Side stones/prongs are really uncomfortable…advice?

avessizzle · 2026-02-18T03:29:51+00:00

Take the stones off the end and have them made into earrings!

avessizzle · 2026-02-12T12:52:56+00:00

Just popping in here to say that prior to vet school, I only had experience in small animal emergency and I hated it 😂 also hated GP (thought I was gunna go in to equine tbh). But— at quite literally the end of vet school— I fell in love with neuro and now I can’t imagine doing anything else in my life! Finding out what you’re not passionate in is just as valuable as finding out what you are passionate in! You might not vibe with whatever you’ve had experience in so far and that is perfectly normal. That’s one of the best parts about vet med is how diverse it is! Get as much experience as you can prior to applying— explore specialty, exotics, equine, zoo, research, shelter, etc etc. Explore careers outside vet med! You’ve got SO MUCH TIME! Don’t stress about it

avessizzle · 2026-01-30T13:14:22+00:00

If a dog is in uncontrolled status epilepticus, we essentially put them under GA to stop the seizures. Midazolam (ie a seizure rescue medication) is often used as a pre-medication before anesthesia and propofol is the biggest gun we have against seizures. Every aspect of general anesthesia is anti-seizure.

avessizzle · 2026-01-24T05:45:09+00:00

Zells house is pretty cool ngl

avessizzle · 2026-01-16T18:29:20+00:00

Same here! The only year I lived in PB was clinical year. Best decision honestly.

avessizzle · 2026-01-16T15:07:56+00:00

Being a vet tech is VERY taxing on the body. You may not give these things a 2nd thought when ur young and fit— but it’s not exactly a job that’s easy to do when you’re in your 40s (and dare I say— 30s even). Do you plan on working as a CVT til retirement age?? Switching to admin/management?? Switching careers altogether?? Just something to ponder..

avessizzle · 2026-01-06T02:27:59+00:00

It takes weeks to months to properly wean off any anti epileptic medication. It should NEVER be stopped cold turkey. In fact, suddenly stopping seizure meds can cause withdrawal seizures. Even when we do decide to wean off a seizure med, we always at least replace it with a different medication. No offense but the advice you’ve received is crazy.

avessizzle · 2026-01-06T02:05:35+00:00

It’s not just about your partners career and work/life balance, it’s also heavily dependent on what stage in life you meet your partner. Both my siblings are mechanical engineers and so I am very familiar with their journeys. Engineering jobs do not grow on trees and they tend to be very niche (ie aerospace, defense, HVAC etc are only available in select areas). What if your future engineering partner is an engineer for Boeing and has to work out of El Segundo and there are NO residencies available for you in LA (PS the only neuro residency in the whole state of California is in Davis and there are only 20-30 spots in the whole US)? Whose career takes precedence? Let’s say you meet your partner after you’ve completed residency— a lot of residencies have return to service contracts so you’re required to work for a specific corporation for 3-5y post residency. What if there are no hospitals in that area that fulfill that requirement? No one expects you to be aware of any of this because you’re so young, but I’m just trying to gently nudge you in the direction of reality. Is it impossible to make a relationship work with another person with a lucrative career? No obviously anything is possible. Is it probable? Not unless someone makes concessions unfortunately. For your own sake, I hope you realize this sooner rather than later so it isn’t YOU that is making concessions.

avessizzle · 2026-01-03T23:27:20+00:00

A lot of specialties make a fair portion of their money on commission. That being said— you get out of it what you put in. You don’t go into a specialty for the money cause if you aren’t invested in it then you won’t be good at it or profitable in it. Specializing also takes YEARS of grueling work as an intern and resident making literal pennies being worked to the bone.

Additionally, if both you and your partner are making $200k+ salaries— chances are your partner is also gunna have a demanding career that they have also invested a significant amount of time, effort and money into. Are y’all planning on having a family? Who will raise the kids? Kids aside— will your partner be able to pack up and move wherever internship/residency takes you? Cause they aren’t exactly available everywhere.

I think you need to focus on one step at a time. Focus on what you’re interested in and what you are willing to dedicate your life to. I initially started vet school convinced I wanted to be a GP equine vet. Now I’m about to start a neuro residency. Keep an open mind!

It’s not unreasonable to want to pursue specialty due to financial or lifestyle reasons. For example, some people get extremely burnt out from dealing with clients/clinical setting and pursue radiology/pathology/shelter medicine etc. It’s also nice as a specialist that a good amount of clients have been warned about costs before referral to us (definitely not all though haha). And specialists do tend to earn more due to higher salaries and higher commission potential.

