I graduated in November 2021 and since then I’ve been working at the Val d’Arve veterinary clinic, for a little over a year now. During my years of study at veterinary school, I also worked in other clinics. These first experiences were very enriching and intense, allowing me to apply my knowledge, improve my practical skills (surgery, ultrasound) but most importantly, to develop my sense of client relations, which is crucial for a veterinarian!
We are a team of 6 veterinarians and 8 veterinary health assistants (VHAs), and we treat small animals: dogs and cats, but also rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, birds, snakes, etc. I work with a team of veterinarians who have developed skills in surgery, dermatology, ophthalmology, internal medicine, behavior, exotic animals (= new companion animals), reproduction, and phytotherapy. I was hired as a salaried veterinarian (autonomous manager) on a fixed-term contract in October 2021 and have been on a permanent contract since September 2022. My days are mostly occupied by consultations (which usually last 30 minutes), I have about 15 per day. Twice a day, I also participate in the rounds of hospitalized animals. This involves reviewing the hospitalized animals, discussing their care with the entire team, and establishing their plan for the day (their treatment or examinations such as blood tests or x-rays, etc.). One day a week, I’m on surgery duty and I operate on animals all morning with the help of the surgical assistant. I first have a pre-operative appointment in the morning with their owners, then we take care of them. We have to anesthetize them, shave and disinfect the surgical area, perform the surgery, and ensure the animal wakes up well. Then in the afternoon (or sometimes the next day) we have appointments with their owners to return them with post-operative instructions and the treatment to follow. Some days I’m in charge of care for hospitalized animals, which means I have to re-evaluate the health status of hospitalized animals, administer their treatment (often intravenous injections) and perform the additional examinations scheduled for the day: blood tests, ultrasounds, x-rays, sending samples to the laboratory, etc.
We also provide on-call services, which means emergency care for animals outside the clinic’s opening hours. I’m on call one evening per week (from 7 PM to 10:30 PM) and one weekend every 6 weeks from Saturday 5:30 PM to Monday morning 8:30 AM. In the evenings after 10:30 PM, we refer our emergencies to veterinarians who make house calls. I can be at home or at the clinic, I must answer calls from owners and I must go to the clinic for an emergency consultation (or even surgery) if needed. I’ve had to finish emergency surgery (gastric dilatation-volvulus on a dog) at 2 AM with one of my colleagues, the night was short but we were happy to have saved this dog!
I also have a managerial role in the clinic, I assist my employer with human resources management. For example, we handle recruitment (veterinarians and veterinary assistants), annual reviews, and conflict management. I also advise him on strategic and day-to-day decision-making; and I’m in charge of veterinary interns who come to the clinic.
In middle and high school, I was a very good student, I liked biology, animals, and understanding how things work. My parents suggested the idea of becoming a veterinarian, I was interested and so I did my ninth-grade internship at a clinic near my home. I loved the surgeries and the diversity of activities within the clinic. To be sure of my choice, I did another week-long internship during the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, at another veterinary clinic near my home. This internship confirmed my choice and helped motivate me to enter preparatory classes and pass the competitive exam!
After obtaining a scientific baccalaureate, I was accepted into the BCPST (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth Sciences) preparatory class at Saint Louis High School in Paris (75). I spent two intense years in preparatory classes, with a heavy workload, stress, but with a great overall class atmosphere focused on mutual support. I was supported and helped by my family, whom I went home to every weekend. I had a good experience in preparatory classes because I made great connections, and I was able to continue playing guitar on weekends with my band (rehearsals and concerts).
I passed the competitive exam at the end of my second year of preparatory classes, and I entered the Lyon veterinary school (VetAgro Sup Lyon) in 2016! At the school, the first two years are purely theoretical, the following two are practical years within the school, which is also a large veterinary clinic. The last year is a year of specialization in a field of your choice: dogs/cats, horses, farm animals (cows, pigs, sheep, etc.), exotic animals, or also management, research, etc. At the end of the five years, you obtain the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree after defending a thesis (a written report of about 100-150 pages on a subject of your choice). This degree allows you to practice a profession with a thousand facets: you can be a practitioner, meaning doing consultations in a clinic like me, but also do research, work in veterinary laboratories or companies in the veterinary world (equipment, consulting, pet food brands, etc.), become a professor in schools, work in administration (Ministry of Agriculture for example), work in parks or zoos, as a public health inspector (in slaughterhouses, factories, restaurants), etc. It’s very diverse! You can also continue your training to become a specialist in a field (surgery, dermatology, ophthalmology, etc.). This requires at least 5 additional years after graduating from school: one year of internship, one (or more) year(s) of assistantship, then three years of residency with a specialist, to then pass a final exam and obtain the specialist diploma.
