Doctor for animals. Eight years of school at one of five colleges, heavy debt, real emotional strain, and strong demand.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical associate
$125,000
New grad
$71,000
Owner or specialist
$175,000
Job Bank's national figures: $34 to $84 an hour with a median of $60, which is $71,000 to $175,000 a year at full-time hours. The low end includes part-time and rural work. Most vets are employees (associates) in private clinics. Owners and board-certified specialists can earn beyond the top of this range, sometimes $200,000 or more, but they are the minority.
$70,000 to $95,000 a year
New graduate in a small animal clinic
Starting salaries rose fast in the last few years because clinics cannot find vets. Rural mixed-animal jobs often add a signing bonus, housing help or a truck.
Often well over $50,000
What many new Canadian vets owe at graduation
Eight years of school, and the last four are pricey. Pay is good but starts lower than a doctor or dentist with similar training, so the loan takes years to clear. Plan for it before you apply.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years of undergraduate prerequisites at a cheaper university, then four years of the DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) degree at the low end of resident tuition, plus the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Exam) and the first year of a provincial licence. The high end is four years of undergraduate study and a more expensive veterinary school, landing near 110,000 in tuition. All of this assumes a resident seat in your own province: out of province and international seats cost three to five times more, which is the single biggest thing these numbers hide. The provincial licence costs 700 to 1,200 a year for as long as you practise.
Roughly $70,000 to $110,000 in tuition for a Canadian resident. Out-of-province and international seats cost 3 to 5 times more.
Usually no pension
Private clinics rarely offer one. Government and university jobs do.
Health and dental
Common at larger clinics and corporate chains, less so at small ones.
Continuing education allowance
Most employers pay for courses and conferences.
Signing bonuses and relocation
Now common because of the shortage, especially outside big cities.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Long, expensive and extremely competitive. Go in with your eyes open.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Grade 12 biology, chemistry, physics, math and English with top marks.
University prerequisites
2 to 4 years
Schools require at least 2 years of science courses. In practice most successful applicants finish a full degree first, with a high average and hundreds of hours of animal and veterinary experience.
DVM (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) degree
4 years
Four years at one of only five colleges in Canada. Every species: dogs, cats, horses, cattle, pigs, poultry, exotics. The final year is clinical rotations.
Write the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Exam)
Final year
The same exam used in the US. Written in the final year of the degree.
Get your provincial licence
A few weeks
For example from the CVO (College of Veterinarians of Ontario). Then you can practise.
Biology
Required.
Chemistry
Required, and organic chemistry comes in university.
Physics and math
Required by most programs.
English
You will write case records and talk to upset people every day.
Farm, 4-H or kennel work
Not a course, but admissions weigh animal experience heavily.
Most seats are reserved for residents of the college's own region:
OVC (Ontario Veterinary College), University of Guelph
Ontario
WCVM (Western College of Veterinary Medicine), University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories
University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM)
Alberta
Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe
Quebec, taught in French
AVC (Atlantic Veterinary College), UPEI (University of Prince Edward Island), Charlottetown
Atlantic Canada
Every province licenses veterinarians through its own body, for example the CVO (College of Veterinarians of Ontario). You cannot diagnose, prescribe or operate on an animal without a licence. Because all five colleges are accredited to the same standard and the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Exam) is shared with the US, moving provinces or working in the US is straightforward. Vets trained outside North America must pass extra exams first.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Board-certified specialist
A 1-year internship plus a 3-year residency in surgery, internal medicine, dermatology, oncology and others. Specialists earn $150,000 to $250,000 or more.
Emergency and critical care
24-hour hospitals pay premiums for nights and weekends.
Large animal and rural practice
Severe shortage. Some provinces pay grants to vets who set up in underserved areas.
Practice ownership
The traditional route to top income. Corporate chains now buy many clinics, so ownership is less common than it was.
Government and industry
See the next cards.
Hundreds of hours in a vet clinic
Volunteer or paid. Admissions committees check.
Farm and large animal exposure
Shows you understand the whole field, not just pets.
Research experience
Helps for admission and for specialty paths later.
Basic business sense
Clinics are small businesses. Money conversations are constant.
The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) employs hundreds of vets to inspect meat plants, control animal disease outbreaks and manage imports. Public health agencies, drug companies, universities and the military also hire. These jobs have regular hours, a pension and no euthanasia. Pay is similar to clinic work.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In a small animal clinic, mornings are surgery: spays, neuters, dental cleanings, a mass removal. Afternoons are 15 to 25 appointments of vaccines, itchy skin, vomiting dogs and a cat that stopped eating. Somewhere in there an emergency walks in, and often a euthanasia. Between patients you talk about money, because owners pay directly and many cannot afford what you recommend. Records get written after close.
The good
The hard parts
Like the field but not this exact job?
Things people don't tell you.
The Ontario Veterinary College opened in Toronto in 1862 and moved to Guelph in 1922. It is the oldest veterinary school in Canada and one of the oldest in North America.
The five Canadian colleges graduate only a few hundred veterinarians a year combined, for a country with millions of pets and a huge farm sector. That is the root of the shortage.
Surveys of Canadian veterinarians by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association find burnout, depression and thoughts of suicide at rates well above the general population. The profession now talks about it openly and runs support programs. Know this before you commit.
Most spots at each college are reserved for residents of its region. An Ontario student mostly competes for Guelph, an Alberta student for Calgary or Saskatoon. Where you live when you apply matters as much as your marks.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.