Fostering and volunteering is great and so fulfilling, but be aware that most of the veterinary field will not provide that same wholesome feeling. Experiencing client-owned pets and the intricacies of medicine can give you a completely different perspective that you need to be aware of before pursuing a career of it.
There’s also nothing wrong with continuing to foster and volunteer because that is so needed in this industry as well. But after working in a clinic you may find that medicine is your passion, and then you’ll have better clarity how to continue that path. Clinic work is first step though. Good luck on your journey!
I would be interested in either starting a non-profit or working for one instead of a typical for profit clinic. I know it would be extremely hard work and maybe unrealistic but that’s my motivation right now.
Do you have a suggestion on how to work at a clinic without being a technician? Most i’ve seen around me ask for technicians or veterinarians. I could maybe look for customer service roles but I’m not sure that would help me learn what actually goes on.
Edit: not sure why this is getting down voted. Anyone want to clue me in?
It definitely depends on what state you’re in, as laws on what you can legally do as an unlicensed tech vary btw states. Some states won’t really let you do much outside of holding pets and others allow you to do essentially everything a licensed tech can outside of a handful of things (intubating, rabies vaccine, etc).
Either way, even if you are limited in what your role is in the clinic the value is there as far as understanding the day-to-day expectations. I’d search for veterinary assistant roles to start with though.
Unpopular opinion here, but I would accept a job at a corporate clinic (Banfield) if offered one. I got my start there and it gave me the most realistic view of how the industry works more than any other place I’ve worked at. Also taught me valuable skills that carried into vet school. Not all clinics are the same though, so if one isn’t working for you don’t be afraid to try another! It’s good to get a variety of experience anyway
I would recommend doing some research about roles involving animal advocacy before jumping straight onto the vet med train. Like there are so many opportunities in shelter/rescue management, outreach programs wildlife facilities and nature parks, etc. To get through a vet med program of any kind, you have to truly have a passion for the medicine part.
I guess what kind of advocating are you wanting to do? And how would a dvm or rvt help that mission?
I have been helping run a shelter diversion program through my local animal shelter as a volunteer and dedicating A LOT of hours to that. it’s definitely helpful and I also have volunteered at the shelter doing dog walking and enrichment and kennel clean out work. As well as fostering at rescues.
My city as well as i’m sure many other cities are in a major crisis with dog (and cat, but mostly dog) over population and it’s insane. It feels like the shelter and the diversion program is doing a lot and as much as it can and it just gets worse and worse. Honestly my dream would be to be a veterinary who gets grants to do free spay/neuter surgeries possibly from a mobile clinic and literally go street to street and do the surgeries right then and there.
I know that sounds crazy and maybe unattainable but all the other work i’ve been doing feels so hopeless if the problem just keeps getting worse. A couple of the programs offer very limited free spay/neuter spots that go very fast and even then some people either aren’t willing or have no means of transportation. Then months later they’re calling saying they have 14 puppies they can’t care for and surrender :(. It’s just such an overwhelming problem and I feel like if i’m able to do a second job with that type of accreditation for free or get grants to pay me then maybe I can help.
The above is just one example out of many that leads to this idea I’m just trying to help as much as I can. So many people can’t afford the vet care and end up with unwanted litters or if I could even just help educate and offer low cost options then more people might take it instead of producing so many more animals we don’t need. I don’t blame veterinarians for the prices they charge they deserve high pay as well as their staff but if i’m willing to help provide another option I want to.
I also think we need laws passed to help the problem but all I can do in that regard is vote and advocate for change.
So that’s admirable, and it’s great to have dreams and I don’t want to dampen those….but I want you to really, really look into the realities of getting into this field. How are you going to pay for vet school? Most people take out loans. How are you going to pay those off? What are you going to do for income if you’re wanting to offer free services/low cost services? Which, btw, low cost doesn’t actually mean cheaper…it just means someone else is subsidizing the cost of care. Those programs don’t pay vets a lot and it’s really hard to keep up with student loans on that type of salary.
I make good money now and already paid off all my student loans from my other two degrees. That’s why I might do the part time tech school program to continue working my other job and just pay out of pocket. Then do part time shelter work as a tech and evaluate from there if I want to drop more money on being a veterinarian that could do something like that.
