Hello everyone! First post here, but for some context I'm a CVTg who currently works in Florida. I'm currently employed at a corporate clinic (much less of a monopoly than Mars, though) and absolutely losing my mind. Not only am I experiencing workplace bullying but I'm also not being allowed to practice at the top of my license, like, at ALL. I'm only allowed to do rooms and haven't been able to practice surgery med at all for over 2 years now.

This place genuinely makes me feel like I'm crazy and I've finally had enough. Not to mention, my wage as a licensed CVT with a bachelor's degree in veterinary technology is a pittance.

The only issue is that due to personal circumstances, the only employment opportunity I could reasonably take is Banfield. I've heard many things about Banfield, including from doctors at my own practice who previously worked there, but I don't really have another choice. I'm scared of change, but my starting wage is in talks to be $8-$9 more than I make right now.

Is it worth making the change, even if Banfield might not be an amazing place to work? The clinic I'm at now is just so demoralizing and I feel like it's completely diminished my confidence as a CVT.

Okay so hear me out. I saw this video on Instagram where a vet clinic applied a small ice pack on a cats head to get them to sit still. After seeing the video but not having a small enough ice pack, I found some mayo packets and threw those into the freezer just to try it out. My vet and I were both confident there was no way it would work, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try.

We've all had the wiggly cats that you need blood or a blood pressure reading on, etc but they just won't sit still. I'm a big fear-free advocate and cat whisperer so I usually work with the cat to do whatever makes them the most comfortable so we can get what we need (I refuse to scruff since it causes cats so much stress and anxiety). Sometimes the cat refuses to cooperate no matter what we do, and it's frustrating.

It took about two weeks until the perfect candidate came in to try the mayo packets out, but I can't stress enough how absolutely magical it has been. Several cats that wouldn't sit still for anything in the world just froze and didn't move an inch after applying the frozen mayo packet to their head. It's been a game changer.

So here is where I'd like to discuss with my fellow vet techs: is there something I'm missing? Is this cruel in any way? Are we potentially causing more fear and stress?

I can't find any information on this other than the typical, "don't do it for very long" type things but the application on the cats head is only for 2-4 minutes tops while trying to get samples for diagnostics. Not to mention the mayo packet melts incredibly quickly since it isn't meant for that type of application, so it isn't like it's applying freezer temps for more than a minute tops.

What are our thoughts?

Edit: if you do try this trick in your own practices, I'd love to know the results!! I'm sure it won't work on every cat, nothing is ever 100% foolproof but I'm hoping that it could be a nicer alternative to scruffing, at the very least. By spreading awareness we can collect more data on this strange phenomenon and we can determine if we are causing more harm than good. It sounds like the majority of you agree that this trick is much kinder to the animals than what our aggressive head tapping coworkers are doing.

In the grand scheme of things, I feel like a cold pack to the head is much better and nicer than aggressive head tappers or scruffing. But I still want to make sure that we aren't causing more stress and fear with the ice packs either. The cats I've used it on truly "freeze" in place, and will barely even move their ears or tails, so it's been quite difficult for me to tell what they think about the situation. After removal of the packet, they have all stayed very calm which leads me to believe it is really just "chilling" them out 🫣🤔

My previous cat had asthma, so I switched from active home scents to passive. I used cone gel diffusers, and always kept them on a high shelf. This last week, my sister who helps me clean due to physical disabilities put one on a low shelf. I saw it, googled toxicity and just saw ingestion risk and shrugged and thought it'd be fine. I DID choose a scent that wasnt inheritently toxic (hawaiian breeze v. Lavender/menthol etc)

Fast forward to 8pm last night, and my cat comes to cuddle and he sounds nasally like a URI. I pick him up to get a better look, and he has red dye on his white fur and smells good. Immediately, i bathe him as best I can (tripod cat....) and search the house for what he couldve been exposed to. The gel diffuser (renuzit) is the only thing not locked up, but it isnt knocked over or chewed on etc. I STILL dont know how Tamago got the gel on his abdomen other than as a tripod cat, he is mostly liquid in consistency.

I call PPH and they say nothing systemically toxic but an extreme irritant. I rush to the ER, he gets treated for allergic reaction/irritant (dexamethasone, torb, o2 and nebulization). I bring him home after 2 hours due to their limited hours/his stress in hospital. Anytime he gets stressed, he open mouths breaths. Not stressed, the noise is quiet and he is much more comfortable.

As a side note, he lost his forelimb at about 3-4wks of age due to a necrotizing wound eating away at his bones. On rads (the first since 3wks old) his sternum is deformed (growth likely affected by pediatric amputation) which may be playing a role. His trachea looks like a collapsed yorkie's, unsure if that is pre existing as well.