In my final year, I had done a 3-month internship in Haute-Savoie which I really enjoyed, and I completed my thesis with the Alpivet group, which brings together about fifty clinics in the Alps. Through meetings during my thesis work, I met Dr. Daniel Groux, my current employer. A few months later, he posted a job advertisement to recruit a veterinarian and I ended up at the Val d’Arve veterinary clinic to take my first steps. Currently, for a veterinarian, it’s very easy to find work where you want because there’s a shortage of veterinarians in France.
What I appreciate about my job is that you never get bored!
It’s a profession with many hats (surgeon, doctor, imaging technician, emergency responder, etc.), the cases are very varied and it’s stimulating to have to find the diagnosis with the associated treatment.
I also like taking part in the clinic’s management because it interests me a lot. The clients are super nice and very grateful, it makes me happy to be able to treat animals and satisfy their owners.
Veterinary studies are long and passing the competitive exam is difficult, you need to be very motivated, hardworking, and persistent! I really advise doing one or more internships in veterinary clinics before getting your high school diploma to get a first idea of the profession because many (once they become veterinarians) are disappointed with the reality and change paths. The most important thing is to have a sense of client relations because the job of a practicing veterinarian is above all a customer service job! It’s the owner you need to convince to pay for their animal’s care, give the treatment, trust you, etc. Many are disappointed who like treating animals but have difficulties managing clients, their dissatisfaction, their demands, their stress.
There are several ways to enter veterinary school in France: via integrated preparatory classes after high school, via preparatory classes, university, or the BTS/DUT pathway. The most important thing is to choose the access route that suits you with the work mode that suits you. If you’re a very good student and you tolerate heavy workloads and stress well, you can choose preparatory classes, if you’re a very good student and you’ve already done internships in veterinary clinics you can try to apply for integrated preparatory classes, if you’re an average student, you don’t like intense workloads too much, you need time to assimilate knowledge, you want to do more practice and less theory, choose a BTS/DUT or university pathway instead. And don’t hesitate to inquire about entering other European veterinary schools (Belgium, Spain, Italy, etc.) which also accept French students!
Since October 2022, I’ve been an invited member of the Ergone association which aims to support veterinarians in entrepreneurship and management of their clinics. We have regular meetings to organize exchange sessions, training, clinic visits, and an annual congress. I also occasionally help the Lyon veterinary school alumni association to organize events.
I love the mountains all year round: hiking in the summer or snowshoeing in the winter with my dog Pickup, and snowboarding! I hiked the GR20 last year in Corsica (a trail that crosses the Corsican mountains from North to South over 180km) in 12 days, a great human and sporting experience for me.
I also like reading, cooking, playing guitar, and especially sharing moments with my friends. My favorite sport is handball and I enjoy sporting challenges (GR20, Paris half-marathon, and who knows, maybe climbing Mont Blanc one day!). I’m also a big fan of mopeds and board games (Ticket to Ride, Seven Wonders, Catan,…).
I find that I lack time and I would do even more things if I could! 😉 The veterinary profession is very mentally demanding, and it’s frequent for me to keep thinking about complicated consultations that occupy my mind, to have trouble disconnecting in the evening when I get home. I force myself not to look at the clinic’s software (which I have access to on my computer) and the clinic’s internal messages outside of my working hours, but it’s not always easy. The days are very intense for me, I’m often tired in the evening and the key is to disconnect from work, rest, and take care of oneself! I work 4 days a week so I have a day off during the week where I recover and take care of my daily life (shopping, cleaning, administrative tasks, appointments, etc.). My weekends are well filled with activities and moments with my friends! If I had the possibility to change something in my journey, I wouldn’t work full-time (5 days/week not counting on-call duties) during my first year after leaving school, because the work rhythm was very intense and I was very tired for the first 6 months. I regularly did 2 to 3 extra hours per day because I needed time to think, discuss cases, progress in theory and practice, write my consultation reports. I was a bit down in the dumps and if I had to do it again, I would have liked to avoid this period and start at my own pace.
At veterinary school, there are many associations and clubs (cultural, sports, animal-related, etc.), and each year I enjoyed taking on responsibilities within different associations.