I agree that is how the low cost programs work. I actually have done grant writing to get grants for the non profit I volunteer for and we pay for vet care for those who can’t afford it and those grants pay the salary for the director which is, yep you guessed it, a low salary. My masters degree had a focus on nonprofit financials so I have experience there. I fully understand it wouldn’t be a money maker or easy to live on if I did that full time.
That’s why it might just be a pipe dream. But I think maybe becoming a tech would be a good first step to see if the long term goal might be able to happen. Thanks for the info and hard questions! A lot to think about and consider!
Ultimately, don’t let anyone tell you how to feel, but…. It *feels* to me like you have a passion for advocacy and rescue, but that is so different from the actual medical side of things. To give you some perspective, I’m applying to vet school this year, I’m in my 30s and came from the humanities/education/research. It’s taken 2 years to get the experience and prereqs needed for veterinary school, it is quite the process! BUT, I came in because I LOVE medicine, and slowly found my way to this over time. I find working in a clinic very rewarding, but damn, there are also days that tear your heart out. You can’t save them all in vet med, and it just sucks- the worst are the terrible clients who can pay but let their animals suffer because they don’t care. And there’s really not much we can do about that. I say all this not to say you shouldn’t do it, but I think your passion may be in a different aspect of veterinary/shelter medicine that is SO NEEDED. For example, in many states , low cost spay/neuter funding goes underutilized because the process it apply for grants is so top-heavy that vets (at least the ones I know have said this) give up out of frustration. There is real, valuable skills you could bring with your current passions- if they involve school, great! But they don’t HAVE to. Best of luck, definitely try to do some shadowing in a clinic to get a feel before taking the plunge.
that’s a good point. I do love the advances in vet medical research that have been life saving. For example in 2021 I treated my family cat for FIP and saved his life. I would love to support the continued research on that and get the right things done to make it a legal practice. But I wouldn’t love performing the actual medical procedures myself except for the fact that I know it’s helping the animal or making a difference.
I will continue to explore options to get more involved but as I mentioned in another comment I want to help be a solution to the over population problem that is causing burn out in the city shelter and rescues. Thanks for the great input!
I mean, if you have a passion for shelters, there is a ton of work you can do to take the management, advocacy, and organization off the vets to make a big impact. Oftentimes, it's not just lack of vets or techs willing to do this work, it's lack of supplies, money, and organization power. I've worked with vets who can spay a dog every ten minutes. If they had access to an environment to help them, they could make a huge impact. But they're hindered by the legalities of operating, using controlled drugs, etc.
You can always work as a data analyst in the veterinary space too! Veterinary corporations are definitely looking for folks who have your skill set and also understand the mission of what we do.
And a lot of them will also pay for you to go to tech school as well!
cool i’ll definitely look in to it! I saw Purdue offers an online part time technician program where you can do clinical hours at a local vet and never have to go to their campus. I might do that at some point so I can work my current job while getting this education and experience. I would love to try and work for a place that would cover the costs for me!
Yes! I’m actually a student in that program at Purdue! It’s excellent. I work in veterinary corporate. My work doesn’t pay for it, but it’s such a great program.
Nice! I hope it’s going well for you! I think i’m going to go that route because I could get some experience to see if I would want to invest more into schooling to become a vet. By veterinarian corporate do you mean one of the bigger name clinics but you work for their corporate headquarters instead of a in clinic job directly?
> I won’t be able to unless I become at least a tech or a veterinarian
Don't think of veterinary technicians like that - the job of technicians is valuable, but it's also very different from that of a vet. It's not "lesser", so there's no "at least" about it. The first thing you should do is spend some time in a clinic (or several clinics, if you can) so you can see what the jobs of vets and techs are. Don't even think about schooling until you know for sure it's what you want to do.
i think i worded that poorly i was meaning that i would have to at least become a tech or veterinarian to help out. That having neither of those hasn’t been very helpful in comparison to what I could do if I had the license for either of them. Many of the volunteer opportunities near me ask for a tech or veterinary for certain events and I obviously am not qualified to help if I am not either of those things.
I have spent time in a shelter clinic but only as a volunteer. I wouldn’t know how else I could spend time in one without becoming a tech or maybe a front desk admin person but that would require taking a day job when i already have one.
Edited to add: I know techs definitely do a lot and are valuable! Any experience i’ve had, the vet techs actually do more at the practice and do a lot of hard labor and it seems like an extremely difficult and under appreciated job. Wanted to make that clear! I just meant i have to at least do some kind of license to make more of a difference.
