Modern Veterinary Schools Don’t Produce Old-School Veterinarians Anymore
I have suggested a few times that we need more of the old-school veterinarians that you might remember from childhood, but most of them are gone. After my recent post on AI in Veterinary Medicine, some of the comments helped me better understand what I mean.
What I mean is that we need NEW old-school veterinarians.
Not necessarily old veterinarians, but veterinarians who still think, practice, and problem-solve like old-school vets did.
When Experience Defined Veterinary Medicine
The experience and practical knowledge of old-school veterinarians were what earned them the respect of pet owners and veterinarians like me. There was a time when experience truly defined veterinary medicine. These veterinarians often had to teach themselves on the fly when treating our pets, and I think they were taught the fundamentals of medicine better back then.
It was a different time and a different generation. They were raised by “America’s Greatest Generation.” They were hard-working and self-sufficient, and the money they made was worth more.
There were fewer environmental chemicals to make pets sick, fewer vaccine injections, and even the cheapest food was better than today’s pet foods. Because of that, veterinarians could often just “give the dog a shot,” and it would all be better.
But we don’t live in that world anymore.
I’m not one of those old-school guys, but I learned from them. And I believe that experience still matters when you’re trying to figure out how to find a good veterinarian for your pet today.
As Experience Fades, Is Technology Really the Answer?
Just like new cars and household appliances, vet schools just don’t make them like they used to. First, the base materials aren’t the same quality or caliber—usually not through any individual student’s fault, but because of modern society, social media screens, instant gratification, and participation trophies. But on top of that, I think vet schools are slacking. It seems that every industry is slacking.
Combined with those factors is modern technology, heavily influenced by corporate funding and strong-arm tactics: “We’ll just take our financial support to another vet school if you don’t teach our methods.”
A mentor pointed out to me more than 10 years ago that new vets were being trained to refer your pet to a specialist for anything that isn’t simple. The newer vets aren’t taught to dig deep and solve the problem.
Fortunately, some veterinarians still can. They aren’t the old-school guys—in fact, many of them are younger than me—but they are problem-solvers and often better at every aspect of veterinary medicine than the board-certified veterinary specialists that the newer grads are taught to refer to.
But with each passing generation, we have fewer and fewer of them.
That makes finding the right veterinarian more important than finding the closest veterinary clinic or the first veterinarian with an available appointment.
And this is where I have to question whether technology is really the answer.
It’s almost as if the industry has slowly “dumbed us down” so that we would have to adopt—even celebrate—new AI technologies. But my recent article, AI in Veterinary Medicine, and the feedback I received from it reiterate that AI isn’t the answer. In fact, it’s the wrong answer.
Technology can be useful, but it cannot replace experience, judgment, accountability, or the ability to look at an individual animal and figure out what is actually going on.
Those qualities are part of what made the old-school veterinarians valuable in the first place. And when experience fades, replacing it with more technology doesn’t necessarily advance veterinary medicine. Sometimes, it simply moves us further away from the qualities that made good veterinarians great in the first place.
When Consumerism and Corporate Power Take Over
I argue elsewhere that this is inevitable in our modern corporate/consumerism society.
Some past authors described the underlying issues as being the result of Industrial Society, but these problems aren’t due to simple industry—they are due to corporate industry. Corporations have legal protection, which removes the personal responsibility and reputation component that might otherwise mitigate human greed. And corporations’ needs and protections are placed above those of the individual citizen because corporations fund the campaigns of the congressional legislators who write and pass the laws that protect them.
This is not a veterinary industry problem. It affects all industries, all professions, and all jobs because corporations control everything, and corporations have no soul. A few billion-dollar companies are still owned and controlled by the guy who started them (e.g., Elon Musk and Richard Branson). They may be imperfect, but at least someone is accountable and ultimately responsible for the company’s actions, which isn’t the case with corporations.
If a corporation is at fault or sued, it usually just files for bankruptcy, and then the same group of people starts another corporation and continues what they were doing. Although corporations have had legal protections in the U.S. for 100–200 years, their cumulative expansion of control and their manipulation of our banking system and legislature have given them greater and greater control over every industry and our daily lives. And that is becoming more apparent recently.
And veterinary medicine is not immune to this influence. Corporate ownership, pharmaceutical interests, food companies, and the growing consolidation of veterinary practices can all influence a veterinarian’s training, how they practice, and the options presented to pet owners. As a result, decisions about an individual pet can become increasingly shaped by forces that have little to do with the veterinarian’s personal judgment or the needs of that animal.
Bringing Accountability Back to Veterinary Medicine
I suggest that the best way to get back to competent, personalized, local veterinary care, trustworthy local food, more capable students, and reliable home repairmen is to get back to living and working in smaller local communities. We can support those communities by keeping our hard-earned dollars local rather than sending them to greedy stock-market corporations.
There is no need to step back in time or give up modern conveniences. We don’t have to abandon Western Civilization or Capitalism. We just need to do things on a smaller scale, where the money stays local, where the influence stays local, and where everyone knows the person who fixed their appliances. Most importantly, it’s where your local veterinarian’s decisions are their own—not the mandated, corporate-created treatment plan.
Basically, we need to get back to a place where you can hold someone accountable if something isn’t done right. Accountability motivates people to do better when they care about their local reputation.
How would living in a small-scale community change state-level veterinary school education, you might ask?
The students going to vet school would have been raised in a community where people valued the work and the word of others. They would have been raised understanding the values of merit and competence, and they would see that their small community appreciates hard-working problem-solvers.
The same would be true of the school’s professors and leaders. They would be less likely to be influenced by Big Pharma. Instead, they would want to produce good, thorough, reputable, reliable, trustworthy veterinarians because their local community would hold them accountable if they did not.
This is much easier said than done.
But if we can all recognize the benefits of small communities, we can start making changes to get there.
So, How Do You Find a Good Veterinarian?
Maybe the better question isn’t simply, “Where is the nearest vet?” Maybe we should be asking, “How do I find a good veterinarian?”
Look for someone who is willing to think beyond the obvious answer. A veterinarian who takes the time to understand your pet instead of simply treating the symptom in front of them. Look for someone who values experience, fundamentals, problem-solving, and personal accountability. And, when possible, look for a local veterinarian with a reputation in the community whose decisions aren’t dictated by a corporate treatment plan.
The old-school veterinarians may be disappearing, but that doesn’t mean the qualities that made them good veterinarians have to disappear with them.
We need new old-school vets. Not because they need to practice medicine exactly as it was decades ago, but because we need veterinarians willing to think, investigate, take responsibility, and do what is best for the individual animal in front of them.
Every pet is different, and every patient deserves an individualized approach that looks beyond the obvious symptoms to understand what is really going on. That means asking better questions, looking deeper, and drawing on experience, sound medical fundamentals, and a willingness to think outside the box.
Those beliefs shaped my veterinary practice and inspired my book, Why Our Pets Are Unhealthy, where I explore many of these ideas in greater depth.
If you’re looking for a veterinarian who values personalized care, problem-solving, accountability, and getting to the root of your pet’s health concerns, I’d be honored to help. Schedule a consultation and let’s start working toward better, long-term health for your pet.
