Veterinary Medicine
Amber Hunt, DVM – Blissfield Veterinary Service
Hello, my name is Dr. Amber Hunt and I am a veterinarian practicing small animal general medicine and surgery, currently working in Blissfield, MI.
I have always enjoyed being around and caring for animals. At about age 10 I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian when I grew up because I wanted to be able to help animals who were sick or hurting. Most of my friends at the time (as well as into my high school years) also wanted to become veterinarians but as they slowly learned more about the profession, changed their minds. I grew up with horses and a variety of other animals on our small farm, so dirt, manure, hair, blood, and hard work were part of my (almost) normal everyday life and my desire to become a veterinarian wasn’t swayed.
I attended Siena Heights University (class of 2002) and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. The SHU science curriculum was very challenging but I feel I had gained an excellent science background and was prepared to step into graduate classes with a solid knowledge base as I took on veterinary subjects like anatomy and physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. After graduating from Siena Heights University, I attended Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine (class of 2007).
After graduation from veterinary school, I became an associate at a small animal practice for a couple of years before joining a different practice for seven years as an associate. In 2016 I became owner of Blissfield Veterinary Service and stepped into a new role as a business owner in addition to practitioner.
A typical workday for veterinarians is typically atypical. In general, there is a daily schedule with patient appointments, surgery slots, and scheduled breaks for lunch or meetings. One of the first things I learned after entering the real world is that our computerized schedule is more like one of our patients, a living breathing entity that is always changing and not always in predictable ways. I have always worked in a general medicine practice. A general veterinary practice is a lot like your own family doctor. We see a variety of appointment types including routine wellness and vaccination appointments, sick patients, injured patients, and anything in between. Veterinarians, like physicians, rely heavily on support from nurses. Veterinary nurses (a newer term used more recently in place of veterinary technician) are a critical part of our team. Nurses and their assistants work with doctors and will perform much of the care and treatments for our patients, as well as assist in surgeries, or just about anything else that comes their way. Most of our patients who are sick or injured can be managed during a daytime appointment and sent home for continued care by their owners (outpatient care). We are also a hospital; some patients need to be hospitalized overnight for more intensive care or monitoring (inpatient). True emergencies do exist and when they happen everything is dropped to care for the emergent patient. Thankfully these are rare. We do see many seriously sick or injured patients who will need to be added (sometimes creatively) into our daily schedule but are not necessarily a true drop-everything-else type emergency.
Even though most general practice veterinarians are a lot like your family doctor, I will add in addition to the above daily duties as your pet’s family doctor we are also your pet’s dentist, surgeon, behavioralist, anesthetist, nurse, radiologist, obstetrician, and possibly part of end-of-life decisions.
Veterinary medicine is really an advanced field. Some vets may be out in the hot sun in a field castrating calves or freezing in the cold in the middle of the night in a client’s barn delivering a foal who needs help coming into the world, but others may be in a state-of-the-art veterinary teaching hospital evaluating a CT scan prior to an advanced surgery for a pet with cancer. Some vets may be traveling to farm calls by themselves and working from a truck or van that carries their supplies while others may work in a hospital with support teams behind them to provide services like anesthesia or general patient care. There is a need for veterinarians in all types of practice. Veterinary medicine has advanced to the point where almost any treatment that can be done for people can also be done for pets.
Alternative career paths to a general practitioner can include research or governmental work like monitoring the animals or animal products used in the food industry. Veterinarians can also specialize after graduation and pursue further residency or fellowship training to specialize in things like oncology, surgery, ophthalmology, and the list goes on. As a general practitioner I really appreciate the availability of specialists so I can refer my patients for specialized diagnostics or procedures that we normally wouldn’t do in our clinic, or if we need help caring for animals with conditions that haven’t responded to conventional treatments.
It is important to note that once you graduate from veterinary school, the learning has only just begun. I will daily refer to online resources and forums or collaborate with associates in the clinic about cases to make the most medically current and sound decisions for our patients. Medicine is always evolving and improving so we are expected (and obligated by law in most states) to maintain a set amount of continuing education credits.
