Specialised veterinarian

Specialised veterinarians are professionals with a comprehensive scientific education. They have the authority to carry out, in an independent, ethical, and personally responsible capacity, all aspects of veterinary medicine in the interest of the health and welfare of animals and public health in accordance with national and international legislation. In addition, they need a recognized qualification and/or experience in a specific species and/or veterinary procedure.

Veterinary specialisms are generally classified according to species and/or procedures, for example:

Species covered may include equine and zoological animals
Procedures covered may include cardiology, orthopaedics

Current lists  of specialisms and details for the specific qualifications and experience required can be found at:
http://www.ebvs.eu
https://www.avma.org/Pages/home.aspx

You are advised to contact the relevant national regulatory body for further information.

The following job titles also refer to specialised veterinarian:

porcine health management veterinarian
wildlife health management veterinarian
veterinary pathologist
sports medicine and rehabilitation veterinarian
small mammal medicine veterinarian
veterinary dermatologist
emergency medicine veterinarian
veterinary oncologist
herpetological medicine veterinarian
bovine health management veterinarian
veterinary cardiologist
poultry veterinary scientist
animal behavioural medicine veterinarian
specialized vet
veterinary comparative nutritionist
veterinary dentist
veterinary theriogenologist
veterinary neurologist
veterinary ophthalmologist
veterinary microbiologist
companion animal internal medicine veterinarian
veterinary clinical pathologist
veterinary anaesthetist
veterinary parasitologist
zoological medicine veterinarian
laboratory animal veterinarian
small ruminant health management veterinarian
veterinary pharmacologist and toxicologist
equine internal medicine veterinarian
aquatic animal health veterinarian
specialized vets
diagnostic imaging veterinarian

Veterinarians work in a variety of environments, including private veterinary practices, animal hospitals, farms, research laboratories, and wildlife facilities. Their work often involves direct interaction with animals, requiring physical strength and stamina. They may be exposed to animal bites, scratches, and diseases. The job can be emotionally demanding, particularly when dealing with sick or injured animals and their distressed owners. Veterinarians often work long hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays, especially those in emergency care or large animal practices. Fieldwork may involve traveling to farms, homes, or other locations to provide care.

To become a veterinarian, one must obtain a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM or VMD) degree from an accredited veterinary college. This requires a strong foundation in the sciences, typically gained through an undergraduate degree in biology, animal science, or a related field. Admission to veterinary school is highly competitive and usually requires excellent academic performance, relevant experience, and strong recommendations.

Veterinary education includes extensive coursework in animal anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and surgery, as well as hands-on clinical training. After obtaining a DVM degree, veterinarians must pass a national licensing exam, and additional state or regional exams may be required. Some veterinarians choose to pursue further specialization through internships, residencies, and board certification in fields such as surgery, internal medicine, or exotic animal care.

Continuing education is essential to keeping up with advancements in veterinary medicine and maintaining licensure. Membership in professional organizations, such as the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) or the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), can provide valuable resources, networking opportunities, and professional development.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Specialised veterinarian is a Skill level 4 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to specialised veterinarian.

general veterinarian
official veterinarian
animal osteopath
animal chiropractor
animal physiotherapist

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of specialised veterinarian.

• Biosecurity related to animals: Awareness of hygiene and bio-security measures when working with animals, including causes, transmission and prevention of diseases and use of policies, materials and equipment.
• Conduct ante-mortem veterinary health inspection: Perform clinical assessment and certification of the health status of food animals prior to slaughter.
• Signs of animal illness: Physical, behavioural and environmental signs of health and ill health in various animals.
• Animal welfare legislation: The legal boundaries, codes of professional conduct, national and EU regulatory frameworks and legal procedures of working with animals and living organisms, ensuring their welfare and health.
• Animal production science: Animal nutrition, agronomy, rural economics, animal husbandry, hygiene and bio-security, ethology, protection and herd health management.
• Animal welfare: Universally recognized animal welfare needs as applied to species, situation and occupation. These are:
  • need for a suitable environment
  • need for a suitable diet
  • need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns
  • need to be housed with, or apart, from other animals
  • need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.
• Physiology of animals: The study of the mechanical, physical, bioelectrical and biochemical functioning of animals, their organs and their cells.
• Environmental enrichment for animals: Types, methods and use of enrichment for animals to allow the expression of natural behaviour, including the provision of environmental stimuli, feeding activities, puzzles, items for manipulation, social and training activities.
• Fundamental veterinary sciences: Veterinary anatomy, histology, embryology, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, pharmacology, pharmacy, toxicology, microbiology, immunology, epidemiology and professional ethics.
• Safe work practices in a veterinary setting: Safe work practices in a veterinary setting in order to identify hazards and associated risks so as to prevent accidents or incidents. This includes injury from animals, zoonotic diseases, chemicals, equipment and working environment.
• Veterinary clinical sciences: Aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment of common diseases and disorders. This includes veterinary areas such as propaedeutics, clinical and anatomic pathology, microbiology, parasitology, clinical medicine and surgery (including anaesthetics), preventive medicine, diagnostic imaging, animal reproduction and reproductive disorders, veterinary state medicine and public health, veterinary legislation and forensic medicine, and therapeutics.
• Anatomy of animals: The study of animal body parts, their structure and dynamic relationships, on a level as demanded by the specific occupation.
• Animal behaviour: The natural behavioural patterns of animals, i.e. how normal and abnormal behaviour might be expressed according to species, environment, human-animal interaction and occupation.

