Vet tech after vet school

[medo1]

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I dont wish to get into particulars but life has thrown me a lot of curveballs and storms that have broken me down to nothing. Ive had a lot of health challenges both physical and mental. I want to get back to work now and its been about three years since I graduated (class of 2022). I still maintained my license and have gone to conferences and done online training whenever there are subjects that I felt rusty on or seemed interesting. I dont feel ready or comfortable going back as a vet, I just want to be in the field again. However, I do wish to utilize as much as my training as Im legally allowed to with the goal to maybe slowly transition to vet work. Im in California if that matters. What positions can I apply for?

 

[MixedAnimals77]

If you feel comfortable starting maybe volunteering or even applying at a shelter where someone is willing to mentor could be a great way to get back in the field without having to deal with client expectations. Something that's simple but high pace would be vaccine clinics. I think if you were frank with places you could find a place that would let you move at your own pace and provide mentorship that let's you ease back into being a veterinarian. I don't necessarily think you need to just be a vet tech but if that's where you feel comfortable I'd just be super transparent with where you apply and be prepared not to overstep boundaries

 

[pp9]

I dont wish to get into particulars but life has thrown me a lot of curveballs and storms that have broken me down to nothing. Ive had a lot of health challenges both physical and mental. I want to get back to work now and its been about three years since I graduated (class of 2022). I still maintained my license and have gone to conferences and done online training whenever there are subjects that I felt rusty on or seemed interesting. I dont feel ready or comfortable going back as a vet, I just want to be in the field again. However, I do wish to utilize as much as my training as Im legally allowed to with the goal to maybe slowly transition to vet work. Im in California if that matters. What positions can I apply for?

What do you want to be doing long term?

I second the idea of vaccine clinics (as a vet) - you can make great money this way, set your own schedule, and the work is not physically demanding. In my experience you tend to be working with inexperienced assistants though, which can complicate things. Shelter med is a good idea but in my (limited) experience tends to be very high volume/fast paced, so maybe not the best re-intro step. Could also look at GP relief without dentals/surgery.

In general, vets do not make good techs. Vets and techs aren't trained for the same things. If you were dead-set on a tech position, I wouldn't recommend a shelter setting as you might need to hit the ground running there. Vaccine clinics/Vetcos/Banfields might be a good option still - they are full service, but rarely get more complicated than monitoring during routine surgeries/IVCs/running bloodwork/xrays. ETA: I'd also consider tech relief, particularly if you are not anticipating needing to work as a tech for more than a year. You'll be hard to hire in this situation, tech turnover is already high enough without hiring someone who intends to leave.

I've had multiple vets (who had not passed boards) work as techs in a previous job and it usually didn't go well. They were new grads which was an extra layer of complication, not sure how much time you've spent actually in practice. You'd also have to be extra careful to respect the limitations of the position you hold, not the degree you hold...might be more difficult than you'd think.

Sorry final edit: CA requires techs to be licensed, not sure you'd qualify. Which leaves you with assistant positions

 

[medo1]

If you feel comfortable starting maybe volunteering or even applying at a shelter where someone is willing to mentor could be a great way to get back in the field without having to deal with client expectations. Something that's simple but high pace would be vaccine clinics. I think if you were frank with places you could find a place that would let you move at your own pace and provide mentorship that let's you ease back into being a veterinarian. I don't necessarily think you need to just be a vet tech but if that's where you feel comfortable I'd just be super transparent with where you apply and be prepared not to overstep boundaries

One of my main health challenges is standing still for long periods of time, so that makes surgery an extreme concern of mine for now. Unless I were able to do it sitting. Even so, mentally I find surgery very nerve wracking so would rather not jump into that right away but maybe later on when I have more confidence. Thats what Im lacking as well as navigating new medications and still needing PT. Do you need to draw blood at vaccine clinics? Technically im already employed at petcos for over 1.5 years but have never done a shift because I just thought its been so long since Ive drawn blood id be rusty for the heart worm tests.

