My advice, go hang out at a cattle or horse farm. Seriously. I grew up on a cattle farm and we did a ton of our own doctoring on the cows and horses. I helped give vaccinations, antibiotics, cutting growths off calves, suturing, dehorning, rotfoot, you name it. Calving season you get to see a ton of gross but cool stuff. And sad. Stillborns, calves that died due to kothers accidentally stepping on them. Yearlings or 2 year old heifers that have been attacked by wolves and still alive...prolapsed uteruses. I have seen a vet have to cut a colt out of its mother piece by piece. Been to branding and gelding parties. Seen a horse have to be euthanised after it broke its back. Lambs die en mass during a heat wave. Do all this in helping out at farms. If you can handle the reality of all that plus sticking your arm up a cows rear to preg test it; then you know you can emotionally handle being a vet. My dream of becoming one died with the lamb deaths (no silence of the lambs jokes) and then having to put my farm dog down at age 13yrs. He was the same age as I was...had him since a pup, I was a baby...that broke it for me, knew I just could not do that everyday.

ikr... I'm tired of begging to be scratched and peed on.

Oh and the dog wasn't put down there. Somebody just dropped it off in a box at the back door. It had clearly been dead for weeks. Even the experienced vets were gagging.

That's sick. I can't believe somebody would drop a dead dog off there.

Seriously, what's wrong with people? But besides that, I'm happy for you that you're willing to go through it anyway! Most vets become epically rich so good luck!

An old carcass is child's play when it comes to abuse. I really don't mean to be a downer, and I don't want to dissuade you but I will be very honest about the reality of working in a veterinary hospital. Stick around long enough and you'll have stories for days. If you feel up to it, see if a doctor is willing to eventually allow you to deliver a euthanizing injection so you can feel what the experience of humane death is like. On another note, I am proud of you for stepping up to give it a solid effort. If it doesn't work out for you, at least you tried. There is no shame in learning by doing.

That's a normal day mate. Sorry you are having difficulties with it but be glad you don't work in large animal (horses cattle etc) you deal with much worse and if you show any signs of distaste the farmers think you are weak and you may have just lost a client (which is also more important in large animal as one client may have hundreds or thousands of head at least where I live in Alberta). Stick with it though if you can. Its a really rewarding job. For smells I've heard if you take really deep breathes then you get used to the smell. As for urine and scratches not much you can do other than bring spare clothes in case you get pissed on. And how did you not know what you were getting into? Didn't you do volunteering before applying to vet school? In western canada its basically a pre req.

Also idk what the situation is with diseases in your areas but perhaps they were worried it had some so dropped it off. Or maybe they didn't know how to properly dispose of it and figured a vet clinic does.

My mom works at a vet, being peed on happens every week! You'll get used to if

Oh that's just disgusting and terrible. How people can be that cruel to animals is beyond me. But good for you OP for sticking it out.

There was one day when we had to do abdominal surgery on a 26 lb dog to remove a 5 lb cyst from her uterus. It was pretty gross. Anyways, good luck OP! I hope you love it!

The internship is what she's doing now.

Agreed. OP is stuck in a hard job

Do you mean she injects herself with it?