There are three crucial things I wish someone had told me as a newly qualified vet. These aren’t clinical skills. They’re more like a user manual for your body (and mind) in a tough profession.
1. The veterinary profession has a higher risk for developing back pain and other chronic MSK pain (but it’s something you can mitigate)
Veterinary work puts you at higher risk for persistent back pain than many other professions. It’s not just the obvious physical demands – being bounced around by anxious, wriggly retrievers, crawling into kennels, or holding up a hoof while a horse tries to load its full 600kg onto you (then kick you off).
It’s also the long, unpredictable hours, difficult client interactions, and emotional load of the job. Pain may be triggered by tissue injury, but the reasons it sticks around are often more whole-person factors.
This doesn’t mean you’re destined for back problems. But knowing the risks means you can be proactive. Too many vets have had their careers disrupted by pain that might have been preventable.
Pain is common, but it isn’t something you just have to accept as “part of the job.” Knowing how to avoid a downward spiral when it starts is key.
2. Pain prevention looks pretty much the same as good self-care
Before you worry about needing a punishing exercise regime on top of an exhausting job – most of what helps prevent pain comes down to consistent, very basic self-care.
Strength and fitness help your career longevity as a vet – but only up to a point.
You just need enough strength to carry half a sedated floppy Labrador, or drag a calf without it straining you. A little extra strength in odd positions can help avoid injury. If you do strength train, include some ‘lifting ugly’ – practice lifting weights in the kinds of weird positions and different speeds you might need at work. Build this up slowly though of course, starting light.
But I don’t think lack of strength is why vets end up with long-term pain. Fitness is good for your general health, obviously, but its links with pain aren’t as strong as we tend to think (more on that another day).
The real key: your nervous system
When you’re constantly stressed, sleep-deprived, and running on adrenaline, your body becomes more vulnerable to chronic pain.
The things that help protect you are the simple foundations of wellbeing:
- Getting reasonable sleep (even with irregular schedules)
- Getting rest that isn’t sleep
- Eating decent food when you can
- Staying connected with friends and social support
- Moving your body in ways you enjoy, or at least keep up
- Making time for activities outside of work, to fill in gaps in your needs – fun, peace and quiet, being outdoors, or whatever it is that refuels you
My experience of vet school is that it teaches you to push through discomfort and prioritise everything else above your own needs. I hope that’s changing? But I suspect that that the prevailing culture is still to downplay our needs as people.
Recognising when you’re running on empty – the constant low-level stress, feeling “tired, but wired” or never truly relaxing – is vital. After years of pushing through, you may need to retrain yourself to listen to your body’s signals.
The job will demand that you ignore your needs at times of course- to skip lunch, work through the night, override fatigue. The key is switching back to noticing and meeting those needs as soon as you can. Keep bouncing yourself back up the priority list. Don’t let ignoring your body become the norm.
3. Self-care is a skill set you can learn
Looking after yourself isn’t something most of us are taught. So if self-care feels unfamiliar or somehow vaguely ‘wrong’ that’s pretty normal for vets and vet nurses! But it’s just a skillset you haven’t had the chance to build yet.
Not sure I’ve ever had the need to auscultate a cow there…
What skills are helpful to avoid pain or manage it when it happens?
After addressing your 5 freedoms – do you feed, water and rest and move yourself, and have what social contact you need?- in my opinion, some of the most useful to start exploring are:
- Noticing what’s going on in your body: recognising when tension creeps in, and learning how to shift out of high alert mode
- Understanding your postural and movement habits: mixing things up to avoid getting stuck in one position or repeating painful ones; keeping your movement varied to stay adaptable for all the awkward, non-ideal situations you’ll face
- Finding what helps you reset – not just sleep, but true rest, and activities that are restful for your brain and body
- Having a simple, reliable calming practice
Caring for your body for career longevity won’t be a priority for you if you’ve just graduated.
You’ve got enough on learning the job. But these things build in the background. That wired-on-adrenaline feeling, the skipped meals, the short fuse or constant tiredness – it all adds up and quietly drains your resilience.
So maybe choose one thing to do for yourself now:
That could be:
- Learning to decompress in 10 minutes (even if it’s in your car)
- Learning how to take a moment to reset after a difficult consult
- Decide that you will call someone who lifts you up, and have a proper chat once a week
- Keep up an activity that refuels you outside work
THEN bookmark this blog to come back to in 6 months when you come up for air, and have capacity to start weaving self care into your work day more.
You matter. Your wellbeing matters. But if it’s hard to put time or energy into yourself, try thinking of it this way:
For career longevity, you have to look after the most essential tool you have – your body and mind (it’s one unit, not two separate things)
If you’re wondering what skills to look after yourself could look like in your messy, unpredictable days – I explain more here.
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