Vet school things

Is studying veterinary medicine right for me?

A common question I get asked by people that I meet for the first time, when they know I am a vet student, other than ‘are you vegan?‘ is “awww, that is so cute, have you always wanted to be a vet? You know, I wanted to be a vet when I was little too….”

Obviously everybody’s story is different. In this post, I will first explain my story and if you are not interested (I don’t blame you, time is a precious commodity!), you can scroll along until the advice section where I list some tips to help you decide if studying veterinary medicine is for you!

So, how did I know that I wanted to be a vet/ go to vet school?

When I was in my last year of high school (17), I remember my Mandarin teacher talking about careers that can make a meaningful impact on the world, and that got me thinking, how do I want to spend the rest of my life? What kind of working environment do I envision for myself? I knew I didn’t want to work at an office desk my whole life and wanted to incorporate an outdoorsy component to my daily life. And then I realised that I wanted to work in an environment with animals, so I decided to see if maybe, being a veterinarian is what I really want to be.

My second choice of profession was to be a paediatrician. (3rd choice was to be a florist! If anyone was interested) I guess I had a passion to help beings that do not have a voice, fight for their rights and take care of them. I remember googling ‘should I be a paediatrician or a vet‘ in the past and came across an article written by Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of the late Lee Kuan Yew. At first, she was also deciding between being a vet and paediatrician, but decided to become a paediatrician anyway (after her father’s advice). This is quite common in Asian cultures (at least in Malaysia), where most people think that being a human doctor is infinitely more prestigious/ rewarding in terms of monetary gain/ respectable than being a doktor haiwan (translation: animal doctor in Malay, but it is inked with some connotations to being seen as ‘just a livestock vet’ mostly in Malaysia, in my opinion at least). I had to disappoint some relatives who preferred it if I took the human medicine career route, but 17 year old me had this opinion that there were many doctors and just not enough vets at present. I reckoned if most people became doctors, who will step up to save the animals? Not many people have close relationships or know much about what goes on in a vet’s life. This often leads to certain consequences. This TEDx talk by Dr. Melanie Bowden explains some challenges that vets have to go through daily that most clients are unaware of.

So, after having this realisation that I wanted to study veterinary medicine, I decided to do some work experience to prepare for university applications, to make sure that the job environment and lifestyle were suitable for me.

I did a couple of weeks shadowing a (very old fashioned yet kind) vet at a local small animal practice, who allowed me to observe his day to day proceedings. It was only then that I faced my preconceived ‘fears’ of blood and gore by observing a spay operation. If I passed out, that’s it, I thought to myself, I can’t be a vet. Trust me, I was very scared at first, held my breath as the vet made his first incision.. Then, I took a breath. Yay, I didn’t pass out. Jokes aside, it really wasn’t that bad. I was quite glad I did that so when it came to dissections at the vet school I was not fazed too much.

I also spent 40 hours volunteering at the national zoo. The national zoo was situated quite far away from home and I did not want to burden my parents to take me there every day for a week (~1 hour depending on traffic conditions, public transport took 2 hours, these services did not start early enough for me to be at the zoo at 7am). So how did I overcome this? I annoyed my friends and asked them if they wanted to go volunteering at the zoo with me (friends with cars, conveniently). Each day I went with a different friend to volunteer at the zoo and we would rake dried leaves, pick up droppings of weird and wonderful animals together (We even sawed a bunch of logs to build a fence post for the goats😂). We made many fond memories that I have kept in the form of old school Instagram posts. Thank you to my dear seven friends, who made it possible for me to achieve those work experience hours and helped me to be where I am today.

I also did some animal-related charity work to ‘boost’ my CV and clock in more hours of work experience. Volunteering at the local animal shelter PAWS, raising funds for PAWS through the Interact Club at school *link to the 2011 short news article * were one of the things I did back in the day. I realised that I do love working with animals, even if its sweeping animal faecal matter, sweating in the heat, the ‘unbearable’ animal smells- trust me, it really ain’t that bad!! I would always finish work feeling fulfilled. That was how I decided that, yeah, you know what, I think I can/ want to do this.

Wanting to work with animals is great, but oftentimes these jobs do not pay well. Hence I thought that by combining my nerdy side I could become a vet and (hopefully) be paid slightly better. That is pretty much my story on how I decided to study veterinary medicine!

