Haii
Currently I'm at 6th form doing a couple of A-levels I took for the sake of it/because they were easy, big mistake, however I have looked at doing a BTEC Animal Management Level 3 course next year in September alongside another couple of A-levels such as Biology and Physics as I now realise that the A-levels I am currently doing, I really don't want to do anything career-wise along those lines lol.

I've had a look on the internet and it looks like this course should be useful to get into a university doing vetinary degrees however I was just wondering if anyone on here could give me any more information on whether these courses would be suitable in general and if anyone else has done something like this in order to obtain a degree, I also noticed that there are very few vets around who will look at DWA species so I was considering this as a possible further option should I go down this route so if anyone could tell me anything useful about any of this who has done this kind of thing before or specialises in herpotology or just has any general info on the whole thing it would be a great help.

Thanks : )

I think you would need to be a qualified vet before you got further post graduate qualifications.

There is now I believe an exotics part of the general veterinary degree. You could also get 2 degrees and do herpetology as a seperate one, that would give great qualifications for working with exotics.. but obviously a lot of work! It seems like most vets who treat reptiles have done so through experience, rather than qualifications. I know more vets at my local are interested in my snakes, and asking me questions, because they are seeing more and more reptiles coming in.

DWA is something different entirely, the majority of vets won't even have insurance that will allow them to treat DWA. I imagine those that do have the correct insurance and training are the ones who are also called upon by instutitions such as zoos to deal with their DWA. There isn't going to be a huge amount of money in being a DWA vet but certainly if you were a vet specialist who was on call to zoos with experience in exotics and DWA I would imagine there would be a demand.

It's a looooooong road though.

__________________

Ahh thanks, yeah I was going to go for the vet course and then specify afterwards, but if I could get 2 degrees that would be pretty good tbh : ) Thanks

Here's a link to the vets i use in Manchester, My vet Aidan Raftery has quals specialising in working with reptiles / exotics so though having a look at the staff pages and the courses they've done might help, plus its got associations on that might be able to give you information of what paths to go down.
Staff

__________________
Leopard Gecko's
Wonder Gecko's
Viper Gecko's
Crested Gecko's
1.0 Sandfire Bearded Dragon
1.0 Mop Head Iguana
too many snakes to mention
1.1 doggies ♥♥
1.0 husband ♥

There is a qualification after becoming a vet, I forget the letters for it but it basically specialises in exotics - reps etc. Both my vets have it and they're pretty good.

You'd be very hard pushed to find a herpetology degree in this country, but bangor do a module or two in their Zoology Bsc, but thats pretty pointless if you're set on doing something veterinary (I can never spell that word).

My friends at the royal veterinary college and she did LOADS of work experience before applying, so try and get a few weeks at places here and there over the holidays etc, it will never look bad on your CV.

__________________
Kate

2.2.2 - Eublepharis macularius 0.1.0 - Sceloporus malachiticus 1.1.0 - Varanus acanthurus brachyurus 0.0.1 - Tiliqua gigas evanescens 0.4.0 - Felis catus 1.0.0 - Fat, old goldfish
Lots of tropical fish...

DeansOnToast has a pretty face and PhiPhi, well hes helping me make things out of polystyreeeeeeene!!!!

Oo thanks, that links really helpful, and yeah the work experience will be a good thing to put down, I did a week at the Nature Centre in Birmingham last year and I've got a weekend job at Hollybush particularly with the reptile bit and on that course it said they put you out on work placements quite a bit and I'll be working quite a bit through the summer holidays probably.

: )