Idiopathic Issues

If you find yourself working in small animal general practice after graduation, there’s a good chance that you will be asked to perform canine genetic testing. In some practices, such as Banfield^® hospitals, genetic testing is viewed as an ordinary component of canine preventative care.

In other practices, genetic testing is an option that is available when clients specifically request it (which may happen rarely or frequently, depending on the practice).

It’s a fully-booked surgery day in your first job as a new grad veterinarian in a busy general practice, with four spays, two neuters, and several dentals on the schedule. As you perform pre-surgical exams on your patients for the day, you notice that one of your spay patients, a Maltese puppy, is extra-tiny and a bit on the skinny side (BCS 3/9).

The remainder of her physical exam is normal, but preanesthetic blood work reveals multiple liver enzyme elevations. You also note mild hypoglycemia and hypoalbuminemia, along with microcytic anemia. Your mind immediately jumps to the possibility of a portosystemic shunt (PSS).

As you enter the home stretch of the match application period, you may find yourself wondering if your application efforts (not to mention the expense!) will actually pay off and result in an internship.

Fortunately, the VIRMP releases an annual report highlighting the most recent year’s Match Statistics, which can provide helpful information to help you assess your odds of matching to an internship or residency.

There are two types of people: the obsessive planners and the go-with-the-flow types. If you’re in vet school, I’m going to assume that you’re at least a little bit of a planner… but sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what to plan for, or how to create the best possible plan. 

As you approach vet school graduation, you will be making a ton of decisions and doing a lot of planning. From choosing your first job to finding an apartment, there will be a lot of change and a lot of decisions to be made. In the midst of all of that change and upheaval, it’s easy to put your finances on autopilot. You will likely have more income as a new grad than you do as a vet student, so you may be tempted to assume that everything will “just work out.”

When I graduated from veterinary school, I conducted what felt like a very thorough job search. I applied to a lot of practices and had a lot of telephone interviews. I asked a lot of questions during those telephone interviews and narrowed the field down to five practices, spread throughout the southeastern US.

I then made a whirlwind road trip, visiting each practice for an all-day “working” (observational) interview. After that trip, I narrowed it down to two choices. I made lists of pros and cons, reached out to former associates, and felt confident that I had made the right decision.