AIBU to consider teaching after becoming disillusioned with veterinary work?

Do what makes you happy op, but remember for every miserable client there are two/three/four more who value your expertise and skill/advise. I say this has someone who just dropped £700 on out of office vet care for my precious lab who greedily scoffed the baby’s grapes from the snack box. She is not unhappy about being made to vomit or the bill she is most unhappy about not being allowed to eat it up again!

if you feel you have done your time, then for sure move on.

As a teacher, I would say that animals are more compliant clients than children and as a. Eg you probably usually see them one at a time. Children in a school are dealt with in groups of 30; in a secondary school they move on every hour and are replaced by a different group of 30. They are very tricky after 2:00 pm and can’t be taught anything. Parents will be at least as awkward as pet owners. So think carefully as teaching may turn out to be even more hassle.

Teacher bashing is at least as prevalent as vet bashing.

Jumping out of the frying pan is what I'm seeing by you teaching, unless of course it's in your given professsion. Most pet lovers understand the costs, but when there is no price list for owners to contend with, of course we are going to think we're being screwed over. It needs to be transparent pricing which I completely agree with, why shouldn't it be. And yes, vet prices have been named and shamed as they should but it'll be another profession soon, the bankers, estate agents, train drivers etc have all had a good bashing over the years, so hold your head high and keep doing what you love. I'm under no illusion when I take my pet or self to our respective hospitals that each doc will have all the answers but some people expect the know it all knowledge to be there, and those people are unrealistic.

Have you thought about being a charity vet? The RSPCA doesn’t deal with the public. It gives you the opportunity to help animals without the abuse from clients.

I don't know if you'd be better off teaching (though as a positive sounding woman, I hope you would give it a go.)
As an older woman, my observations about pets are this:
The expectations and costs of keeping a pet are so much higher these days. My parents had cats and we have also always done.
Back then, as a responsible pet owner, you got them speyed, injections, maybe wormed depending on where you got them from. If they had an accident or obvious infection, you took them to the vet. Otherwise not.
That was it, for life.
Now, it seems you treat them like a human. I think this is where unreasonable vet bills come in. People seem to treat their pets like humans. They push them in a push chair and take them to the vet for small things.

I’ve been a vet nurse for over 20 years and in my experience you do not pay more if you have pet insurance. The prices are the same. The only difference is that if a pet is insured, there are more options available for diagnosis and treatments which would result in a bigger bill. It is a relief when a pet is insured, not because the vet thinks they can make more money out of it, but because it means you can do those extra tests, the surgery, prescribe the most effective but expensive treatments.
The vets I work with try their best every day to make things more affordable and available to their clients. This public perception that vets are out to rip you off for their own personal gain couldn’t be further from the truth.

I have a few vet friends. They all prefer being livestock vets than dealing with the owners of small animals. Quite frankly, I am amazed at some of their work on livestock!

As an ex-teacher (albeit, primary school), I would not recommend it. I always say that it is amazing how many ex-teachers end up working with animals, because they are easier and less stressful than the adults around the children in schools!

Not the point of the thread but…

People do realise that they don’t have to have pets?

MyDdog died this year - we’ve chosen not to replace him due to costs.

As an aside @Sadvetatcrossroads the vets were bloody brilliant with him and with a sobbing traumatised me.

Have you explored moving into academia? I’m in a clinical role and have been able to do PT lecturing on a local Uni course.
Have you had a look at doing a PGCE?

Not read the full thread (so apologies if this has been said a lot) but I’d just say - if you’re struggling with the public perception of your job now as a vet, teaching is not the job for you. I try my hardest not to tell new acquaintances what I do these days because everyone has an opinion of teachers and it’s rarely positive.

If that’s just a tiny part of it though - I’d definitely say go for it. I trained later and have no regrets. The job is hard. It often feels too hard but everything I love about it makes it worthwhile.

I completely understand where you’re coming from and I think it’s great that someone with your background and expertise wants to teach. Any education provider would be keen to hire you. I’d go for it and explore that path. Life is too short to be miserable.

That’s reassuring. Thank you for your reply.

I have decades of experience in this field in an independent practice and i am extremely proud of our industry, but I absolutely believe that the corporates and the way they operate have caused the public to label us all as money grabbing.
We see increasingly numbers of clients with unreasonable expectations who clearly begrudge having to come to see us and pay a consult fee when Dr Google tells them otherwise.
in my practice we have always been transparent with our prices , have always helped with prescriptions -even more so now and have always done our best to find ways for the client to get their pet the treatment it needs.
Thankfully the vast majority of our clients are lovely and we genuinely care about them but I have never known us have as many obnoxious ones as we do now, I think this attitude is contempt and is a knock on effect of how society perceives us all because of the greed of some.
I really believe corporates should not be running chains of veterinary practices, it is not a suitable industry for this.
I think over recent time their behaviour and culture has devalued us as a whole sadly.
I can see why the op and others want to leave but give me a load of feral cats any day over a classroom of teens!
There does seem to be a turnaround happening ,from feedback and surveys we are seeing clients who have actively chosen to register with an independent practice.
I hope the op finds her path, it's sad a vet is made to feel this way, they are usually pretty bloody amazing people.

Thanks, that's really interesting.
I really like my local vets, the staff are amazing and they've looked after my dog (and me, for some tough decisions) and I know they do a lot of volunteering too for charity surgery's. However it has noticeably changed since being bought out, and the costs have ballooned to the point I won't be getting another pet. I agree that (like Doctors surgeries and water companies) this isn't something we should let corporations dominate.

Many can't afford to own practices. Equipment is so expensive.

YANBU OP. Listening to the critical thinking of some people I've heard on the radio call ins about this was painful.

If you’re easily discouraged, I wouldn’t recommend it. But if you want to to get out of the trenches and still share your expertise and passion for veterinary medicine, it’s certainly something to consider.

I have a friend who is a vet for the PDSA and loves it, another who works nights ( for emergencies) and also loves her job.
I'm a long term dog handler, love my vet practice as do their general Client base, they are independent, caring and practical in their advice.
I think dealing with the general public these days is unfortunately a nightmare, everyone is very opinionated it seems. For that reason I also agree that teaching could be another nightmare.
Only you can.work out your best way forward, i wish you well