Question:
I am considering entering school for Veterinary Tech.I am wondering about pros and cons in the field.?
I am looking for advice from people in the field. What do/did you like? dislike?
Answer:
I was a small-animal vet tech and so was my mother.
I liked caring for the animals, I hated the way people treated them sometimes. Euthanasia was often very touching, and sometimes truly horrible. Emergencies were some of the easiest times, as the problems were either simple or were interesting, like puzzles.
Hours are long and hard, with the reliable workers
often covering for the others. Burnout was very common,
as was addiction (to Valium, as well as caffeine and smoking). After our other vet tech stole the Valium out of the lock box and got fired, I worked back-to-back 80-hour weeks, and my vet actually collapsed. I was transferred across town then, and my schedule was revamped. Very high stress. You must be endlessly patient and panic-proof.
Mom and I both adopted animals from work. It was difficult
to keep from bringing every single one home.
Mom worked in a small town, and I in a big city.
She worked 20 years and I lasted 3 before burning out.
What I gleaned from my experience was that the people
you work with make the biggest difference. Finding a
clinic where you fit in and can be happy is the key.
I tamed wild kittens, saved a boy's cat after
it got into the dryer, and got a newborn puppy breathing.
I've helped a girl train her deaf puppy, and
sat day after day with a puppy with Parvo, until it was running and playing and ready to go home.
I also saw a cat die in my arms from flea anemia,
put my fingers in sucking chest wounds, and
held a healthy dog to be killed while the child of the household screamed her name.
I've been bitten and scratched, flea-bitten and tick-dipped, and I can tell you by the condition of my arms that your dog has ringworm a week before a culture test can.
You have to care deeply, and be prepared to harden your heart.
