if you become a vet will you have to perform surgery on animals?

Question

i mean besides spaying neutering and declawing

Answer 1

~I don't think you've given enough thought as to what you want to be, since you don't know the answer to this question. The answer is yes. Had you been interested, you would have known. Good luck finding your calling.~

Answer 2

Animals can't tell you what is wrong, so yes, I can't imagine a vet who would not have to rely on surgery to diagnose or to repair problems. Maybe if you went into research (yuck) or lab work reading bloodwork, etc. Or maybe if you got involved with a large practice with specialists to do all the surgeries maybe then you could get by without doing surgery.

If you're willing to do vital surgery like spay/neuter or harmful surgery like declawing, then you probably will get used to other types as well. After all, what's the difference bewteen poking around while doing a spay and poking around while doing a foreign object removal or setting a leg?

Answer 3

I don't believe you will have to do any major surgery. My cat broke his leg in 6 places, and my vet couldn't fix it up, so I had to take him to a pet orthopedic specialist to do the operation. The clinic had animal surgeons and other specialists. Based on this, my guess is that no, as a regular vet you wouldn't have to routinely perform surgeries other than spaying, neutering and declawing.

Although, I would hope that you wouldn't do any declawing, because I feel that it is cruel and inhumane (I chose my vet because she refuses to do this operation) but that is a discussion for a different forum. :)

Answer 4

You don't have to, however in a realistic clinic situation, you will have to do surgeries besides spays, neuters and declaws. If you are in a clinic, you are likely going to end up with emergencies, even outside of the other regular surgical repairs and corrections you will be required to complete.

Answer 5

Yup all the time!! I work in a vet's office and just yesterday we removed a tumor from a dogs testicles ( and gave him a neuter at the same time) and 2 days ago we had to perform an emergency surgery on a dog that got hit by a car. unfortunately he didn't make it. he had a punctured lung. the vet business is rewarding yet heartbreaking at the same time.

Answer 6

Most likely yes.

Even if you find a job where you don't have to do it, you would still have to go through surgery training in vet school.

As a vet, why wouldn't you want to? In most cases when having to do surgery on a animal is to save it's life.

Answer 7

The other biggie will be removing coins, carpet, rawhide, rocks, and IPod Shuffles from dogs' intestines.
Also, dogs need to be fixed up after car wrecks (bone setting, maybe pinning the bones), they need bladder and kidney stones removed, they need their cancerous spleens removed, tumors slit open and scraped out, ears cropped, tails docked, dewclaws removed, teeth pulled, hips pinned in place, etc.
Vets tend to be jacks-of-all-trades, unlike human doctors, so unless a surgery is terribly exotic, it falls to the clinic owner and his team.

Answer 8

I think you probably would have to. But there are surgeons out there and that's what they are for.:) Planning to be a vet?

Answer 9

yes u will. thats almost the whole point of being a vet. thats one reason why i dont want to be one, but i want to help them.

Answer 10

Veterinarians come in all different kinds so you could be a sergeon or whatever so it depends on what choose to do.