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When people find out that I’m a vet, they often tell me they dreamt of becoming one when they were young. It’s a common dream job for children and I was the same.
I was especially keen on horses and, because I was good at science, becoming a vet seemed a logical career that would allow me to combine my love of animals with a solid qualification that would stand me in good stead.
From the age of 15, I spent my holidays working on farms, in riding stables and at kennels, getting experience under my belt to boost my application for vet school. I wasn’t paid for a lot of these jobs but they were really enjoyable. I also needed to get at least three As in the sciences at A-level to qualify for a place.
My training took six years. When I was at university, the tuition fees were £3,000 a year; they are now triple that. It’s a huge amount of money and veterinary graduates of today come out with a huge amount of debt.
I changed my mind about becoming an equine vet while I was training. I realised I enjoyed working in a team and a lot of equine practice is solitary, driving from visit to visit alone. Looking after horses can also be a very dangerous job. You hear awful stories about vets being severely injured from kicks so I decided to stick with dogs and cats.
I’ve been a small animal vet for around 10 years. My days are really variable and that’s one of the things I love about the job – you never know what’s going to walk in through the door. I might be doing a consulting shift where I hold 15-minute appointments in three-hour chunks. Then there are operating shifts where you are performing pre-scheduled operations.
That’s often a lot of neutering of cats and dogs and dental procedures. There will also be emergency procedures, for instance when an animal has just been hit with a car. I also have some inpatient shifts where I’ll be in the animal hospital trying to work out what is wrong with our patients and create a treatment plan.
My week is usually four 11-hour shifts but we often stay late. On average, I’ll do one night shift in a fortnight and I’ll work one weekend in every six.
I earn around £50,000. It’s a good salary and I have a comfortable life but I don’t think vets are well paid when you consider the amount of training we go through, the cost of that training, the hours we work, the stress and dedication that goes into the job – particularly when you compare us to similar professions such as dentists and doctors who can expect a much larger salary.
What bothers me the most is the public’s misconception of how well we are paid. I think a lot of people think vets are paid more than we are. If I told certain friends and family what I am paid, they would be shocked.
Sometimes angry clients will say, “you’re only in it for the money, you don’t care about my animal,” and that is a hurtful comment. Veterinary teams are made up of highly qualified and intelligent people and if we wanted to earn more money, we would be doing something else. We are all in it because we love animals and we really care about pet owners.
One of the hardest parts of the job is navigating the financial concerns of our pet owners. Every day I suggest treatment options to clients who can’t afford them. It happens all the time and I do understand how expensive veterinary care is. It is extremely difficult when someone has an ill or injured pet and they can’t afford treatment.
It’s heartbreaking for everyone involved. It’s frustrating for us vets because it’s very difficult not to be able to do your job and treat an animal in the way you’d like because of the cost. But ultimately, veterinary practices are not charities, we are businesses and need to pay staff and cover overheads.
I wish the public had a better understanding of the value of veterinary care. Human medicine is so subsidised in this country through the NHS that we have no idea how much healthcare costs. We don’t know how much an X-ray or a course of antibiotics costs.