A Guide to the Different Types of Veterinarian Specialties

Veterinary specialists provide focused care to animals experiencing complex conditions. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recognizes 48 types of veterinary specialists across a wide range of focus areas, helping ensure every animal receives proper medical care when they need it most.

General practice veterinarians can partner with specialists to provide a broader selection of services and deliver more comprehensive care to their patients. Discover some of the more common types of veterinary specialists and how your practice can start collaborating with these specialist providers.

Exploring 22 Types of Veterinary Specialties and Specialists

Are you considering pursuing a veterinary specialty or adding a specialist to your practice? Below is an overview of 22 key types of veterinary specialties recognized by the AVMA, detailing how veterinarians specialize in medicine to treat specific animal conditions and species.

1. Anesthesia and analgesia

Specialists in anesthesia and analgesia assist with surgical sedation and pain management. They ensure that animals maintain safe yet effective levels of anesthesia during surgical procedures and help patients with chronic pain find the right combination of medications and therapies for relief.

2. Animal welfare

Animal welfare specialists focus on ethics, quality of life, and humane treatment standards across veterinary hospitals and other settings. They are often active in advocacy and policy for the more ethical treatment of animals across industries. They also work in animal shelters to ensure safe treatment and conditions in these settings.

3. Behavioral medicine

Specialists in behavioral medicine help diagnose and treat emotional and behavioral issues, such as aggression, anxiety, or compulsive behaviors. They play an important role in helping pets and pet owners interact comfortably and safely, promoting a healthier human-animal bond.

4. Clinical pharmacology

Veterinary specialists in clinical pharmacology are experts in medication safety, drug development, and pharmacokinetics. They are often asked to consult on drug interactions and create custom therapies for animals with complex or overlapping conditions.

5. Dentistry

Veterinary dentists provide advanced oral care services, including root canals, oral surgical procedures, treatment for periodontal disease, and more. Dentistry is a growing revenue area for general practices as more pet owners become aware of the importance of oral health management in their furry friends.

6. Dermatology

The veterinary specialization of dermatology focuses on treating skin conditions, chronic allergies, and autoimmune disorders. Vets in this specialty must often develop treatment plans that span months or years to address complex or hard-to-treat conditions. Client education is an important aspect of this veterinary profession, as at-home treatment and lifestyle changes are integral to managing dermatological concerns.

7. Emergency and critical care

Emergency and critical care specialists provide life-saving stabilization and intensive monitoring for animals experiencing urgent, serious concerns. This profession requires specialized knowledge of a wide range of conditions and the ability to provide rapid responses to save critically ill animals.

8. Internal medicine

Internal medicine specialists treat conditions across cardiology, oncology, neurology, and infectious disease. When animals need extensive diagnostics to determine the cause of symptoms, they might be referred to internal medicine specialists for care.

9. Laboratory animal medicine

Vets who specialize in laboratory medicine provide care in research labs and lab animal facilities. They oversee the humane treatment of animals in a lab setting and assess the organization’s regulatory compliance to ensure all research is ethical.

10. Microbiology/infectious disease

Veterinary specialists in microbiology identify pathogens causing infectious diseases, manage disease outbreaks in communities, assist with public health issues, and aid in disease prevention. They play a crucial role in zoonotic disease prevention, which encompasses diseases spread between animals and humans. Thus, their role often overlaps with human medicine.

11. Nutrition

Animals who are overweight, have food allergies, or must adhere to specialized diets for health purposes receive care from veterinary nutritionists. These specialists collaborate closely with internal medicine and dermatology to treat chronic illnesses and diet-related conditions.

12. Ophthalmology

Veterinary ophthalmologists treat animals experiencing vision or ocular problems, such as glaucoma or cataracts. They often perform vision surgery to correct problems and walk pet parents through post-operative care, which is often complex for ocular surgeries.

13. Pathology

Veterinary pathologists help diagnose diseases through tissue samples, biopsies, necropsies, and other lab work. These specialists are critical to oncology and internal medicine, which both rely heavily on pathology tests for diagnosis and treatment guidance.

14. Poultry veterinary medicine

Poultry veterinary medicine focuses on commercial poultry health, food safety, and biosecurity. Vets oversee several aspects of the food supply chain to ensure safe and ethical operations. These specialists work primarily with large-scale agricultural operations.