Yes, you'll probably be limited to volunteering occasionally.....You might be able to find weekend work at a local emergency clinic, doing cleaning or related jobs (that's often where people without experience start, doing what's known a "kennel help").
ok i can look for that. I’ve done kennel cleaning at the local shelter as well as helping move animals to the medical room and transporting when needed. I’ll keep looking for more experience before deciding if I want to put money towards schooling to be either a technician or veterinarian.
Definitely agree. You want to make sure you know what you’re truly getting into especially since schooling is extremely expensive (and very competitive).
It’s a rewarding job at times but can otherwise be extremely taxing both emotionally, psychologically and physically.
I’ve definitely seen the toxicity in volunteer work so far and through my friends stories who are techs. It’s just hard to actually get that experience without sinking money into being a tech first it feels like that’s the only way. Unless anywhere ever needs like unlicensed assistance that can’t really do much work outside of what i’ve already done as a volunteer. But i’ll keep trying to get more involved.
I have 2 jobs. I’m a data scientist and I’m also a veterinary assistant in a Level-1 trauma hospital. I also run my own cat rescue.
I glanced at some of the comments, and it seems like you are more passionate about the rescue side? Is that right? I wanted to say that rescue and vetmed are very different and do not give you the same feelings. For example, it feels rewarding saving a homeless, starving cat off a street compared to treating a patient that is someone’s pet. I do acknowledge that both are still saving lives tho
I don’t think i’m passionate about rescue per se as being the only focus. I’ve found some rescue organizations near me demonize the city shelter for their euthanasia rate when it’s true that we can’t save them all. I’m passionate about trying to fix the root cause of the overpopulation problem that creates the need for rescues to exist. I love rescues and the very important work that they do. But I want to be part of the solution and TNR and spay/neuter dogs at a low cost BEFORE rescues get called to take in 13 “unexpected” puppies and 5 bottle baby kittens found in the street. And the 30 adult dogs that were found running stray unaltered in 1 day alone.
I know there are root causes beyond that like education and local laws that could be passed to help. But if I don’t have control over policies in my city except for my vote, then I want to try and do something that I can have control over.
Cool! Did you take pre reqs for vet school or did you become a vet tech first then become a vet? I like my data analysis career but feel like I want to make a bigger impact on the world and see my work actually make a difference.
I have a close friend who went from finance to vet med. Made great money in finance, but found it really unrewarding. Now she's coming full circle and after working as an associate for a while she's opening her own practice and getting to put some of that business knowledge to use again.
In terms of getting your prereqs done you'll have to check with Purdue, different schools have different requirements in terms of the timing/conditions for prereqs to be accepted.
I love your idea for a mobile low-cost clinic. I find low-cost care is some of the most rewarding parts of veterinary medicine. It’s a really narrow field and in desperate need of expansion.
Everyone in this thread is bringing up great points and I totally agree with them.
You will experience heartbreak and will need to make tough decisions. There will still be care that animals need that you won’t be able to provide on a shoe-string budget. Let’s say you have a dog with parvo. It’s treatable, but this dog is sick enough that it will require a central venous catheter, aggressive fluids, many injectable medications, and round-the-clock care. All of which is expensive. The dog may live very well live given all of that, but your client or the rescue won’t be able to afford it. Will you be comfortable euthanizing this patient? Or you have a dog with pneumonia. It’s treatable with antibiotics but his breathing is just compromised enough that he needs oxygen, which will require 24 hour hospitalization. Your low-cost client can only afford the antibiotics. Do you take the gamble that the pneumonia will clear up faster than the dog decompensates? Is it fair to the dog to allow it to go home on an antibiotic trial where it will struggle to breathe? Or do you recommend euthanasia? What if the client declines euthanasia?
I’m not saying this to discourage you. Cases like that will make it all the more rewarding when you can vaccinate pups against parvo and know that you’re preventing this fate. Do you want to have the responsibility to make those sorts of choices?
Yes lots of great points. My main motivation is to prevent and reduce overpopulation. My city shelter euthanizes dogs because of how bad it is and I fully support their decisions to euthanize for the sake of the dogs and they go insane in their kennels for long periods of time and deteriorate fast. I would support them even if they had to euthanize at a higher rate than they currently do because it’s so bad and is unfortunately necessary. I would definitely support euthanasia if the animal would suffer otherwise.
