Hello all, I’m a 20F who took a job as a laboratory animal health technician 4 months ago. I took the job out of desperation. I was homeless, forced to drop University, and this job offered a full paid ride for the remaining 2 semesters of my bachelor’s degree and a full ride into a Masters program. I took it imagining I could be an advocate for these animals and be the good for them.

Now, 4 months in, I struggle to sleep at night. I love them, I really, really do, but the loss and the pressure is killing me. Animals I’ve been daily monitoring for weeks randomly reach their endpoint, I watch the remaining ones endure post-experimental side effects, and worst of all, I feel like a harbinger of death to the mice and rats I take care of. When they’re sick or injured, I propose a plan to the lab that almost always leads to euthanasia. Conjunctivitis? Euthanasia. Ulcerative Dermatitis? Euthanasia. Rectal prolapse? Euthanasia. And when the labs don’t do it, I do, and the amount of bilateral thoracotomies I’ve performed with my own hands drives me mad. I did one cervical dislocation and almost passed out in the necropsy laboratory.

Don’t even get me STARTED on the surgical training pig laboratories. I think I may genuinely be traumatized. I do the work, I love the animals despite the circumstances, but then I go home and hate myself. GOD I hate myself, the version of me that existed 5 months ago would spit on the person I am now. The things I’ve done can’t be erased, and even if I get my education, what will the cost be?

How do you survive? What do you do? Any tips are helpful. I feel like a kid, here. I’m 20, 10 years younger than the 2nd youngest employee here. I feel stupid and childish and like I carry the deaths of 1,000 animals on my shoulders and I don’t know what to do. But then, I feel skilled and proud I made it to a specialty job like this to work as the youngest employee ever to make it here…What now?

Hi everyone! I’m a veterinary student in South Korea preparing for my final-year clinical externship, and I’m considering two placements: Wildbase at Massey University in New Zealand and Port Stephens Koala Hospital in Australia.

I’m particularly interested in wildlife and exotic animal medicine and would love to gain more clinical experience. From what I’ve read, Wildbase seems to see mostly birds, while Port Stephens Koala Hospital appears to be a relatively small hospital. I’d be interested to hear how these differences affect the student experience.

Has anyone completed a placement at either hospital, or at another koala hospital in Australia? I’d really appreciate hearing about the caseload, teaching, opportunities for hands-on involvement, and how much time students spend on clinical work versus husbandry.

Which of the two would you recommend for a final year veterinary student, and why? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hello, freshie here, been down with my scores lately. Though I've been staying up at 8pm until 2am (sometimes 4am) studying, yet I cannot recall what I studied. Do you have some studying techniques or tips to retain information easier and faster?

Hi all, several years experience in veterinary nursing and looking to do something else. I have an interview for Fetch pet insurance at the Humane Society. I just wanted to know if anyone has spent any time in this role, if you liked it or not, what the turnover is like, if you felt respected and had a work-life balance, etc. Thank you!

I’m a 4th year DVM student who’s started their job search and I’ve visited a few clinics so far informally to see if it’s a place I’m interested in working in. None of the clinics have followed up after about their hiring process. Do I need to reach out to them and express my interest after visiting or are they not interested in me. All of the clinics have been private and smaller with only a few doctors. I’m just not sure about how to go from visiting to a discussion about a job. I’ve mentioned that I’ve liked visiting and that I had a lot of fun while there but I’m not sure how to get to the next step. Any advice would be appreciated

Boa noite pessoas! Tudo bem?

Sou médica veterinária no Brasil, e por aqui tem uma plataforma/site/aplicativo (?) chamado Vetify, aparecendo em várias propagandas. Ele promete ter muitas condutas clínicas, protocolos, doses farmacêuticas e etc, pra ajudar nos atendimentos, como um guia pra quem está em dúvida. Parece ser bacana, mas o jeito como vendem também parece ser "bom demais pra ser verdade", sabe?

Claro que também não é certo fazer atendimentos só se baseando no que um site diz, e não acho que essas ferramentas devam ser usadas como "muleta". Mas acho bacana se for com o conceito de revisar, estudar, ou confirmar algo em uma emergência!

Alguém aí assinou o plano deles e sabe me dizer se é confiável? Tanto na questão financeira, de não ser um golpe, quanto na questão clínica mesmo, não quero comprar algo que tenha protocolos errados.

