As you may or may not know, I’m technically a veterinarian.
Growing up- in densely suburban Southern California, I might add- Sister S and I (you remember her!) shared our very small home with raccoons, squirrels, opossums, ferrets, chickens, and even a tarantula.
We were that house. The one the neighbors all hated cuz it brought down the area’s market value… this may or may not have been related to aforementioned chickens. Our mother was a wildlife rehabilitator, meaning that she cared for local orphaned and injured animals until they could be released back into the wild.
While embarrassing at the time (fellow second-grader: “Umm… why do you have a bunch of ducks in a kiddie pool on your back porch? You’re… weird…”), living in a menagerie has provided me conversational fodder for many a cocktail party. It also most likely sowed the seeds of my profession.
As kids, Sister S & I were in charge of bottle-feeding the perpetually-hungry raccoons, who would run greedily at any bit of exposed skin and begin trying to feed; my legs were always covered in suspicious, hickey-like bruises that probably concerned elementary school teachers and social workers alike. As the raccoons got older, my mother had us teach them how to climb by sending us scrambling up the lone tree in our backyard and calling the orphans up after us. Half of the photos of me as a tween feature a squirrel, opossum, or ferret.
Our little zoo wasn’t always Happy Times- one afternoon found us returning home to a bloody backyard massacre after our pet ferret escaped into the chicken coop. Perhaps this is why one doesn’t attempt a menagerie on a tiny residential lot? My mother had some sort of a nervous breakdown, and my father was faced with the unholy task of euthanizing a few of the half-dead hens with the front tire of his truck. It was… traumatic… to say the least.
Somehow from these odd and sordid beginnings- and after a two-year pre-law phase in college (I still maintain that I’d make a sweet Supreme Court Justice)- I decided I wanted to become an exotic animal veterinarian.
Most veterinarians specialize in a certain type of patients- small animal vets treat mostly dogs & cats; large animal vets take care of horses & farm animals; and exotics vets pick up the scraps (either companion exotics like rabbits, parrots, & iguanas or zoo animals or wildlife).
Perhaps because of my unorthodox childhood pets, working with wildlife holds a special place in my heart.
Wildlife medicine is a lot of wound repair (when small mammals or birds are attacked by larger beasts), fixing sprained or broken wings, removing fishing line from waterfowl, and caring for orphaned creatures.
Sometimes working with wildlife can be sad- I end up euthanizing a fair amount of patients that I know just aren’t going to make it back in the wild. But it’s also really rewarding getting to save the ones that I can.
I do some work with exotic pet animals, too. Some have been adorable.
Other patients have required me to google their species before going in to the appointment (seriously… do you know what an axolotl is?).
Whatever comes my way, it’s usually something different.
Which is exactly how I like to spend my days.
What an awesome job!
Thank you! It's not bad as far as jobs go. ;-)
I love this post! Even your job is an adventure, haha. I'm going to show this post to Trinity tomorrow, just because a wildlife veterinarian is one of her top five things she wants to be when she grows up. She's going to love reading about it.
I love that 'wildlife vet' made Trinity's Top 5! I'm so impressed that she's mature enough to have a top five in the first place! (I'm pretty sure I wanted to grow up and be a dinosaur when I was twelve. Hmmm.) Feel free to message me if Trinity ever has any questions... maybe I can push it into the Top 3. :)
What a wonderful profession !! I love the photos.
It really is... it's hard to complain when you get to play with animals at work! :)
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[…] Because I’m a wildlife veterinarian, an avid animal lover, and… perhaps most importantly… the gal planning our travel, many of our trips *somehow* turn out to be animal-centric. Once we knew we were headed to Southeast Asia, I immediately imagined a side-trip to Borneo. And somehow we ended up spending three days trekking through the jungles of Malaysian Borneo searching for wild orangutans, rhinoceroses… and another underestimated member of the local fauna. […]
Lots of interesting work there.
Thank you, Lyle! It definitely keeps me on my toes. :)
Hi there, I have read your blog and am very interested in your experiences I am also in the Veterinary profession as a nurse and am looking for advice. Do you think you could e-mail me and we could discuss this further? Best wishes Rachel
Hi Rachel! Of course, it's no problem at all. I just sent you an email to your hotmail account with the subject line 'Miranda from Spend Your Days blog.' Look forward to hearing from you soon!
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[…] I suck at documenting the rest of my life. In trying to write a post about my life as a veterinarian, I realized I had like, 10 shots- all from the same day when I knew we had a bald eagle coming […]
You have a most rewarding job my friend, I have enjoyed reading this posting and the photographs that you have added enhance it beautifully :) Enjoy your weekend :) Andro
Thank you for such kind words, Andro! :) I am indeed lucky to have a rewarding (and always interesting) job! Now if only I could remember to bring my camera with me more often to get a few more photographs...