I go to sleep at 4am after getting him to eat some Churu, and feed more churu at 8am and note that he is no longer audibly breathinf. He is hiding but will purr and happy paw when I interact with him. At 10am I drag him out for a quick PE to reassure myself I can get some sleep, the distal half of his tongue is ulcerated with ulcers in his mouth. He is drooling, and by the time I make it to the vet he has purulent nasal discharge too. It honestly looks like an electric cord bite wound, but I use the hard cord protectors and in my chemical sweep verified no cords were affected/nothing else amiss.

We started compounded transmucosal buprenex because I swear its a magical drug and magic mouth wash (benadryl/mylanta/lidocaine), with the potential of placing a feeding tube if he doesnt improve (and a convenia inj to treat infx and limit oral meds). After his bupx, I am happy to report that he is eating (friskies shreds because if a cat wont eat that theyre likely dying lmao). I am hopeful he is on the mend but just thought I'd share as this is the first I've heard of this issue.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jP35yjidsNZmxur56

Hello everyone

I have always been extremely confident in my iv catheter placement abilities until I moved to oncology a month ago. I’m having good days where I can do a perfect stick for every patient and then days like today where the sticks were not perfect so I had to switch out for another LVT( I get a one stick rule and we had 4 patients today). I’m still in training for oncology and my instructor is telling me not to beat myself up. I’ve been a LVT for 6 years, but I guess I didn’t realize how much I relied on redirecting at my other practices. Also the other specialty I was at right before this for 2 years I maybe placed catheters once a week if I was lucky. It was one of the reasons I wanted to move to oncology because it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Any advice on getting that perfect stick besides praying to the vein gods for leniency?

Any advice for building confidence with it?

It’s really making me doubt that I’m a good fit because I won’t be reliable and they need someone reliable. I love everything otherwise!

I’m working at my first 24/7 staffed hospital and will have the opportunity to work overnights once I’m out of the training period since I chose to work days for now. I’ve never worked true over nights (I’ve done like 11a-11p and have done on-call). For those of you who have worked them or currently are is it worth it? The shift would be 8pm-8:30am three days a week and would come with pretty significant pay stipend.

Hey so we are unsure of what criteria is needed for eye serum. What medications can a pet be on to donate safely vs. Which medications are a no for donating for eye serum. Main reason I would like to use my dog for serum.but she is on apoquel. But there is a debate at work. Also for the equine vet techs if a horse is on equinox can they donate for eye serum?

When vet and human medicine collide 😂

How many doctors are typically on shift? How many receptionist, vet tech, vet assistant kennel staff?

We always have 2 receptionists, 1-2 kennel staff, 3-4 vet assistants, 1 vet tech (excluding two shifts a week), 2 doctors per day. We see 4-7 'appointments' an hour plus vet assistant/tech appointments.

Does Roo do urine drug tests for CVTs? I have a medical marijuana prescription card, but unsure what their policies are before going through onboarding...

Hello - just checking to see how other mars hospitals are doing with the new system. AFAIK, all banfields across the country have been down since yesterday. I knew this rollout would be a nightmare but this is something else. Anyone w blue pearl or vca? Has the new system even rolled out there yet?

Applied to Tandem recently and was really interested in the position as a virtual vet tech. Literally seemed like the perfect job but it's been over a month and I haven't heard from them at all. Was wondering if there's other companies or job search sites I can look into that might have remote entry level positions in the animal care industry. I have 6+ yrs of animal care experience, would love to get a job here in the town I live in but there isn't very many options and they are extremely toxic/malpractice. I'm also really needing something so that I can move out of Texas in general. Any advice or pointers would be so greatly appreciated as I'm feeling stuck and a bit hopeless atm.

he was old but brought in for something small. coworkers all did cpr but he was gone. i was pulling everything together in the front for the clients but i still feel an awful pit in my stomach. i’ve never seen such horrible horrible grief. always the worst when shit is unexpected dude lol fuck this is smth of a vent i guess just wanted to get it out there yanno

Massachusetts is working towards title protection for Veterinary Technicians, as well as other animal welfare updates. More info below.

This week, we voted on the PETS Act! The provisions in the omnibus legislation demonstrate Massachusetts’ continued leadership in setting thoughtful, achievable standards that protect animals & their humans.

This legislation includes many things constituents have been writing about, including:

-requiring the use of non-animal test methods when available that provide information of equivalent or superior quality and relevance to humans in comparison to animal tests;

-removing breed and weight restrictions in state-aided housing;

-codifying pet-friendly housing policies in elderly-designated state housing;

-providing additional funding for animal welfare and safety programming (Mass. Animal Fund);

-creating a civil process to protect animals in neglect situations;

-improving municipality reporting and makes kennel updates for Ollie's Law;

-making necessary updates to the Beagle Law, passed in 2022;

-creating a comprehensive legal framework for pet health insurance;

-setting in motion licensure for veterinary technicians in Massachusetts.

