattered clinics decide they want to go that route and focus on it, so they can actually get enough clients to make it worth it. If every small animal clinic tried to stay stocked and trained for it, suddenly it wouldn't be worth it for any of them.
There is too much knowledge in veterinary field as well but we think we can do everything as a vet because if something goes wrong "it s an animal, not the same burden as a human being". Every week we get at least 2 major published papers in every vet small animal specialty. But still the residency positions are so few and si competitive, that only few of the vets end up specializing. It s time for specialization even in animals.
Specialization in human medicine is a double edged sword. Frequently it leads to an inability to see the patient as a whole due to lack of communication between the various specialists. This problem is compounded by the fact that in the US medicine is an industry and there seems to be a lot of pressure to get as many patients as possible through the assembly line. I laugh when people tell me “your job is harder because animals can’t tell you where they hurt “ because , in my experience, it’s rare for “real doctors” to actually take the time to listen to their patients. Sorry if this opinion sounds cynical but it’s based on having followed my mother through lengthy cancer treatments, my husband through various treatments for atrial fib and my special needs son for the last 18 years and all were treated at institutions which had excellent reputations.
I work in research and I can tell you lab animal vets have to talk to something worse than people, they have to talk to researchers all day long!
Hah you’re just don’t know about moroccan vets when it comes to “vets love money”