15. Preventive medicine (epidemiology)

Epidemiologists in veterinary medicine specialize in herd health, disease monitoring, and public health to manage the spread of diseases among animal populations. Their roles combine diagnostics, data tracking, and vaccine planning for animal health and disease containment.

16. Radiology

Veterinarians who practice radiology specialize in performing diagnostic imaging, such as ultrasounds, CT scans, and MRIs. These technologies are essential for many veterinary specialists, including internal medicine vets, oncologists, and surgeons.

17. Sports medicine and rehabilitation

“Sports medicine” for animals is a broad term for diagnosing and treating musculoskeletal injuries and providing performance care. Such veterinary specialists might work with agility animals, racehorses, and working dogs to recover from injuries related to their performance roles and prevent future ones.

18. Surgery (small and large animal)

Veterinarians can pursue board certification to handle advanced surgical procedures. Small- and large-animal surgeons might specialize in orthopedic, soft tissue, or emergency surgery areas of practice. They are generally not responsible for administering anesthesia, but they perform the surgical procedures and often see animals for pre- and post-operative care.

19. Theriogenology

Theriogenology is the branch of veterinary medicine that focuses on animal reproductive health. These professionals work closely with breeders and large animal practices to promote safe, healthy animal reproduction. They might be skilled in artificial insemination, pregnancy diagnosis, or subfields like gynecology or andrology in animals.

20. Toxicology

Veterinarians who specialize in toxicology help manage responses to poisons, environmental exposures, and pharmaceutical reactions. This specialty area is critical for emergency medicine, wildlife veterinary care, and agricultural practices.

21. Veterinary practitioners (species-specific)

Veterinary practitioners may also specialize in specific species, such as:

• Avian practices
• Beef cattle practices
• Aquatic species
• Equine care
• Feline clinics
• Exotic animals

These specialists offer deep insight into the unique anatomical and behavioral traits among certain species. They bring this scientific knowledge into clinical practices or a range of other settings.

22. Zoological medicine

Veterinarians who work in zoological medicine care for wild animals, zoo animals, and endangered species. Their roles often combine fieldwork with conservation medicine, caring for patients in clinical settings and in the wild.

Integrating specialists into your practice

When veterinary practices offer specialist-level care directly in their clinics, they often experience higher-quality outcomes, better patient retention, and increased revenue.

Forming partnerships with specialists enables general practice veterinarians to diagnose complex conditions more quickly, streamlining care. It also reduces a practice’s liability for overlooking potentially serious conditions that a specialist would have recognized.

Altogether, generalist-specialist partnerships improve continuity of care, giving animals the best opportunities to live long, happy, healthy lives. If you are considering this venture, start by addressing the biggest needs within your veterinary practice. You can even pull data to determine the most common referrals in your practice. This can guide your decision to bring certain specialists on board and offer niche services in-house.

How Weave enhances specialist care coordination

Coordinating with specialists and specialty organizations can take your clinical practice to the next level, allowing you to treat a broader patient base and deliver faster care. Weave helps veterinary practices coordinate specialist care and streamline a range of operations, leaving more time for higher-level tasks.

With Weave, your practice benefits from:

• Streamlined intake: Features like online scheduling, digital forms, and appointment reminders speed up the new patient intake process while engaging these clients and making scheduling with your practice as easy as possible. This frees up your front desk staff’s time, which is important when adapting to new specialist care services.
• Client experience: Easily communicate with clients and specialists through two-way texting and email features. These tools help prevent missed steps in a patient’s care coordination and make collaborating with other veterinarians seamless. They also simplify the patient education process by enhancing communication.
• Specialist collaboration: Team Chat features support internal practice communications to help all veterinarians in your clinic stay on the same page about patient care. This allows specialists to more smoothly deliver care while ensuring they have all of the necessary information about a patient.

Weave’s user-friendly interface makes incorporating these features into your workflow simple.

Conclusion

Aspiring veterinarians have many routes they can take when entering this profession. Whether they choose a more traditional role within a clinical practice or seek additional training to provide specialized care, veterinary specialists play a vital role in animal health and well-being.

If you own a veterinary practice, adding a specialist or two to your staff can be extremely beneficial. It can enable you to expand your service offerings, attract a broader range of patients, and deliver the best care.

Weave helps traditional and specialty practices alike improve client engagement and communication. Request a demo today to learn how Weave can support your veterinary practice.