Starting from the Beginning: My Road to Vet School
- Izzy Pulido
- Jul 26
- 14 min read
Updated: Aug 6
I have always been “one of those people,” the ones who knew they wanted to be a veterinarian the second they popped out of the womb. I had the privilege of growing up in a family that supported my love of all living things and was the proud owner of a menagerie of animals from an early age. Cats, dogs, parakeets, corn snakes, leopard gecko, bearded dragon, long-tailed grass lizards, hermit crabs, hamster, guinea pigs, rabbit, fish, frogs, and a sulcata tortoise, it is honestly probably easier to name an animal I did not have as a pet. I loved learning about different species and understanding how to care for and support them so that they could live a healthy life.
This passion continued to flourish long after most of my peers transitioned out of the age where everyone thought that they wanted to be a veterinarian. I mean, I get it, working with puppies and kittens all day sounds like a pretty awesome job to all little kids.
By the time I reached elementary school, it was clear that my love of animals and science was more than just a passing interest. Weekly trips to the Wild Animal Park, hunting insects, catching lizards, and turning our outdoor patio into my own little wildlife exhibit were all “normal” occurrences. Every birthday party was animal themed and every Halloween costume had some animal inspiration. Occasionally walking my younger sister on a leash was also an unquestioned activity.
In third grade, we had just moved to a new house and inherited residential feral cats. My mom and I partnered with the local Feral Cat Coalition and worked on getting them all sterilized to prevent overpopulation. After we thought we had curbed the growing cat population in our neighborhood, a beautiful black cat showed up on our doorstep. She was extremely friendly and also extremely pregnant. As you may assume, 9-year-olds are wonderful at naming animals, so it was obvious that we called her “Blackie”.
As a third grader, it was an understatement to say that I was ecstatic to experience the magic of life. Working with the Feral Cat Coalition and watching Blackie raise four beautiful kittens was a core childhood memory and ignited my passion for education. I also had the privilege of keeping the runt of the litter, a little black torti, and fittingly named her “Baby B”. In all honesty when I fell in love with the crusty runt, I think my parents thought that there was a high likelihood that she wouldn’t make it and that’s why they agreed with my request. If she survives, she is mine and that is exactly what happened.
Through that experience, I somehow got the opportunity to talk about the process to my third-grade class and even made a quiz for everyone, which I’m sure they just loved *eyeroll*. I did have my mom bring the class cookies, so I think they forgave me for giving them all a pop quiz on cat reproduction. In hindsight, I realize that this was the first sign I enjoyed teaching.
Another key memory that reaffirmed I was going into the right career path was my fifth-grade birthday party. I invited every single person in my class, not because I was best friends with everyone, but because I had decided that instead of gifts, I wanted everyone to bring a toy for a shelter animal and inviting more people meant more toys for the shelter animals. This was hands down my most memorable birthday party, along with celebrating with all my little friends. There was no pressure around the gifts. Later on, I heard that parents had told my mom how much fun it was for their kid to go to the pet store and pick out toys for shelter animals. A day or so after my party I went to the shelter with two of my best friends and we delivered a plethora of gifts to all the animals. It was seriously the best feeling in the world!
As I went through middle school and high school, I was continuously drawn towards science courses and loved learning about life and how biological systems worked. I knew the road to vet school involved a lot of school and was a notoriously hard process, but this never intimidated me. I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else so having tunnel vision and working on the necessary “next steps” came naturally.
I kept myself focused on school and sports, which was when I fell in love with swimming and dabbled in triathlons. From an early age, I realized I did not want "being a veterinarian" to be my only personality trait and made a commitment to hold space for other hobbies. The discipline these sports required helped tremendously with the time management and drive needed to succeed academically. I have kept that commitment and exercise is still a huge outlet for me today.
By the time I was applying to college, I had my eyes fixed on two schools: California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, and UC Davis. I had originally said that I would never go to Cal Poly because that was where my dad attended college and I wanted to forge my own path. That was a statement of immaturity because my dad graduated in industrial technology, so our experiences wouldn’t have even been remotely similar. As soon as I learned about Cal Poly's animal science program, I quickly changed my mind and that school was promoted to the top of my list.
