Sunday, August 2, 2009

Veterinary Technician?

Is anyone a vet tech. If you are, what's it like. What do you do? Is is worthwhile?
-Thanks
Answers:
i was a vet tech, now i'm in vet school. i enjoyed being a tech very much. where i worked i got to take histories from clients, educate them on basic diseases, and preventative, do lab work, draw blood, assist in surgery, medicate hospitalized animals, call clients to follow up on problems, and dental cleanings. Some vets underutilize their techs and they are left just cleaning cages and looking at fecals. Other vets like the one i worked for are very good at understanding what a trained tech is capable of and let them do alot. You get to work with animals, interact with clients, do medical stuff all without the stress of being the vet and making the right medical calls. The biggest draw back is the poor pay. You will not make much money being a tech and if you work for a small practice your benefits may be skimpy to nonexistant. I loved the job, but if i were single would not been able to survive on the paycheck i got. If you like all that medical stuff and don't mind touching people a RN gets paid much better.
I am not now a vet tech, but I have been in the past. It was fun, I enjoyed it a lot. One of the things that appealed to me is that it's not a same thing day-in, day-out sort of job. I get bored easily and couldn't stand to sit at a desk all day. Some of the things that I did as a vet tech included general grooming (nail clips, wing trims etc), taking vital signs, administering medication, staying at the hospital on weekends or holidays to care for and watch the in-patients (this task was rotated among the employees), assisting in surgeries and with anesthetic, holding animals (for shots, examinations or what have you) for the vet when they were not being cooperative, that sort of thing. It was very worthwhile, and I may do it again. I did not like some of the people I worked with, namely the vet's wife who ran the office and for some reason, loathed animals and all the rest of us for liking them (how she ended up being a vet's wife, I'll never know).
I was a veterinary tech a few years back. I got to clean cages, assist in surgery, clean and sterilize the equipment, help the vet with lots of procedures, ran fecal samples, watched autopsies (yuck!) and also held animals for him while they were put to sleep. All for just above minimum wage. But I did have fun, got to meet lots of interesting people and animals, and helped steer me into nursing school where now, as an RN, I get paid much better.

No comments:

Post a Comment