Turning Your Love of Animals into a Career as a Veterinarian
Credit: Fido Journalism
Most of us have heard about those people who determined what they want to be at an early age. We’ve all seen the movies or heard the parents say my son is going to be a doctor or my daughter is going to be an astronaut. You may not exactly be that person and are still trying to figure out what you want to do when you grow up. However, in the case of a few veterinarians choosing to work with animals as a career came early.
“I guess it’s one of those things I wanted to do as a child and I figured out all the steps I would need to go through, the schools the experience and lots and lots of education. It’s something that I’ve known I wanted to do for a very long time,” said Candace Watts, DVM a veterinarian at VCA Lewis Animal Hospital in Columbia, Md.
For Dr. Watts, it wasn’t something that was influenced by television or films like Dr. Doolittle, she always loved animals and wanted to help people. “We’ve always had animals. I grew up with pets. Maybe I figured out early on I wanted to be a doctor and then knew I loved animals. I put the two together.”
Dr. Watts graduated from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 2005. After high school she decided to attend Penn State where she received her undergraduate degree in Animal Bioscience.
She notes that veterinary school is something that you have to be disciplined about and the staying on top of your academics is important. She doesn’t think you have to figure out that you want to be a vet as a young person, just be a good student so that when and if you choose it as a career you are prepared to take that step.
Credit: Fido Journalism
“There is a lot of schooling that goes into it,” said Dr. Watts. “Determination goes a long with it. Moving forward, you are going to have to go through years of college and the competition to get into a vet school is pretty steep …it’s that much easier to get into medical school so its something that you are going to have to work really hard at.”
She says her ability to help people and animals is one of the key factors why she became a veterinarian. “My motivation is probably more the help that I do and service that I provide, something that I truly enjoy,” she said.
For Elton Vyfhuis, who grew up in Washington, D.C. and attended Benjamin Banneker High School, becoming a veterinarian was also an early choice but one he had to be determined about. “I was into the sciences and when it came time to pick a career I was leaning towards the sciences, being a veterinarian was always there but I grew up in DC so I didn’t have a lot of veterinarian role models,” he said.
He had to wait a while before he actually got a dog as his first pet, but since that time he’s had chickens, rabbits, snakes and other types of exotic animals to interact with. Dr. Vyfhuis’s early interest in animals led him to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore where he majored in animal science and graduated with honors and decided to attend veterinary school at Tuskegee University in Alabama.
This year, Dr. Vyfhuis along with another graduate of Tuskegee’s Veterinary program Dr. Nia Perkins, opened their own practice called Paws, Purrs & Exotics Animal Hospital, in Alexandria, Va.
Dr. Vyfhuis says his hard work in the undergraduate program prepared him well for the tough rigors of veterinary school, which just like medical school takes four years of study.. “I tell students now who are in undergrad either pre-vet majors or preparing to go to vet school is learn those veterinary courses and learn them well because it makes it much easier when you add on information and throw another level of information on top of it,” he said.
While there are hundreds of medical schools, there are only 28 veterinary colleges in 26 states in the U.S. Competition is stiff. While you do not need to major in veterinary science as an undergraduate you will need to take a course load.
Today veterinarians can become general practitioners who handle basic issues with pets and often emergency situations or you can become a specialist and focus on a select type of animal or issue. There are about 20 specialty areas that include internal medicine, oncology, pathology, dentistry, nutrition, radiology, surgery, dermatology, anesthesiology, neurology, cardiology, ophthalmology, preventive medicine, and exotic small-animal medicine. These specialty areas may require a residency and additional certifications. For general practitioners, they can usually start working after graduating from vet school.
Veterinary science doesn’t just prepare you to become a vet; it reaches into all aspects of society and includes working for the government, research, medical, agricultural, and science industries as well.
Dr. Vyfhuis says those considering becoming a veterinarian should start now by expanding their networks and volunteering to be sure that this is what they want to do?
“Start building your networks now whether it’s volunteering because the same clinic I volunteered in high school is the same one I worked at the past seven years and that’s the clinic that taught me a lot of what I know. Get linked with a clinic and start learning to make sure this is what you want to do because some people go through vet school and then realize that this is not what they want to do.”
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Here are a few helpful sites that may help you to make decisions about a career in veterinary medicine.
*The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), established in 1863, is a not-for-profit association representing more than 78,000 veterinarians working in private and corporate practice, government, industry, academia, and uniformed services. For more information visit: http://www.avma.org/
*A veterinary practice in action – www.pawspurrsandexotics.com
*Link to veterinary school sites and helpful information – http://vet.osu.edu/5780.htm
*Bureau of Labor Statistics – Information on becoming a veterinarian http://www.bls.gov/k12/nature04.htm