What do you want to be doing long term?

I second the idea of vaccine clinics (as a vet) - you can make great money this way, set your own schedule, and the work is not physically demanding. In my experience you tend to be working with inexperienced assistants though, which can complicate things. Shelter med is a good idea but in my (limited) experience tends to be very high volume/fast paced, so maybe not the best re-intro step. Could also look at GP relief without dentals/surgery.

In general, vets do not make good techs. Vets and techs aren't trained for the same things. If you were dead-set on a tech position, I wouldn't recommend a shelter setting as you might need to hit the ground running there. Vaccine clinics/Vetcos/Banfields might be a good option still - they are full service, but rarely get more complicated than monitoring during routine surgeries/IVCs/running bloodwork/xrays. ETA: I'd also consider tech relief, particularly if you are not anticipating needing to work as a tech for more than a year. You'll be hard to hire in this situation, tech turnover is already high enough without hiring someone who intends to leave.

I've had multiple vets (who had not passed boards) work as techs in a previous job and it usually didn't go well. They were new grads which was an extra layer of complication, not sure how much time you've spent actually in practice. You'd also have to be extra careful to respect the limitations of the position you hold, not the degree you hold...might be more difficult than you'd think.

Sorry final edit: CA requires techs to be licensed, not sure you'd qualify. Which leaves you with assistant positions

Edit: long term I do want to try for veterinarian again, but I dont know if my body can handle the demands the career requires so just going with the flow. Thats makes sense thank you for your insight. Yeah i was told after two years of vet school one could become an RVT but I imagine that means actually sitting for the exam.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

I have no idea about vaccine clinics as I've never worked them, I just know about them from my friend who has worked a few. Hopefully someone who has done them can chime in. I mean I probably attempt poking 1 patient a week and work full time but even so I don't always get my stick. It all comes back with time.

For surgery you can certainly do them sitting if needed. I did quite a bit of sx sitting after my acl repair but it was definitely wierd for me at least. (Totally ignoring the confidence issue just saying it is possible).

Good luck!

 

[pp9]

One of my main health challenges is standing still for long periods of time, so that makes surgery an extreme concern of mine for now. Unless I were able to do it sitting. Even so, mentally I find surgery very nerve wracking so would rather not jump into that right away but maybe later on when I have more confidence. Thats what Im lacking as well as navigating new medications and still needing PT. Do you need to draw blood at vaccine clinics? Technically im already employed at petcos for over 1.5 years but have never done a shift because I just thought its been so long since Ive drawn blood id be rusty for the heart worm tests.

Edit: long term I do want to try for veterinarian again, but I dont know if my body can handle the demands the career requires so just going with the flow. Thats makes sense thank you for your insight. Yeah i was told after two years of vet school one could become an RVT but I imagine that means actually sitting for the exam.

I looked really quickly at California's process and I don't think a vet student/graduated vet would automatically qualify to sit the VTNE, but definitely investigate further.

I moreso meant where in vet med - GP, large animal, etc.

Do you need to draw blood at vaccine clinics? Technically im already employed at petcos for over 1.5 years but have never done a shift because I just thought its been so long since Ive drawn blood id be rusty for the heart worm tests.

You might. If you are lucky enough to be paired with a tech or assistant with decent experience, you may not have to draw blood at all as the vet. For my vax clinics (Petcos), I am usually paired with a very green assistant so I am doing a lot of the draws. Would be worth asking if you could be paired with someone with blood draw skills. There has been a very small handful of times that we couldn't get blood, either because I was the only one who could poke (I don't let inexperienced assistants try in that context) and couldn't get it, or the animal was spicy and I didn't trust my restrainer.

The nice thing about vax clinics is the shift can be as short as 2-4 hours, or as long as a full day (at least in my market).