Some tips and advice to help you decide if studying Vet Med is for you!

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! Spend some time at your local animal shelter, local vet practice or local zoo. Email/ ring them/ turn up at their establishment and offer some help. If you can, shadow a vet to see what a day in their lives look like. They may get you to do a lot of cleaning in return, but bear in mind cleaning after your patients is also part of your job in looking after them!
Do some online research! With the internet you can search up pretty much anything these days. I would recommend watching Melanie Bowden’s TEDx talk explaining what being a veterinarian really takes *link*, follow some vets on social media who post about their life (of course exercise caution, not everything you see on social media is real!), or sub to my youtube channel *shameless promo* *link* – where I will be talking about my final year vet school experience when it starts in September.
Read! I read James Herriot’s books and found them really inspiring, I have also listed some links to other blogs and other useful resources here
If you are in the UK, some universities conduct Open days where they take potential applicants on a tour in the vet school and around Cambridge just to see what it is like. Due to the current pandemic they are hosting virtual open days instead *cambridge link* *RVC link*, so you can even view them from the comfort of your own home!
On the academic side of things, I would consider looking at what subjects are you most interested in to help you guide your decision. The subjects you love most tend to be the ones you are better at as well, seeing that you are more likely to spend time revising them! For the vet course, most universities prefer science A level subjects (Chem, Bio, Maths) but I have compiled a table listing them here
Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses to see if you would enjoy being a vet. I feel like vet work not only involves scientific and critical thinking when working up cases but it also requires patience, empathy and communication skills when dealing with pet owners. Being on work placements made me realise that managing your client’s (pet owners) expectations is a pretty key part to the job. I used to be one of the people who would jokingly say “oh I dislike dealing with humans, that is why I want to save animals instead‘. However avoiding owners is not really an option (although it may be different in COVID times) and people skills is something that I am constantly trying to work on! However, it is worth bearing in mind that being a general practice vet is not the only career pathway you can take post-graduation as there are many other alternative career pathways from doing a vet degree!

Finally, I sincerely hope this post has given you some form of direction on deciding whether you want to pursue vet studies. Deciding to commit to 5 or 6 years of veterinary studies at such an early age is daunting and a pretty big deal!! (Looking back, I probably should have given it a little more thought, but I am still enjoying the course thus far so *fingers crossed* no regrets!) This is probably why most universities prefer you to apply with some form of work experience so that you can be sure (or somewhat sure) that you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Wishing you guys all the best! If you enjoyed this post or not, or have any questions, don’t hesitate to use the contact form to contact me 😊

5 things I wish I knew before going to vet school

1. Costs – tuition fees + placement expenses + cost of living in the UK

Vet school can be quite costly. Besides tuition fees, you also have to pay for your expenses while on EMS placements and also feed yourself during term time. Multiply that by 6 (or 5, if you are on a 5 year course) and it amounts to quite a sum (compared to being on a 3-year degree). Multiply it again with the currency exchange rate of your country…. then cry.

2. Average salary of a vet in the UK

piggy

Yes I am one of those people who didn’t conduct thorough research to find out how much a vet earns because surprise surprise, not all vets are in it for the money!! The starting pay of a new grad vet can vary, but average between £28-30k/ year (sources: my new grad friends, so probably not the most accurate). This of course depends on what type of practice you go into and the location of your practice. (Eg., London jobs have slightly higher wages due to the higher cost of living) A quick google search shows that the vet degree is on the higher end of the fresh grad salary spectrum, comparable to foundation year human medics, and sits at the 5th position of the International Pay League table when comparing vet salaries across 11 European countries, plus the USA and Australia. In short, the pay is actually not that bad, in fact it is actually pretty good. However, the pay increment doesn’t look very appealing when compared to other professions like business, economics, law and computer science. A survey done has shown that UK vet salaries are stagnating or in decline. To quote my housemate,

you can probably get a better paid (corporate) job with a less demanding degree

While that is a very bold sweeping statement, it is me assuming that a degree to obtain a corporate job involves fewer years of studying, fewer exams and manual labour (think mucking out at the stable or farm). I feel like most people go into vet because they want to help and save animals, so the money factor is probably not the main attraction when applying.

