How to hire an emergency veterinarian

How to hire an emergency veterinarian, step by step

Here's a step-by-step emergency veterinarian hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an emergency veterinarian job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new emergency veterinarian
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an emergency veterinarian do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the emergency veterinarian you need to hire. Certain emergency veterinarian roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them an emergency veterinarian to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire an emergency veterinarian that fits the bill.

   This list presents emergency veterinarian salaries for various positions.

   Type of Emergency Veterinarian	Description	Hourly rate
   Emergency Veterinarian	Veterinarians care for the health of animals and work to improve public health. They diagnose, treat, and research medical conditions and diseases of pets, livestock, and other animals.	$22-90
   Doctor Of Veterinary Medicine	A Veterinary Medicine Doctor is responsible for studying animal nature, diagnosing animal illnesses, and developing treatment plans and medications. They analyze an extensive scope of animal conditions to identify care programs that would keep them healthy... Show more	$31-133
   Licensed Veterinary Technician	A licensed veterinary technician serves as the assistant of the veterinarian who is responsible for doing clinical work inside a clinic or a veterinary hospital. They monitor and observe the current health situation of an animal and also give them first aid when needed... Show more	$14-25

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • PET
   • Patients
   • Emergency Medicine
   • DVM
   • Soft Tissue
   • Emergency Care
   • Critical Care
   • Relief
   • In-House Laboratory
   • Emergency Hospital
   • Emergency Cases
   • IV
   • Client Communication
   • Surgical Cases

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Receive emergency and referral cases, manage hospitalized surgical and internal medicine patients, and collaborate with general practitioners and specialists.
   • Train local first responders on the basics of pet CPR.
   • Examine, diagnose and treat a variety of ailments on pet animals, ranging from rabbits to reptiles.
   • Provide minor wind care including local anesthesia and suturing.
   • Monitor in-hospital patients and work with specialists to maintain patients' health post-procedure or during ongoing hospitalization.
   • Receive emergency and referral cases, manage hospitalized surgical and internal medicine patients, and collaborate with general practitioners and specialists.

   More emergency veterinarian duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your emergency veterinarian job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. An emergency veterinarian can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, emergency veterinarians' average salary in oklahoma is 51% less than in new york.
   • Seniority. Entry-level emergency veterinarians 75% less than senior-level emergency veterinarians.
   • Certifications. An emergency veterinarian with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in an emergency veterinarian's salary.

   Average emergency veterinarian salary

   $94,518yearly

   $45.44 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level emergency veterinarian salary

   $47,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average emergency veterinarian salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	New York	$120,920	$58
   2	Maryland	$114,840	$55
   3	California	$112,723	$54
   4	New Jersey	$112,475	$54
   5	Texas	$112,400	$54
   6	Pennsylvania	$101,330	$49
   7	Washington	$101,109	$49
   8	Massachusetts	$100,637	$48
   9	Michigan	$100,532	$48
   10	Virginia	$100,020	$48
   11	South Carolina	$91,533	$44
   12	Florida	$89,693	$43
   13	Arizona	$89,053	$43
   14	New Mexico	$87,409	$42
   15	Colorado	$87,147	$42
   16	Indiana	$85,888	$41
   17	Missouri	$77,181	$37

   Average emergency veterinarian salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	National Veterinary Associates	$104,780	$50.38	888
   2	Ethos Veterinary Health	$101,039	$48.58	196
   3	Jobot	$99,287	$47.73
   4	Puget Sound International	$96,565	$46.43
   5	Rarebreed Veterinary Partners	$95,842	$46.08	93
   6	MedVet	$94,623	$45.49	94
   7	Ethos	$92,729	$44.58
   8	BluePearl Vet	$92,680	$44.56	311
   9	VCA Animal Hospitals	$92,584	$44.51	1,434
   10	Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota	$92,429	$44.44	25
   11	Connecticut Veterinary Center	$91,870	$44.17
   12	The Animal Medical Center	$91,522	$44.00	30
   13	noahshospitals	$89,990	$43.26	10
   14	LA State University Continuing	$76,336	$36.70	27

4. Writing an emergency veterinarian job description

   A job description for an emergency veterinarian role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's an emergency veterinarian job description:

   Emergency veterinarian job description example

   • Only 9 overnight shifts per month
   • Work just one weekend per month
   • 3 weeks PTO
   • Compensation base of $150,000 plus
   • Comprehensive benefit package including insurance with no waiting period

   About Us:

   • We are a 36,000 sq ft, premier VECCS level 1 emergency and specialty hospital located 11 miles north of Boston
   • Excellent technician staffing with a highly skilled nursing staff
   • ER staffed on average with 10 experienced doctors in a 24-hour period
   • Average ER doctor tenure of 5+ years
   • 7 day a week specialty services from internal medicine, surgery, neurology, radiology and critical care for collaboration and consulting on cases
   • Full-time licensed veterinary social worker dedicated to the support of clients and staff
   • Robust House Officer Program including several interns and residents

   Your Impact:

   We are looking for a talented, energetic, personable individual with strong communication, interpersonal skills, and emotional competencies to be a contributing member of our growing veterinary team. It is our belief that if we take care of each other first, we will provide outstanding, empathetic service to our clients, referring veterinarians, and the community. Our continued growth and success in providing a remarkable work environment resides in the people we hire. Mass Vet has a culture that strives for excellence and is optimistic, collaborative, and supportive.

   Our Network:

   Mass Vet is part of the Ethos Veterinary Health network of hospitals, providing our clinicians the opportunity to be part of a larger network of hospitals, but still maintain our distinctive identity. The focus of Ethos is on advancing veterinary medicine, along with providing high quality, compassionate care, which improves the lives of patients and their human companions. Our advancements center around three main areas: Transformative Science, Knowledge, and Collaboration.

   “Ethos is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Ethos does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, merit, and business need.”

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5. Post your job

   To find the right emergency veterinarian for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with emergency veterinarians they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit emergency veterinarians who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your emergency veterinarian job on Zippia to find and recruit emergency veterinarian candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as healthcarejobsite, health jobs nationwide, hospitalcareers, medreps.com.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit emergency veterinarians, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new emergency veterinarian

   Once you've found the emergency veterinarian candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new emergency veterinarian. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire an emergency veterinarian?