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. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $125,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $71,000 at the lower end to about $175,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$54,000 to $111,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$125,000
Lower end
$71,000
Upper end
$175,000
Job Bank's national figures: $34.15 an hour at the low end, $60 at the median and $84.13 at the high end, about $71,000, $125,000 and $175,000 a year at 40 hours a week. Most vets are employees (associates) in private clinics. What clinic owners and board-certified specialists earn is not measured separately.
$86,409 a year
The first step of the federal veterinary pay scale (VM-1) from October 1, 2025
It rises to $104,880 at the top step. These are the latest published rates in the federal agreement, which ran to September 30, 2026. Private clinics set their own pay.
$64.10 an hour
The median in Quebec, about $133,000 a year, the highest in Canada
Alberta is next at $62.50. Manitoba's median is the lowest, at $50.48.
Roughly, all in
$54,000 to $111,000
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 about 1,100 a year in Ontario, plus tax, for as long as you practise.
Roughly $52,000 to $108,000 in tuition for a Canadian resident, or $54,000 to $111,000 with the exam and a first licence. 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. This is the road outside Quebec. Quebec takes students straight from college into a 5 year program: tap Quebec route to add it.
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, with a route that starts in Rimouski
Quebec, taught in French
AVC (Atlantic Veterinary College), UPEI (University of Prince Edward Island), Charlottetown
Atlantic Canada
Every province, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut license veterinarians, for example through the CVO (College of Veterinarians of Ontario). There you cannot diagnose, prescribe or operate on an animal without a licence. Yukon is the one place with no veterinary 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.
Quebec has one veterinary school, the Université de Montréal faculty in Saint-Hyacinthe. It teaches in French and takes students straight from CEGEP (public college), with no bachelor's degree first.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
With Secondary V math (Technical and Scientific, or Science option), chemistry and physics. These are the entry courses for the CEGEP (public college) science program.
Science DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
A 2 year CEGEP (public college) program (200.B1). Include the courses the vet school asks for: two biology, three chemistry including organic, two calculus and three physics courses.
Get hands-on experience
Before applying
Animal experience helps any application. The farm animal track, with up to 27 of the places, requires 500 hours of farm animal work and 35 hours shadowing veterinarians, all within the 3 years before you apply.
Apply to the DMV (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine)
Last year of CEGEP
120 places a year: 96 at Saint-Hyacinthe and 24 starting in Rimouski. Selection is 80% grades and 20% Casper (an online situational judgment test). You must show French.
The DMV, 5 years in French
5 years
198 credits. Either all 5 years in Saint-Hyacinthe, or 3 in Rimouski and 2 in Saint-Hyacinthe. The campus is set in your offer and cannot be changed.
NAVLE and OMVQ (Ordre des médecins vétérinaires du Québec) permit
End of fifth year
Pass the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Examination), which you can take in fifth year. Then apply to the OMVQ, the Quebec order of veterinarians, for your permit and join its roll.
Université de Montréal figures for the fall 2027 intake.
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. There is no official figure for specialists' pay.
Emergency and critical care
24-hour hospitals, with night and weekend shifts.
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 running your own clinic. 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 many 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.
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 Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon takes 88 students a year: 40 from British Columbia, 25 from Saskatchewan, 20 from Manitoba and 1 from the territories. Alberta residents cannot apply there; they compete for Calgary.
Federal projections expect about 5,000 veterinarian job openings from 2022 to 2031 but only about 4,300 new job seekers. The CVMA (Canadian Veterinary Medical Association) says Canada's vet schools barely graduate enough to replace the vets who leave.
The Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph has trained vets for more than 160 years. It says it is the oldest veterinary college in Canada and the United States.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Animal health first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked October 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. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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