Equine Vet?

Question

I whant to become an equine vet and I just whant to know for how long you have to go to school to become one and if you know any schools in california. And also anyother info you could give me. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi! You need to go to school and complete your regular four years usually in an undergraduate pre-veterinary program. From there you will do another 3 years at a graduate school.
If you want to get a Ph.D. you will need to undergo another 2 years.

In order to get into a good Veterinary Medicine college you normally need to be in the top 20% of your graduating class. The only accredited Veterinary Institution that I know of in CA is US Davis. They have a great Agricultural program and their Veterinary program is the only accredited program in CA.

However, since Veterinary schools are VERY selective, if you do not maintain your grades, you may not get into any program whatsoever or you may have to settle for a second best school. Some great Veterinary schools to look into are Cornell University (very prestigious), Texas A&M, Oklahoma State University, University of Georgia, Colorado State University, Louisiana State, and University of Tennessee.. There are several really great options and tons of Pre-Veterinary programs out there. Texas Tech University is one of the top 3 schools for Pre-Veterinary studies so you might want to check them out!

I chose Animal Science as my undergraduate major in a Pre-Veterinary program and Petroleum Engineering as my minor since both are heavily weighted in the Math and Sciences. If you are a female, you have a better chance of getting into a Veterinary Med. program as well since females are not pursuing Science degrees as avidly as other degrees. Another thing that really helps, is you can have okay grades in HS, but you need to have excellent ACT or SAT scores in Math and Science to get into most Pre-Vet programs. Just keep that in mind. I think I scored a 29 in my Math and a 30 on the science on the ACT and I received automatic acceptance even though my grades in school were not the best. So it really helps!

Best of Luck!

Answer 2

in most equine jobs the more directly you work with the animal, the less money you make. if you do not LOVE it, then i wouldn't recommend working in this field. i have a b.s. in animal science and equine science. I live and breath my job. its hard work and long hours. you can't always look at how much money you make. you can make a million dollars and wake up to a job you hate and be miserable. remember you will do this job for a long time. find something you would love to wake up to everyday and would enjoy and be enthusiastic about. the money will come. no starts out making a lot anyway. there are many equine careers without being a vet, however once again, if you only looking at the money, its probably not for you. try an office job like a lawyer or working up to be a CEO, they tend to make more money.

Answer 3

Becoming an equine vet is very much like the training for a human doctor. Expect to spend a lot of years in school.

You'll first need to graduate college and have extremely good grades. Veterninary schools are extremely selective and will pick only a small percentage of the total applicants. You will need a strong background in science, like biology. After gradutating college, you'll need to complete 2 1/2 - 3 years of veterinary school.

Once done with schooling, like a human doctor you will need to complete a residency. Bascially this is in depth practical training that you would complete at an animal hospital or medical facility. During this time, residents will do rotations in various areas of animal medicine to see what they have a talent for and what area interests them. Veterinary medicine has gotten very specialized over the years and even in a field like equine medicine there are a lot of subspecialties. Once your residency is completed you will be considered to be a fully trained vet and will be able to join an established practice or try to start your own.

I don't know of colleges in California specializing in animal medicine, but in NY there is Cornell University and Texas has Texas A&M. One place to think of seriously is the Univesity of Pennsylvania, home of the New Bolton facility where they cared for Barbaro after his breakdown.

Answer 4

I know 2 schools that have equine classes and a Vet School!!!

University of Guelph - Guelph Ontario
- THE MOST RESPECTED AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH AMERICA
- Offers many courses in equine
- Courses that will get you to become a vet for horses or cows only
- Vet school that was estabulished in 1862

KEMPVILLE IS WELL KNOWN AS HORSE COLLEGE.
- This college has various courses strictly to equine in both Western and English riding skills

- Courses - Equine Management Degree - you must have at least 7 University or University/College Courses and have a high degree of Horse knowledge and have the atomomity of the horse down pat as you get to treat horses, needle them, treat and massaging them


- Equine Management Certificate - You should have good grades in College Level and a good knowledge of horses and know the basic body parts of the horse.


Both of these are extremley tough to get in but don't give up. And they are a bit pricey but it is worth it.