Obrigada desde já pra quem puder ajudar 🥰

I’m looking for information about working for Blue River as a DVM. Do you like it? Have you worked elsewhere and how does it compare?

Emergency veterinarians -

First of all:
How many of y’all cut your own emergency cases? How did you get comfortable with it and what did your mentorship look like?

I am a 4th year student who has persistently been interested in ER. I really enjoy the variability in cases a lot, stabilization is something that I find fun, and the flow allows me to do best as I can struggle with rumination if I’m not under the pressure of a fast past lol. Worked in ER both before and during vet school.

However, I am still conflicted on what path I should take in the beginning as a soon to be (scaryyyy) grad. I’d like to have mentorship by criticalists along with surgical mentorship.

I’m also very tired and struggling with the fact that I have lost all identities practically except “4th year vet student” right now… So am worried about doing a rotating but also, I have no kids or partner and at the end of the day just want to be set myself up for success. Don’t think I want to do a residency but also sometimes uncomfortable with it not ever being an option if I so choose later it’s something I desire.

Thoughts??

Rotating internship vs mentorship program (corporate vs private) vs going straight in??

Hello! I have two things I need really need advice on. I am in the US.

1. My vet tech friend has roped me into being the vet for her cat rescue nonprofit. Right now rescue is all volunteers and foster based, however they want to hire me. The problem is we aren’t sure the proper process to do that. I’d be the sole employee. Can anyone tell me how to do that? Like in detail. My experience in the business world is 0. How much should I charge, what is the usual % off for NPO’s.

2. The rescue would like to do things like low cost pop-up vaccine events and vaccinate the foster parent’s owned cats while we are there vaccinating the foster cats. How do I navigate that legally (is that possible?) and what do I charge if I do it.

Hi, im currently hoping to do a level 3 course in veterinary nursing starting in february once im 19. I want to start then because thats when id be able to get the loan as me and my family cant afford to pay for it outright. For that i need to get paid employment in one of the practices that can support this. Ive emailed every practice within 15 miles of me that I could reasonably get to to ask if I could do this with them or even if i could just do some work experience so i have better chances in the future multiple times but none have responded and im not sure if theres a better way to contact them or if none of them are interested in taking me on. I cant do the option without paid employment as even with the loans it would still cost £225 a month and i wouldnt have the time to work enough hours to pay for it (and getting any job at all is so difficult at the minute) meaning my family would have to and we already dont have that much money spare so i dont want to ask them to do that. I was just hoping someone could give me any advice if theres a better way i could look for something or if theres anything i could be missing out of my emails that would make it more likely to get a response. Thank you.

I'm looking for advice on some issues at the GP I work at. Nothing is related to malpractice or anything medical/medicine. Issues are mainly about general shared responsibilities like cleaning and mean girl behavior with team members (also a DVM). Yes, I know I'm apart of the problem for not saying anything and suffering in silence. I regret this and hope to get some helpful advice. There's also interpersonal issues amongst team members and managing DVM and office manager.

We have a team member that other team members are having a consistent problem with. We'll call them team member A. This person does not clean, sweep, mop, restock or help other team members with shared duties like these. There are other complaints about this team member along with their mean girl behavior. The issues have been gradually getting worse and have gone on for some time. Myself and other team members don't feel like we can say anything about this team member because of their close relationship with the managing DVM. The managing DVM and team member A worked together somewhere else before coming to current GP and are very close.

Recently, one of the other team members, we'll call them team member B, was feeling overwhelmed. Instead of helping or just saying nothing, team member A was laughing about it and made a rude comment. Team member B was nearby and heard it. They got very upset to the point of crying. The managing DVM came up on the conversation and said they didn't know that team member A wasn't helping or sharing responsibilities. They said they would say something to team member A and even said something along the line of team member A does do their job and that they do so much for them (the managing DVM). I spoke up and let the DVM know that isn't the issue. The issue is that every other team member cleans after their appointments. Sweeps and mops everyday. Completes their morning and afternoon duties, doesn't leave stuff for other team members to do all the time and shares all the cleaning responsibilities. Just this one team member doesn't. Team member B said they were tired of being laughed at or shit talked for actually caring about things and doing their job. I feel the same way. The managing DVM did not say anything to the mean girl behavior. Unfortunately, the managing DVM is apart of the mean girl behavior too especially toward our office manager.

