Why We Do What We Do

The past year and a half of dedicating myself to clinical rotations has been filled with highs and lows. In many ways it has been the highest form of my schooling in that I was being trained how to put into practice that which I have been learning for years. Veterinary school is an exciting time but also challenging. Those of us who enter it do so knowing we want to help make the world a better place than it was when we entered it. We have forged a bond with animals that may be inexplicable but very much real. We decide how we would like to treat individual patients based on clinical suspicion and diagnostic tests. Some of us opt for advanced training and specialties. We give a lot of time of ourselves and always act in the best interest of our patients.

In the midst of a difficult rotation last spring, my friend Dakota wrote to me the following: “What are clinics like? Imagining lines of coughing hippos and depressed zebras in a waiting room full of animal fashion magazines, titles like ‘new hooves for a new you!’ But I know its probably blood and guts, roaring animals in pain.” She hit it spot on! The profession is not always a glamorous one, but if it allows us to help fix hemorrhage or repair a bowel perforation or simply offer the best care we can, then we are doing something right and involved in a ministry higher than ourselves.

Though my days as a Merck Manual Vet Student Stories blogger have come to a close, I hope to still write in some capacity and share stories with anyone interested. I may be reached at m.vizelberg@gmail.com.

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Maxbetter

DVM

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Maxbetter has been cultivating his interest in veterinary medicine since a young age. From being read Russian children’s stories about “Doctor Aybolit” by his grandmother, to going with his parents to see horses at a nearby stable as a child, to working at a local small animal hospital, he has thoroughly enjoyed learning about animals over the years. Max will be returning to New Orleans to work at a teaching hospital for the first stint of his veterinary career.

Latest posts by Maxbetter (see all)

• Why We Do What We Do - June 11, 2018
• Post-Grad Life - June 11, 2018
• Commencement - June 11, 2018