 

[VetMedVetMed]

One of my main health challenges is standing still for long periods of time, so that makes surgery an extreme concern of mine for now. Unless I were able to do it sitting. Even so, mentally I find surgery very nerve wracking so would rather not jump into that right away but maybe later on when I have more confidence. Thats what Im lacking as well as navigating new medications and still needing PT. Do you need to draw blood at vaccine clinics? Technically im already employed at petcos for over 1.5 years but have never done a shift because I just thought its been so long since Ive drawn blood id be rusty for the heart worm tests.

Edit: long term I do want to try for veterinarian again, but I dont know if my body can handle the demands the career requires so just going with the flow. Thats makes sense thank you for your insight. Yeah i was told after two years of vet school one could become an RVT but I imagine that means actually sitting for the exam.

I’m sorry you’re going through this. I myself can sympathize as I graduated a few years ago and then went through personal things and am only now jsut getting started working. I also lived in Cali. There are SO many things and jobs you can do as a vet. You don’t have to do surgery if you don’t want to! I work with 5 vets and two of them don’t do any surgery. You could even work remotely for pet poison hotline as a vet or as a professor, or in government and more... None of which requires standing for long periods or for you to do surgery. These are other options to think about.

 

[battie]

Don't become a vet tech. As has been said, there are many non-clinical jobs for vets out there. Vet tech positions are more physically intense than that of the doctor.

 

[medo1]

I’m sorry you’re going through this. I myself can sympathize as I graduated a few years ago and then went through personal things and am only now jsut getting started working. I also lived in Cali. There are SO many things and jobs you can do as a vet. You don’t have to do surgery if you don’t want to! I work with 5 vets and two of them don’t do any surgery. You could even work remotely for pet poison hotline as a vet or as a professor, or in government and more... None of which requires standing for long periods or for you to do surgery. These are other options to think about.

Don't become a vet tech. As has been said, there are many non-clinical jobs for vets out there. Vet tech positions are more physically intense than that of the doctor.

Where do I find these opportunities? So far ive been on indeed and google jobs. Ive seen one job for a lab vet (they wouldnt want me with no experience and not sure i would want that, plus it involved coming up with all these policies and procedures and complying with regulations that I have no clue about), one job for teaching vet techs (honestly I feel like I forgot everything and am not qualified to teach), and one WFH focusing only on behavior and dermatology but they wanted three years of experience.

 

[battie]

Where do I find these opportunities? So far ive been on indeed and google jobs. Ive seen one job for a lab vet (they wouldnt want me with no experience and not sure i would want that, plus it involved coming up with all these policies and procedures and complying with regulations that I have no clue about), one job for teaching vet techs (honestly I feel like I forgot everything and am not qualified to teach), and one WFH focusing only on behavior and dermatology but they wanted three years of experience.

Comes down to networking and knowing how to search. Industry like Idexx and antech as an example. USDA and APHIS positions. But you also need to be willing to move to where those positions are, or deal with what those positions entail.

 

[pp9]

one WFH focusing only on behavior and dermatology but they wanted three years of experience.

We are not in a great field for WFH for a lot of reasons. In my looking, most WFH jobs seem to be for boarded specialists (radiology, clin path, etc) in a consulting role. Full time salaried GP-level WFH jobs are super competitive and hard to come across, but they do exist. Subscription-based telemedicine is starting to get popular - I've seen a few ads for companies looking to hire FT/PT vets for that so if that takes off, everyone will want to jump on board. There are several contractor-type telemedicine companies you could work through, although your income would then be entirely up to demand and the amount of time/effort you want to put into the gig. Just important to know what your state laws are regarding telemed. Don't forget about drug/sales reps, and food company reps - they are often WFH but with travel.

I have looked into ASPCA's toxicology jobs for myself - they are 'remote' but you do have to live within 350 miles of their headquarters (which is good ol' Champaign IL). Pet Poison Helpline requires a Minnesota license but I think you can otherwise live anywhere. I think we have someone on the boards that has worked, or currently does work, for one of these companies - I am not sure if they would be willing to chime in? I've called both hotlines probably 100+ times each and from that POV, it seems like a straightforward, plug-n-chug type job. No liability or significant case responsibility, necessary resources are provided, etc. Last I checked, they were hiring for overnights, but that was probably almost a year ago.