3. Your non-vet peers will graduate way before you do, and it will feel weird.

society

When I applied, naive Mayy was like ‘meh, 6 years is not that long, it’ll be fine‘. Little did I know that the FOMO (fear of missing out) would kick in when I would see my peers graduating and moving onto adult life, having the earning power and being independent, getting engaged, buying a house, having babies etc.. Or the awkward conversations at family or friend reunions when people ask you ‘wow, you’re still at university? I thought it was your final year last year! Aren’t you ashamed to be the only one your age as a fresh grad?‘ – I kid you not, the number of times I have to put up with these conversations I just…. I have no advice. Except that prepare to learn and be comfortable with seeing your peers advance in life while you are still at Uni, remember that life is not a race no matter what society tells you,

“Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt

everyone is living life at their own pace, societal pressures may be there, but why should you care? You will be carrying out meaningful work providing a service to the animals and the job satisfaction will be worth it! (I hope, well, stay tuned for my future post when I realise that job satisfaction may not be what it seems).

4. You learn anatomy by doing dissections on an animal carcass.

In the first 2 years of vet school, we learnt anatomy through doing dissections on euthanased dogs. These early morning dissection sessions involve being in a lab filled with the stench of formalin, cutting through a cold corpse that bled loads (depends on your dog tbh) to learn about the origin and insertions of muscles, nerve location etc… Lets just say you do not want to be present with a hangover after a hard night out! Fast forward to clinical years, we still conduct post mortems (PMs) occasionally, bearing in mind that conducting PMs can be a common job for a farm vet to identify the pathology which led to the death of a farm’s livestock so it is pretty relevant task to do.

Why do I wish I knew this? So that I could have mentally prepared myself before rocking up to the lab to be greeted by a couple of animal carcasses and the stench of formalin, stinging my every orifice. Thankfully, I got used to it pretty quickly.

5. The academic workload can be quite intense (especially at Cambridge), but necessary

revision

In pre-clinical years (the first 2-3 years of uni) we learnt about animal anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, principles of pathology, principles of neurology, reproductive biology + animal husbandry…etc At first it felt like I was studying a pure science degree (which wasn’t what I had in mind when I signed up!), and at times I would feel frustrated and stressed learning endless lists of drugs, their mechanism of action to minute detail or the optimum pH of silage (which by the way, is 4.2, it has been ingrained in my head now), repeatedly questioning myself if this knowledge is even relevant or useful for veterinary work.

Now, being in clinical year, as much as I hate to admit it, the ground work covered in the first 3 years was actually useful/ necessary to understand the process of a disease and the best management strategies to treat or control it. Also, it gets better in clinical years. I find the content that I am learning now is more interesting and applicable to vet work, so I definitely feel a lot happier in being in clinical year. To those reading this article in pre-clinical years, hang in there friends, for the best is yet to come! 😊

ps: I didn’t realise this until like 5th year, but finding out what study method works best for you early on can help you be an efficient student, making the workload much more manageable. I would write more about this but I think it should be a post on its own!

There are probably a lot of other things I wish I knew before going to vet school, but these 5 things came to mind. What did you wish you knew before going to vet school? Leave them in the comments below! 🙂

EMS as an international student – woes and how to get around it

EMS = placements at vet practices/ animal-establishments for 2 weeks to learn/practice skills animal handling and seeing clinical work.

Before vet school, I had no idea that EMS placements would take up a lot of time and money. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love being on placements, it is one of the only times where I feel like I get to do some clinical work (under vet’s supervision), interact with the clients, puppers and actually feel like I’m closer to being a ‘proper’ vet!

In this post, I will talk about my struggles, how I overcame them and how despite the little challenges, I am grateful and privilege to learn and grow through many placements. Before I begin, just putting a disclaimer out there saying that everyone’s experience is different and that this is what has worked for me (so far!)

My struggles

1. No car

Not having a car can be a bit of a hassle depending on where your uni is located and what type of placements you have to carry out. In my case, I found finding farm placements the trickiest because A: there are very few farm places around Cambridge (East Anglia), B: they are usually located in secluded areas only or most easily accessible by car (in comparison to small animal practices, stables located near areas with good public transport access) And if they are easily accessible, you’d have to find accommodation nearby (either walking distance or have access to public transport, more on that in point 2) and hope that they are willing to take you.