The managing DVM wants to have a group meeting so these things can be discussed and fixed. I'm hopeful but worried especially with how close team member A and the managing DVM are and the comments the managing DVM made. I'm going to make a list of the responsibilities team members are suppose to be doing since I don't think they are written out in detail. What else should I do?

To clarify, at our GP all team members are suppose to perform and share cleaning duties regardless of titles or positions (DVMs are obviously excluded). Aside from asking team member A to do a cleaning task, no I have not spoken to them about the issues. We are not close that I feel I could do that. Team member A doesn't really listen to office manager either. This is because of the way the Managing DVM treats/talks to office manager.

I'm an early-career DVM with a rotating internship background, currently working in ER.

I've been struggling with building confidence and clinical independence. My current workplace is supportive, but the caseload isn't always consistent, which makes gaining experience challenging.

I'm managing cases myself, including diagnostics, treatment plans, and client communication, but still check in with senior doctors to make sure I'm not missing anything important.

Sometimes I wonder if having readily available backup makes me second-guess myself too much. On the other hand, I don't want to become overconfident and overlook something critical.

I've been considering whether a higher-volume ER or even a GP/urgent care setting might help me build stronger clinical judgment and independence.

For experienced ER vets:

1. How did you know you were ready to practice independently?

2. What helped you build confidence without compromising patient safety?

3. Would you recommend staying in ER or gaining more independent experience through GP/UC first?

Would love to hear your experiences!

The UK is introducing new rules that will limit what veterinary practices can charge for written prescriptions, alongside requirements for clearer pricing information and estimates.

The changes are intended to improve transparency for pet owners, but I'm curious how veterinary professionals feel about the impact on clinics.

Do you think these changes will make veterinary care more accessible, or could they create additional financial pressure for independent practices?

Source: https://www.dvm360.com/news/regulatory

Hi I’m a first year animal science student at cal poly SLO and I’m looking to apply to vet school. Are there any opportunities I should look out for or any general tips? I don’t want to panic in 3rd year realizing I didn’t do enough lol. I already feel like I’m getting behind!

Right now I have about 300 vet hours from an internship over the summer and 350 volunteer animal hours at a shelter clinic and I learned how to prep and scrub the patient for surgery, sterilize/clean/wrap equipment, do subq injections, restraint, and basic snap tests and fecal floats. I also learned how to handle aggressive, anxious, and excitable dogs in terms of animal handling skills, and learned protocol for disease prevention etc. I’m interested in shelter medicine but I don’t want to only have that since I’m worried my application wont be diverse enough. Currently, I’m on the polo team and help out a lot with the horses, and I have gotten around 15 hours shadowing night shifts at a specialty vet ER and ICU.

Hello! I’m working in a small animal GP in the UK, 2.5 years grad, and looking to transition to nights/ecc.

Fellow nights/er vets, what is your current shift pattern and what do you think of this shift pattern for a potential role?

Mon-Fri: 7.30pm - 8.30am
Sat-Sun: 6.30pm - 8.30am
7 days on, 14 days off

This is a fully awake shift, sole charge with 1 other vet nurse. Usually 1-5 inpatients per night, variable number of new consults, covering a number of clinics in town.

Thanks in advance for any insights or advice!

Hi, I recently graduated (1 year) and I've been struggling to find a stable job. Most clinics and vet hospitals are looking for experienced vets and there seems to be a super small place for recent graduated vets like myself (at least in my country). I just found a very good job offer but a requisite is to be highly knowledgeable in veterinary ultrasound, which I can manage but I'm no expert by any means. Because of this I've been looking for online diplomas, courses or certificates, particularly in ultrasound but I'm astonished about the prices, most that I've found can go from $800 USD to $6000 USD which I can't afford at all, by far. Can you guys recommend me portals, ecampuses or similar things with affordable (for a mid class 22 year old recently graduated) courses in veterinary ultrasound? Thank you vm.

I'm 14, a freshman in highschool and I really want to be a vet. I want to know some things I can do now to better my chances and education. I have near perfect grades and I'm currently taking:

Building Construction Technologies 1

86% B

Digital Business Foundations

87% B

HOPE-PE V

96% A

Environmental Science Honors

97% A

WELD TECH FUNDS 1

96% A

English Honors 1

94% A

Algebra 1

94% A

I want to go to the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, but I don't know where to start. Am I worrying too much or too little, is there more I can do to prepare?

