SPVS Minutes - Week 2
10/3/06
Speaker - Dr. Roberts, veterinarian from Northwood Animal Hospital
-For becoming a specialist, extra school and a 2 year residency needed. Certification needed in some areas of veterinary medicine (ie. avian). Good to take an internship at a different vet school for a different perspective on veterinary medicine.
-Veterinary medicine knowledge doubles every 7 years - need to continue to attend seminars to be knowledgeable of recent finds and improvement on techniques.
-Having your own practice allows you to make your own schedule and gives you lots of flexibility.
-Relief veterinarians are in high demand (veterinarians that don't deal with the business aspect in the animal hospital), especially emergency relief veterinarians.
-In order to manage your own practice, you need to obtain a business license (to do taxes for your business, etc.) and need to develop management skills.
-Dr. Roberts was 32 when she bought her own practice for $132,000.
-Dr. Roberts encourages not becoming a full time veterinarian if you have a family, so you can be with your family more.
-Typically, the busier an animal hospital is, the more generalized it becomes (because there is not enough time to run time-consuming special procedures or practicing specialty techniques).
-Every year, admission boards have a different emphasis for its accepting class (GPA, animal hours, certain classes, etc.)
-To get accepted from vet schools, need to have something that makes you stand out from the rest.
-When applying to vet schools multiple times, continue to make changes and update your application (this will increase your chances of getting accepted if they see improvement). It’s also good to retake classes at junior colleges to show you’re making an effort to improve your GPA.
-Age doesn't matter when applying, only how much you've accomplished.
-Make sure you have a backup plan if you don't get into vet school right away (get a masters degree or PhD).
-Take business classes during school if you plan to run your own practice.
-The only licenses you can obtain for working with exotics are in the zoological specialty (working in a zoo) or the avian specialty areas, nothing else!
-Dr. Roberts animal hospital practices a lot of general medicine, surgery, and works with various animals (domestics, large animals, and exotics).
-Different veterinary careers: military vet (treat the animals that work in the military), inspect meat (go to school for another 3 years after vet school), and working with animals in underdeveloped countries.
-Working as a kennel attendant or a technician assistant is the best way to start out getting experience and getting good recommendation letters for vet school. Make sure you are able to move up to a technician or technician assistant to gain lots of experience!
-There are always new things to learn in practice. For these cases, material can be referenced in books from vet school, different online resources, and/or www.vin.com (veterinary information network) for all of the latest information and references needed for cases.
-Grades in vet school don't matter (unless applying for residency or an internship, they could be possibly looked at). Typically, students tend to get the same scores on exams.
-After graduating vet school, completing residency, and passing the state boards, you are able to go into practice.
-Demand for emergency medicine relief doctors.
-If you become a member of VMCAS, you are sponsored to continue your education and gain more experience with techniques through their various seminars. These seminars are for presenting recent research and improvement on techniques to keep vets updated (instead of going to school for another 2 years or more).
We greatly thank Dr. Roberts for coming to our meeting and sharing her knowledge and advice with us. She has also extended an offer for anyone that wants to observe and volunteer at Northwood Animal Hospital.
Gayle R. Roberts, DVM
(949) 559-1992
13925 Yale, Suite 115
Irvine, CA 92620
www.northwoodanimal.com