Over the years, I have been asked at what age I decided to become a veterinarian. I think I was around 12 or 13 years old when I seriously considered veterinary medicine as a career choice. To get a sense of whether it was truly a profession I would enjoy, I volunteered at a local veterinary hospital when I turned 15 and was hired as a kennel assistant at 16. I worked full time during the summer and school vacation weeks and part time during the school year.
Although the position of kennel assistant is not very glamorous (mostly cleaning kennels and runs, bathing pets, restraining pets for examinations, and also assisting on farm calls), the exposure to medicine and surgery had a significant impact on pursuing a career as a veterinarian. On my very first farm call, I helped deliver a calf. Chains were attached to the legs, and we literally pulled her out of the birth canal. It was an amazing experience for me to assist in the delivery and watch the calf take her first steps. It is still an amazing experience for me to deliver puppies or kittens by Caesarean section and see the pups and kittens start to breathe and move around.
Working at an animal hospital during high school also made me realize how important pets are in our lives, and how much veterinarians are appreciated for the care they provide. Surveys have shown that veterinary medicine is one of the most respected and admired professions.
During my junior year in high school, I wrote to all 18 schools of veterinary medicine in the United States (there are now 28) to determine where I had the best chance of being accepted into their program. At that time, there was no vet school in New England. Tufts had not yet established a school. I found that the 18 schools gave first preference to applicants from their own state, second preference to applicants from a state that had no school, and third preference to applicants from states that had their own school. Being from Connecticut, I was in the second category.
During the next several weeks, I heard from all 18 schools and determined my best chance was at Michigan State University.
I applied to MSU intending to major in pre-vet and hopefully get in to the MSU School of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to required English and math courses, pre-vet courses focused on the sciences. I was also required to take courses in dairy production, beef production, and poultry science. As a land grant university, MSU has acres and acres of land devoted to livestock, crops, and research. Top quarter horses were bred and raised at one of the facilities as well as purebred cows, sheep, beef cattle, goats, and pigs. The dairy farm actually produced all the milk for the dorms and had its own ice cream stand. And let’s not forget the 18-hole golf course.
Pre-vet was very competitive and with the emphasis on science, I had only two elective courses. Because of this, I never had the opportunity to take courses in art, literature, humanities, etc. Today, students being accepted to vet school have a very diverse set of undergraduate degrees. Another difference today is that female students account for up to 85 percent of vet school graduates, whereas in my class of 50, there were just six women (very popular).
The first two years of vet school are spent mostly in the classroom and labs studying anatomy, physiology, parasitology, pharmacology, and other foundation courses. In fact, except for anatomy, we took all our foundation courses with the medical school students.
The next two years are spent in the on-campus teaching hospital. There are departments for small animals, large animals, and an ambulatory service for farm and stable calls. At this point, we were actually learning the art and practice of veterinary medicine: internal medicine, obstetrics, radiology, anesthesiology, surgery, oncology, etc. It is also time spent interacting with actual clients and cases, learning how to take a good history, physical exam and hone diagnostic skills.
Upon graduation, the opportunities for veterinarians are wide ranging. Although many of us go into private practice treating pets and/or livestock, there are internships and residencies available to pursue several specialties such as ophthalmology, neurology, surgery, cardiology, oncology, behavior, critical care, etc. just as in human medicine. Other opportunities for veterinarians include teaching, research, zoos, pharmaceutical companies, laboratory animals, epidemiology, food inspection, the military, and Foreign Service.
A veterinarian is able to touch the lives of animals as well as people, making it a pretty special career choice.
East Bare Hill Road resident Fred Karotkin is a veterinarian.