These skills are necessary for the role of specialised veterinarian.

• Certify the performance of veterinary procedures: Produce accurate descriptive certification of procedures carried out by a veterinarian.
• Perform laboratory testing on samples of animals: Conduct and interprete simple procedures in a veterinary practice laboratory on samples of an animal intended to detect, identify, or quantify disease agents, evaluate organ functions, or determine the nature of a disease.
• Maintain veterinary clinical records: Create and maintain clinical records for animals according to national regulatory requirements.
• Perform euthanasia on animals: Kill painlessly an animal suffering from an incurable and painful disease.
• Manage animal biosecurity: Plan and use appropriate biosafety measures to prevent disease transmission and ensure effective overall biosecurity. Maintain and follow biosecurity procedures and infection control when working with animals, including recognising potential health issues and taking appropriate action, communicating site hygiene control measures and biosecurity procedures, and reporting to others.
• Communicate specialised veterinary information: Communicate the relevance of and the advances in the area of specialisation to general practice veterinarians and to non-veterinarians.
• Evaluate information in the field of veterinary nursing: Be able to read, understand and utilise the most current research available to justify decisions based on best practice.
• Practise veterinary professional codes of conduct: Adhere to veterinary professional codes of practice and legislation.
• Provide sedation to animals: Select, administer and monitor sedatives dispensed to animals for a medical intervention.
• Manage animal welfare: Plan, manage and evaluate the application of the five universally recognised animal welfare needs as appropriate to species, situation and own occupation.
• Perform surgical procedures on animals: Apply operative manual and instrument-specific techniques to an animal with the intention of modifying physiological status and/or restoring normal organ or tissue function or structure.
• Conduct veterinary client consultation: Conduct structured and empathetic communication with clients in order to ascertain or provide relevant clinical information concerning health status, treatment options or other ongoing care of the veterinary patient.
• Issue certificates for animal products: Issue certificates related to animal health and welfare or to animal products, based on the necessary examination or testing, in accordance with the principles of certification agreed at European level.
• Prescribe physical therapy to animals: Prescribe physical methods for therapy in animals, such as modification of exercise, massage, heat treatment, electrical and other wave-based treatments.
• Apply safe work practices in a veterinary setting: Apply safe work practices in a veterinary setting to identify hazards and associated risks and prevent accidents or incidents. This includes injury from animals, zoonotic diseases, chemicals, equipment, and work environments.
• Manage animal hygiene: Plan and use appropriate hygiene measures to prevent disease transmission and ensure effective overall hygiene. Maintain and follow hygiene procedures and regulations when working with animals. Communicate site hygiene controls and protocols to others. Manage the safe disposal of waste according to destination and local regulations.
• Manage licensed animal medications: Prescribe and/or administer all kinds of medications, including fluid replacement therapy by all routes. This includes assessing the safety and efficacy of a single medicine and of combinations of medicines for use in the animal while ensuring neither the owner nor public health is compromised.
• Collect samples from animals for diagnostic purposes: Obtain specimens of an animal’s body fluids, secretions, excretion or other tissues, in order to facilitate the diagnosis of health and disease.
• Apply veterinary epidemiology: Analyse animal and zoonotic disease morbidity and mortality in a given population and relate findings to the norm. This includes collection and analysis of data and information for use in individual animals, groups or more widely as part of a network of disease surveillance. Implement intervention and control measures.
• Apply specialised veterinary knowledge: Resolve problems that are beyond the competence of a general practice veterinarian.
• Perform gross post mortem examination on animals: Perform gross examination of the animal corpse for the purpose of diagnosing the aetiology and pathophysiology of disease or death of animals and for the safety and quality of animal products entering the food chain.
• Manage the use of vaccines: Prescribe, administer and manage the use of vaccines, immune stimulants and suppressors and anti-sera.
• Handle veterinary emergencies: Handle unforeseen incidents concerning animals and circumstances which call for urgent action in an appropriate professional manner.
• Perform veterinary diagnosis: Identify and determine the physiological status of animals and the nature and cause of diseases in animals through evaluation of patient history, clinical examination, and the selection, taking and reviewing of confirmatory imaging, laboratory and other ancillary test data.
• Monitor the welfare of animals: Monitor animals’ physical condition and behaviour and report any concerns or unexpected changes, including signs of health or ill-health, appearance, condition of the animals’ accommodation, intake of food and water and environmental conditions.
• Assess animal behaviour: Observe and evaluate the behaviour of animals in order to work with them safely and recognise deviations from normal behaviour that signal compromised health and welfare.
