The Student Room Group

If your interested in veterinary, are a vet (or zoo vet) then please read :)

Im going into Year 10 next week, so starting my GCSE course and i guess my whole life I've had the thought of a doctor being the best proffession. However recently, I've thought a bit more about it and realised that thats honestly not what i want to do! Ive always wanted to help animals, however big or small, but especially large animals for example zoo animals. So i've decided that I really want to become a zoo veterinarian or a veterenarian. Im 14 at the moment going on 15 and would really like to start work experience from now, but I dont know how I can, does anyone have any ideas? Like zoos only accept ypu if your 16 and over, and i live about half an hour from London, so i have easy access to zoos.
Oh and is it true that there are only 6 universities in London in which you can do a vet course? are there any in London? As a zoo vet would i need to get a degree or PHd in zoology or veterinary? Like which one would be preferred?
And these are the GCSEs im taking,
3 sciences, 2 maths, 2 english, french, german , R.S. , Business, Textiles an Arabic
So alltogether 13 GCSEs, im not sure if thats really enough because veterinary is really competitive and I understand you'd have to be like amazing to get in at uni!
Any other tips?
Thanks for reading and sorry its so long!
Reply 1
OK, first off your GCSEs choices are fine. Just do your best to get good grades in them.

For work experience, you need a large variety. Liverpool University ask for the most, they want 10 weeks of work experience. I believe a lot of people aim for this as a minimum, so it would be a good idea to aim for that. 2 weeks of that should be small animal vets, 2 weeks should be large animal. The remaining six weeks should be made up of animal husbandry placements, such as stables, kennels/cattery/animal sanctuary, lambing and some sort of farm placement like dairy or pigs. Zoos are a good placement to have as you'd stand out, but you need to make sure that you've got the basics first.

In order to become a vet you need a degree in veterinary medicine/science (they're the same thing, but different universities call it different things). There are seven vet schools in the UK - Bristol, Nottingham, Liverpool, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Royal Veterinary College in London.
You have to become a vet first then specialise as a zoo vet by working for a zoo!
Reply 3
Stripes has pretty much covered it all :smile:

The only other thing I would say...you are asking about work experience now because of your age. You may find some vets who are willing to let you go for a week, but probably not that many. They seem to get a lot of time wasters who just want to play with cute animals, so a lot of practices seem to prefer to wait until people are a little bit older.

Kennels/catteries/stables are often places that will take people a bit younger (I did some time at the London Equestrian Centre this year, near Mill Hill), and they had quite a lot of 14/15/16 years olds helping every weekend/school holiday.
Reply 4
As has been said, I would suggest getting started with the basics first at the sorts of placements that will take you at 14. If you still want to go for the zoo/exotics route, get work experience at a zoo or wildlife park, and perhaps an exotics specialist practice. (Being local, I know of a few useful contacts in London - PM me if you want the details.)

Remember that you have to complete your 5 year VetMed course first, then I think after you've been in practice for 1 year or more, you can study for certificates and diplomas in things like zoo medicine from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS).

Hope this helps.
Reply 5
In addition to what everyone else has said, check out organizations like worldwide experience or brothers safari. I just went on their Vets Go Wild course and it was AMAZING. WWE offers other 'gap year' courses, and I think Vets and Wildlife (used to be Go Bush Direct) does too (not just for vet students).

While I was on the VGW course, a vet helping with the course that is now a LA vet, but has done some zoo work, gave me the following advice. Once you graduate, go work in a small animal clinic, and offer to take on any of their exotics patients. A lot of strictly small animal vets don't like exotics patients, so they will probably be thrilled (per him). This gets you elementary experience. Then, join an exotics practice, to beef up on your exotics medicine. You probably won't be a brilliant surgeon, or internal medicine vet, or whatever, but a good all-round practical exotics vet. People with solid exotics experience are often the ones (again, allegedly) that get called out to help treat zoo animals (I presume assuming they don't have their own vet-Metro Toronto Zoo does, but I think I remember the Dick Vet treating animals at the Edinburgh Zoo and 3 Sisters Zoo). He did NOT recommend differentiating between zoo and exotics, though that is just his opinion.

I would recommend doing a placement with a zoo or wildlife vet, as it can be quite different. Most of what I saw this summer was not what I would consider 'medicine' per se, but more preparing animals for safe transport to another facility. This might be a difference between wildlife and zoo medicine, but at a wildlife park they are supposed to live natural lives, and the vets are very hands off. Depending on the value of the animal and how many there are etc., they may not even treat if an animal gets hurt or sick. That is not to say they don't get to do really coold things, because they do!

Oh, another place to see about volunteering is a wildlife rehabilitation center. Even if you go in as just the cage cleaner/laundry/etc., you can often work your way up to caring for the animals, and I think the one I did is one of the BEST placements, both for enjoyment and learning, I've had.

Good luck!
Reply 6
Why not just do weekends on a farm or in a kennels or something for now? If you spend up until applying doing work experience you're going to get really bored and not want to go anymore! Most places won't take you under the age of 16 because of insurance so that's probably you're biggest problem :/ Do you have to do work experience in year 10/11 from school? If so, try and get it in a vets or atleast something to do with animals as that will count towards your work experience when you apply. Don't spend all your time doing placements though, unis want to see that you have other interests as well like if you're in a sports team or if you play an instrument etc.
As far as GCSEs go, they don't really matter that much. Some uni's want certain grades but not in that many subjects so just make sure you get those. Nottingham for example want an A in chemistry, biology and physics and a B in maths and english. Most other places just want 5 As or something.
Just keep checking, entry requirements etc. might change. Or tuition fees might go up again! £9,000 a year when I go! :| Other than that, good luck! Just keep motivated and i'm sure you'll do great :smile:
Reply 7
I am at the same age and think of the same thing although I am in Scotland and have no idea about GCSEs i do work experience one a week at my local vets I observe help when needed and clean the table my advice is make a short cv about your interests and hobbies and give it to local vets they might even offer you placement good luck !