How did you get started working with a veterinarian?

[2short4life]

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As of now, I am a junior-level student working on my B.S. I have an A.S. from a community college but it seems like it won't do me any good.

Presently, my only experience is being a part of a program at a local animal shelter. The bulk of my hours are at the shelter working with dogs/cats (about 2 hours every week) and riding along with Animal Control Officers (9-10 hour shift). We also take part in other services every other week. So far, we've gone to an emergency pet clinic and talked to Vet students, but we didn't have any contacts with animals. In a few weeks, we will be working an event focusing on horses.

I'm trying to aim towards working with a vet to get more experience, but most of them want Vet techs. How did you guys get your position working with a vet?

 

[sunshinevet]

I got my job through work experience - I did it at a clinic that has a long history with training up young kids as vet techs and sending them off to vet school - I started working with them when I was 15. I just worked really hard for them when I was on work experience and showed them I was really interested, and they offered me a position. But I was really, really lucky, and I appreciate that getting that kind of work is a lot of luck.

I think your best bet is volunteering/shadowing/doing work experience. It shows the people who would be hiring you that your interested, and a hard worker, and next time they're looking for people, you'll be at the front of their mind.

 

[HopefulAg]

Saturated the market with resumes and cover letters explaining my intent and got a few job interviews back. Went to them and at one of them the vet said "and when you come in on Monday you'll need to fill out some paperwork" and I was like "come in on Monday?" "Yah, for your first day of work" "Oh!"

Started out in Kennels for two or three weeks and then got put into other roles more and more often.


Now I have little trouble finding a vet tech job, but that first one....man they want you all to have experience but no one is willing to train you! So if you can, at the very least you need to shadow. It's free experience for you and the vet both.

 

[DVMDream]

I started at 17 working as a kennel tech in a small, but very busy clinic. I nearly got fired (for being too quite), but quickly showed that I am a hard worker, dedicated, and very interested in becoming an assistant. I was able to help restrain animals during my time as a kennel tech. Since it was a small hospital (in size, not in number of clients) I was able to watch many procedures as well. After about 9 months, I was moved up to a veterinary assistant/technician. I have been a vet tech for about 4 years now. Start shadowing or start by cleaning kennels, the hospital, and restocking. Show that you want to do more and learn more and then they may be willing to train you when a position opens up for an assistant. Good Luck!!

 

[Smileystar5]

I started working for a vet when i was 19 (after freshman year). I actually just got out the phone book and called veterinary clinics asking if they took volunteers. One of the veterinarians told me he didn't take volunteers but would interview me for a job. I think it's best to go get volunteer work in a clinic, that way when you apply for an assistant position, you'll have experience to put down. Also, explaining that you're applying to veterinary school really helps. All of the veterinarians needed someone to help them out when they were our age, so most are really eager to let you hang around if you're hard working, respectful, and pick things up quickly.


GOOD LUCK! Just be outgoing and really put yourself out there! Don't turn down volunteer work.

 

[nyanko]

I started out helping with the spay/neuter clinic at an animal shelter, talking to the vet there and learning about what vaccinations were important, how to prep for surgery, give subq injections, and uhh, euthanize via cardiac stick (yeah, on my first day). I volunteered there for a couple of years, then when I finished my first undergrad degree and moved, I applied straight to vet clinics. Because of my experiences at the shelter I was hired as an assistant and immediately taught all the technician skills and such. So that's pretty much how it worked for me.

 

[rileyroo]

euthanize via cardiac stick (yeah, on my first day)

my very first experience at a vet clinic was a euth via cardiac stick on a ferret. sounds like i wasn't the only one who had a rough reality check on the first day.

 

[DVMDream]

🙁Those euthanasias are difficult. Because you have to do cardiac sticks on the small pocket pets we do not allow the clients to be present during the euthanasia. That makes it slightly easier but it is still very hard.

The first time I was taught to draw blood was a jugular stick on a cat. Not the easiest blood draw.

