| Veterinarians are the faces we often see when we | | | | taking tissue and blood samples are just some of the |
| go to the animal clinic - they handle diagnosing and | | | | technical roles that veterinary technicians are required |
| caring for our beloved pets, and they possess the | | | | to fill. |
| medical knowledge to take care of the specific needs | | | | This is precisely why veterinary technicians are held in |
| of the animals in their care. However, veterinarians | | | | high regard" despite the less public nature of their |
| are not the only people involved in animal clinics. | | | | job, they fill in a myriad of highly specialized and highly |
| If veterinarians are the doctors of the animal world, | | | | technical duties that add meat and depth to a |
| veterinary technicians can then be called the nurses | | | | veterinarian's diagnosis and treatment. |
| of the animal world. Their roles are very similar in | | | | Dirty Work |
| nature - 'nurses' that support the 'doctor' as he or | | | | Like their counterparts in the realm of human |
| she goes about the business of healing. As such, they | | | | medicines, veterinary technicians have their fair share |
| handle a number of activities that plays a quiet but | | | | of dirty work: handling blood, urine and stool samples, |
| essential role in a veterinarian's job of taking care of | | | | cleaning cages, risking scratches and bites from some |
| animals: | | | | pretty angry animals and even euthanizing abandoned |
| Routine Work | | | | and unwanted animals. |
| Veterinarians have a lot to worry about, especially if | | | | And it is activities like euthanizing animals that make |
| they work in a well-established and widely-known | | | | the job all the dirtier: the emotional strain of having to |
| animal clinic. Their diagnoses are not simply based off | | | | euthanize animals is painful even if the process is |
| memory or quickly scanned when they look over an | | | | painless for it, while having to tend to abused and |
| animal - careful scientific procedures need to be | | | | overly-stressed animals sparks stabs the heart of |
| done, and these scientific procedures are often very | | | | any decent animal lover. All this adds up time, and a |
| routine and mind-numbingly repetitive. | | | | professional veterinary technician must learn to deal |
| This is where veterinary technicians come in: they | | | | with issues like these as they rear their ugly heads. |
| handle the more routine jobs that common visitors to | | | | Routine work, technical work and dirty work: these |
| the animal clinic do not see on a regular basis. | | | | three primary functions of a veterinary technician |
| Working in the laboratory, they conduct the routine | | | | dictate his or her day to day duties. As such, they |
| tests, operations and studies that are essential to a | | | | are the invisible hands that assist veterinarians as |
| veterinarian's job. | | | | they do their jobs; they are the quiet lab staff that |
| Technical Work | | | | gives the vet results to work with; they are both |
| While Veterinary technicians do much routine work, | | | | caretakers and executioners of neglected animals. |
| these jobs are not something that an ordinary person | | | | They are veterinary technicians, and they are the |
| off the street can do. Urinalysis, dental prophylaxis, | | | | wind beneath the veterinarian's wings. |