To think being a vet must be way harder than being a doctor

[Finlesswonder]

Obviously both must be hard!

But a vet has to know everything about a whole bunch of species, from conditions to how totally different bodies work.
Plus they have to do surgery as well as general check ups.
Plus they have to euthanise.
And PLUS there's a fear/danger element with some animals I guess.

If we were I'm an apocalypse situation, don't you think a vet would be handier to have around than a doctor? Could a vet operate on/diagnose a human if push came to shove?

Except….

Doctor has more at stake.

Vets can euthanise without recourse but doctors not.

@Finlesswonder

In emergency situations vets have stepped into help humans, not sure about full operations but certainly emergency medicine. That said vets tend a specialise a bit, a zoo vet used to treating primates will be more use to humans, but equally they call in human drs sometimes for great apes. The best story I know is that they taught a hand reared gorilla how to breastfeed by a zookeeper's wife who had recently given birth sitting feeding her baby the other side of the glass, the gorilla then picked up her baby who she had been ignoring and fed her!

You are asking two questions here.

A vet has to study longer, and also know more about different biologies/species so yeah, definitely harder.

However there is less oversight/recourse if a vet loses a patient unlike a doctor, so being a doctor is more stressful/harder.

But doctors do not regularly put down/take a sentient life most days so being a vet is harder.

In an apocalypse situation I'm hunting down a vet to be my new best friend!

I read somewhere that there is a really high depression/suicide rate among vets. To me the euthanasia would be difficult but harder still would be seeing cases of abuse, especially borderline cases where you can't do anything because the animal is t being mistreated so to speak but they aren't getting the best life.

Having said that being a GP must feel lime that sometimes as presumably you have huge insight into people's lives and that must be very sad sometimes

A doctor can ask where it hurts. A vet can ask too but it doesn't get them very far!

Doctors can (often) ask their patients to describe symptoms, pain etc. Vets can’t do that!

Vets, dentists and anaesthetists have the highest rates of suicide because they have access to medications and equipment that enables them to commit suicide.

Doctors also specialise in great detail while vets do not.

Vets, dentists and anaesthetists have the highest rates of suicide because they have access to medications and equipment that enables them to commit suicide

Is that true? Surely if that were the case, nurses would too?
To be blunt, suicide is not something that needs special equipment, so is out the realm of people that do not have access to the sort of things vets etc do.

Totally agree. Just enough dealing with arseholes that are the general public then having to deal with an angry raging animal and then trying to educate the thick member of public that feeding their angry animal shit isn't the norm and their animal
needs training. Then the excuses come that they've got mental health issues which is why they can't look after or train their raging animal! Rant over! 😡Preparing to be flamed

I’ve always thought the reported high rates of depression and suicide amongst vets is reflective of the high level of responsibility and relatively low pay and job security of the average vet. Most vets are self employed and running businesses, most drs (GP aside) are not. They also have much more defined career paths and better pensions. Ergo being a vet is a high pressure high workload situation just like a dr but with a greater degree of precariousness and less security.

Fair point but I’d imagine most vets tend to see the same types of animal - dogs and cats, standard domestic pets. It’s unlikely someone is going to come in with a Komodo Dragon or a Giant Squid.

I'm not sure if it's meaningful to compare vets and doctors but I do agree that vets have a tough job (I'm not a vet btw, just a dog owner). Two other challenging aspects are that their patients can't talk and that they are often limited by what owners can afford (or what insurance will pay for) when trying to peform diagnostic workup

Beys also have to diagnose an issue where the patient can’t describe the symptoms. My Aunts GP is actually a failed vet, couldn’t pass her exams so said she ‘downgraded to humans’.

To answer the OP... I would rather have a vet around in an apocalypse situation. No one is going to get bed rest if the zombies (or whatever flavour or doomsday hits us)... vets will get us up and about with the bare minimum of intervention. A GP will tell you to come back in 2 weeks after taking painkillers.

I know one person who was a doctor and then became a vet. I think he preferred being a vet!

The things I find hardest about being a vet aren't the massive amounts of information you need to retain and the learning / memorising.