I still think you should look into vaccine clinics +/- GP/urgent care relief. You can absolutely speak with your regional managers for said clinics and tell them what accommodations you need and request to be paired with people who can do blood draws. I've been surprised at how flexible some of these corp clinics can be.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

@DVMDream for pp regarding poison hotline work

 

[DVMDream]

I have looked into ASPCA's toxicology jobs for myself - they are 'remote' but you do have to live within 350 miles of their headquarters (which is good ol' Champaign IL). Pet Poison Helpline requires a Minnesota license but I think you can otherwise live anywhere. I think we have someone on the boards that has worked, or currently does work, for one of these companies - I am not sure if they would be willing to chime in? I've called both hotlines probably 100+ times each and from that POV, it seems like a straightforward, plug-n-chug type job. No liability or significant case responsibility, necessary resources are provided, etc. Last I checked, they were hiring for overnights, but that was probably almost a year ago.

Aww, thinking there is no liability in toxicology. It is all fun and games until you get a bearded dragon that ate an exotic plant that no one has any information about. Or a monkey that ingested zolpidem.

Toxicology is not a cookie-cutter "here is your treatment plan, thanks for calling, k bye." We have to be aware of drug interactions. We need to know what the patient is doing and how the patient has presented as that can alter our treatment recommendations. Sure, there are some cases that are going to be very straightforward and generally the same for each patient (ex: cat vs lily), but even chocolate cases can have drastically different recommendations just based on numerous factors.

I had a case that took me 1.5 hours to manage because it was 3 dogs vs. 20 different medications and supplements with each supplement having multiple ingredients. I have to look through every link to each supplement (most of these are links to the online product so not connected to our database). I have to know what ingredients are worrisome and which ones aren't off the top of my head. Then, I have to calculate doses for everything. Then some of those supplements have repeat ingredients, so, for example, supplements A, C, F and G all have vitamin D so I need to combine those doses together to get a total Vitamin D dose. Then determine for each of those 3 patients if there is a concern, what it is, what ingredients are concerning, which medications are concerning, and exactly what the vet needs to do to manage an exposure to over 20 different products.

The fun ones--- multiple cardiac drugs ingested at once. How do you treat hypotension from a combined ingestion of a calcium channel blocker, a beta blocker and an ACE inhibitor? The treatments are different, especially if the hypotension is from the calcium channel blocker.

Oh and don't forget about case follow up. Vitamin D toxicity is notorious for clinics to be calling back over weeks to months and there is no "chart" for "this is the right 55th step to take". You have to make decisions about how to proceed next in these cases, there is no set guideline just your clinical judgement.

While, yes, there are resources, you definitely have to learn a ton and quickly. You also have to lean on your clinical knowledge as well. We get calls of pets that are symptomatic and the vet just has a list of meds in the home, then we have to determine if the symptoms the pet has could be from any of those meds and, if so, which ones. These can be related to the meds or sometimes you have to tell the vet the symptoms aren't related and they need to do a work up of the patient. Then, the vet sometimes wants your clinical input on what could be going on then if it is not a toxin.

You also need to know when the treatments you are recommending are going to interact with each other. Such as giving intralipids, knowing that if any medications you are giving to manage symptoms are lipid soluble, the intralipids will affect those medications as well. Or giving cholestyramine with Vitamin K1, cholestyramine will affect the absorption of Vitamin K1 so this becomes important when managing a rat bait ingestion in which the specific ingredient of rat bait is unknown.

Anyway, I could go on, but toxicology is not super straightforward all the time. I don't do it anymore but not because I didn't enjoy it. I loved it. I just needed to find something else.

 

[battie]

I don't do it anymore but not because I didn't enjoy it.