 

[rileyroo]

The first time I was taught to draw blood was a jugular stick on a cat. Not the easiest blood draw.

no it's not at all! lol the first time i was taught to draw blood was on a basset hound. impossible veins to locate. i was also taught that day, that the motto of the clinic was "if you are having difficulty drawing blood, it's always the restrainer's fault" 😀

 

[nyanko]

my very first experience at a vet clinic was a euth via cardiac stick on a ferret. sounds like i wasn't the only one who had a rough reality check on the first day.

Yeah, really. Mine was a whole bunch of kittens from a hoarder's house. A lot of the older cats we got from the house had FIV and/or FeLV and the shelter was overwhelmed, so rather than keep the kittens somewhere until they could all be tested, we had to euthanize them.

 

[DVMDream]

no it's not at all! lol the first time i was taught to draw blood was on a basset hound. impossible veins to locate. i was also taught that day, that the motto of the clinic was "if you are having difficulty drawing blood, it's always the restrainer's fault" 😀

Bad leg veins...IV catheter nightmares. That is a great motto! I have used that one before at times that I could not draw blood...like this past summer! Could not draw blood or set catheters this past summer and one of the only catheters I got in was on a Shi Tzu mix with horrible twisted veins, but I could not set a catheter on the young pit bull puppy with massive veins. Now how does that work?

 

[aspiringDVM]

no it's not at all! lol the first time i was taught to draw blood was on a basset hound. impossible veins to locate. i was also taught that day, that the motto of the clinic was "if you are having difficulty drawing blood, it's always the restrainer's fault" 😀

My first blood draw was a 13 year old chihuahua mix. Just a cephalic vein, but still! Then I started working with horses and they couldn't believe it when I hit the jugular on my very first try 😀.
I've never seen cardiac euthanasia performed, but that sounds really rough 🙁.

 

[david594]

I've never seen cardiac euthanasia performed, but that sounds really rough 🙁.

It's done under anesthesia. Its considered inhumane on an awake animal.

 

[PigsRock]

I sent out letters to two vet clinics near my house last winter looking for a place to volunteer/work last summer... After many phone calls and my mom working her connections (she was a shelter superviser for a long time) I got to volunteer in a small animal clinic pretty much whenever I wanted-I did 4 days a week. I think the vet wanted to pay me, but they had all their regular people working plus other college kids home for the summer. I did get paid for the last two weeks, though.😀

At that clinic pretty much everyone did everything, so I cleaned kennels, helped with appointments, helped with surgery (when I knew how), and all the random other things that came up.

As for drawing blood, I've done it on cattle, sheep, and baby pigs through a livestock handling class I took. I thought it would a lot harder on a steer crashing around in a chute than on a dog or cat, but when I restrained, the techs did a lot of "poke.poke.scratch head.try other side-poke.poke again." So maybe it's not easier after all...

 

[aspiringDVM]

It's done under anesthesia. Its considered inhumane on an awake animal.

I assumed so 🙂eek🙂, but thanks for clearing that up. It sounds like it's mainly done on pocket pets and smaller animals, so is the primary indication size/ability to hit and not blow the vein? If so, how are the animals anesthetized beforehand? Gas down or IM injection? Clearly I know nothing about exotics.

 

[rileyroo]

I assumed so 🙂eek🙂, but thanks for clearing that up. It sounds like it's mainly done on pocket pets and smaller animals, so is the primary indication size/ability to hit and not blow the vein? If so, how are the animals anesthetized beforehand? Gas down or IM injection? Clearly I know nothing about exotics.

we used gas

 

[dgm]

After calling a bunch of clinics looking for volunteer work and coming up with nothing, a friend of mine who is a veterinary pharmaceutical sales rep texted one of her docs. He said to send me on over, and when I got there he said "So, do you wanna get paid?" I got hired and trained as a tech. I guess sometimes it's just about connections... I got very lucky.

 

[david594]

I assumed so 🙂eek🙂, but thanks for clearing that up. It sounds like it's mainly done on pocket pets and smaller animals, so is the primary indication size/ability to hit and not blow the vein? If so, how are the animals anesthetized beforehand? Gas down or IM injection? Clearly I know nothing about exotics.

Gas most of the places I worked also.

Depending on the vet, we would also do some pocket pets IP so the owner could spend a few more minutes with it before it drifts off.

 

[DVMDream]

I assumed so 🙂eek🙂, but thanks for clearing that up. It sounds like it's mainly done on pocket pets and smaller animals, so is the primary indication size/ability to hit and not blow the vein? If so, how are the animals anesthetized beforehand? Gas down or IM injection? Clearly I know nothing about exotics.

We also used gas as well. We wait until they are completely asleep before we do anything.

 

[HopefulAg]

I started at 17 working as a kennel tech in a small, but very busy clinic. I nearly got fired (for being too quite),

Heh, about a year after I started working at my vet clinic the manager told me that she didn't think I'd last one week in the clinic because I was very quiet lol.

Also when I was just starting out (before sending out umpteen letters) I shadowed one vet very briefly. One day after finishing he asked me not to come back. The reason? I didn't smile enough.

 

[DVMDream]

Heh, about a year after I started working at my vet clinic the manager told me that she didn't think I'd last one week in the clinic because I was very quiet lol.

Also when I was just starting out (before sending out umpteen letters) I shadowed one vet very briefly. One day after finishing he asked me not to come back. The reason? I didn't smile enough.

Lol..Ya the vet and office manager pulled me into the office about a month after I started working and said if I don't start to talk and communicate better than they would have to fire me. Four years later, they can't get me to shut up. 😀 They asked for it! 🙂

 

[nyanko]

It's a good thing I can never shut up from the very start then I guess!

 

[twelvetigers]

It's a good thing I can never shut up from the very start then I guess!

Um, I think the vet I work for would prefer a bit more silence. 🙁

 

[scb44f]

Um, I think the vet I work for would prefer a bit more silence. 🙁

I'm very glad the vet I shadow is on the quieter side. I'm sort of your typical engineering major, except that I don't want to be an engineer. He is not much of a talker until you get him onto certain subjects.

Anyway, I have only about 20 hours of experience, all of that with the vet I mentioned above (I decided what I wanted to do this summer). When I decided to ask for shadowing opportunities, I put on a little bit dressier clothes (when I say dressier, I mean like a blouse and jeans and shoes that aren't sneakers), printed a few resumes, and went around town. Granted, I do go to school in a small town where not many people want to be vets, so gaining experience isn't difficult because there isn't much competition.

At the first office, I filled out a resume even though they weren't hiring, but they said I could come back and shadow any time. When I went to the office I have been gaining experience at, the vet happened to be at the front desk. He heard what I was asking for and invited me to show up the very next morning. At this point, I just call and tell them on Fridays when I'll be in the next week, and make sure it won't be too crowded.

 

[bunnity]

Re the cardiac euths...

At the wildlife center we would do IM ketamine followed by intracardiac fatal plus for a variety of animals and birds (birds were in the liver not the heart actually). We also did a lot of straight gas (no fatal plus) on smaller animals and birds so that they could be consumed by carnivores.

At one shelter I was at they did IM ketamine followed by intracardiac euth for dogs and cats. I believe the rationale was that it was easier than hitting a vein and they would leave the needle in so they could see when the heart stopped. Or some techs would do IM ketamine, then IV fatal plus, then intracardiac fatal plus. This shelter was fine with it ethically; other shelters' techs condemn it. Personally I think if the animal is pre-anesthetized it doesn't make a big difference what route you use, but I admit I am not totally educated on the matter and would love to hear more information is anyone knows it.

 

[david594]

AVMA guidelines on Euthanasia:

http://www.avma.org/issues/animal_welfare/euthanasia.pdf

And a short article talking about updates to the guidelines that are in progress:
http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/aug09/090801e.asp

 

[sunshinevet]

Re the cardiac euths...

