-: So at least, you know, three to four years,
usually science related.
A lot of them are chemistry or biology.
I think most of ours were, some of them were different.
And then you're generally four years
in the veterinary school.
So I'm probably one of the exceptions.
I didn't do well my second year,
so it was very very stressful
so I actually took some time off and then went back.
So it took me five years.
But yeah, about four years and then that's to
then take your boards and get licensed as a veterinarian.
After that you've got options to go into
either an internship, which is one to two years,
a residency which is gonna be another three.
So you can get board certified in surgery, dentistry,
all sorts of things, but that's even more schooling.
I did some shadowing, I started doing kennel work
when I was 14 so it was just getting into
a clinic, getting in there, cleaning up poop and pee
and walking dogs and feeding dogs, and medicating dogs.
And I think, you know, part of that for me
was getting to know, I would pick up on
that one's not acting right.
You know, hey he's here every weekend
and he's not the same this weekend.
So just starting to be around them, managing them,
their behavior, things like that.
That's kind of a start.
A lot of my connections going back to find jobs and things
were places I had done kennel work.
So I did kennel work to start and then
that kind of got me into just being around it,
seeing that nasty stuff I guess,
making sure I could do that.
We've had people shadow, that they try day after day
to watch a surgery and they can't.
And that changes what they do.
So starting to do that, I remember going to a room
after they'd just euthanized an animal
and it was my responsibility then to take care of that.
And that was the really, I mean that was kind of
a changing moment of wow okay this is different,
can I really do this?
So that was something that they kind of threw me into
as time went on.
So then I started being able to do assisting duties.
So helping restrain animals, help hold, help do a little bit
of blood work, things like that.
Just kind of moving up.
It's a little bit different in the position of
a lot of places will say find a job and stick with it,
you know, at one location.
I had a fellow veterinarian tell me
to work as many places as I could.
And I thought that was really weird,
but he said get a feel for all
the different types of clinics.
All the different types of doctors, all the practices,
and find out what you really want to do.