Career Advice on How to Become A Veterinarian

General Career Information

If you like animals, then there is one job that you might want to seriously consider placing on your career planning or job search list and that is the career of veterinarian. Veterinarians work to keep our four-legged friends (and occasionally two-legged where monkey caregivers are concerned) in good health. This can be tougher than it sounds, as many animals are prone not take care of themselves the way they should and often fail to practice proper hygiene. If you doubt this fact, spend a few hours with a dog or a cat. As a result, our animal friends can often be less than healthy. When your pet or an animal that you care about is in poor health, often it is the veterinarian that is your pet’s best friend. They may not want to see the veterinarian, but usually it’s for the best.

Career Facts:

Veterinarians focus on treating sick animals and maintaining the health of healthy animals. This may mean that they see a wide variety of animals, and it also means that their knowledge base must be rather large. Dogs and cats are far from being the only animals that walk into a veterinarian’s office everyday. Veterinarians need to be able to treat such diverse animals as birds and ferrets, rabbits and pigs and maybe even the occasional lama, horse or donkey. While the majority of a veterinarian’s patient may be dogs and cats, their knowledge base must encompass a very wide range of animals of all kinds.

Career Opportunities and Job Outlook- Excellent:

Due to the fact that most people can no longer afford health care, the outlook for veterinarians in the coming years looks excellent. Well, technically veterinarians have not begun treating humans in any widescale fashion, but who can say. However, what is certain is that veterinarians should see a substantial swelling of their numbers in the coming years. Between 2008 and 2018, the number of veterinarians in the United States is expected to jump an impressive thirty-three percent. No surprise, this is due to more people becoming pet owners.

A Day in The Life:

The average veterinarian no doubt spends most of the time with a variety of cats and dogs, as they are mankind’s most frequent companions. However, all sorts of less common animals may make an appearance as well ranging from parrots and ferrets to snakes and spiders. Oh yes, a spider as there is nothing sadder than a sick spider. Those other insects don’t just kill themselves you know.

Veterinarians who are working primarily with livestock will have a much different workday experience. Their work may largely center on administering drugs and vaccines. Further, they will be dealing with livestock animals such as cattle, sheep and pigs than with human pets. Yes, we eat some and love others, go figure it is what makes us so delightfully complex and interesting.

Average Salary:

The average veterinarian can expect to earn about $79,000 per year with the top ten percent earning about $144,000, which is some serious chicken feed.

$79k

Career Training and Qualifications:

After completing a college degree, would-be veterinarians can expect to spend about four years working on their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees.