Quick question about Vet Techs?

General duties include: collecting patient histories, collect biological samples (blood, urine, feces, etc), running diagnostic tests, monitoring and medicating hospitalized animals, assisting in surgery, administering and monitoring anesthesia, performing dental cleanings, providing treatment for outpatients as prescribed by the attending veterinarian, filling prescriptions, answering client questions on preventative medicine, disease processes, medications, etc, maintaining inventory, caring for surgical and medical equipment such as anesthesia machines, taking radiographs, entering medical records.

Working conditions depend very much on the type of practice you are in. In small animal practice you will be generally inside and working in hospital setting, in equine or large animal practice you may spend as much time outside in the weather as inside a barn or clinic. Stress is common, breaks/lunches often missed because you never know what a day will bring and when you will have to drop everything else to deal with an emergency. Hours also can vary greatly. It may be 4 hour days a few days a week or it may be 11-12 hour days 5+ days a week. You may work days only and not on weekends or you may work weekends, nights and holidays, or a mixture of all. (I have been in all of these situations over the years depending on what type of practice I was working in.)

Necessary skills will include an ability to read animals, good communication skills, math skills, ability to work under pressure and focus in an emergency situation. Those are the general skills, there are many many special skills that must be learned through a formal education and clinical practice.

Education and training: in the majority of states you MUST have completed an AVMA accredited veterinary technology program (typically a degree program though a few don't grant a degree) before you can be credentialed as, use the title or work as a "veterinary technician". This education includes courses covering veterinary anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, animal husbandry, surgical assisting, anesthesia, medical nursing, diagnostics such as radiology and ultrasonography, clinical pathology, parasitology, medical terminology and record keeping, biological collection and sample handling and preperation, etc. They can also specialize in areas such as emergency and critical care, internal medicine, anesthesia, dentistry, behavior and equine nursing. It also includes a minimum of 250 hours in a veterinary clinical setting.

Veterinary technicians make between $28,000 and $48,000 a year. The difference is due to changes in pay in different areas of the country and even variances in each state depending on type of practice, number of years experience, whether the practice is in a rural or urban area, etc.

Veteirnary medicine is continuing to become more advanced with more options for diagnostic testing and for more advanced treatment modalities. All of this affects the type of training and education that those providing the care have. This career will likely continue much along the lines that the human medical and nursing field has with all states going to requiring licensure of veterinary technicians and preventhing those who are not credentialed from presenting themselves as a veterinary technician. It's also already growing into more specializations for veterinary technicians and more options for advanced education, much like with nurses and physician's assistants in the human medical field. There are already almost a dozen recognized veterinary technician specialties and the option for veterinary technicians to pursue a bachelors degree in veterinary technology.

Most veterinary technicians don't work in positions where fostering prior to adoption (or definitely purchase) isn't a daily issue. Most of the animals in a veterinary facility have owners and aren't taken off-site for care. On occasion, owners may surrender their pets because they can't afford treatment or animals may be found and dropped off at a clinic by a well-meaning person and these animals may be fostered out to staff. But these are special situations, not the daily routine.

Here is the way I feel about it.- A Qualified Licensed Veterinarian does not have the time to browse within Y/A! on a regular basis. Has there ever been a Vet here answering, I've personally seen one user whom I would have believed they were a Vet not just because they listed so under their source, but because of the knowledge that existed in their answer. I cannot, to save my life remember his screen name, but he is rarely on....I mean RARELY. I see dozens of people here claim to be Techs & some I can believe, others not so much. I worked as a Vet Assistant but I do not diagnose, I just try to help in the best way I can either from experience or what I know. I always appropriately recommend going to a Vet as the bottom line if the asker obviously needs to take their dog to a Vet no matter what else I say which is usually the reason I stress the word VET.