In March of my senior year, I was accepted, and little did I know how much that experience would impact the trajectory of my life. After officially deciding I was going to attend Cal Poly, I participated in their admitted student day and visited the on-campus vet clinic. I had zero clinical experience, so this was all new and exciting, especially given the fact that part of the animal science curriculum allowed students to take classes and work in the clinic.
After doing the typical facility tour, looking at the microscope display slides, and checking out the clinic animals, I walked around the clinic and to my surprise there was a beautiful pregnant Quarter Horse patiently standing outside while students scanned her fetus. The fact that they were giving high school seniors a crazy expensive piece of equipment and letting them scan a mare validated my decision to choose Cal Poly.
After the demonstration and scanning opportunity, Dr. Sprayberry asked for a volunteer who would be willing to have their kidney scanned in front of the crowd. My hand shot up and little did I know that moment was the start of a lifelong relationship with one of my favorite people on the planet. It was also the start of my fascination and respect for alpha-2 adrenergic agonists which was why our lovely mare was cooperating so well as high schoolers pressed firmly on her abdomen with the probe.
Flash forward a few months and unsurprisingly, I was the motivated little Cal Poly freshman who joined all the clubs, sports, and packed my schedule full of classes. I even added a minor to the dismay of my academic advisor who thought that it would be too much to handle. Luckily, I had an awesome roommate, Morgan, who was just as ambitious and we hit it off immediately. Flash forward six years and we are still experiencing life together and I am incredibly grateful for her friendship!
My first quarter I also weaseled my way into the vet clinic enterprise, which ended up being the gateway to countless other opportunities. As a side note, Cal Poly offers non-graded courses called “enterprises” that run for roughly 10 weeks and are primarily focused on hands-on experiences. There are a plethora of enterprises to choose from ranging from foaling, vet clinic, calving, tortoise, swine, etc. You name it, Cal Poly probably has it. To top it off, these enterprises are limited to a small number of students to increase individual learning opportunities.
The vet clinic enterprise was a way to learn basic clinical skills and was a prerequisite for a lot of the other advanced enterprises including the veterinary community service enterprise which provided free vet care to underserved individuals in San Luis Obispo County. This course was also taught by an awesome veterinarian and had a class size of 15 students, meaning that every one of us got a lot of individual attention and support. I loved that course and became the “teaching assistant” for the following quarter. Looking back at it, it seemed a little gutsy for a first-year to be applying for a position where I would be teaching upperclassmen and assessing them on their knowledge. That didn’t stop me, and I ended up loving the experience.
During my second quarter I took a meat science course and a small ruminant course where I learned how to castrate and tail dock goat kids. I was a 19-year-old learning how to do procedures on animals, working with species I had little experience with and was basically living on the beach. Life couldn’t get any better, I mean I did break my foot during the first quarter due to overtraining but had an epic roommate to take me to all my appointments, and a fancy scooter to zoom around to all my classes so it all worked out. Everyone needs a little resilience training anyway and now I have screws and plates in my foot, so it’s basically bulletproof.
All good things must come to an end and that rang true in this case… at the end of Winter quarter, there was a little something called COVID-19 brewing. A week before spring break we were told that we needed to pack all our things and leave. My family drove up and that was the abrupt end to my freshman year college experience. I did my spring quarter virtually and worked on busting out all of my general education requirements with the hope of returning to campus for the more intensive animal science courses.
I was still dead set on going to vet school and knew that I needed to keep gaining experience regardless of the current global situation. I also realized how much I missed the hands-on aspect of Cal Poly, so I started reaching out to vet clinics in my area and on June 26th, 2020, I got a call. The next day I was in the office and started volunteering for a fabulous team. That summer I was enrolled full-time in virtual courses to get a jumpstart on more general ed requirements. I also planned to bust out my Spanish minor to prove to my advisor that she should stop telling students what they are capable of. *This is not always the best reason to do something but when someone says I can’t do something I think “watch me” and then get that thing done. FYI, I ended up finishing my Spanish minor by the fall quarter of my second year.
