Dr. Richard Green, 54 / SELF-EMPLOYED: Mont Clare Animal Hospital / SALARY RANGE: $50,000 to $100,000
Why did you choose this field?
Ever since I could remember, I’ve had a love of animals. I grew up on Long Island in New York, and used to work at a stable. I worked with horses after school and on Saturdays and Sundays, and for payment, I’d get to ride a few hours a day. When I was working at the stable, there was a very sick horse, and I remember a veterinarian took care of the horse, and the next day the horse was doing great. I thought that was amazing. I was about 15 years old, and I decided that was what I wanted to be when I grew up.
What is your educational background?
I graduated from the University of Illinois in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science degree, then I did four years of veterinary school at the University of Illinois Veterinary College in Urbana. I worked in New York for two years at a small animal clinic, then came to Chicago in 1971. You need a certain number of continuing education hours every year to keep current and to renew your license. I also read three or four veterinary journals a month to keep up with the field. Veterinary medicine has grown tremendously in the last 30 years. And people are spending a lot more money on their pets. Also, the technology in veterinarian medicine has grown tremendously. We can do CAT scans, MRI’s, heart surgery, bone pinning, kidney transplants, almost everything that’s done in the human field of medicine
Describe an average day.
I usually get into work about 7:30 a.m., and my twelve employees–including two other veterinarians–come in at 8 a.m. I check the animals who have been at the hospital overnight. I mark their charts and note what needs to be done during the morning treatments. People drop off their pets for surgeries between 8 and 9 a.m. I’ll examine the pets, speak to the owners about the procedure we’re going to do that day, tell them what time to call me and draw blood for a pre-anesthetic blood panel. In a typical day, I can do from two to ten surgeries, and they can range from a simple spay or de-claw on a cat to treating a wound on a dog to an orthopedic procedure. A lot of what I and the two other vets that I work with see are routine things: vaccinations, viral-type infections that don’t need hospitalization. In the morning, we do surgeries; in the afternoon, hours are by appointment only and we do routine-like work.
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Refrigerator Deals 2026
What’s the best thing about your job?
The gratification of helping the animals, working with the animals. Also, it’s satisfying helping people. A lot of people think we don’t deal with the pets’ owners, which is not true. Animals don’t walk in here by themselves. These dogs and cats are like children to their owners. When I help a pet and see the joy in an owner’s eyes and face and the “thank you’s” that I get, it’s very gratifying.
The worst thing?
When an animal is not getting better, or when I cannot come up with a good diagnosis. Or, I have a diagnosis, but I just can’t help a pet. It becomes very frustrating. A person can go into a medical hospital and be in the hospital two or three weeks, have $20,000 to $30,000 worth of diagnostics and have the doctor say he doesn’t know what the problem is. People accept that. A person might drop a dog off at 9 a.m. and call me at 11 a.m., and I might run $200 to $300 worth of tests and when I say I’m not sure what’s wrong, people do not accept that. These pets are so important to people; they want to know what’s wrong and they want me to fix it.
What three attributes are essential to doing your job well?
You have to be dedicated and you can’t become frustrated; sometimes it can be very frustrating treating animals. You really have to want to do it. Animals can’t communicate, so I have to figure out what’s wrong by touching and feeling. You also have to have a certain amount of intelligence to learn about different animals; it is more difficult to get into veterinary school than into medical school. You also have to have a certain amount of dexterity to do surgery and orthopedic procedures.
Where will you go from here?
I think I’ll be here until I retire. I can’t see myself doing anything else.
What advice would you give to people interested in this area?
It’s very difficult to get into veterinary college, so No. 1, study very hard and don’t mess up in school. Get a job in junior high school or high school working in a veterinary facility.
———-
E-mail [email protected]