How do I get a vet to let me "shadow" them?

Post Reply New Topic

You need so many hours of expirience in the feild to even be CONSIDERED for vet school. Almost everyone is saying you don't need to worry about that kind of expirence until college. I'm still in high school. I want to get some first hand expirence of what it's like to work in the feild so I can see if I really want to be a vet in the first place. It isn't worth it for me to even bother finishing high school if I decided I didn't want to be a vet or if I somehow couldn't. Plus, they say the earlier you get the expirence, the better. Every vet I ask keeps saying no or gives the stupidest of excuses. I want to write an email to the local vet and ask, but I'm clueless as to how to word what I want to say.

First of all, it is worth finishing high school even if you decide that being a vet is not for you.

I had to shadow lots of doctors to get into medical school, so I will tell you what I told doctors to let me shadow them. Although I will also add that if vet school is like med school they will mostly be concerned with your shadowing during college. Also doing volunteer work at a hospital as a candy striper, as there are some similarities in between medical and veterinary medicine.

If you have a vet that you take your own animals to, that would be the best place to start as you already have a relationship with that vet.

Say that you are wanting to go to vet school, and you are wanting to do some shadowing to have a better picture of how the veterinary field works.

If this does not work you might ask around the different local vet offices if they need a secretary or extra office worker/assistant for the summer.

Yo dont even think of dropping out. get the diploma and do as good as you can. I wish i could go back and redo my HS years but i cant. I graduated but i coulda done alot better. I would just go ask some vets and try to work something out. Maybe volenteer some of your time if they let you follow them for a bit. You get the experience and they get free labor, just mop floors or something like that. Bottom line it would be a win win situation.

No, finishing high school IS NOT worth it to me if I cannot be a vet. Nothing is going to change my mind so let's drop that right now.

I've TRIED doing all those things you suggested. Every vet I ask gives the BS excuse that their building is "too small" for any volunteers. I've said I want to go vet school but that dosen't change ANYTHING with them.




What did I just tell the other person about finishing up high school? I'm 25 already for Heaven's sake! I don't want to spend the rest of my life trying to get a deploma or degree when I knew I couldn't do the one thing I wanted. There's no age limit for vet school but I still think it's very silly and a waste of time to try and finish high school if I knew I could never get into vet school. I wish people would stop telling me to give it up already and have another goal in life such as being a vet tech because I see no point in life itself if for some reason I could not be a full fledged DVM. So shut up about telling me to finish high school no matter what already! It's not going to happen and if anyone else says that here, I'm just going to ignore them.


Every vet I talk to claims they don't need any "volunteers" and is always giving the same BS excuse that the building is "too small".

Do not ask to volunteer, ask to observe them at work for a day or two.

That might work! Thanks for the idea!

Why not volunteer at a local animal shelter? That will give you experience of working with animals and people, and you would be able to build up a relationship with the vets who work there.

Generally speaking, it requires about 8 years of schooling to become a vet. That would be 4 years of undergraduate school and an additional 4 years of post graduate school. In either case, just to get to undergraduate school you need a GED or HS diploma and your grades have to be high as some of the prerequisites like Anatomy & Physiology, chemistry, biology, and calculus are difficult to pass.

Yes.
Stay in school and dissect whatever animals they put in front of you in labs. Gotta keep that GPA up to get into college.

You might try to get experience with animals other ways- like (as someone said above) volunteering at an animal shelter, or volunteering at the zoo (getting a paying job at a zoo is difficult), or working on a farm or a ranch.

The animal shelters here don't have a vet.




Thank you, Captain Obvious!

I think you need to really rethink that a bit. You have to make money to support yourself in life, even if it's not exactly what you want. It's going to be very hard to find a job without a high school diploma, and often you have to pay for GED classes. It would be extremely logical to consider a backup plan.

To shadow a vet; just write an e-mail saying that you are considering going to college for to become a vet and would like to shadow him and that you understand you may not be able to do anything but you'd still like to observe.

Some vets may not want the liability, or the hassle, but I am sure you will find one.

Are you near a school that offers a vet science program? You might be able to find out who they work with for their students. A vet that already has student's working with him/her is probably more open to an observer.

See about getting a job as kennel help to start with. That gets your foot in the door.

I worked as a vet tech for a while, but I had had some medical experience. Lots of places are willing to train their own vet techs and you can even learn to do workups, cat neuters, anesthesia, labs, euthenasias, dental cleaning, and some minor surgeries. It's not that hard, but you have to be able to be professional with the clients and also get along with the doc and staff.

If you go into an interview with a vets office with an "I loooooooove animals so much" type thing, they usually don't hire you. They get a lot of that. Telling them that you are considering being a vet is good, and lots will hire you on for something once they know you are serious about it. I didn't want to be a vet but I needed a job and they needed a trainable tech, and I told them I like to learn and don't consider anything to be useless knowledge and that's how I got the job.

My younger daughter is looking at doing some kennel help work at our vets office this year. She's 15 and wants to do something with animals when she grows up. She's considering marine biologist or some sort of animal research or a vet, she's still young and unsure, but like you she wants to find out about whether or not she would be interested.

I'd suggest typing up a letter and mailing it to local vets. Tell them your age, your ambitions, what you are looking for, etc. List your strengths, things you want to learn, goals you have for the job. Mail it to every vet's office that is feasable for you to get to for work. Put "Salary negotiable" as well. Volunteering is iffy because of insurance issues, I understand. Paid help is much better for them, but also don't expect more than minimum wage.

Good luck!


ETA; I just read your responses to other suggestions in this thread. I'd strongly suggest that you leave that particular attitude at home when looking for any job, paid or volunteer.

Thats a good idea.

Im not sure that shadowing equals learning. how can you expect to learn anything if you are following people around all day? like sheeps dressed in morse code?

You can learn a lot from shadowing, especially if the person your shadowing doesn't mind teaching. You also get to see how things work in the real world vs how they work in books. I have found shadowing to be a more valuable learning tool since you are actually there, hands on, seeing (and sometimes doing) the things.

I was quoting this, as I thought that by observing skills to serve your own you are essentially acting as monitor for someone else, they appreciate the audience much like they prefer to operate on a bypass from any given donor.
I really appreciate the advice i'm just not sure id take it.
Observe and pay dividends to a worthwhile cause or cash a look at what a legal injection will cost you when you remind yourself not all dogs are lucky and go to heaven wrapped up in sheepswool. The last bleat gives the last bahh.