Dr. Jennifer Stachnik from the Niagara Frontier Veterinary Society is here to talk about veterinary careers. Most people are familiar with veterinarians that exam cats and dogs but there are other options in veterinary medicine. Dr. Stachnik says they definitely rely a lot on their veterinary technicians, they are like the nurses of the veterinary world. She says this is vet tech week so we want to shout out and celebrate all our amazing technicians; we couldn’t do what we do without them. We also have amazing veterinary assistants and reception team that help us a lot in the veterinary field.
Dr. Stachnik, says as veterinarians ourselves, there are other paths available. There are veterinarians that see exotic pets, like birds, ferrets, rabbits and turtles. There are also veterinarians that see production animals like pigs, and cows and chickens and make sure those herds of animals are safe and healthy and there are veterinarians that work with horses both at racetracks and farms. Dr. Stachnik says there are vets that work for the government and also in regulation that inspect meats and make sure our food supply is safe, that work on import and export of animals and there are veterinarians that do research and are especially involved with the transmission of diseases between people and animals and developing new treatments for animals or researching things that will eventually impact human health in an animal model. She says we do have veterinarians teaching in veterinary schools and teaching veterinary technicians. There are vets that specialize in lots of different fields so like surgery, dentistry, behavior, oncology, radiology, dermatology and more. She says just like in human medicine where there are different specialties, there are often a veterinary equivalent specialty in that regard. It just may not all be available in one given area. There are veterinarians that are employed with the military and help to keep those service animals healthy and help in cases of disease outbreak.
Dr. Stachnik says there are lots of different options if you are considering a career in veterinary medicine and it is a very rewarding and interesting field.
For more information visit nfveterinarysociety.org
