Ok, so this is just a hypothesis but i feel like some vets have better hours than others (i.e, radiologists have better hours than surgeons or ER doctors). If this is the case can someone please tell me what vets have better hours?
Any general practice vet can have great hours, depending on the practice you choose to work at. Some general practices are open just 9-5 or less, referring all urgent and hospitalized cases out to ERs. Other practices are large enough to have day-time staff and after-hours staff.
Specialities that have better hours probably include dermatology (not many skin emergencies), ophthalmology (few eye emergencies, but might have rare on call), oncologists (few emergencies, nearly all care scheduled), radiology, most surgeons, etc. Most of the “boarded specialities” are going to practice out of large referral based speciality hospitals (or vet schools) that have dedicated ER staff, so although there might be some (shared) on call duties, there shouldn’t be a lot.
Mixed animal or large animal practices will probably have the longest and most after hours care, especially horse vets.
The vets with the best hours are retired(coming from a retired horse vet )
If you are trying to figure out which vet has the best hours, you may want to want to not be a vet. Your hours will vary radically from day to day and hour to hour. You will be ready to walk out the door and a HBC (hit by car) comes in and you might as well call home and tell them to eat dinner without you. You will be have a lobby full of people waiting to see you and you will have someone struggling to make the difficult decision if it is time to euthanize their pet. You can’t look at your watch and say gotta go, lobby is full. It is the nature of the beast of veterinary medicine. Doesn’t happen every day but it happens. If you have issues with spending some extra time after hours or before hours or through lunch, pick a different profession. That said, would I do again, in a heartbeat.