How Diverse Can I Be?

[Biomajir]

This is probably going to be a question for people that have already graduated or are close to it, but anyone with any experience is welcome to answer. My main area of interest is exotic animal medicine, I really want to get boarded in avian medicine and surgery. I also really like fish medicine, and was hoping to make "pond" calls in my off hours as a side business. As I get more involved in school, I have also realized that I find small ruminants interesting as well. Is it possible to be this diverse? I know you can have "interests" in all of this, but is it practical to actually try to practice medicine on all of these? Can one doctor see birds, reptiles, dogs, cats, fish, llamas, and goats? I don't want to just "take a look" at these animals, I really would like to be knowledgeable enough to treat and even do surgery on them all. Maybe I am just being overzealous, but I don't think so.

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[elefante7]

If you worked at a zoo you could definitely see all of those animals...

 

[dottoressa]

That's pretty cool. I am sure if you dedicated to it, you could master as many species as you'd like. Have you taken any comparative anatomy courses? I imagine there's a significant amount of overlap and concepts that apply broadly between species.

I, on the other hand, worry that my track might be too narrow for schools to want to consider me. I really only want to practice equine medicine. I wonder if that would be undesirable for vet school admissions committees and would severely limit my options later ...?

 

[aretoo]

I am only in first year so I can't really answer the OP's qu well - but for dottoressa - I was the same when I was applying (still am) and there's a few people in my class who are as well.

My advice to you is to *make sure* you keep an open mind (or more importantly appear to have done so). By that I mean make sure you work at a SA clinic, get some food animal experience, research if possible, etc. If they ask you what aspect of vet med you are interested in (for OVC we had to a write an essay answering this question), be honest and say that you are most interested in equine medicine (I believe that word I used was 'currently'). But also show that you are interested in other areas of vet med or are at least considering them. You will have to do 4 years of school that include all species - not just horses - and the curriculum at OVC anyway can seem somewhat SA-focused. So having a *somewhat* open mind is helpful, also (from what I've been told) for boards too.

Thankfully one of my interviewers was a horse person himself, so that was cool. (But he asked me a lot of horse industry-specific qus - so be prepared for that too!!)

 

[sumstorm]

You might also discover that your interests change or alter as you go through vet school. I don't know about 'pond visits' but the is a possibility for ruminants, birds, and others in exotics/zoo med/lab med.

 

[StealthDog]

Ah, you can totally make pond or tank calls as a vet someday!

 

[Biomajir]

I have read on VIN about quite a few vets who make "pond calls". It sounds like it would be really interesting. They just charge a basic house call fee, then you charge for mileage after a certain point. One woman I read about has her own "lab" in the back of her van and does everything pond side. Would just be something fun and interesting to do on the weekends maybe.

 

[sofficat]

I'm like the OP. I want to be able to be a great vet for every species! I don't know exactly how reasonable that is, but I'd like to think it is possible. The closest I've come to it was when I did an externship at a clinic in Florida where they saw dogs, cats, exotic pets and any wildlife that came through the door. That was really super neat because you never knew what the day would bring! I'm thinking that is the kind of place where I'll want to end up.