Interesting Facts About Veterinarians
There are many interesting facts about veterinarians besides their love for animals. Veterinarians are more likely to be female than male, and they also have different post-graduate requirements than traditional doctors. They don't make the same amount of money as traditional doctors.
- Approximately 75 percent of all students admitted to veterinary school are of the female gender. The number of women going into veterinary medicine has more than doubled since the 1990s, while the number of men entering the field has decreased in inverse proportion.
- Veterinarians can practice immediately after graduation (as long as they receive licensing from the state they want to practice in), whereas other doctors in other medical specialties must first serve an internship before getting started in their medical practice.
- After receiving their graduate (doctorate) degrees in veterinary medicine, veterinarians must then receive licenses from the state they wish to practice in. These are granted by each state, and each state differs in licensing requirements, although usually all that is required is to sit for an exam.
- There are approximately 70 million dogs with owners in the United States, who of course will need veterinary care at some point in their lives.
- Approximately 2/3 of veterinarians will suffer an injury from the animals they treat that will require either hospital time or cause them to miss a significant amount of work.
- An associate veterinarian has an average salary of approximately $35,000. The starting salary for a veterinary specialist is approximately $60,000, but varies greatly depending on regional salary differences.