What Is Veterinary Medicine

Veterinary medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both domesticated and wild, with a wide range of conditions which can affect different species.

Veterinary medicine is widely practiced, both with and without professional supervision. Professional care is most often led by a veterinary physician (also known as a vet, veterinary surgeon or veterinarian), but also by paraveterinary workers such as veterinary nurses or technicians.

Veterinarians are generally responsible for:

· Diagnosing animal diseases

· Treating injured or sick animals

· Advising pet owners on appropriate animal care

· Reviewing veterinary medicine publications and research results

· Treating animals with medical equipment and sometimes sophisticated laboratories

· Contributing to human health

· Food safety testing

· Quarantining animals

A prospective veterinarian must be comfortable working with a variety of animals and owners, and learn how to administer and diagnose illnesses. Veterinary school training offers students a chance to gain skills in bonding with pets and animals of all sizes. Even when a veterinarian career leads to a private practice, or treatment of only small or large animals, some important skills needed include:

· Working with a wide range of sophisticated medical equipment

· Working long hours, both in a lab setting and on location when needed

· Getting along with pet owners

· Forming strong bonds with pets

· Strong communication and business skills

· Being able to promote their private practice

Veterinarians

The first step toward a veterinary career is deciding that veterinary medicine is the right path for you. If you like animals and science, you might want to be a veterinarian. Veterinarians take care of sick and injured animals. They do not only cure sick animals and supply with preventive drugs. They also sell many things, which your animal needs – fillers for the toilet box, sprays against parasites and even ready feeding. They are a good source of advice and knowledge about animals. Like doctors, they perform surgery and give medicine to animals. Usually, they require a reasonable price for their help.

When an animal is sick, vets examine it to find out why. They look for clues in the way an animal looks, acts, and smells. Vets need to look carefully because animals can't say what is wrong.

Vets also give blood tests, x-rays, and other tests, looking for clues about an animal's illnesses. Then, vets decide what kind of medicine or treatment the animal needs. Vets prevent problems by giving vaccinations and check-ups. They also teach owners how to feed and train their animals. Veterinarians should be able to meet, talk, and work well with a variety of people. When an animal dies, the veterinarian must deal with the owner’s grief and loss.

Vets use special tools to perform surgeries. And take into account that they produce operations on animals, which if they were made on people would cost much more expensive. They fix broken bones, take out tumors, replace knees and hips, and more. Vets also treat and cover wounds. They need to be ready to see blood, organs, and bones.

Because animals can get sick at anytime, vets often work long hours. Many vets like their work because they can be with animals everyday. But because some animals are scared or hurt, they sometimes try to bite, kick, or scratch their vets, however, modern tranquilizers and technology have made it much easier for men and women to work on all types of animals.

Animal Kingdoms

To make it easier to study animals, they have been arranged into classes. Each animal class is made up of animals that are alike in important ways. There are many kinds of animal classes and each one has a name. Every kind of animal belongs to one of the classes.

If an animal drinks milk when it's a baby, and has hair on its body, it belongs to the mammal class.

If an animal comes out of an egg with a hard shell, and has feathers on its body, it belongs to the class of birds.

If an animal lives in water, and has gills and scales and fins on its body, it belongs to the class of fish.

If an animal has a scaly skin, is cold blooded, and is always born on the land, it belongs to the class of reptiles.

If an animal has more than four jointed legs and a hard covering over its whole body, it belongs to the class of arthropods.

If an animal is born in the water and breathes with gills, but can live on the land when it grows up, it belongs to the class of amphibians.

Mammals Morphology

Mammals are far more diverse in size than any other class of vertebrates, ranging from tiny shrews and bats to the biggest animal that ever lived, the blue whale. Mammals are also far more diverse in form and appearance than birds and are arguably more diverse than living reptiles and amphibians (though prehistoric reptiles were very diverse as well). Comparing mammals with fish is difficult.

Most mammals are covered with fur, notable exceptions being many marine mammals (cetaceans and sirenians), the naked mole rat and humans.

In general, mammals aren’t as brightly coloured as birds; the dominant colours are brown, gray, black and white.

Many species bear ornamentation in the form of tufts of hair (e.g. the mane of a horse or zebra) or distinctive colour patterns. Of course, colour patterns can also serve as camouflage (e.g. a zebra’s black-and-white stripes).

Some ungulates (hoofed mammals) have often spectacular horns or antlers that serve as weapons and/or in display.

In contrast to reptiles and amphibians, there are no limbless mammals. The only species without legs are marine mammals in the orders Cetacea (whales and dolphins) and Sirenia (manatees and sea cows), along with pinnipeds (seals and sea lions), in which legs have evolved into flippers.

The only mammals with just two legs are bats, which are also the only mammals with wings. However, some primates could be argued to have just two legs, depending on how one defines leg. For example, humans are said to have two legs and two arms.

Most terrestrial mammals have feet that can be described as unguligrade, digitigrade or plantigrade. Mammals with hooves are termed unguligrade, while cats and dogs are examples of digitigrade mammals. Plantigrade mammals walk “flat-footed,” including bears, porcupines and humans.

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