It costs around $13,000 for 4 semesters which includes boarding of your horses, feed, hay, pasture, useage of the riding facility.

$11,000 for the use of an horse (lease) and usage of tack and bridle. Make sure you visit it as it is just 20 minutes from Ottawa for Kemptville and Guelph is located about 1.5 hours from Niagara Falls, Canada.

You can take a tour of The campus and many more options on the websites for free and can get more information.

Answer 5

Another very good Vet school is The University of Minnesota. They are making a lot of headway in the equine medical fields.
I'm a very proud Minnesotan.
Though, I am a Packer fan!

Answer 6

To do a shorter version of what everyone else said.... You need about a 4 year bachlor degree to start and then I think like 4 years of vet school and then more to specialize. UC Davis all the way!!!!! GO AGGIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 7

well it's about 3 to 4 yrs to get an education in animals then another 3 yrs to specialize in horses

Answer 8

8 years to get your degree, more if you want to specialize in any area. UCDavis is probably the best known vet school in California.

Answer 9

You have to have a minimum of three years of undergraduate college to apply, and it's very difficult to get in without getting your Bachelor's degree.

UC Davis is the vet school in California. It really doesn't matter what other vet schools there are outside of California if you are a California resident, because out-of-state vet schools take applicants from their own state as top priority, and then applicants from states that don't have a vet school as second priority. Students applying from a state that has a vet school go to the bottom of the list in priority for out of state vet schools.

Vet school is more difficult to get into than med school. Davis accepts a total of 131 applicants for vet school, and annually receives more than 1,000 applications for admission to the vet school. That means that roughly 9 out of every 10 applicants are rejected.

This is a page on the Davis website that gives information on getting into vet school:

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/studentprograms/subpages/faqs.html

There are several colleges in California that offer a Bachelor's degree in Animal Science with a pre-veterinary major that takes you through the courses you need to apply for vet school. If you choose to attend a school that doesn't have an animal science major, pre-med curiculuum will also qualify you to apply to Davis.

It's a very tough load of courses to even apply for vet school, and if you cannot swing at least a 3.0 GPA then you'd have to have some absolutely dynamite references to even have a chance at acceptance.

Once you get into vet school, you don't just take classes relating to horses. Vets who graduate from Davis have to be qualified to treat any kind of animal, so you'll be doing things like castrating pigs and cows, dehorning cows, treating dogs and cats, learning about avian (bird) medicine and so forth.

If you get into vet school, you will be involved in lab classes where you will be doing terminal demonstrations on some animals, including dogs. That means that you will be working with an animal that is brought into the lab healthy and alive, and will be doing something to it that will require that the animal be euthanized at the termination of the procedure. If you cannot face the prospect of euthanizing an animal that is healthy, then do not even consider becoming a vet. (FWIW, since vets do inspection of animal carcasses at slaughterhouses, while you are at Davis you will spend time learning about slaughterhouse procedures and you will be involved in animal slaughter.)

Beyond working with horses, you need to ask yourself if you are prepared to deal with PEOPLE as a vet. Could you face telling someone that they have to euthanize a much-loved animal? What would you do if someone came to you with a horse that required thousands of dollars' worth of treatment, but they had no money? How would you deal with someone asking you to do something unethical, such as lie about the date of birth of a foal that was born before January 1st? What would you do if someone asked you to do something not in the best interest of a horse, such as administering a treatment that would allow an unsound horse to pass for sound so it could continue to show or race? How would you deal with someone who owed you hundreds of dollars in vet bills and wanted you to come out again to treat their horse?

There are the financial realities too. Large animal vets don't all make a ton of money, in spite of what people think, and they can have very high expenses and overhead. Unless you are very fortunate, by the time you finish vet school you may be tens of thousands of dollars in debt for your schooling. You'll most likely have to work as an associate in an established practice, which means being an employee-- and at the bottom of the "food chain" in the practice when it comes to what you get to do. If you want your own practice, you'll have to borrow more money to either buy into an established practice or start your own.

Being a vet can be very rewarding, but the reality is a lot different than what you're probably envisioning. It's a long hard pull to become a vet, so think about it very hard before you commit to trying.

Good luck.

Answer 10

Way to go that is what I am going for. Ü I think it takes 8 yrs