Relief Veterinarian job description
362 verified openings in Veterinarians
A vacation, a maternity leave, or an unexpected opening leaves a practice short, and a relief veterinarian fills the gap. The American Veterinary Medical Association counted about 2,300 relief veterinarians in 2018, up from about 1,800 in 2008, which made them the largest group in the profession outside practice owners, associates, and interns or residents. BLS has no separate pay line for relief work. Veterinarians as a whole earned a median of $130,100 in May 2025, with $73,920 at the tenth percentile and $215,700 at the ninetieth. That survey counts wage and salary workers only, so a relief veterinarian working as an independent contractor falls outside it.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
The clinical work is a veterinarian's work: examining and diagnosing, vaccinating, prescribing, performing surgery, reading radiographs and ultrasound, and counseling owners through euthanasia decisions. What changes is the setting, which can shift week to week. The AVMA lists daytime general practice, night or day emergency clinics, vaccine clinics, shelters, telehealth, and house calls among the options. A relief veterinarian also runs a small business, agreeing a written contract with each practice that sets out the services, the species, the fee schedule, the dates and times, and a cancellation policy.
Common Skills and Technologies
O*NET rates reading comprehension, active listening, and active learning highest for veterinarians, and relief work leans on the last of those, since every practice has its own routines and records. The business side adds bookkeeping. Relief veterinarians track equipment, insurance, continuing education, and travel costs, and the AVMA points them toward professional liability, disability, and health coverage. The software is the practice's own, plus the Microsoft Office tools veterinarian postings name.
Education, Training, and Career Path
The entry requirements match any veterinarian's: a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from an accredited college, the North American Veterinary Licensing Examination, and a state license. Few states accept another state's license, so relief work across state lines means holding several. Some work as independent contractors and receive a 1099 from each clinic, while others are relief employees paid on a W-2, including through staffing companies. Whether a relief veterinarian counts as an employee depends on state law and federal rules, which is why the AVMA advises a lawyer and an accountant before the first shift.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 29-1131.00 Veterinarians, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-1131.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 29-1131, https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm. JAVMA News, Relief practice not just a temporary gig, https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2019-12-01/relief-practice-not-just-temporary-gig. JAVMA News, Tips for relief veterinarians, https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2019-12-01/tips-relief-veterinarians.