My Personal Experience: My Journey To Veterinary School

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The moments that have stuck with me the most in my journey to veterinary school are the ones that didn’t turn out all right in the end. Perhaps the most notable example of this occurred this past summer, when a sick goat was brought to the clinic I worked at. This goat was so anemic and riddled with parasites that even as Dr. Pruitt began to examine it, the goat stopped breathing and collapsed. He leaped into action, sprinting with the goat into the treatment area. We masked it while he began beating the goat’s chest with his fist, and shouted for someone to get epinephrine. A senior technician began frantically searching for it in the wrong cabinet. I knew that we kept it in the fridge after unpacking the brand-new bottle earlier that day, …show more content…

It was in this moment that I realized this was the type of person, and professional, I wanted to be: one who won’t hesitate to do everything in my power to save a life, and can handle tragedy with grace and …show more content…

I had been toying with the idea of becoming Prevet, but really didn’t have a firm understanding of what that entailed. Deciding to try it out, I contacted my family’s veterinarian and arranged to shadow at her clinic for a week.
That experience was a game-changer. At that clinic I found everything I’d been missing in my conversations with research scientists: these vets possessed vibrant, unjaded passion for animals, and a down to earth practicality that I related to deeply. I remember nervously stepping into the surgery room to watch my first spay, worried that I might not be able to handle the gore. To my surprise, I wasn’t bothered at all, and instead watched in fascination as Dr. Peterson casually described the parts of a dog uterus. After this single experience, I knew that I had found my calling.
My next experience occurred when I shadowed at West Villa Maria Veterinary Clinic, a small mixed practice with only two doctors. The contrast between this and a larger clinic at which I shadowed concurrently was very instructive for me. I observed the close relationships that Dr. Baggs at Villa Maria had with his clients and saw how this aided his ability to treat his patients. I fell in love with the idea of a small-town clinic where this level of familiarity would be

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