Veterinarians are sometimes looked down upon as not being “real” doctors and just spending their days petting puppies and kittens and “playing” doctor. I’ve had people joke about their pets biting me or my coworkers. The truth is, sometimes we do get to play with puppies and kittens, and those are the best days, but an animal bite is a serious health risk to anyone working in the veterinary clinic. Veterinarians are trying to find out what is wrong with a patient who doesn’t speak our language, or whose nature it is to hide their symptoms. Veterinarians deal with animals of not only different species, but different breeds within that species, and all the systems (cardiac, GI, respiratory, etc.) of that animal. Animals don’t always use the same body language as humans do and their behavior can also vary greatly between species of animals, so we must learn how to read signs of pain, illness, etc. between the different animal types. There are physiologic differences between animal types as well. For example, one medication may be extremely safe and effective in one type of animal but deadly to another type of animal. Some of those animals are happy to interact with us and some can be very dangerous and yet still in need of medical care.
The other part of learning after graduation in the real world comes when new veterinarians realize that animals are all somehow tied to humans. If prospective veterinary students don’t want to enter a field that demands human interaction, this is not the field for them. Pet owners are generally very observant of their pet’s symptoms or changes and we depend on them for a lot of the information that isn’t found in a physical exam. It is the care and concern for their pet that drives our business. The human-animal bond is strong. It can apply to someone with a cherished family dog or the cattle farmer who not only cares about their animals, but whose livelihood also may depend on the health and productivity of their herd. Interacting with owners can take on many forms, it can mean routine questions about when the animal started limping or if the owner wants a preventative screening blood test for their pet. Pet owner interaction can become very emotional at times especially with the subject of euthanasia. No class in school can truly and fully prepare graduates on how to handle a grieving family when their animal is dying unexpectedly of an illness or injury, or how to help them make the decision to stop an animal’s suffering whose age related problems can’t be reversed or when medicine can’t cure a disease . These are real and sometimes weekly interactions that I had to learn on the job.
Another on the job lesson is that outside the walls of the veterinary school classrooms, money is usually an issue for pet owners. The cases students study and use to formulate their diagnostic and treatment plans in school usually have no financial limit. This will not always be the case in the real world. Managing budgets and dealing with unexpected expenses is something everyone has experienced at one time or another and it is no different in veterinary medicine. Medications can be expensive, treatments can take weeks, and diagnostic tests may be helpful and available but always cost money. Currently, medical insurance is not as utilized in the veterinary field as in human medicine, so the costs pet owners pay are mainly out of pocket. It has been said that veterinarians are expected to practice gold standard medicine on a third-world budget. To some extent this is true as we are upheld to accepted standards of care and using cutting edge diagnostic tools to help improve our ability to diagnose and subsequently treat our patients. The cost is left to the clinic (to purchase the equipment and medication/supplies) and the pet owner to pay for the use of the equipment and expertise of a trained, educated, and licensed staff. There are no multimillion-dollar insurance companies behind us waiting to pay the bills. So, we are left to practice the best we can with the resources we have to work with.
The previous few sentences bring me to my next concern for prospective veterinary students. Veterinary education is expensive. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reports the average educational debt for 2016 veterinary school graduates, including those with zero debt, was over $143,000. The average for only those 2016 veterinary school graduates with debt was over $167,000 and over 20% have at least $200,000 in debt. This should really be contemplated by students as veterinary compensation will not come close to what our human doctor counterparts will be earning. Average salaries will vary by choice of practice (small animal, farm animal, specialty, etc.). I encourage everyone to investigate the AVMA salary data online.
Many students can find pre-vet school experience by shadowing veterinarians, working part time jobs for veterinarians, or even virtual experience by online resources. Animal experience in general is helpful whether it is medical related or not. Volunteering, 4-H, FFA, summer jobs on farms, etc. can all provide you with valuable general animal experience. Interpersonal skills are so important in veterinary medicine and any additional education in areas like speech, time management, debate, counseling, and related subjects can all be helpful.
For students who are looking into applying to veterinary school I recommend you consider your goals, the demands of the profession, your motivation, and the financial commitment seriously. There are both rewards and challenges to pursuing a veterinary career and only you can decide if it’s the right path for you. Veterinary medicine can be very satisfying when the right goals, lifestyle, aptitude, and expectations match up. The world does need more dedicated veterinarians so if this is something you have a passion for then I welcome you to our veterinary community! Best wishes for your future.