The hardest part is the daily abuse from owners when you talk through costs and they tell you you're money grabbing and disgusting and you can't possibly "love animals".

It's also hard dealing with very large and aggressive dogs when the owner has no control over them, doing emergency surgery in the middle of the night when there's only one other staff member in the whole clinic, convincing irresponsible owners to neuter / vaccinate / generally take care of their pets, switching from being solemn and compassionate during a euthanasia to being happy and relaxed when you're giving a kitten's first vaccines 5 minutes later.

It's not easy dealing with owners who didn't seek veterinary care for months for their pet who is in a lot of pain because they didn't want to "stress them out", finding a vein in a tiny and dehydrated kitten, trying to figure out and treat a poorly animal when the owner can't afford any tests....

God, I could go on. It isn't an easy job. Let's just say, I wouldn't want my DC to be a vet.

I don't doubt medics deal with their fair share of shit too. As pp pointed out, there's a lot more at stake when it comes to people and that was one of the main reasons I didn't pursue medicine.

We've advised our animal mad child against being a vet. In Europe, its farming, horse racing and putting down family pets.
I really love animals and don't want that life for them. Going to the vets a few times in life to PTS your lovely pet is enough. I think they are saints though.

I think vets are great but treating humans is 1,000 times harder. A dog doesn’t know it’s going to die, you don’t have to break it to the dog that it should put its affairs in order or that it should speak to its children about genetic tests for an autosomal dominant condition that could spell the end of its children.

Sure, you have to comfort the owner, which is no doubt very hard in some cases, but at least you do not have to explain it all to the patient themselves on top. And generally, people expect (several) pets to die within their lifetime but close humans dying (partners, parents, children or friends) tends to be a once-in-a-lifetime cataclysm for those left behind.

vets in the UK don’t get paid enough, though, and actually neither do doctors. IMHO they should all start in about £50k and go up from there.

I've worked as a GP receptionist and ds1 has just qualified as a vet. I think it's definitely harder to be a vet and we've had many discussions around suicide and coping strategies.

When a vet pts an ill animal who is in pain, that's a kindness and easier to live with, the hardest thing I think is when a young, healthy animal is brought in to be pts because the owners have failed it and blame the animal. If an owner insists on pts over rehoming, then that is very hard to live with and the vets need tlc.

The money side is a whole world of stress on its own.

My understanding is that vets can treat human patients if they (the patients) give consent.

In an apocalypse situation I'd do what I had to, but in real life I'd never want to practice human medicine 😄

I love my job but it is mentally/emotionally difficult in many ways. You have to be very very resilient and very good at being diplomatic/biting yout tongue. I agree with everything @Alloveragain3 said above.

Couple of other points mentioned above - many vets specialise, most will work in referral centres, and far more vets are salaried employees than self employed practice owners.

Definitely would rather have a very. My dog can get a vet appointment in a day. I can't get a GP appointment for weeks 🤣

*vet not very 🤦‍♂️

Of course being a doctor is harder, if a pregnant dog comes in for a c section and bleeds out and dies it's sad but not a tragedy, can you imagine the pressure on a surgeon if that happens? Doctors have it harder therefore get paid more

I'm a doctor and my best friend is a vet. They're both very stressful jobs, but the stresses are quite different.
She has more people being rude/ aggressive. Is a single practice and gets ridiculous calls and texts at all hours, so doesn't switch off easily. Worries that when she refers to a specialist, people will view her as incompetent and her business will suffer.
My work when I'm there is much more stressful, with higher stake decisions and lots of very difficult conversations. My on calls are usually more busy. But I am pet of a team, and work in a specialty that is generally appreciated, and when I'm off, for the most part I can leave work in work.

Personally I'd take my very high stress for 48hours a week over her moderate - high stress 24/7, but she always says she couldn't do my job (which is high stress, even within medicine) because the potential outcomes of a wrong decision are so potentially catastrophic.

In a zombie apocalypse- I'd take her for sure!

To some of us the tragedy loss of an animal is as bad as a human. I miss my parent and first dog hugely.