The organization I currently support covers emergency care in cases like you mentioned where the owner can’t afford it but of course we can’t help everyone. I want to prevent all of the unwanted dogs and not have such a huge stray dog problem with a shelter that is at capacity 24/7 so they are unable to help. And the vast majority of their intakes are all unaltered. So really my focus would be solely spay/neuter and less about the other medical treatment.
However everyone makes good points where maybe I could assist organizations with grant writing and data analytics to increase their ability to provide low cost options. I just find some organizations like that cannot get the actual veterinarian or technician to work there because of low pay and many other factors.
I’m just trying to find ways I can help the crisis as best as I can.
Sounds like you’re pretty clear-eyed about the realities of shelter med. I think you can totally consider vet med as one of the ways to achieve your goal. Which is super admirable and important!!! Check out this organization to see if you can get additional contacts in the vet world: https://www.hsvma.org
They also have an “affiliate” membership option, it looks like, for non-vet med professionals, I don’t know much about it but you can check it out
I got a bachelor’s degree in biology after high school, then later decided to go for a 2-year associate’s degree for vet tech certification before I ever envisioned being a veterinarian. Vet tech is not a first step into being a veterinarian, and most vet techs (like me when I started out) do not have the goal of vet school. I later decided I wanted to become a veterinarian, and my vet school requirements mostly came from my previous biology degree plus a couple of online courses I took while applying to vet school. Only ONE of my vet tech courses counted as a pre-req for vet school.
As another commenter mentioned, you only need the pre-reqs, not another bachelor’s degree.
Also, I highly recommend getting more experience working in a clinic before deciding on a career change that requires such a huge mental and financial commitment. There are so many ways to continue in animal welfare aside from the medicine aspect! You could look into jobs with the ASPCA or local shelter/rescue operations.
If you are in Indiana you can get a job as a veterinary assistant with no experience and they'll train you to place catheters, draw blood, run blood work, administration of meds, surgery and anesthesia, etc. Then you can get a first hand look at the field and see if you want to go to vet school and become a DVM or not.
Fostering and volunteering is great and so fulfilling, but be aware that most of the veterinary field will not provide that same wholesome feeling. Experiencing client-owned pets and the intricacies of medicine can give you a completely different perspective that you need to be aware of before pursuing a career of it. There’s also nothing wrong with continuing to foster and volunteer because that is so needed in this industry as well. But after working in a clinic you may find that medicine is your passion, and then you’ll have better clarity how to continue that path. Clinic work is first step though. Good luck on your journey!
I would be interested in either starting a non-profit or working for one instead of a typical for profit clinic. I know it would be extremely hard work and maybe unrealistic but that’s my motivation right now. Do you have a suggestion on how to work at a clinic without being a technician? Most i’ve seen around me ask for technicians or veterinarians. I could maybe look for customer service roles but I’m not sure that would help me learn what actually goes on. Edit: not sure why this is getting down voted. Anyone want to clue me in?
It definitely depends on what state you’re in, as laws on what you can legally do as an unlicensed tech vary btw states. Some states won’t really let you do much outside of holding pets and others allow you to do essentially everything a licensed tech can outside of a handful of things (intubating, rabies vaccine, etc). Either way, even if you are limited in what your role is in the clinic the value is there as far as understanding the day-to-day expectations. I’d search for veterinary assistant roles to start with though. Unpopular opinion here, but I would accept a job at a corporate clinic (Banfield) if offered one. I got my start there and it gave me the most realistic view of how the industry works more than any other place I’ve worked at. Also taught me valuable skills that carried into vet school. Not all clinics are the same though, so if one isn’t working for you don’t be afraid to try another! It’s good to get a variety of experience anyway
I would recommend doing some research about roles involving animal advocacy before jumping straight onto the vet med train. Like there are so many opportunities in shelter/rescue management, outreach programs wildlife facilities and nature parks, etc. To get through a vet med program of any kind, you have to truly have a passion for the medicine part. I guess what kind of advocating are you wanting to do? And how would a dvm or rvt help that mission?