• Implant microchips in animals: Implant microchips under the skin of animals.’
• Provide anaesthetics to animals: Select, administer, and monitor anaesthetics in animals in preparation for surgery.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of specialised veterinarian. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Zoonotic diseases: Zoonoses are infectious diseases of animals that can naturally be transmitted to humans. They consist of a wide range of diseases and range from endemic zoonoses such as brucellosis, anthrax, bovine tuberculosis, parasitic diseases (hydatid disease, echinococcosis, trichinellosis) and rabies to emerging zoonoses, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, Nipah/Hendra disease and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of specialised veterinarian. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Take advantage of learning opportunities in veterinary science: Use different channels and learning styles such as journals, courses, and conferences to obtain new information, knowledge, skills, and know-how in relation to working with animals.
• Understand the animal’s situation: Categorise and verify information about the environment and its impact on the animal. Analyse the situation, such as what the animal may want or need.
• Collaborate with animal related professionals: Collaborate with veterinary and other animal-related professionals through communication of animal details, case records and summary reports orally or via written or electronic transfer.
• Communicate with customers: Respond to and communicate with customers in the most efficient and appropriate manner to enable them to access the desired products or services, or any other help they may require.
• Control animal movement: Direct, control or restrain some or part of an animal’s, or a group of animals’, movement.
• Cope with challenging circumstances in the veterinary sector: Maintain a positive attitude during challenging situations such as a misbehaving animal. Work under pressure and adapt to the circumstances in a positive manner.’
• Follow work schedule: Manage the sequence of activities in order to deliver completed work on agreed deadlines by following a work schedule.
• Manage a small-to-medium business: Manage the organisational, financial and day-to-day operation of a small-to-medium enterprise.
• Calculate rates per hours: Make simple calculations regarding the money that should be earned in relation to the number of hours worked.
• Safely interact with animals: Ensure a safe and humane interaction with the animal avoiding factors that will negatively affect their behaviours. This includes the use of humane training aids/equipment, as well as explaining their use to owners/keepers, to ensure they are used appropriately and the welfare of the animal is protected.
• Advise on livestock disease control: Advise livestock owners of the economic aspects of disease eradication. Advise consumers of public health implications of diseases transmissible from animals to humans.
• Assess animal nutrition: Assess the nutrition status of animals, diagnose dietary imbalances and prescribe correction.
• Provide first aid to animals: Administer emergency treatment to prevent deterioration of the condition, suffering and pain until veterinary assistance can be sought. Basic emergency treatment needs to be done by non-veterinarians prior to first-aid provided by a veterinarian. Non-veterinarians providing emergency treatment are expected to seek treatment by a veterinarian as soon as possible.
• Apply numeracy skills: Practise reasoning and apply simple or complex numerical concepts and calculations.
• Make decisions regarding the animal’s welfare: Make a choice from several alternative possibilities that promote the animal’s well-being.
• Maintain relationships with animal welfare establishments: Ensure good relations with other animal welfare establishments and agencies.
• Check the health of livestock: Perform routine visits to farms in order to check the health of livestock.
• Administer appointments: Accept, schedule and cancel appointments.
• Interview animal owners on animals’ conditions: Ask questions appropriate to the setting and purpose, with the aim to elicit accurate information on the animal’s health condition, in order to facilitate a correct diagnosis.
• Develop an animal handling strategy: Develop plans and strategies to deal with the animal in order to achieve established goals and optimal results.
• Plan schedule: Develop the schedule including procedures, appointments and working hours.
• Provide animal training: Provide training in basic handling, habituation, and obedience to enable the completion of day-to-day tasks while minimising the risks to the animal, the handler, and others.
• Advise on animal welfare: Prepare and provide information to individuals or groups of people on how to promote the health and well-being of animals, and how risks to animal health and welfare may be reduced. Provide recommendations for corrective actions.
• Deal with challenging people: Work safely and communicate effectively with individuals and groups of people who are in challenging circumstances. This would include recognition of signs of aggression, distress, threatening and how to address them to promote personal safety and that of others.
• Implement veterinary clinical governance: Conduct self-audit and peer group review processes regarding professional standards in veterinary clinics.
• Maintain administrative records in the veterinary office: Create and maintain administrative records for activities such as appointments and sales in the veterinary office.’

2250 – Veterinarians

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References

1. Specialised veterinarian – ESCO
2. Featured image: Photo by International Fund for Animal Welfare