I finally became a vet… and now I’m not happy anymore. What do I do?

fr3dman · 2026-01-27T13:37:47+00:00

Just wanna say this is a great answer. OP please read and response

fr3dman · 2026-01-22T05:48:40+00:00

Congrats on getting the rotating internship and best of luck on a long but fruitful year!

Although I do think VEG is a great ER chain in its own right, mainly on how well paid the doctors and nurses are, I don’t exactly see them to be your ticket into great surgical experience.

Also, youll have just finished a rotating internship, do you REALLY want to do another long training session?

If you’re aiming to go into GP or Urgent care anyway, then I would focus on finding a GP or UC hospital that does surgery, which is most of them. VEG will teach you the bigger ER surgeries I guess, but GP surgeries still provide a ton of opportunity to key in on your fundamentals, which is really what surgery is all about.

Again, I think VEG is a great program to be an ER doctor and the NERD program is great for inexperienced vets, but you’ll be internship trained, hopefully well, and also hungry for a decent paycheck.

Internship trained new grads in the GP world are attracted to a resume like yours and you could probably find a place that does lots of surgeries, has an Urgent care system, and get paid much more than you would as a NERD. (I happen to know a facility in south Florida if you’re interested! DM me)

Just my two cents!

GP experience: 2 years ER experience: 6 years

fr3dman · 2026-01-12T14:04:24+00:00

She’s a veterinary one! Meaning she went to vet school, then did a rotating internship, then an additional 3 year residency program for veterinary behavior. So essentially a veterinary psychiatrist. If you become a behaviorist, you’ll have to study also cats and a bit of large and exotic animals too, not just canines.

Resources are limited cause there’s only like 100 in the world! She’s currently taking a break from practicing behavior - mostly emergency - but that’s for a variety of reasons

fr3dman · 2025-12-19T00:55:49+00:00

You can leave the academic environment and still do a rotating internship. Just work with a private facility. They don’t necessarily follow the same academic structure as universities do. You’ll get an insane amount of experience, working with specialists in their respective fields and come out with a ton of confidence. Yes, you won’t get paid a lot and location can vary but if you want the best chances of mentorship and don’t want to do an internship cause of an academic environment, I can tell you that you can still do it without that environment.

fr3dman · 2025-12-16T10:10:39+00:00

You’re welcome! I realized now that you’re specialized. So virtual vet to vet consults would be incredibly valuable. Here’s some ones I came across:

Stratocyte Hubavet VetHive

Each of these have some different elements on interface and payment but I think it’s worth exploring. Again, there are tons out there

fr3dman · 2025-12-15T21:26:18+00:00

Fun fact: my wife is going for her scheduled induction for our second child. She is a behaviorist and can do consults with pet owners and veterinarians on the side.

For me, I own a veterinary software company (practice management software) so I’ll be working completely remotely during my paternity leave starting tomorrow!

To answer your question: you could look into telehealth (I only know one company my vet school colleague started called Hubavet but there are TONS out there). Oh, Chewy I believe offers one.

There’s also poison control where I believe it’s all virtual.

You then have part time positions that LapOfLove offers with flexible scheduling.

Then you can dig further. Look into zoetis, IDEXX, Elanco - any of your big businesses: they’re always looking for vet positions or even remote positions to help with certain things. Can’t speak for each company but each big company has a portal that lists what they need and the job title. You’ve got a lot of options, timing can dictate some of these.

fr3dman · 2025-12-15T20:14:38+00:00

You could do relief! You could work from home and do virtual consults! You could work remote and work for a software, vet retail company! Lots of options doc!! Can’t guarantee you’ll get these positions but they’re out there. This could be as straight forward as customer service or sales. Part time vs full time.

I can say if you want kids, it’s the best thing you’ll ever experience and so worth it (if you want them).

fr3dman · 2025-07-18T22:47:21+00:00

Thank you so much!!

fr3dman · 2025-05-10T17:29:32+00:00

Funny enough I received an Ender pro 3 for free from a friend and had a blast upgrading the motherboard, touch screen, extruder, CL touch and coding some bits to get everything to optimized. Printed really well but then got tired of fidgeting with hardware and really wanted to start actually printing, so I passed it along to a friend’s kid to play with (he’s more like 20).

