DVM+MD joint degree program....does it exist?

[Doctor-S]

I realize that this is an old thread, but I wanted to add to it.

I'm one of those ba*-**** crazy MD/DVMs. I am a family physician (but also am trained/boarded in emergency medicine), and also a wildlife veterinarian (DVM, and a DVSc in zoo/wildlife medicine & pathology). The bread-and-butter career is as a family doc, but I also keep up with the wildlife stuff and serve as the consulting vet at the local wildlife rehab facility.

I did the MD first and racked up the commensurate boatload of debt from that degree. I then did 18 months of a general surgery residency and realized during it that I still wanted to go back to vet school, so switched to family med/emerg med since that was a better career choice if I wanted to work while I went to vet school. I did not go into further debt for my vet degree. Instead, I worked part-time during the academic year and full-time during the summer as an ER doc at the local hospital and at peripheral rural hospitals during evenings & weekends when I could fit it in. After my DVM, I went straight into a 3-yr zoo/wildlife residency (combined with the DVSc degree).

My patients love that I'm a dual MD-DVM. So does my lawyer brother whose only advice to me was, "don't mix up the samples!"

Anyway, it's doable to be both an MD & DVM, it's rewarding, it's interesting, and in my opinion it's a fun way to live a life that we only get one chance at living!

Great post - thanks for sharing comments about your career path - very interesting - and well done!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[JaynaAli]

I'm glad it worked for someone without crushing debt. I do wonder, however, how long ago these degrees were earned? With current medical and vet school debts what they are, I worry that if anyone tried in this day, even with a "doctor" salary, they may struggle after being in debt. I can't imagine managing to earn enough picking up shifts on nights and weekends all while studying for vet school to fund veterinary school tuition, but I also don't know the realities of what relief doctors are paid.

 

[nyanko]

I mean, you can be bat**** crazy and kind of cool at the same time.

 

[LetItSnow]

I mean, you can be bat**** crazy and kind of cool at the same time.

Bingo.

I still say it's bat-**** crazy. Doesn't mean it's not worth doing.

 

[killerleaf]

We had a resident a few years ago that was a DVM, had a career for a few years, then came back and did MD. He is now practicing human medicine, and large animal on the side. Loving every minute!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

According to her(?) profile, she graduated med school in 1995 and vet school in 2003. So not super long ago or anything, but I also know that tuition prices have grown exponentially since then, especially starting with the 2008 recession.

Still, it's definitely some impressive stuff, and it sounds like you have an awesome career, @SkyeDJR! As someone with interests in both human and veterinary medicine, I might even consider a path like yours if only I wasn't already in debt from undergrad and vet school and it were more feasible.

Given the mention of DVSc and the current profile location, this was also in Canada. That's also going to affect the money issue here.

 

[SkyeDJR]

That's correct - all of my training was in Canada.
MD - 1991-1995 - managed entirely on student loans and part-time jobs galore
Gen Surg residency (partial) - 1996-1997 - was incredibly broke because I didn't qualify for the student loan relief program because I made about $10/yr too much (!!!) so could barely make ends meet throughout all of my residency years, and made no headway on paying off student loans because I was barely able to pay rent & eat let alone afford the loan payments
Family Medicine residency - 1997-1998
Emergency Medicine residency (3rd year add-on to Fam Med) - 1998-1999
DVM - 1999-2003
DVSc - 2003-2006 (almost went bankrupt because I could work as an MD while taking graduate courses in the first 8 months, then I was too busy with the research & clinical medicine side of the program so was the poorest I've ever been for the last 2 yrs of the program).

There's no way I could have done it in reverse. I relied on the MD income in order to pay my way through my DVM & the first part of my DVSc. And, after I finished the DVSc, I had to go to a northern/remote area and work as an MD to earn some fast cash to get back on track (northern/remote MDs are paid better because of the isolation & "manage everything that comes through the door" nature of the work). I could not have paid my way through med school on a DVM's wage, plus add the poverty-level income that residents earn for their post-grad training. Those were bare-bone years, that's all I can say!

 

[LetItSnow]

That's correct - all of my training was in Canada.
MD - 1991-1995 - managed entirely on student loans and part-time jobs galore
Gen Surg residency (partial) - 1996-1997 - was incredibly broke because I didn't qualify for the student loan relief program because I made about $10/yr too much (!!!) so could barely make ends meet throughout all of my residency years, and made no headway on paying off student loans because I was barely able to pay rent & eat let alone afford the loan payments
Family Medicine residency - 1997-1998
Emergency Medicine residency (3rd year add-on to Fam Med) - 1998-1999
DVM - 1999-2003
DVSc - 2003-2006 (almost went bankrupt because I could work as an MD while taking graduate courses in the first 8 months, then I was too busy with the research & clinical medicine side of the program so was the poorest I've ever been for the last 2 yrs of the program).

There's no way I could have done it in reverse. I relied on the MD income in order to pay my way through my DVM & the first part of my DVSc. And, after I finished the DVSc, I had to go to a northern/remote area and work as an MD to earn some fast cash to get back on track (northern/remote MDs are paid better because of the isolation & "manage everything that comes through the door" nature of the work). I could not have paid my way through med school on a DVM's wage, plus add the poverty-level income that residents earn for their post-grad training. Those were bare-bone years, that's all I can say!

Would make for an interesting book / (auto)biography.

 

[twelvetigers]

I mean, you can be bat**** crazy and kind of cool at the same time.

*nods*

 

[that redhead]

I realize that this is an old thread, but I wanted to add to it.

I'm one of those ba*-**** crazy MD/DVMs. I am a family physician (but also am trained/boarded in emergency medicine), and also a wildlife veterinarian (DVM, and a DVSc in zoo/wildlife medicine & pathology). The bread-and-butter career is as a family doc, but I also keep up with the wildlife stuff and serve as the consulting vet at the local wildlife rehab facility.

I did the MD first and racked up the commensurate boatload of debt from that degree. I then did 18 months of a general surgery residency and realized during it that I still wanted to go back to vet school, so switched to family med/emerg med since that was a better career choice if I wanted to work while I went to vet school. I did not go into further debt for my vet degree. Instead, I worked part-time during the academic year and full-time during the summer as an ER doc at the local hospital and at peripheral rural hospitals during evenings & weekends when I could fit it in. After my DVM, I went straight into a 3-yr zoo/wildlife residency (combined with the DVSc degree).

My patients love that I'm a dual MD-DVM. So does my lawyer brother whose only advice to me was, "don't mix up the samples!"

Anyway, it's doable to be both an MD & DVM, it's rewarding, it's interesting, and in my opinion it's a fun way to live a life that we only get one chance at living!

Did you become boarded with AAZV or just finish the residency?

 

[SkyeDJR]

I did not do the AAZV boards. I finished the residency & got my DVSc.