ER Veterinarian By: Kara Koob

Education and Training Vets are required to have Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degrees and be licensed by the sate. Also you could have a bachelors degree. If you don’t have a bachelors degree you need to have between 45 and 90 undergraduate credits. Potential veterinary students also need to submit VCAT, MCAT, or GRE scores. You would need to complete a four- year program at an accredited college of veterinary medicine. There are 28 colleges in 26 states that meet these requirements. The estimated cost would be from $150,000 to 250,000. The years that you would need to go to college would be approximately eight years.

Job Skills, Talents, and Experience For this occupation you would need to have a love for animals and have a lot of patience. You must also be able to communicate with the animals. You can get more experience in veterinary schools but you must have more than 1,000 hours of experience working with animals to be able to apply. I am suited for this job because I am good with animals and I have lots of patience with them.

Earnings Standard beginning wage for being an ER Vet would be $43,000 annually at low end, $70,000 annually at median, and $118,000 annually at high end. The maximum salary would probably be any where from $200 to $431. It all depends on what kind of training you have had and what kind of degree you have. Also it depends on what you are going to do, if you are going to be in the field or if you are working in the offices. Some of the expenses for starting a vet career would be schooling, supplies, live animal purchases, and pet services.

Benefits/Health factors You can get paid vacation, sick leaves, and holidays. You also can get paid group and health insurance. There are some diseases that pets may have that, if the vet taking care of it isn't responsible, could get sick from the same disease. The other benefits include a retirement plan, base salary, overtime pay, holiday pay, and a lot more.

Employment Outlook Excellent opportunities are excpected The different programs and job availabilities vary, depending on your location and your work experience. The greatest potential growth is in positions in which specifications prefer or require post graduate education molecular biology, laboratory animal medicine, toxicology, and lots of other specialties. Being a vet is always considered in-demand.

Advancement Opportunities Most veterinarians start out as employees in established practices and when you become experienced you can set up your own practice or buy an established one. Good communication will help a lot in advancement because you have to work together on most of the things you do. It would help in advancement if you had a bachelors degree and becoming a veterinary technologist to increate advancement opportunties.

Typical Day Vets working with smaller animals would diagnose animal health problems, vaccinate against diseases such as distemper and rabies, medicate animals suffering for illness or infections, treat and dress wounds, set fractures, perform surgery, advise owners about animal feeding behavior and breeding, and euthanize animals when necessary. Vets working with bigger animals would provide preventive care to maintain the health of food animals, test for and vaccinate against diseases, consult with the farmer or ranch owners and managers on animal production, feeding and housing issues, treat and dress wounds, and perform surgery.

Typical Day The average vet will work a forty to fifty hour week in a private practice. There are some vets that are on call 24/7 and may work over eighty hours in one week. It depends on who you are and what you are doing that day, but the best part of the day could be saving an animals life or being able to diagnose something that is wrong with a pet so you know how to treat it. It could also be the joy of making people happy. The hardest part if the day would be performing surgery, or not being able to find the problem. I think that the most challenging thing would be having to tell somebody that their pet past away.

Aptitude I have always loved animals and I am really good with them. T am kind and gentle to them. I like all types of animals so that would help when I become a vet so I can work with all types of them. I have lived on a farm all my life and have taken care of horses, cats, dogs, goats, chickens, and rabbits. This will also help when I am working with them in the vets office or out at a farm.