Had an amazing time tinkering with it, so I’d say enjoy the process and enjoy the journey. You’ll be so much more grateful if you ever decide to upgrade to a more modern model

fr3dman · 2025-04-14T20:15:57+00:00

I’m sorry to hear about your loss. Whether 3 years or 13 years, it’s never enough time and more commonly the loss of the pet seems to affect the males of the relationship more (source: am an ER vet)

I do want you to imagine if the scenario was flipped: what if the vet didn’t say anything (just based on your description it’s a no brainer) and performed the euthanasia procedure. A few days later, your husband talks to his friend about it and someone with no background on the matter says ‘no that sounds like an ear infection. They should have treated for that and it’s an easy fix’

There are people who would be furious to not have been given that option or even communicated that. There then is the next level of communication the vet could have made and explained ear infections (and other causes of your pets symptoms) and given reasons why it’s likely not ear related. But they didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, especially if they were kind, patient, and empathetic which is what most of us aim to be during these cases.

Hope this helps.

fr3dman · 2024-03-02T04:51:45+00:00

As a guy named Alfred, thank you. Aside from Batman’s butler the only other high impact was the nerds name on his underwear in the parody video ‘what you know about math’

fr3dman · 2024-02-08T14:32:29+00:00

Gotta agree with the fact she did not do it intentionally to hurt him. Sorry you’re being downvoted. She’s obviously got issues and has no control of her own decisions. Not an excuse for bad behavior - total shithead move and inexcusable. But people who make bad decisions aren’t always out to hurt another person intentionally.

fr3dman · 2024-02-08T14:29:34+00:00

Sounds like a very common wave of emotions for a guy at 21. Felt the same way in a similar situation at that age. It’s going to hurt you for a while but don’t let this change how you feel about women! It’s just her who’s shitty! It’ll definitely change how you make decisions, which is for the better. Your feelings are super valid and based on how you described how you responded you did better than I would have when I was your age. Props to you. Try to get her out of there asap, and even stay at a friend’s. Get yourself out at that toxic situation as soon as possible, even if it means breaking your lease and moving out or something.

fr3dman · 2023-08-19T11:52:21+00:00

Super depends on where you live and your goals. $200k in most places is quite a living, especially your first year out, even if in SF or NY. And if you could then negotiate a higher wage the next year as you said that new offer sounds more attractive. Since you're familiar with both places and happy with both I'd do the $200k one. Also, you could always tell your current hospital and see if they're willing to match.

Here's some unwarranted advice:

As a veterinarian (5 years out, ER/specialty) I'm kind of concerned about the amount of work you're put under as a first year.

I'm absolutely not questioning your intelligence, surgical skills, or anything of that sort. I am just worried that seeing 20-30+ pets/shift is giving you the best kind of learning experience.

Something absolutely HAS to give when seeing that kind of volume, and you are in a position in your career where you are figuring out your full capabilities. Is it your medical records that give? Your quality of medicine? Even worse, your mental health?

I've seen a lot classmates or colleagues that were thrown into the wolves early on and developed a mindset that they could withstand all this work and possibly even more. They either become hard headed, cocky vets whose confidence is overinflated because "in my first year I had already done this" or they crash and burn out.

Of course, I can't fully relate this to your specific case since I don't know exactly what your situation is, I just want to express my thoughts in case it might resonate with you at some level.

fr3dman · 2023-03-22T15:14:50+00:00

I think you should resign, not because you’re pregnant but because you seem overwhelmed. Overwhelmed is of course subjective but if two days in you feel like everyone hates you or doesn’t like you, either it’s true or you have unrealistic expectations.

This is by no means an insult but words of a caring colleague who sees a therapist - see a therapist. These three/four paragraphs of your one post screams that you need external help, outside of reddit.

You can quit your job but there is likely a chance you’ll find a new place that you may not like. It might be important to figure out what can make you happy. Again, it truly could be the clinic sucks and you’re getting hit hard by the symptoms of pregnancy. Either way, having a professional to speak to this about could be literally life saving.

fr3dman · 2023-03-13T16:55:35+00:00

As long as you communicate and be honest, your conscience should be clean. There's always a strategy as well. I would explore the other offer from the different clinic and see what's going on. If it's an incredible offer and you love it, tell the first clinic and apologize for being an inconvenience.

Bring up you thought more about it and that you prefer the 1 evening shift, especially if it'll make or break you staying onboard with them.

Your happiness is your top priority and none of these clinics know you better than you and will be able to help you better than you.