Hence, I’d feel envious knowing my friends have the freedom of choice to drive wherever they want to and stick all of their stuff in the car boot and not worry about lugging all their equipment across many train platforms and buses to get to the placement. Oh and at Cambridge you can claim money for mileage expenses too.

“so why don’t you just get a car then?” well that costs money. Not only would I need to pay for the actual car (buy or rent one £300), I would have to pay for driving lessons and take a test to get a provisional drivers license which costs a lot of money (£150-250) (Singaporeans get a free pass at this since their existing driver’s license is recognised in the UK) ☹️ Since I didn’t fancy putting in effort/ money to get a car, what did I do instead?

public transport – very obvious answer, i know! Tips include: get a 16-25 railcard, it saves you so much money (1/3 off your ticket price), link your railcard to your oyster card too. When finding placements, I always email/ check where the nearest train station is and work from there if its feasible (walking distance, etc). I also email the placement provider to tell them I am an international student without a car to check if its feasible to do the placement. This is more for farm/equine vet practices, as may limit what ambulatory cases you can see (eg., some vets prefer you to drive and tag along behind them to see cases, whereas some have space in their car to take you while they are out on calls). Get a pair of comfy shoes, pack light and your enthusiasm to brave the journey.

carpool with friends – I was immensely lucky to have support from my friends. They were really kind to let me carpool with them to certain placements (it was on their way, or we would be going to the same placement we had organised together), and in return I would either compensate in terms of costs, cooking/ baking for them or be the road trip DJ etc. This is harder to emulate, since everyone’s situation may be different, all I can say is if you can organise to do a placement with a friend, do it, its a lot of fun, but if you cannot, don’t worry, public transport is always an option.

Other tips: when emailing for placements, mention to them that you don’t have access to a car- they might be able to pick you up from the train station (but don’t take it for granted- remember that the practices do not owe you anything so don’t be an entitled brat)

2. Lack of accommodation

On the topic of organising farm placements (again, I know), since they are the trickiest to arrange in my opinion, whenever someone said “oh I have grandparents up in the Lakes” or “oh yea I will be staying with relatives in Yorkshire”, a pang of jealousy would hit me and I would think ‘oh, how nice for some‘. It doesn’t make sense to me to complain that it is unfair or anything, since I made the decision to come to the UK to study and really love it, so I don’t really have the right to moan. (well, let me just be salty for a little, haha) Without making a big deal out of this issue any further, here are some options that I have taken in the past that has helped me get around this situation. (Oh and this is after I have exhausted the vet school’s database for placements that provide accommodation)

when applying, I ask the placement if they provide/ have staff that are able to offer a room to rent (I have paid about £10-20/ night for these rooms in the past)
hostels – some places are located near hostels which are about £15-20/night
airBnB – the price range for this varies tremendously since it depends on the location (if it is a touristy area expect higher prices, if it is a working area they may offer discounts for long-term stays of 14 days)
friend’s house – free! + sell your soul (I kid, but you can try to ask friends if they are willing to rent a room to you, or do a placement with you, or offer to house-sit/ cat-sit/ dog-sit/ baby-sit in exchange) I have been so lucky in the past (thank u friends and my Da Yee (aunty)) for being so generous to host me/ feed me during placements!!!!

So far in pre-clinical years I managed to stay with friends for 4 placements, my aunt’s for 1 placement, at the farm for lambing (usually they offer you accom) for 1 placement. In clinical years I have done 4 placements at home in Cambridge and MY (ideal situation), stayed with practice staff for 2, stayed at an airBnB for 1, and was set to stay in a hostel in Orkney for 1 but got cancelled due to COVID-19 (yes, I was willing to travel far and wide just so I can go to a farm placement that had accom nearby!)

3. Finances

Using simple maths, (simple because maths is not my strong suit, only got A instead of an A* in A levels sadly) a typical placement costed me £260.

expenses example

Things that I could have done to reduce the cost: book train tickets earlier, or look for bus options, reduce the cost of my groceries by cooking cheap and easy meals (which I might write about in the future).

The RCVS requires us to carry out 12 weeks of pre-clinical EMS and 26 weeks of clinical EMS (pre-COVID days), so I would have to repeat this whole process of finding placement + accommodation + transport + money 19 times (assuming each placement duration is 2 weeks).

