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So, you love your veterinarian and having been going to see them forever and the last visit, they turned to you and recommended you go see someone else, a “veterinary specialist”.   Ever happened to you?  Probably the first thought was, “Why can’t you just deal with this”.  Well, you vet is actually doing you a favor.  They are doing what they feel is right because they know there is someone else that has more knowledge and training in dealing with the specific problem that your pet is having.  Hence, the “veterinary specialist”.

Just like human medicine has specialties in different fields, so does veterinary medicine.  Currently, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recognizes 20 different veterinary specialties, ranging from anesthesiology to zoo medicine.  To understand how a veterinarian becomes a specialist, let’s start with how a person becomes a veterinarian.

To get into veterinary school, you must complete a minimum of 3 years of undergraduate course work.  More often, because getting into veterinary school is pretty competitive, applicants have at least a bachelors degree, if not a masters or PhD.  Once accepted into veterinary school, the program is four years.  During the first two years, the students are mostly in the classroom, up to 8 hours a day having lecture.  During the third year, students start to split time between the classroom and doing clinical work at the veterinary teaching hospital.  There are currently 28 veterinary teaching programs across the United States.  The fourth year of veterinary school is spent just doing clinical work in the veterinary teaching hospital.  At the end of these four years, students graduate and have to pass a two part exam, the National Board and Clinical Competency Test.  Once both tests are passed and the student has graduated, they are a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, or DVM and can practice as a veterinary doctor. 

A majority of students at this point start practicing in hospitals or clinics as what is often termed a general practitioner, similar to a family practitioner in human medicine.  There is a group of doctors at this point that continue further in their training (about 25%) and do an internship in small animal medicine and surgery.  This is usually a one year job at a university veterinary teaching hospital or a speciality practice where they do training under internal medicine and surgery specialists and perform a lot of emergency work to get an intensive year of training under their belt.  The hours are long and the pay is usually pretty crummy but they get a ton of experience and guidance over the year and they come out knowing a lot more than they did when they started.

After an internship, some veterinarians decide they are ready to have a life and not work so hard so they elect now to go into a general practice.  Others, making up about 10% of all veterinarians that graduate from veterinarian school, elect to go on further and train in a specific area of veterinary medicine, like surgery, medicine, dermatology, ophthalmology, emergency and critical care, cardiology, oncology, anesthesiology, radiology, neurology, or any of the other 20 specialties currently recognized by the AVMA.  During their internship, the veterinarian applies through a “match program” and if they are lucky enough to get into a program, because they are highly, highly competitive, they spend the next 2-4 years being intensively trained in a residency in that field under other veterinary specialists in that field. 

After the 2-4 years of work, again for usually minimal pay, and conducting and publishing research in their field, they are done with their residency and can sit for the board certification exam.   The board certification exam is a very intense, usually multiple days, exam that covers every aspect of the specialized field.  If the resident passes the exam, they become a diplomate of the college they specialize in.   Hence, the title Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and board certified veterinary surgeon. 

So, what does this mean to you?  It means that when your veterinarian recommends you to see a specialist, you can be certain that you are going to receive the state-of-the-art care by someone who has been well trained at what they are doing.  Specialists become specialists for a reason.  It is because they want to be recognized in their profession as leaders, as the best of the best at what they have been trained to do.  Veterinary specialists regularly attend special meetings in their field for continuing education to learn the newest techniques and treatments and are constantly trying to improve what they can offer clients in their field.  They are also the leaders in their local veterinary field, being the people who provide continuing education to the other veterinarians in the area.

Specialists rely on referrals from other veterinarians for their business.  There is an important relationship between the specialist, referring veterinarian, and the pet owner where all parties are involved in the decision making process.  Once the specialist has accomplished what needed to be done for the patient’s care, the care of the patient immediately goes back to the referring veterinarian for ongoing care.  In this way, the specialist, referring veterinarian, and pet owner act as a team for the betterment of the pet. 

So the next time your veterinarian recommends a “specialist” you have a better idea of why they are doing it.  Remember, in the end, it is not because they don’t like you, it is because they feel it is the right thing for your pet, that someone better trained to deal with the problem is out there and that is the person who should be taking care of your pet.

To learn more about the American College of Veterinary Surgeons click here. 

American College of Veterinary Surgeons

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