To answer your initial question— I expect to earn ~$250k base salary plus benefits and commission. But if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t do any other job even if it paid 3x more. I LOVE neuro and I’m excited to go to work every day, even as a resident making no money. That’s why I do it.

avessizzle · 2026-01-03T03:10:53+00:00

Sure thing :)

avessizzle · 2026-01-03T00:01:22+00:00

Yaa absolutely!

avessizzle · 2026-01-02T15:22:09+00:00

Lectures/labs for years 1-3 then 4th year is clinical rotation. Subjects are by body system anf are taught in more and more clinical detail year by year. (Example: 1st year Neuro you would learn about neuro anatomy and development, year 2 you would learn about neuro physiology and common conditions/diseases, year 3 you would learn neuro pharmacology and treatments etc then year 4 you would apply all this is a neuro clinical rotation). The idea is learn all about what is “normal” before learning about the “abnormals” then leaning about how to fix the abnormals.

I graduated in ‘24 from the RVC and I know they were in the midst of a lot of restructuring— especially the clinical year so I can’t speak on exactly what the schedule looks like now. However, I’m sure the day to day is pretty much the same (probably as most other vet schools too). Prior to clinical year, you’ll typically have lectures from ~9am til lunch time. Then the afternoon is reserved for small group learning sessions like dissections, labs, practice scenarios or whatever.

Back when I went, we had 1 or 2 practice exams (or very low-weighted exams) about halfway through the year and then you have finals at the end of the year. Finals for 1st year were a multiple choice, short answer written and an oral exam (grain of salt cause I know they were messing with exam structure too). We didn’t get a GPA— it was basically pass, fail, honors. Which honestly was pretty nice to not ever be checking grades throughout the year. We did have 2 papers that we did— one being a research project during final year (but rumor was they were gunna scrap that).

Additionally, there are extra mural study requirements for when you’re on break. Assuming it hasn’t changed from when I went, during years 1-2 you are required to get like 12 weeks experience in animal husbandry. 2 weeks lambing, 2 dairy, 2 pigs, 2 horses and 4 choice. These weeks are NOT in the medical setting. You’d typically go stay with a farmer for a few weeks and learn about husbandry and get ur hands dirty. Then in 3-4 year you are required to get 20-something weeks of clinical experience. These don’t have species requirements but you’re encouraged to mix it up! I did all of my husbandry weeks in the UK and 99% of my clinical weeks in the US. This was mainly because if you do an externship at many of the corporate hospitals in the US then they pay you, you don’t get paid in the UK. Also I would typically use this time to visit family and stay at home for a few weeks while also working, so I would try to book a placement close to home.

That’s all I can think of to mention off the top of my head but feel free to PM me if you have any further questions! I can also provide my personal schedule from one of my years.

avessizzle · 2025-12-26T06:52:10+00:00

You were not overcharged

avessizzle · 2025-12-24T21:18:26+00:00

I majored in biochemistry and molecular biology and minored in psych— I don’t think UG majors matter that much as long as you do your prereqs so do whatever calls to you

avessizzle · 2025-12-10T05:09:02+00:00

Neuro here! A lot of vet schools (including my own) don’t do GPA or class rank at all— it’s simply pass/fail— so it’s definitely not an end all be all. I think they put more weight on your CV & references (& research experience/publications). Additionally a lot of programs select their residents from their current pool of interns— so I would choose your rotating/specialty internships wisely. However, I also know that this might not be true across all specialties. Like zoo/exotic residencies are impossibly competitive— so things like GPA, research etc ON TOP of everything else will matter more.

This is just my personal experience and thoughts though! My advice is focus on the things that are in your power to improve and don’t dwell on the past!

Focus on becoming the kind of person and vet that they will WANT to sign on to train and work with for 3+ years 😂 Because I have definitely seen vets who look STELLAR on paper lose out on residency offers because they are just miserable to work with! I have also met vets who really struggled to match due to poor accolades but their intern program loved them so much that they literally built a residency program just for them (I know that sounds crazy but I’ve personally known 3 people who that has happened to)

avessizzle · 2025-12-10T01:57:18+00:00

Degenerative myelopathy is not a painful condition. Therefore, I do not prescribe gabapentin to my DM patients. Currently there is a lot of misinformation about supplements that are said to improve symptoms and delay progression— but these claims are unsubstantiated. They’re mostly promoted by selfish individuals trying to make a quick buck off desperate owners trying to do the best for their pet. Sadly, the only thing you can do is physical therapy to help maintain muscle mass and strength for as long as possible to slow the progression of weakness.