Having a job at that clinic was a pivotal experience and one of the biggest blessings COVID-19 brought. I volunteered for over 400 hours during that first summer and because my second year of undergrad was still remote, I had the privilege of staying home and working at the clinic for an uninterrupted year. I was officially “hired” as a vet assistant that September and had the opportunity to put all my earnings towards my vet school savings account. I took classes in my manager’s office and in the Rite-Aid parking lot with a cellular hot-spot, then would work the rest of the day. It was a wild time, and I learned an incredible amount through the amazing doctors, made life-long mentors and friends, and had a solid clinical foundation by the time I returned to Cal Poly. I can confidently say that I would not be where I am today without those amazing people and am incredibly grateful for the opportunities and foundation they provided.
I also had the privilege of working with an awesome organization known as The Animal Pad. I accompanied them on one of their rescue trips to TJ as their Spanish translator and ended up meeting my soul dog, Churro. I had not intended on getting a dog while in undergrad, especially considering the fact that I was moving back up to school a month after the trip but it was ment to be and I have not once regretted that decision.
Once I knew that things were settling down and I would be returning to Cal Poly for my third year, I applied for a position as the on-campus vet clinic student manager. This involved living on the vet clinic property in a mobile home and working with the faculty of veterinarians. This job provided opportunities to learn clinic management skills and understand the business aspects of owning and operating a clinic. Both of these are skills that are not commonly taught, so I wanted to capitalize on this opportunity in case practice ownership is something that I wanted to pursue later on in my career. Dr. Spray was the supervisor for this position, which also added to my desire for the job. Luckily, I had been keeping in close contact with her during my remote year and by the time she was making the hiring decisions I had made the cut. Having the ability to learn under her incredible guidance and work alongside her for a year was priceless and is an opportunity that I wouldn’t have traded for the world. I also had the ability to work with two other wonderful student managers and learn how to collaborate as a team.
That year was packed full of fun ranch calls working with horses, cattle, small ruminants, teaching, and assisting with other campus events. Looking back on it, it is amazing at how much “freedom” we had and the things that we were able to do during our time as student managers. Surprisingly, not many mistakes were made and none of the mistakes ever resulted in the death of anything living. My biggest blip as a student manager involved an expensive order of fluids. I had intended to order 12 5-gallon bags of fluids but had not completely learned how to decipher the MWI ordering platform and ordered 12 boxes of 12 bags (144 total bags of fluids). In hindsight, I should have realized that $3,000 for 12 bags of fluids was a little outrageous…
When the freights, yes freights, of fluids were delivered, I happened to be in the company of one of the faculty veterinarians (Dr. Burd) and both of us were surprised by the excessive amount of fluid. Once it registered that I had made the ordering mistake, I quickly arranged for a refund and got things taken care of. The next time I saw Dr. Burd, I let him know that I was the one who had ordered an excessive number of fluids and after some laughing, I got a high-five for taking accountability instead of getting a lecture on checking the order more closely. It is now a running joke and if any of you Cal Poly kiddos ask him about it, I am sure he will be happy to tell the story.
That student manager position gave me the opportunity to work closely with all of the wonderful Cal Poly veterinarians and learn from their expertise. I assisted with multiple classes during my time at the clinic, and it was truly an experience that I would not have traded for the world. The mentorship I received and the ability to learn in a safe environment have paid off in dividends and has made vet school much easier.
While a high percentage of my time at Cal Poly was animal-focused, I was also heavily involved in CRU, tri team, swim club and was the Master's Swim coach. These extracurriculars kept me balanced and reminded me that life exists outside of veterinary medicine. I met life-long friends and developed additional leadership skills. Leading CRU small groups and coaching the swim team were incredible experiences and I highly suggest prioritizing things that set your heart on fire even if they do not seem to directly correlate to your career goal.