At the wildlife center we would do IM ketamine followed by intracardiac fatal plus for a variety of animals and birds (birds were in the liver not the heart actually). We also did a lot of straight gas (no fatal plus) on smaller animals and birds so that they could be consumed by carnivores.

At one shelter I was at they did IM ketamine followed by intracardiac euth for dogs and cats. I believe the rationale was that it was easier than hitting a vein and they would leave the needle in so they could see when the heart stopped. Or some techs would do IM ketamine, then IV fatal plus, then intracardiac fatal plus. This shelter was fine with it ethically; other shelters' techs condemn it. Personally I think if the animal is pre-anesthetized it doesn't make a big difference what route you use, but I admit I am not totally educated on the matter and would love to hear more information is anyone knows it.

The problem I have with this is that ketamine produces a dissociative anaesthesia - you get paralysis, analgesia and post anaesthetic amnesia, but at the time, the animal is still conscious - they are still aware of what is happening to them. This is why, as a tech and a future vet, I'm not a fan of the diazapam/ket induction, as you do tons of stuff on this poor paralysed, concious animal, when there are other induction agents out there that provide an unconsious anaesthesia.

 

[david594]

The problem I have with this is that ketamine produces a dissociative anaesthesia - you get paralysis, analgesia and post anaesthetic amnesia, but at the time, the animal is still conscious - they are still aware of what is happening to them. This is why, as a tech and a future vet, I'm not a fan of the diazapam/ket induction, as you do tons of stuff on this poor paralysed, concious animal, when there are other induction agents out there that provide an unconsious anaesthesia.

Lumb & Jone's Veterinary Anesthesia, 3rd Edition:

Page 242:

"Ketamine produces dose-related unconsciousness and analgesia."

Page 244:

"Ketamine differs from most other anesthetics in that it does not depress ventilatory responses to hypoxia. Skeletal muscle tone is maintained or even increased; thus, arterial oxygenation and functional residual capacity are usually well maintained during ketamine anesthesia."

 

[sunshinevet]

Interesting...

Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Katzung B.G

Pg 433

"Ketamine produces dissociative anaesthesia, which is characterised by catatonia, amnesia, and analgesia, without actual loss of consciousness"

 

[david594]

Interesting...

Wierd. I'm out of useful books on my shelf. My Veterinary Anesthesia book was from 96, so I'm going to have to find a newer copy to check.

 

[MIZMARLEY]

I found it fairly easy to find work at clinics/hospitals. Like others, I called around to several clinics and then personally delivered a resume. Follow up in a few days if you haven't heard back to show you are truly interested. If you live in KY, help is always needed during foaling season. Also, if you are willing to start as a tech assistant and work for less money, I've found that many SA clinics hired me fairly quickly. Now that I have more than 2 years experience it is even easier to find jobs. Be sure to tell them that you are a pre-vet student. Willingness to work on weekends and sometimes at night is useful. Do whatever you have to do to get good recommendations. Stay positive, always have a good attitude, and show interest in learning. (Also remember what you learned each day so you'll look really smart if it comes up again.) Good luck!!

 

[2short4life]

I want to thank everyone who responded to the original post. I'm gonna start calling animal clinics in the area. Additional tips are welcome🙂

 

[aspiringDVM]

I want to thank everyone who responded to the original post. I'm gonna start calling animal clinics in the area. Additional tips are welcome🙂

Yeah, we do have a propensity to pursue random and wild tangents around here.

As for finding work at clinics, I definitely advocate going to clinics in person, while wearing professional attire and carrying a crisp copy of your resume. I know that at my clinic, at least, people who do this are taken much more seriously than those who just call or mail. And I know I've ranted on this before, but for heaven's sake, don't drop in wearing ratty jeans/tank top/cheer shorts/bathing suit with towel wrapped around your waist, et cetera, et cetera .
The first experiences seem to be the hardest to find -- good luck!