Veterinary Specialists

Are specialists available in veterinary medicine?

Veterinary medicine has specialty colleges in almost all the areas that human medicine has specialties.

The term specialist has a very specific meaning in veterinary medicine. A prospective specialist has a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from an accredited School of Veterinary Medicine. (Remember, veterinary school is essentially a graduate school.) After veterinary school, prospective specialists complete a one or two-year internship, followed by a 2 to 4 year residency. Then, in order to become a Diplomate of their specialty college, the examination board of the college must approve the resident’s research project and specialty college board exams. The entire process to become a specialist takes a minimum of 9 years of post-secondary education, but usually takes 12 years, and can take up to 14 years.

Some of the specialty colleges available are: Surgery, Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Dermatology, Dentistry, Oncology, Cardiology, Ophthalmology, Emergency and Critical Care, Theriogenology (reproduction), Behavior, Pathology, Radiology, and Toxicology. The American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine has several subgroups.

Specialists used to be found most commonly at a university. As the specialty colleges have grown and the demand for the advanced care has increased, more specialists are working in private hospitals. Most of these private hospitals are established as referral centers, although a few specialists will be found in general practices.

General practitioners make use of the specialists for several reasons. Most commonly we refer patients in order to provide advanced care, diagnostics, or therapy. The knowledge and experience of a specialist in their area is much deeper than any private practitioner could hope to achieve. However, specialists tend to become very limited in their area of comfort. I have known many internal medicine people who would feel very uncomfortable performing any type of surgery.

General practitioners see a very wide range of cases, but some problems are infrequent enough that we either lack the equipment or comfort level to provide the best care possible. As a general practitioner who has completed an internship, I make frequent use of specialists to provide more advanced care in complex cases, to provide advanced diagnostics, for second opinions, and especially for orthopedic surgery. The goal is to provide the best care possible.

When general practitioners and specialists work together, each in our areas of expertise, our patients can get the best care possible.

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