I always wondered if I was talking to you on the other end of the line. I hope you found a good something else 😊

@pp9 one of your classmates that I also know went to ASPCA

 

[pp9]

Aww, thinking there is no liability in toxicology. It is all fun and games until you get a bearded dragon that ate an exotic plant that no one has any information about. Or a monkey that ingested zolpidem.

Toxicology is not a cookie-cutter "here is your treatment plan, thanks for calling, k bye." We have to be aware of drug interactions. We need to know what the patient is doing and how the patient has presented as that can alter our treatment recommendations. Sure, there are some cases that are going to be very straightforward and generally the same for each patient (ex: cat vs lily), but even chocolate cases can have drastically different recommendations just based on numerous factors.

I had a case that took me 1.5 hours to manage because it was 3 dogs vs. 20 different medications and supplements with each supplement having multiple ingredients. I have to look through every link to each supplement (most of these are links to the online product so not connected to our database). I have to know what ingredients are worrisome and which ones aren't off the top of my head. Then, I have to calculate doses for everything. Then some of those supplements have repeat ingredients, so, for example, supplements A, C, F and G all have vitamin D so I need to combine those doses together to get a total Vitamin D dose. Then determine for each of those 3 patients if there is a concern, what it is, what ingredients are concerning, which medications are concerning, and exactly what the vet needs to do to manage an exposure to over 20 different products.

The fun ones--- multiple cardiac drugs ingested at once. How do you treat hypotension from a combined ingestion of a calcium channel blocker, a beta blocker and an ACE inhibitor? The treatments are different, especially if the hypotension is from the calcium channel blocker.

Oh and don't forget about case follow up. Vitamin D toxicity is notorious for clinics to be calling back over weeks to months and there is no "chart" for "this is the right 55th step to take". You have to make decisions about how to proceed next in these cases, there is no set guideline just your clinical judgement.

While, yes, there are resources, you definitely have to learn a ton and quickly. You also have to lean on your clinical knowledge as well. We get calls of pets that are symptomatic and the vet just has a list of meds in the home, then we have to determine if the symptoms the pet has could be from any of those meds and, if so, which ones. These can be related to the meds or sometimes you have to tell the vet the symptoms aren't related and they need to do a work up of the patient. Then, the vet sometimes wants your clinical input on what could be going on then if it is not a toxin.

You also need to know when the treatments you are recommending are going to interact with each other. Such as giving intralipids, knowing that if any medications you are giving to manage symptoms are lipid soluble, the intralipids will affect those medications as well. Or giving cholestyramine with Vitamin K1, cholestyramine will affect the absorption of Vitamin K1 so this becomes important when managing a rat bait ingestion in which the specific ingredient of rat bait is unknown.

Anyway, I could go on, but toxicology is not super straightforward all the time. I don't do it anymore but not because I didn't enjoy it. I loved it. I just needed to find something else.

I’m curious to hear more about your take on your liability in that position. In the many lawsuits and board complaints both my coworkers and I had been through, it’s always on the treating DVM and never the radiologist, clinical pathologist, whoever did the ultrasound, etc. can see liability if you spoke with an owner directly and things went really south, but otherwise the treating DVM holds all the liability 99.9% of the time

@pp9 one of your classmates that I also know went to ASPCA

No idea who, but I only keep up with like 10 people these days

 

[DVMDream]

I’m curious to hear more about your take on your liability in that position. In the many lawsuits and board complaints both my coworkers and I had been through, it’s always on the treating DVM and never the radiologist, clinical pathologist, whoever did the ultrasound, etc. can see liability if you spoke with an owner directly and things went really south, but otherwise the treating DVM holds all the liability 99.9% of the time

Poison control has been sued a number of times, including for cases that were managed at a veterinary clinic.

Yes, we do also have a ton of cases that are managed entirely by poison control and never see a veterinary clinic, though these are cases that don't need a veterinary clinic for management. However, if things do go south on these cases, it is poison control who is responsible.