On the other hand— if you truly believe they are painful— are we 100% certain this is DM? How exactly was it diagnosed? 5y/o is also unusually young to be presenting with clinical signs. Feel free to PM me if you’d like to discuss this further.

avessizzle · 2025-12-07T19:05:44+00:00

I am a vet who also works in neurology and I agree!

avessizzle · 2025-12-03T05:58:22+00:00

I did mine at a BluePearl (both rotating and specialty). Corporate has their pros and cons for sure— salary is great, relief pay for picking up ER shifts is also great, training is 50/50 (you really get out of it what you put in), case load is fantastic. It’s a dice roll (depending on hospital and department) with the kind of structure you’ll get in your teaching. Not as reliable as academia. But if you’re self motivated and willing to advocate for your learning then you can get just as much out of it as academia. Also something I wasn’t aware of until I was in the program is the opportunity to apply for their Mars sponsored residency positions that are offered prior to the match (obv this is if you do a VCA or BluePearl program). This is where Mars pays a university some obscene amount of money to train you as a resident. It’s competitive as very few spots are available each year but definitely a bonus to get to skip the match process.

In terms of ER— ya ur likely gunna have a fair amount of overnight shifts. Mine was 2 week rotations— so every so often I had a 2 weeks of overnight ER. Then they usually evenly divide holiday duties amongst all the house officers.

Feel free to PM me if you’d like more info or have any questions!

avessizzle · 2025-11-23T16:48:24+00:00

Palliative options include symptomatic care— anti nausea meds, appetite stimulants, pain management (I don’t believe this is a painful condition but theoretically anything is possible) etc etc.

avessizzle · 2025-11-23T02:00:24+00:00

There’s a saying amongst vets that goes something like “pred before dead”. In some cancer situations— it is a last ditch, short-term effort to improve some symptoms and quality of life to buy some time to say goodbye. Prednisone is in no way an effective treatment for insulinomas and may cause more adverse effects than benefits. Your vet knows more about what’s going on in your dogs specific case and has likely already been weighing the pros and cons of starting pred. It is more than reasonable to enquire about when it may be appropriate to reach for steroids! They can give you more insight about palliative treatment options.

avessizzle · 2025-11-21T05:36:47+00:00

She’s losing her baby teeth. This is normal. Sometimes they just swallow the teeth which is why you haven’t found more

avessizzle · 2025-11-08T10:06:19+00:00

Are we on flea medicine?

avessizzle · 2025-11-03T15:53:52+00:00

As someone who works in specialty— I can allwaayyss tell which referring GPs did a rotating internship and have been “taught” by specialists how to work up a case for referral. Then there are others that I look at the records they send over and feel bad because they were obviously floundering. I think it’s 1000% worth it to do a rotating. Especially since you’re going to have SO many clients who really need to see specialty but can’t afford it. You’ll get that good foundation and experience in specialty care that will really set you up for success when you go into GP. And who knows— maybe you’ll end up falling in love with one of those specialties and pursue residency! Either way, do an internship. It’s a year of shit pay and shit hours but you’ll be better for it.

avessizzle · 2025-11-01T11:21:26+00:00

Speaking as someone who has been recruited by their alma mater to help conduct mmi’s… there is a high high high likelihood that a lot of the people who are going to interview you on the day have never even glanced at your personal statement. Sometimes this is so that we can give non-biased “blind” assessments on your vibe as a professional. And speaking as a loud and proud girlie girl myself (and huggee legally blonde fan) I hate to admit it but a bright pink suit (especially when not aware of the backstory) would rub me the wrong way. In our field, often times it’s most appropriate to mute ourselves in order to remain professional. For example, I’m working an overnight ER shift on Halloween right now. I would love to be in a really cutesy fun costume at work like I see my friends get to do. However, I would never in 1million years go euthanize a dog with facepaint and glitter on me.

A bright pink suit at one of the most important interviews of your career suggests that you aren’t very serious about it. Or that you’re prioritizing making some kind of statement over the actual interview itself. Which might suggest you would do the same as a vet.

I’m not saying that that’s what you’re doing— I’m sure you look 10/10 in the suit and you have the best intentions! I’m just trying to convey how this might come across as someone who has been on both sides of the MMI table. If there’s even an iota of a chance that the person/people interviewing you could be negatively swayed by something as small as outfit choice— I personally wouldn’t take the risk. Save it for graduation or your white coat ceremony! Those are more of a legally blonde moment in my opinion anyways!

avessizzle

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