UC Davis Vet School – Year 1 – First Year Fall Curriculum

Happy New Year everyone! With one semester of vet school under my belt, I wanted to share a little bit about the Fall Year 1 Curriculum. Prologue Length: 2 weeks Many upperclassmen told me that Prologue was “basically summer camp.” Especially compared to other blocks, I would agree with this assessment! The first week consisted Read More …

New Contributing Writer: Meet Lauren!

Hello everyone! Since Dr. Ostermann graduated from UC Davis a few years ago, a lot has changed! To keep the site up-to-date and helpful for current pre-veterinary students, Dr. Ostermann has graciously allowed me to do some writing about the new application process and new curriculum. But before I get into all that, I will Read More …

Q&A: How do you compare schools for what they specialize in?

How do you compare schools for what they specialized the most in, or what type of medicine they offer the most experience in before graduation/residency? Which veterinary school offers the most for food animal medicine, for equine, for zoo medicine. Every school claims to be the best at one thing or another on their websites, Read More …

Public Sector Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Changes That Should Scare You

There are some proposed changes to the law as part of the new budget that have the potential to save many tax dollars while at the same time crippling students who have been counting on loan forgiveness through public service. While most articles that I’ve read do not address the direct impact on the veterinary Read More …

UC Davis 4th Year Clinics – Community Surgery

Community Surgery is a relatively new rotation at Davis. The idea behind the rotation is to give students the chance to practice their surgical skills so as to enter the job market with more than just 3 surgeries under their belt. The focus is on spay & neuter, but you will probably have 1-2 other Read More …

The Many Career Paths in Veterinary Medicine

There are many paths that you can take with a doctoral degree in Veterinary Medicine, though most people think of veterinarians as people who work as dog & cat vets in a hospital setting. While that is what a lot of veterinarians do, it is only one of many different paths that you can choose. Read More …

UC Davis 4th Year Clinics – Companion Avian & Pet Exotics (CAPE)

CAPE, or the companion and avian pet exotics service was not a required rotation for the students on the small animal track, though I felt it was invaluable to me as I have a desire to work with animals aside from dogs and cats. # of Students: 2-3 # of Residents: 1-3 # of Faculty: Read More …

UC Davis 4th Year Clinics – Companion Avian & Pet Exotics (CAPE)

CAPE, or the companion and avian pet exotics service was not a required rotation for the students on the small animal track, though I felt it was invaluable to me as I have a desire to work with animals aside from dogs and cats. # of Students: 2-3 # of Residents: 1-3 # of Faculty: Read More …

UC Davis 4th Year Clinics – Neurology & Neurosurgery

I will say that neuro was the most physically taxing service that I had during my 4th year. After neuro everything seemed easy, or at least manageable. # of Students: 2-6, but most likely 3-4 # of Residents: 2-3 # of Faculty: 1-2 And some fantastic techs to help you with just about anything & Read More …

UC Davis 4th Year Clinics – Soft Tissue Surgery

Soft tissue surgery is a great rotation for witnessing and assisting in surgeries of all types (just non-orthopedic). The service has a lot of fancy tools (laparascopy, LigaSure, etc.) that makes these procedures faster or less invasive but also makes it less applicable to what most of us are going to be seeing and doing Read More …