By Sarah Eaton, DVM, DACT

Veterinary medicine has had significant advancements in the past 30 years.  Veterinarians are able to use better tools and medications to help heal animals faster.   Similar to human medicine, specialties within veterinary medicine have developed to provide even more care and options for animals and their caretakers.

In many instances general practice veterinarians evaluate the patient in the beginning and may find a disease or problem that could benefit from the care of a specialist.  In addition, many specialty hospitals are able to provide specialty tests and equipment that may be too expensive to put into general practice. 

An example of where a specialist may be helpful is if a dog is hit by a car and breaks its hip.  A general practitioner veterinarian may examine the dog, perform x-rays and evaluate the fracture.  He or she determines that the type of fracture is best performed by a specialist surgeon who has more experience fixing or even replacing damaged hips. 

The dog is then referred to the specialist for the surgery and returned to the original veterinarian for any follow-up care.  Many of the treatments similar to those available to people are now available to pets.  Treatments may be different due to cost, ability to stand the treatment, and equipment available. 

There are many different veterinary specialties. Some of the most common ones (as well as those in British Columbia) include internal medicine, surgery, theriogenology (reproduction), ophthalmology (eyes), oncology (cancer treatments), and neurology. 

Within these specialties some doctors only work on small or large animals while in others treat all species.  Each veterinary specialist has undergone additional training in their specific area.  In veterinary school all veterinarians are trained to examine, treat, and perform surgery on animals. 

A specialist has undergone additional training, similar to a human doctor.  Generally they do at least one year in general practice or as an intern, followed by a 2-3 year residency.  Specialists also have to take and pass specialty board examinations to allow them to be certified as a specialist.  These veterinarians take the time and training to work with your primary veterinarian to provide even more specialized care for your pet.