Although it can sound a little overwhelming, and at times I was pretty stressed out when I kept getting rejections/ places getting booked up/ not meeting my species minima requirements… in the end it was still doable for me because..

It was a total of 38 weeks of placements spread over 6 years (12 weeks in 1st to 3rd year, 26 weeks in 4th to 6th year), so there is enough time for you to do your planning
I got support from the vet school (you get £10/day allowance for placements in clinical years which helps)
I worked part time at my college library, cat-sitted to cover some costs
College has an academic fund to which you can claim your EMS expenses (only started this year but better late than never!!)

If you have read until the end of this post, I hope you found this info useful and relevant! I feel like the ‘struggles’ of a vet student’s life is rarely spoken outside of vet circles, and prospective students should go into this knowing what lies ahead. I hope this doesn’t intimidate you about the admin work involved in organising EMS (in other uni’s it can be a different process, some organise them for you, some don’t. Personally I like the freedom of deciding which placements to go to and love being at Cambridge so yeah), instead I hope this post reassures you that regardless of how overwhelming it may seem at first, it can be done with support and determination. 😊

Final few tips

get looking early! ask seniors in advance, book places early and send out loads of emails because if you need a place that provides accommodation and is close to the train station, you have fewer options compared to others who don’t have any conditions
try not to feel demoralised with your situation and think of it as a way to be inventive and able to save money at the same time!
ask for help if you need. Seek help from your vet school to work things out. Besides that, I am more than happy to share with you which placements I have been to, just message me!

Mind set(s) to have on the first day of EMS

It is okay to feel nervous, you are entering a new environment and meeting new people. I always found it awkward as you are not sure where to place yourself. But a wise friend once told me ‘it is only awkward if you think it is‘. Sometimes we have to tell that inner voice that everything is fine and that everything will be fine.
Familiarise yourself with your surroundings and equipment – this will come in handy when it gets busy and the vet says ‘could you grab the otoscope/slide/ xxx from the other room’ and you can be helpful and resourceful/ impress the vet (and yourself) with how quickly you are able to adapt to a new place. 😎
SMILE ! Be kind to vet nurses and other staff. Remember, the vet student is at the very bottom of the food chain. 😂
Be curious and don’t be afraid to ask questions- BUT make sure you ask them at the right time (ie. not during a busy consult, in front of pet owner (discuss with vet beforehand if it is ok for you to do so)
be PROACTIVE- most vets love it when students want to learn, ask questions and engage with them! Don’t just sit and scroll on your phone/ quietly when in the car with the vets out on a call.
Be genuinely interested to help the staff, they would really appreciate it, and are more likely to let you know when interesting cases/ procedures are booked in for the week!
BACK YOURSELF – when you are asked to do a task you are not confident in doing (ie. putting an IV catheter for the 2nd time in your life), you can tell the vet what you’ve done in the past in vet school, and would like some guidance/ appreciate if they talk you through this. Remember the only way to get better at something is to actively do it!
Don’t be taken aback or go into defensive mode if/when they ask you to help do clean up work.
- Context: You have done 5 years of vet school, only to be asked to clean up after a dog that peed all over the consult room/ clean the litter box of the practice resident cat. It takes a hit to your ego and you don’t want to do it in the slightest. (trust me we have all been there) Take a breath and remember that helping the vet/ vet nurse/ staff will help them help you in the future. After all, you want to get the most out of your time while at placement, so don’t sulk about it and lend a helping hand.
- Obviously if they keep asking you to clean stuff and you miss out on the consults etc try and have a chat with them and politely ask if you could help them clean after you’ve observed in a procedure/ consult. Or if the vet/ vet nurse has time, try and ask them to go over bandaging or suturing patterns with you (if you find yourself hanging around with nothing much to do on a quiet day)
- I personally would try and stick it out until the end as leaving the placement halfway would mean rescheduling and going through the hassle of booking more EMS. But if its reaaallly bad then you know..
You may meet some ‘mean’ vets – the ones who avoid the EMS student at all costs, do not acknowledge your existence etc.. Try not to resent them, I feel like everyone has their own reasons (busy day/ point in their lives) and we should respect their choices if they want to interact with us or not.
Similarly, you may meet some really great vets! In that case, thank them and show appreciation and gratitude for their teachings. ❤️