#vet lyf

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

6 years worth of notes, textbooks and readers. 10 days left of vet school. 24 days until graduation. 55 days until my first day of work.

I cannot believe my vet school adventure is nearly over. It has been a very long, grueling 6 years but I have had an amazing time. 

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

Happy Halloween from the middle of Western Australia! I am currently on a remote community spay and neuter trip and am having the time of my life!

[univers-is]

Might have an honors project sorted?

[univers-is]

5/8/16 - day 83 Vetball was fun

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

So a fellow vet student pal of mine is getting ready to preach the truth of vet school.

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

Vets have a special kind of humour.

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

How NOT to be a dud student when seeing practice.

Whether it be work experience for your vet school application or compulsory prac as a requirement for your degree, you should always strive to be the very best student you can be.

Now, I am not saying you need to be a walking encyclopedia and answer every question the vet poses to you with 110% accuracy, have a wealth of knowledge on every case that walks through the clinic door and have the most precise surgery skills going, you are a student, not a scholar. You are there to learn and gain valuable experience. The vets know you are a student (even though sometimes it seems like they don’t and make you feel like the stupidest person alive), and don’t expect you to know and do everything completely correctly. What I am saying is be engaged, in every aspect, when seeing practice.

If you want to be an equine vet, don’t just stand there looking bored when seeing practice at a smallies clinic. Try and actively listen and engage. You may learn some handy tips and tricks that you can apply to your work in equine land. A cattle vet once told us, “if you know how to spey a dog, you can get a job anywhere”. Meaning, experience in different fields can be extremely valuable one day! You may end up working in a mixed practice, even though your focus is on cattle reproduction and you may have to cover for a vet in the smallies side of the clinic who has 3 dog speys scheduled for that day.

Don’t be the student who thinks that because they are going to be a vet and not a nurse that it is acceptable for them to sit on their bums whilst the nurses are frantically tidying up after surgery whilst answering 104 phone calls at the same time, all whilst under staffed. Don’t be the student who aims to leave on time, everyday, regardless of if the practice has just had 3 walk ins at 6pm with one being an emergency. Don’t be the student who is rude to the nurses and thinks they are higher up in the veterinary hierarchy (trust me, you are not). These are the students who are remembered for the wrong reasons, aren’t considered for jobs upon graduation and who also reflect poorly on the vet school.

Be the student who is proactive. Pick up a broom and sweep the breezeway in the clinic barn if there aren’t many cases in hospital, but there is lots of tidy up to do. Ask to be involved in the work-up for tricky cases, do your research, you never know when your input may end up being extremely useful. What I find is extremely important is saying thank you. Bring a small gift, a cake or chocolates, and write a card expressing your gratitude to the clinic for letting you see practice with them. Leave a positive, lasting impression, you don’t know how your performance at one practice may affect your career in the future.

[why-i-am-a-veterinarian]

The story of the “Brisbane man who loses his best friend” and the petition to regulate veterinary fees

You may or may not have seen the current petition floating around Facebook of a Brisbane man who is attempting to regulate veterinary fees. More can be read here.  

My partner nicely summed up why this would be unfair and unjust to do so:

“"I honestly never post anything like this to Facebook, but given I am dating a soon to be vet (a very good one too) and have several animals, things like this make me ridiculously irate.First of all studying to be a Vet is extremely difficult and is a lengthy process, no one in their right mind would go through all of that just for the 'money'. While we're on the topic of money, the average graduate vet, if they can actually find a job, is on a salary anywhere from $35-45k a year. So after 5-6 years of grueling study, melt downs, ridiculous hours, their whole final year a essentially working for free (and being belittled, doing countless hours and night shifts) they then come out of it earning less than someone who works at McDonalds, definitely seems worth it doesn't it? Remember this salary only comes into play if they can find a job, so many graduates have to move interstate,to the country and sometimes over seas even to earn this minimum wage.

Now I know you're probably thinking 'why did it cost me $2000 to take Fido to the vet when he had chronic diarrhea if vets earn no money'? Well obviously the money goes somewhere right? Just think about the times you've gone to your GP, they've asked you a few questions about your symptoms, how you feel, where it hurts, how long it's been going for, have you eaten anything funky lately. Easy yeah? Now think about when you took 'Fido', why didn't the vet just ask him some questions, oh yeah that's right, dogs can't speak English! They can't ask them, they can perform a physical examination to start off with, sometimes that won't show anything and then it's off to do a numerous amount of tests (none of which are government subsidies, unlike the ones for humans) and even then, those tests might not show anything and Fido has to be kept overnight to monitor him. Which isn't just a case of 'he'll go to sleep and we'll just make sure he's not dead in the morning'. They are actually monitored round the clock, so while you're at home in your comfy bed dreaming of the delicious breakfast you'll have in the morning, the vets looking after Fido are up all night ensuring your beloved dog doesn't cark it (by the way, those vets probably won't even get breakfast, and they probably didn't even eat dinner that night either because they were so busy).

I know before knowing anything about this industry I though vets were filthy rich and thought I'd be a stay at home girlfriend living the high life while Liv goes out and earns the big dollars, it's obviously come back to bite me in the bum, unless she specialises (many more years at uni) or opens a very successful clinic, I'll still be digging holes for a living. On the subject of clinics, and again the cost of taking your animals to the vets. Imagine starting up a business (say a cafe), the general costs involved, insurances, equipment, lease etc. Now imagine how much more risk would be involved if you had 100s of thousands worth in equipment, much higher insurance premiums as well as much higher costs for a lease and then trying to get a loan for said business earning $45-70k a year? Sounds difficult right? Well it definitely would be, the money you pay to the vet, doesn't go straight into their 3rd Ferrari fund, it goes to the costs of running the clinic (which none of the treatments or medicines are government subsidised) and then usually the vet running the clinic will take home less than an average wage, definitely sounds worth it hey?

So just remember, whenever you take you beloved pet to the vet and think the overall treatment costs are high, there's a vet working tirelessly trying to fix your pet, even though in their last consult they had to euthanise someones dog because they simply 'didn't want it anymore'. Veterinary suicide rates are 4x higher than the standard adult population. I know I'd be pretty damn depressed if at least once a day I had to essentially kill someones pet.”

To those within the industry or in veterinary related schooling, what are your thoughts of this particular case?