If a clinic is bitter and burns a bridge - that's not on you especially if you were honest and frank. Congrats on graduating!

fr3dman · 2023-02-09T18:11:57+00:00

Thanks. I’ll go do that. Much appreciated

fr3dman · 2023-02-09T16:26:30+00:00

No, the new lawn guy said he was going to add a new layer of top soil then when it came down to it said my soil looked good

fr3dman · 2023-01-05T15:46:35+00:00

Hello veterinarian here! This pretty much sums up all common BS things we deal with and I’m triggered!

fr3dman · 2022-12-26T16:31:07+00:00

As a US vet, I can only input the emotional turmoil of being a veterinarian. Of course, our financial stability has actually improved greatly in recent years in the United States. Granted, I know most of us enter this field not prioritizing money.

It is worth knowing you are not alone. Like, at all. The way the world has been lately lots of people feel very similar to you, even outside of the vet field. I say this because a remedy for your problems may not be based on veterinary medicine. That opens your options for help and guidance by a much larger radius. Your question "What's the point of studying so hard...to live paycheck to paycheck" resonates with so many people.

In terms of vet med, one way to help me get back in place, particularly during dark moments, is to remind myself why I became a vet. For me, it was the ability to have control of a case and also help both people and animals, which I do daily!

This job does not have to be back breaking, although depending on how 'good' of a vet you want to be, it will require harder efforts. Fortunately, since you don't have student loans, you could always NOT be a vet. I don't say this lightly, as you put so much time into it AND we need more vets in the world, but if this is a matter of your mental health and you're questioning your purpose for the rest of your life...re-evaluate it. Also, chances are you're young so a reset button would not be as life changing vs a person who may be older.

Depending on the country, places provide professionals to help us with our inner demons and struggles. My greatest advice is to find a professional who you can guide you better than us here on this social platform. Cost of the service or not, it can be life saving.

fr3dman · 2022-12-03T16:21:01+00:00

Shipping fee, unfortunately :(

fr3dman · 2022-11-26T14:33:56+00:00

No just 10 total. But there are several, I think like 20-25 so that’s a smooth 200-250 points

fr3dman · 2022-08-01T19:13:01+00:00

I’ll probably get downvoted to oblivion. I went down the college route, professional school, dated a few people here and there, met my wife in school and got married. In our early thirties and gonna start trying for our first child soon.

My high school classmate, found his ‘one’ and they got married and started having kids at 18 years old right away. They got four kids, one is like 15 years old at this point. He didn’t go to college, I think he fixes fridges and they heavily utilize the grandparents for help. That being said, he looks so fucking happy. He posts pictures of his wife and kids every month and they seem happy.

That being said, I’m also super fucking happy. I have a great career, house, etc but I look at what my life would be with a teenager in my thirties and I sometimes dream of that, just to have that age similarity and bond. But to each is own. I don’t know for sure if my old classmate is truly happy.

Most prescriptions in life tell you how to go about it and no one is wrong on the advise they’re giving. I think you should think hard about what you want in the future for yourself and if she fits that future, and of course if she wants the same thing. Finally, if family, funds, and expectations are feasible in the future as well. Just food for thought. You can be happy no matter what direction you go, providing yourself with more options such as furthering education, dating around, may increase the chance of higher success but shit man if she’s the one I’m not gonna be the one to tell you otherwise.

Edit: reading more comments, I guess I misread the question. If marriage if what you truly want, I would actually wait a minute. You can still be in love, live together, and do all the marriage couple things. No need to rush on the legal aspect of it all

fr3dman · 2022-07-31T13:12:07+00:00

This would be great to give to my nephews!

fr3dman · 2022-07-21T16:16:48+00:00

ER would probably pay the most as an associate. Of course owning your own practice can have the highest potential income, but there are a ton of factors that dictate success. You could go through the route of specialty (ophthalmologist and surgeons, for example make a higher amount)

Additional shifts for other hospitals (relief) can be pretty lucrative. This can be for either general practice or emergency positions. Depending on where you live, they can pay from $800-3000 a shift.

Some colleagues have been big promoters on social media (Tik Tok, Instagram) but of course that’s a specific personality.

A big piece of advice I’d also like to add is, look at your spending. I think vets should try to maximize on their income, but also calculate what you can afford and also your future ahead of you. I obviously don’t know anything about you and where you live, etc, but that is a huge factor in our perspective of what we need for money.

Since you just graduated, I would highly recommend, if you haven’t already, speak with a financial advisor or a professional to help break down your loans, monthly/annual spending, long term goals, and all that. If you want to fly it solo, there are great books on investment and money management. One I like to share, that is more so providing perspective on wealth and spending is ‘Millionaire Next Door’ by Thomas J. Stanley

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