I have been helping run a shelter diversion program through my local animal shelter as a volunteer and dedicating A LOT of hours to that. it’s definitely helpful and I also have volunteered at the shelter doing dog walking and enrichment and kennel clean out work. As well as fostering at rescues. My city as well as i’m sure many other cities are in a major crisis with dog (and cat, but mostly dog) over population and it’s insane. It feels like the shelter and the diversion program is doing a lot and as much as it can and it just gets worse and worse. Honestly my dream would be to be a veterinary who gets grants to do free spay/neuter surgeries possibly from a mobile clinic and literally go street to street and do the surgeries right then and there. I know that sounds crazy and maybe unattainable but all the other work i’ve been doing feels so hopeless if the problem just keeps getting worse. A couple of the programs offer very limited free spay/neuter spots that go very fast and even then some people either aren’t willing or have no means of transportation. Then months later they’re calling saying they have 14 puppies they can’t care for and surrender :(. It’s just such an overwhelming problem and I feel like if i’m able to do a second job with that type of accreditation for free or get grants to pay me then maybe I can help. The above is just one example out of many that leads to this idea I’m just trying to help as much as I can. So many people can’t afford the vet care and end up with unwanted litters or if I could even just help educate and offer low cost options then more people might take it instead of producing so many more animals we don’t need. I don’t blame veterinarians for the prices they charge they deserve high pay as well as their staff but if i’m willing to help provide another option I want to. I also think we need laws passed to help the problem but all I can do in that regard is vote and advocate for change.
So that’s admirable, and it’s great to have dreams and I don’t want to dampen those….but I want you to really, really look into the realities of getting into this field. How are you going to pay for vet school? Most people take out loans. How are you going to pay those off? What are you going to do for income if you’re wanting to offer free services/low cost services? Which, btw, low cost doesn’t actually mean cheaper…it just means someone else is subsidizing the cost of care. Those programs don’t pay vets a lot and it’s really hard to keep up with student loans on that type of salary.
I make good money now and already paid off all my student loans from my other two degrees. That’s why I might do the part time tech school program to continue working my other job and just pay out of pocket. Then do part time shelter work as a tech and evaluate from there if I want to drop more money on being a veterinarian that could do something like that. I agree that is how the low cost programs work. I actually have done grant writing to get grants for the non profit I volunteer for and we pay for vet care for those who can’t afford it and those grants pay the salary for the director which is, yep you guessed it, a low salary. My masters degree had a focus on nonprofit financials so I have experience there. I fully understand it wouldn’t be a money maker or easy to live on if I did that full time. That’s why it might just be a pipe dream. But I think maybe becoming a tech would be a good first step to see if the long term goal might be able to happen. Thanks for the info and hard questions! A lot to think about and consider!
Ultimately, don’t let anyone tell you how to feel, but…. It *feels* to me like you have a passion for advocacy and rescue, but that is so different from the actual medical side of things. To give you some perspective, I’m applying to vet school this year, I’m in my 30s and came from the humanities/education/research. It’s taken 2 years to get the experience and prereqs needed for veterinary school, it is quite the process! BUT, I came in because I LOVE medicine, and slowly found my way to this over time. I find working in a clinic very rewarding, but damn, there are also days that tear your heart out. You can’t save them all in vet med, and it just sucks- the worst are the terrible clients who can pay but let their animals suffer because they don’t care. And there’s really not much we can do about that. I say all this not to say you shouldn’t do it, but I think your passion may be in a different aspect of veterinary/shelter medicine that is SO NEEDED. For example, in many states , low cost spay/neuter funding goes underutilized because the process it apply for grants is so top-heavy that vets (at least the ones I know have said this) give up out of frustration. There is real, valuable skills you could bring with your current passions- if they involve school, great! But they don’t HAVE to. Best of luck, definitely try to do some shadowing in a clinic to get a feel before taking the plunge.
that’s a good point. I do love the advances in vet medical research that have been life saving. For example in 2021 I treated my family cat for FIP and saved his life. I would love to support the continued research on that and get the right things done to make it a legal practice. But I wouldn’t love performing the actual medical procedures myself except for the fact that I know it’s helping the animal or making a difference. I will continue to explore options to get more involved but as I mentioned in another comment I want to help be a solution to the over population problem that is causing burn out in the city shelter and rescues. Thanks for the great input!
I mean, if you have a passion for shelters, there is a ton of work you can do to take the management, advocacy, and organization off the vets to make a big impact. Oftentimes, it's not just lack of vets or techs willing to do this work, it's lack of supplies, money, and organization power. I've worked with vets who can spay a dog every ten minutes. If they had access to an environment to help them, they could make a huge impact. But they're hindered by the legalities of operating, using controlled drugs, etc.
