Shadowing

[smilesoup]

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I was wondering what shadowing exactly entails. Is it simply sitting and observing a vet at work, or actually being able to assist with a few minor tasks? If anyone could share his/her experiences, that would be great!

 

[pressmom]

I think you will find that it varies widely place-to-place. When I shadowed, I was allow to watch most exams (as long as there wasn't too many people in the room or the animal wasn't dangerous) and all surgeries. I also was allowed to set up but not read fecals (although they'd show me if they found anything interesting), clean, and probably on occasion do other things if they were short handed (fill prescriptions, run UA sticks, start blood centrifuging, etc.) But all this showed that I was interested and hard working enough to get hired on. 🙂

 

[stick91]

I agree with Pressmom, it is definitely going to differ a lot from place to place. For example, I am currently doing a "ride along" with our equine vet once a week, sometimes her tech comes with and sometimes not. She has known me since I was a little kid and is thus confident in having me help out holding, lunging, jogging the horses and such. When the tech isn't there she'll have me help with the x-ray/ultrasound machines and such also. On the other hand, I have also shadowed her husband who is a small animal internal medicine specialist and there it was mostly observing and asking questions and very little direct interaction with the animals. Occasionally I handed stuff to the techs but I mostly followed and observed. Both vets have been awesome to shadow and I have gotten a lot out of both experiences.

 

[jkq202]

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[twelvetigers]

Don't really have anything to add about shadowing, but cute avatar!!