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Which vet universities are best for large animals?

I am applying to university this year and am particularly interested in the large animal side. I have been to a few open days and Bristol and Edinburgh both look quite good for this, someone said surrey has quite a lot of emphasis on large animals; is this true? I never managed to go on an open day, but it doesn't really look like it concentrates much on large animal from their website. Could you possibly rank in your opinion all the vet schools, with no.1 concentrating most on farm and the last least interested in farm animal?

Reply 1

Louiseee_

Original post by _wbphillips

Tbh, I don't think there are any that are outstanding in large animal, because allof the vet schools have to teach you about all of the common species you will meet general practice (so dog, cat, cow, sheep, horse and I think pigs but they tend to be specialist once you graduate). If they just emphasised LA I don't think the RCVS would be too happy. Plus none of them can really say they are *the* LA vet school & it may even depend on each cohort (eg. My cohort seems quite horsey/farmy)
IMO the best for large animal would be Nottingham just because 1) the course is extremely practical which is great for farm work & 2) they have their own small holding & dairy unit. Surrey are also really keen on LA stuff and I think have plans to build a large animal handling unit and a specialist top of the range farm animal pathology unit. I've heard that they want to be as renowned for LA as liverpool is for equine, but I think it's too early to tell :tongue:

Also, bear in mind that even though you may be determined to be a large animal vet now, 5 years is a long time & you learn a lot, so you may even change your mind once you get there :wink:

Reply 2

SilverstarDJ

I don't think Liverpool is bad at large animal stuff, but if I am honest, on rotations they don't seem to have many farming clients. However, on the other hand, the lecturers are good and we have our own working dairy, pig, sheep, and beef farms. Dairy is the biggest farm we have. We can go onto these farms at any time if we feel we need to practice doing something like clinical exams, or to go lambing for example.

Even though Liverpool is considered famous for their equine work, we don't focus on equine more than any other species! So whatever uni you go to, you are unlikely to find yourself spending much more time in one sector vs the other. You can still be a LA vet whatever uni you end up going to!

Reply 3

ouchthathurts

If Im honest RVC is currently pretty mediocre at LA stuff. Understandable given Hertfordshire isn't renowned for its livestock and the uni is generally SA orientated... however that is changing thanks to the links with Synergy and Utrecht, the uni farm is still running nicely for teaching and there's a base in Wales for FA stuff too. Overall things seem to be moving in the right direction. Personally I was able to spend close to half of my rotations focusing on large animals and I think the current students can do even more.

Don't go choosing a vet school based on it being "better" for a certain species. 5 years is a long time and believe me, some of the most ardent LA orientated students end up changing their mind by the end of it. Besides, in terms of LA work how good you are at it will be defined much more by your EMS placements and what you take from those than which uni you go to. Choose it for the things that really matter, like the night life, where you want to live etc.

Reply 4

Angry cucumber

I agree with all of the above. You can do whatever you want to do, if you go to any of the vet schools.

Nottingham have a good reputation for cattle due to the dairy side of the LA team, but so does Glasgow etc

So yeah, doesn't matter, go to where you want to go

Reply 5

returnmigrant

All Vet Schools have to follow essentially the same curriculum to conform with eventual registration requirements so there isn't one that is 'better at' big animals/small animals or any other undergrad speciality. And you have to do all parts of the course - you can't pick and choose, 'I only do big animals' etc, so ultimately it isn't going to make any difference where you go.

In reality, you'll be going where you get an offer. Choice may not even come into it.