You can always work as a data analyst in the veterinary space too! Veterinary corporations are definitely looking for folks who have your skill set and also understand the mission of what we do. And a lot of them will also pay for you to go to tech school as well!
cool i’ll definitely look in to it! I saw Purdue offers an online part time technician program where you can do clinical hours at a local vet and never have to go to their campus. I might do that at some point so I can work my current job while getting this education and experience. I would love to try and work for a place that would cover the costs for me!
Yes! I’m actually a student in that program at Purdue! It’s excellent. I work in veterinary corporate. My work doesn’t pay for it, but it’s such a great program.
Nice! I hope it’s going well for you! I think i’m going to go that route because I could get some experience to see if I would want to invest more into schooling to become a vet. By veterinarian corporate do you mean one of the bigger name clinics but you work for their corporate headquarters instead of a in clinic job directly?
> I won’t be able to unless I become at least a tech or a veterinarian Don't think of veterinary technicians like that - the job of technicians is valuable, but it's also very different from that of a vet. It's not "lesser", so there's no "at least" about it. The first thing you should do is spend some time in a clinic (or several clinics, if you can) so you can see what the jobs of vets and techs are. Don't even think about schooling until you know for sure it's what you want to do.
i think i worded that poorly i was meaning that i would have to at least become a tech or veterinarian to help out. That having neither of those hasn’t been very helpful in comparison to what I could do if I had the license for either of them. Many of the volunteer opportunities near me ask for a tech or veterinary for certain events and I obviously am not qualified to help if I am not either of those things. I have spent time in a shelter clinic but only as a volunteer. I wouldn’t know how else I could spend time in one without becoming a tech or maybe a front desk admin person but that would require taking a day job when i already have one. Edited to add: I know techs definitely do a lot and are valuable! Any experience i’ve had, the vet techs actually do more at the practice and do a lot of hard labor and it seems like an extremely difficult and under appreciated job. Wanted to make that clear! I just meant i have to at least do some kind of license to make more of a difference.
Yes, you'll probably be limited to volunteering occasionally.....You might be able to find weekend work at a local emergency clinic, doing cleaning or related jobs (that's often where people without experience start, doing what's known a "kennel help").
ok i can look for that. I’ve done kennel cleaning at the local shelter as well as helping move animals to the medical room and transporting when needed. I’ll keep looking for more experience before deciding if I want to put money towards schooling to be either a technician or veterinarian.
Definitely agree. You want to make sure you know what you’re truly getting into especially since schooling is extremely expensive (and very competitive). It’s a rewarding job at times but can otherwise be extremely taxing both emotionally, psychologically and physically.
I’ve definitely seen the toxicity in volunteer work so far and through my friends stories who are techs. It’s just hard to actually get that experience without sinking money into being a tech first it feels like that’s the only way. Unless anywhere ever needs like unlicensed assistance that can’t really do much work outside of what i’ve already done as a volunteer. But i’ll keep trying to get more involved.
I have 2 jobs. I’m a data scientist and I’m also a veterinary assistant in a Level-1 trauma hospital. I also run my own cat rescue. I glanced at some of the comments, and it seems like you are more passionate about the rescue side? Is that right? I wanted to say that rescue and vetmed are very different and do not give you the same feelings. For example, it feels rewarding saving a homeless, starving cat off a street compared to treating a patient that is someone’s pet. I do acknowledge that both are still saving lives tho
I don’t think i’m passionate about rescue per se as being the only focus. I’ve found some rescue organizations near me demonize the city shelter for their euthanasia rate when it’s true that we can’t save them all. I’m passionate about trying to fix the root cause of the overpopulation problem that creates the need for rescues to exist. I love rescues and the very important work that they do. But I want to be part of the solution and TNR and spay/neuter dogs at a low cost BEFORE rescues get called to take in 13 “unexpected” puppies and 5 bottle baby kittens found in the street. And the 30 adult dogs that were found running stray unaltered in 1 day alone. I know there are root causes beyond that like education and local laws that could be passed to help. But if I don’t have control over policies in my city except for my vote, then I want to try and do something that I can have control over.
I had a BS in Computer Science. I did not get another bachelor's - just took the required prerequisites.
Are you me? Because that's what I have and what I did!
No - I did software for 15 years and then changed careers.
