If you love animals and want to work with them, there are tons of different career paths open to you. Just two impactful choices you can make are working as a veterinarian or vet pharmacist. That being said, these jobs come with lots of responsibilities and can be demanding and emotionally exhausting. So, being resilient, having a good sense of humor, and looking for opportunities to laugh really does make a difference.
Veterinary pharmacists are basically professionals who create, manage, and distribute medication meant for animals.
In short, vet pharmacists do a wide range of tasks. As Indeed explains, they consult veterinarians about pet medicine dosages and side effects, study dose and distribution regulatory directives, and supervise and train vet and pharmacist technicians.
What’s more, they develop new medication formulas and test them to ensure safety, track and manage medical inventory, and educate consumers about the proper disposal of medication.
Some of the most important skills for veterinary pharmacists to have are being organized, having good attention to detail, and being adaptable.
In other words, pharmacists must be able to organize their time in such a way that they can efficiently fill prescriptions and manage orders, take care of the inventory, and order new medications.
“In the pharmacy setting, there can be many types of medications that look the same, so it's important that pharmacists use organizational skills to ensure they label and store them correctly,” Indeed points out.
Meanwhile, to do well in this career, you need to be detail-oriented. Your patients need to receive the correct medication and dosages, which is a significant responsibility.
What’s more, safety is paramount, and you need to ensure that the medications you prescribe don’t conflict when taken together.
In terms of adaptability, pharmacists need to be able to react to new situations and adjust accordingly, Indeed stresses. This means staying calm under pressure, using your critical thinking skills, and quickly implementing solutions to problems.
If you decide that being a vet pharmacist isn’t quite right for you and want to be a veterinarian instead, it’s essential that you don’t overly romanticize the career.
Yes, you’ll be working with lots of animals and making the world a better place. However, the job itself is incredibly demanding, emotionally draining, and can be a source of lots of tension. But vets might not always be the best at gauging what’s causing them the most stress.