My final year at Cal Poly involved a lot more TAing and taking a lot of “fun” classes. I had finished most of my degree during my first three years and had applied to vet school during the summer of my third year, so my last year at Cal Poly included the final few vet school pre-requisites and then whatever fun electives I wanted to take. That year was also accompanied by the opportunity to learn from the amazing Dr. Rachael Lyons. The amount of large animal medicine and experience I gained from her was phenomenal. Transfaunations, DA surgeries, hoof wrapping, and equine castrations were some of the highlights. Again, it is absolutely insane what we were exposed to and able to do as undergraduates and the friendships that evolved.
That year also involved all the vet school interviews. Understandably, this was a slightly stressful period, but I had a solid support system and faith that things would work out how they were supposed to be. I vividly remember the day of my UC Davis interview, it was the same day as the lab practical for the technical veterinary skills course. After the final, Dr. Spray took me out for lunch and helped me get in the right interview mindset. She was also one of the first people to call me after the interview to see how it went. This is just one example of the incredible support system that Cal Poly has provided, and I am forever grateful for the connections. I also had the privilege of living on Jenn’s property for the last year and a half of my undergraduate career. She was the veterinarian that I had met during my first quarter at Cal Poly during the vet clinic enterprise, and I quickly became her designated TA, running buddy, and most importantly, friend. She is also the one that completed that acupuncture certification with me this year. Our friendship has evolved over the years, and I couldn’t imagine life without her.
Vet school admission decisions came out in early January so once I found out that I had been accepted at UC Davis, I was able to rearrange my schedule, and I ended up graduating a quarter early. I was then given the opportunity to help run the Veterinary Community Service Enterprise with the awesome, Dr. Jaymie Noland as a co-instructor for the Spring Quarter. This was an amazing experience and a fun way to stay in SLO and enjoy my “free” quarter before officially graduating in June. During that time, I was also able to TA for a few other classes and by the time I graduated, I had assisted with 17 courses and discovered how much I loved mentoring and teaching.
As a way to celebrate graduating, my dad and I competed in the Oceanside 70.3 Half-Ironman. This was an amazing experience and a fun way to wrap up undergrad! As you have probably learned from reading my past posts, endurance racing is something that I enjoy and it was super special to be able to do this with my dad before starting vet school.
By the time graduation rolled around, I knew that I would be leaving a piece of my heart in SLO. Yes, the location is beautiful, and the campus is amazing, but it was the people and relationships that I had formed that were the hardest part of leaving. Luckily, Davis isn’t too far away, and I still make frequent trips to the central coast to see my favorite people.
While my journey to vet school was fairly straightforward, there have been plenty of people who have flourished in a DVM program with a less-than-traditional route. Whether that is taking multiple gap years or a complete career shift, there is no “right” way to become a veterinarian. I have been blessed with a wonderful support system that helped facilitate this journey. I have also worked hard and prioritized things that would help me progress in this journey. That means being ok with saying "no" to certain things and getting used to delayed gratification. It is a sacrifice, but is something that I would do over again in a heartbeat. Everything in life comes with some type of sacrifice and challenge so you just have to "choose your hard" and go for it. I firmly believe that if you want something badly enough, you will find a way to make it work. The diversity in the journey and perseverance develops grit, which is an extremely useful life skill.
It is also important to remember that there is not a set timeline for how life should roll. That is something I constantly remind myself of, and if everything had gone completely according to my plan, I would have missed out on tons of amazing opportunities! It is super easy to get caught up in the chaos when it seems like “everyone” is applying to vet school, or “everyone” is applying for an internship/residency program. In reality, the “everyone” that we see is a small percentage. When things are not going according to your plan, there may be something even more exciting brewing, and that’s the beauty of life. Embrace the messy journey because nothing in medicine is black and white, and that is also true for life.
Thanks for coming along for the ride ♡
I took a moment to catch up on some of your posts. What an awesome journey you have been on and we are blessed to be a part of it. We love and miss you and Churro!