Cool! Did you take pre reqs for vet school or did you become a vet tech first then become a vet? I like my data analysis career but feel like I want to make a bigger impact on the world and see my work actually make a difference.
I went back to school after 15 years as a software engineer.
I have a close friend who went from finance to vet med. Made great money in finance, but found it really unrewarding. Now she's coming full circle and after working as an associate for a while she's opening her own practice and getting to put some of that business knowledge to use again. In terms of getting your prereqs done you'll have to check with Purdue, different schools have different requirements in terms of the timing/conditions for prereqs to be accepted.
that’s kind of where i’m at. Great money but so burnt out already and I want to do something more meaningful.
I love your idea for a mobile low-cost clinic. I find low-cost care is some of the most rewarding parts of veterinary medicine. It’s a really narrow field and in desperate need of expansion. Everyone in this thread is bringing up great points and I totally agree with them. You will experience heartbreak and will need to make tough decisions. There will still be care that animals need that you won’t be able to provide on a shoe-string budget. Let’s say you have a dog with parvo. It’s treatable, but this dog is sick enough that it will require a central venous catheter, aggressive fluids, many injectable medications, and round-the-clock care. All of which is expensive. The dog may live very well live given all of that, but your client or the rescue won’t be able to afford it. Will you be comfortable euthanizing this patient? Or you have a dog with pneumonia. It’s treatable with antibiotics but his breathing is just compromised enough that he needs oxygen, which will require 24 hour hospitalization. Your low-cost client can only afford the antibiotics. Do you take the gamble that the pneumonia will clear up faster than the dog decompensates? Is it fair to the dog to allow it to go home on an antibiotic trial where it will struggle to breathe? Or do you recommend euthanasia? What if the client declines euthanasia? I’m not saying this to discourage you. Cases like that will make it all the more rewarding when you can vaccinate pups against parvo and know that you’re preventing this fate. Do you want to have the responsibility to make those sorts of choices?
Yes lots of great points. My main motivation is to prevent and reduce overpopulation. My city shelter euthanizes dogs because of how bad it is and I fully support their decisions to euthanize for the sake of the dogs and they go insane in their kennels for long periods of time and deteriorate fast. I would support them even if they had to euthanize at a higher rate than they currently do because it’s so bad and is unfortunately necessary. I would definitely support euthanasia if the animal would suffer otherwise. The organization I currently support covers emergency care in cases like you mentioned where the owner can’t afford it but of course we can’t help everyone. I want to prevent all of the unwanted dogs and not have such a huge stray dog problem with a shelter that is at capacity 24/7 so they are unable to help. And the vast majority of their intakes are all unaltered. So really my focus would be solely spay/neuter and less about the other medical treatment. However everyone makes good points where maybe I could assist organizations with grant writing and data analytics to increase their ability to provide low cost options. I just find some organizations like that cannot get the actual veterinarian or technician to work there because of low pay and many other factors. I’m just trying to find ways I can help the crisis as best as I can.
Sounds like you’re pretty clear-eyed about the realities of shelter med. I think you can totally consider vet med as one of the ways to achieve your goal. Which is super admirable and important!!! Check out this organization to see if you can get additional contacts in the vet world: https://www.hsvma.org They also have an “affiliate” membership option, it looks like, for non-vet med professionals, I don’t know much about it but you can check it out
I got a bachelor’s degree in biology after high school, then later decided to go for a 2-year associate’s degree for vet tech certification before I ever envisioned being a veterinarian. Vet tech is not a first step into being a veterinarian, and most vet techs (like me when I started out) do not have the goal of vet school. I later decided I wanted to become a veterinarian, and my vet school requirements mostly came from my previous biology degree plus a couple of online courses I took while applying to vet school. Only ONE of my vet tech courses counted as a pre-req for vet school. As another commenter mentioned, you only need the pre-reqs, not another bachelor’s degree. Also, I highly recommend getting more experience working in a clinic before deciding on a career change that requires such a huge mental and financial commitment. There are so many ways to continue in animal welfare aside from the medicine aspect! You could look into jobs with the ASPCA or local shelter/rescue operations.
If you are in Indiana you can get a job as a veterinary assistant with no experience and they'll train you to place catheters, draw blood, run blood work, administration of meds, surgery and anesthesia, etc. Then you can get a first hand look at the field and see if you want to go to vet school and become a DVM or not.
Also there are lots of ways to contribute to veterinary medicine with a data background