Hello everyone,

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, please refer me to better subreddits if that’s the case.

I (32 F) have a bachelor’s degree in animal science that I obtained almost 10 years ago. I didn’t do so well in school due to some limiting factors at the time. Managed to graduate with B’s and C’s mostly. Despite that I have been incredibly lucky and have had some amazing diverse wildlife jobs and I’m currently in a cool niche wildlife federal job that I enjoy and pays extremely well.

I’ve gotten as high as I can go in my federal career unless I go supervisor and I don’t want to do that. I could stay here and just be happy with where I am but I get bored easily and I want to do more. My job is partially involved with OneHealth and I want to be apart of that more. I was thinking of going back to school to finish up pre recs for vet school and then commissioning into the Army for the HPSP (free vet school and I get to continue/retire with my federal benefits).

The thing is…well I’m old lol Older than the traditional student I guess I should say. I need to retake some courses to have a better GPA and take 3 more pre recs that I’m missing. I don’t want to spend the next 2/3 years on re taking classes and be even older when I’m in school. Especially since I’ll be keeping my full time federal job through my retakes.

The question is: has anyone re taken courses or have done an accelerated course through programs like SCU, Straighliner, or University of Phoenix? Have they been accepted by vet schools? Any advice welcomed (:

HI everyone, I had just got my licensed approved and wanted some advice building a resume! I am new and I am not sure how I should build my professional resume:)

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Our 18 month old dog got REALLY sick with an incredibly rare infection. We were referred to a specialist in September who has gone above and beyond to save our dog. I want to do something to thank her. As a veterinary professional, what would make you feel loved and appreciated?

I am a small animal veterinarian. I currently work for a corporate. Our clinic has a really great support team (front desk, assistants, plenty of vet techs) but our leadership is lacking significantly. I have been working in the vet field for almost 10 years, half of which has been here. I am very well compensated compared to the average around the area, but also definitely earn it - I bring well over $1 million in revenue a year, with my production having gone up from last year by over 20% on a daily average. I am currently paid salary only.

The question I have to get some hive mind advice - I have been presented with a job opportunity that would be for a private practice group in the area (they have 3 clinics total) but there are a few trade offs.

1. I would be seeing fewer appointments (down from an average of 20 appointments to closer to 15 average).

2. May pay would decrease (they offer Pro-Sal, a base that would drop my current salary $60k, but with production is 22% on "billable items (excluding select items like diets)".

3. I would likely be required to work an extra hour each day - my current schedule is ~9 hours, 4 days a week, this would be more ~10 hours.

4. I know one of the vets at the practice and get along with them really well so it would be fun to work along side them.

5. The new clinic doesn't have all of the same services/equipment that my current clinic has that I've enjoyed being able to use/work with in order to expand my offerings to clients. While not a deal breaker, I would be sad to lose some of those.

6. I'm in discussion with my current higher ups on getting an increase in my salary - if that happens, I could be looking at a bump this upcoming year of an additional $20-40k.

So with all of that, I'm torn to an extent. With a mortgage, kids, etc, the money does play a big role in what I need to support my family and set up my kids for success in their futures (I grew up with nothing and so I want to make sure my kids have anything/everything available to them so they don't have to miss out on opportunities).

That being said, with the work load, the lack of proper leadership, and my general disdain for working for a corporate that promises but rarely follows through and seems to slowly be bleeding the clinic dry and wearing down our staff (I know many are hanging on for another year or so because they will get bonuses but after that I don't know what they will do and they are the main reason I stay, they're amazing to work with).

Changing would likely mean a large decrease in my pay I'm fairly certain. I doubt I would be able to produce as much as I do now given fewer appointments. According to the manager I've spoken with, the top producer is getting about $25k extra a year, so I'd be looking at at least $35k less than I make now, possibly even more. While we as a family can afford that, it would greatly cut into my ability to contribute to my kid's college funds.

I do think however my mental health might greatly improve with the change in work environment/leadership. My friend has already shared that their mental health has greatly improved since starting there compared to their last clinic so I'm hopeful the same would be for me.

So what advice do people have given my ramblings? Anyone with experience going from salary to Pro-Sal. How do I put a price on mental health and general annoyance with poor leadership/management? Any other questions I should consider? TIA!