In my first year, “I was the treasurer of the clubs, which meant I centralized the expenses and income of the various clubs (cashing checks, collecting invoices, establishing the annual budget, etc.). I” was also a board member of the AFVAC Junior association, which organized conferences and practical workshops in canine medicine (for dogs and cats). At the end of the year, I became a foster family for a future assistance dog (for people with reduced mobility, autistic children, people with epilepsy, etc.) through the Handichiens association. The idea: to care for and train a puppy from 2 months to 1.5 years old, with the support of a dog trainer and weekly group classes. Afterward, it would spend 6 months with trainers to finalize its education, and at 2 years old, it would be given free of charge to a person in need. That’s how I found myself taking care of a little Golden Retriever puppy named Nickel, who became a dog for people with epilepsy (he detects seizures up t “o an hour before they occur). I” t was an amazing experience that taught me a lot about dog behavior and t “raining. I” t was very hard to have to give him back after watching him grow and spending so much time with him, but I’m very proud of what he does and that he can help someone who needs it!
In my second year, I was elected president of the integration week for new students. For a year, my entire class (140 second-year students) organized an integration week for 160 new students: we had to take care of lunch and dinner for 300 people, organize different activities every day, manage the evening events, handle relations with the schoo “l administration, raise funds to do all this – in short, quite a program! The role of integration president is to coordinate between teams, each with a specific role in the organization: the meal team, the evening events team, the teams for each day, etc. It’s also the position that bears all the responsibilities (especially legal ones); if there’s a problem, you’re the one who has to manage it, make the right decisions, and be aware of everything. It’s a very demanding position, but for me, everything” went generally very well, and I had a memorable year of organization and integration week!
In my third year, “I was in charge of partnerships for the school’s sports club, responsible for finding funding to organize competitions or sporting events. It w” as “n’t an easy position for me as it wasn’t in my nature to approach companies. I” learned to negotiate, to seek and seize opportunities, to dare to ask, and now it serves me well in my everyday life!
In my fourth year, I was elected president of the Revue. It’s a 3.5-hour show with sketches, songs, dances, and videos, organized and performed every year by the fourth-year students. And we don’t do things by halves: we perform in front of more than 1,000 people (family, friends, students, and school professors). This year it was at the Zénith in Saint Etienne, and the budget for the evening was €140,000! We had rehearsals every evening of the week. As president, I mainly managed the administrative part: the budget, renting the venue and equipment, organizing general rehearsals, and coordinating between different teams (dance, music, costume, set design, video, etc.). Unfortunately, COVID didn’t allow us to perform the show, which was first postponed and then definitively canceled. As president, it was a very difficult crisis to manage. We had to make decisions about rescheduling while ensuring it was financially possible and that the entire class could be present and ready for the big day. We also had to motivate everyone to continue rehearsals during lockdown. In the end, the hardest part was choosing and announcing the cancellation of the show because we couldn’t find a date with the restriction measures. We were all very sad not to be able to live this unique experience, but we broadcast the videos of the dress rehearsal and recorded our music in a studio to release an album! It will always remain a regret for me not to have been able to see this project through to the end, but with a global pandemic, it wasn’t easy, and we did our best, which is the most important thing.
In addition to all this, I was in my class’s music group, and we participated in 3-4 concerts per year. In my first year, I was in the rugby club; I switched to football from the second year, where we played in university tournaments. In short, I did lots of different things outside of my studies, and it was super cool! It taught me so many things: managing a team and working in a team, organizing an event, anticipating and planning for problems, knowing how to react in times of crisis, bringing people together around a common project, listening to others, persevering to achieve what we dream of, even if we will surely experience failure that will allow us to bounce back. And today, it serves me well in my job and daily life!
If I had to give advice to a girl who wants to pursue this career, I would say: don’t feel alone because currently, 75% of veterinary students are girls! The profession is becoming more and more feminized, and currently, a majority of veterinarians are women. Women veterinarians who work in rural areas (with farm animals) combat many prejudices, especially related to their physical strength, but it is entirely possible to care for far “m animals as a woman.”
The most important message for me is to warn about the difference between the childhood dream of being a veterinarian and the reality on the ground. It’s a very intense job emotionally, mentally, and physically, with a heavy workload. We also need to be able to handle on-call duties in the evenings and on weekends. But above all, it’s a client-facing profession where having a good sense of customer relations and good communication with the owner is crucial. You also need to know how to work in a team with other veterinarians and assistants.
If you’re motivated to become a veterinarian, come do internships in clinics to get a sense of the job, and persevere by researching as much as possible about the paths to entry!
We’ll be delighted to welcome you into the great family of veterinarians 🙂 and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate: camille.more@outlook.fr
See you soon!
Photo credits: aynaphotos.
In consultation with a comfortable English bantam hen
