As cliché as it sounds I have wanted to be a vet since I was 3 years old. It’s funny thinking that when, in fact, I had no idea what the job entailed at that age, but the dream followed me as I grew up and I finally had the opportunity to go to vet school at the age of 21.
My route to the profession wasn’t typical. I took the International Baccalaureate instead of A levels and didn’t study maths to the level the Universities said they wanted so I didn’t even bother applying to vet schools in the UK. Instead, I decided to work in numerous jobs including being a care home assistant and at a restaurant before finding myself back to obsessing about veterinary medicine. I got a job as a veterinary care assistant and then a student veterinary nurse at a referral practice in Leicestershire. The practice was great and I found myself asking the vets so many questions, never satisfied with the answer unless I understood what was happening and why. The vets around me kept saying I should go to vet school but at 21 years old, I didn’t want to resit maths and I was doubtful I could get the grade anyway. So I started looking abroad. I applied to several and settled on the University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest.
University was great and living abroad has changed me (for the better) forever. I have made wonderful friends from all around the world and I look back on those years fondly.
I always knew that I would want to specialise in exotic animal medicine. I tried to keep an open mind throughout university but I made sure I geared all of my placements around exotic animals (including visiting South Africa, Italy and Portugal to name a few) and once I graduated I was determined to continue on this path in my career.
I started working at a small animal practice in the Bromley area a week before the UK was put into the first lockdown. It was a baptism of fire for me, a new graduate vet, who thought I would be seeing routine appointments when in fact we moved over to providing emergency services only quite quickly. When things started to settle I was able to start seeing lots of different species.
I met wonderful clients and had the support of a great team so we were able to improve the care we were giving to the more unusual patients. I sought opinions from specialists, did extra courses in my spare time and attended conferences all to try and broaden my knowledge in this field of veterinary medicine.
To become a specialist in veterinary medicine you have to complete a gruelling residency: a three year course designed to expose you to complex cases and work under the mentorship of world-renowned specialists in that particular field. A pre-requisite for a residency is an internship, a one year programme similar to the residency which enables vets to see whether they want to pursue a specialist career.
I am about to start my internship after spending two years at the lovely practice in South London. Hopefully I will be able to call myself a specialist one day but until then, feel free to follow my journey.
NB: anything specifically written (i.e. diseases/ drug dosages etc) I will write as is understood in the literature at the time of writing. Please bear this in mind as veterinary medicine progresses quickly so it may be incorrect in the future. Feel free to contact me directly if you wish to discuss this further.
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