While most enter general practice, veterinarians, like medical doctors, may choose to complete additional training and specialize in a specific field of veterinary medicine. Perhaps surprisingly, there are currently twenty-two sub-disciplines recognized by the American Board of Veterinary Specialties.
The following provides a brief description of the focus of each specialty area:
- Anesthesia – Management of pain associated with veterinary procedures
- Animal Welfare – Education, certification, and scientific investigation
- Behaviour – Study of behaviour in both healthy and sick animals
- Dentistry – Animals’ teeth
- Dermatology – Diseases and conditions of animals’ skin
- Emergency and Critical Care – ‘ER’ and intensive care
- Internal Medicine – Specialties including cardiology (heart and circulatory system), neurology (brain, spinal cord, and nervous system), and oncology (tumours and cancer)
- Laboratory Animal Medicine – Research or practice specializing in laboratory animal species (rabbits, rats, mice, etc.)
- Microbiology – Study of viruses and bacteria
- Nutrition – Animal diets and required nutrients
- Ophthalmology – Diseases and conditions of the eye
- Pathology – Examination of organs, tissues, and body fluids to diagnose disease
- Pharmacology – Study of effects of drugs on animals
- Preventative Medicine – Study of how diseases are spread and how they can be prevented
- Radiology – X-ray, ultrasound, CAT scan, MRI, and other imaging procedures to see ‘inside’ an animal’s body
- Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation – Returning animals to normal function after injury, illness, or surgery
- Surgery – Specialization in performing surgeries: orthopedics (bones, joints, ligaments of the body’s skeletal system); soft tissue surgery (internal organs, non-bone tissues)
- Theriogenology – Animal reproduction
- Toxicology – Study of the effects of toxins/poisons and how to treat animals affected by them
- Zoological Medicine – Zoo animals, free-living wildlife, aquatic species, and companion zoological animals