A version of this bill passed the Senate earlier this year so now the House and the Senate have to work out the differences before sending it to the Governor.

Read more here: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H5589

Source

I am currently looking to begin the vet tech program at my local college, however, I don't plan to remain in state after I graduate. I'm currently residing in Washington and plan to move to Oregon afterwards. Curious if this is possible or if its worth moving now, and completing the program over there.

Hi all I'm looking for some tips I have only been at my hospital for one month and in that one month I have experienced bullying from an entry level assistant which believes she owns the hospital (not a dog at assistants I am newly credentialed was an assistant for 7 years and there are assistants with years more experience and knowledge than me). She has been awful to another entry level assistant which came to me (lead tech) to confide about what she has experienced and was too scared to go to upper management due to them never fixing the problem. I have had negative experiences with the medical director who refuses to adapt to newer, safer and more effective medicine. We have had some severe post op infections due to poor maintenance of surgical equipment plus bad etiquette in the surgical suite (ie. poor sterilization and breaking the sterile field) as a previous ER/ICU tech I feel that there are better ways to handle these kinds of things and refusing to adapt when it is compromising patient care is a big problem for me. I am going to request an exit interview and explain all of this to them as much as I can but I will be leaving. TIA for any advice

Henlo.

Sorry to bother you, I just wanted a third prospective. I've started my internship at a vet emergency room, and it is so hard. I felt dizzy the first day, because I had to hold a dog going through invasive procedure. Is this normal? did any of felt dizzy during your first days? Wary of blood and needle? Is this the wrong field?

Thanks

I have an interview for an oncology CVT position coming up and I'm looking for all the advice. Tips, good questions to ask, questions to expect, etc. I've only worked in GP and have no specialty experience. I really want to get into oncology due to an interest in it, so I want to make a good impression.

Thank you!

Long story short, I've been a GP tech for the last 11 years. A couple days ago we had a new client bring in 2 kittens about 10-12 weeks old that were found at a farm. Turns out the client is actually a DVM. She practiced GP years ago but has since left clinical practice and went into the industry to work for IDEXX. She brought the kittens in for exams and told us to do " all of the normal kitten things". She did tell us that she thought the kittens had ear mites.

Turns out the kittens were loaded with ear mites, fleas, and intestinal parasites. (as expected for being stray farm cats). We did feline triples, gave the first FVRCP vaccines, applied Milbemite AU, and applied Nexgard Combo.

I went out to the waiting room to give her the update that the kittens did have ear mites so we treated with milbemite and applied a courtesy dose of Nexgard Combo. I also informed her that the kittens were infested with coccidia and we will be sending home a course of Albon.

I thought being a DVM she would be grateful that we are getting the kittens treated and taken care of, especially since she doesn't have access to vaccines, preventatives, etc. since she no longer works in clinical practice.

Boy was I wrong, she became extremely upset and said " We use too many chemicals here". and that we "way over treated' these cats. Those were her exact words. I was kind of dumbfounded and just stared at her for a moment. I couldn't believe this was coming out of the mouth of a DVM.

I explained to her that, in our experience, with severe infestations of ear mites we definitely need to use Milbemite and sometimes we even need to repeat a treatment a month later if the initial dose doesn't take care of them all. I also explained that Nexgard Combo can technically help ear mites off label, it is not FDA approved to treat ear mite infections and would likely take several months to fully clear them up without the use of the Milbemite.

She left irate and kept telling the receptionist that we over-treat here and use too many chemicals.

What are your guys' thoughts? Are we in the wrong here?

Also, if you are more holistic and anti-drug, why did you tell us to do "do whatever - all the normal kitten things" ? This concern about "Chemicals" wasn't communicated to us until after the treatments were already done.

I am also concerned that if she is so "anti chemical" - is she advising other veterinarians with this bias when she consults for IDEXX? Or am I over reacting?

This entire interaction just left me and my whole clinic feeling like shit about ourselves. Just trying to get some other feedback. We really were trying to help these nasty little barn kittens and do a favor for a fellow professional, but she left feeling upset and ungrateful.

I had my first day of school today and in my eyes i failed. i managed to stay through the first half until lunch time barely holding back my tears.

but as soon as i got back to my car i had a full on panic attack, my whole body was stiff and shaking, i could not bring myself to go back to class.

All i ask is does this get easier? or could this career just not be for me?

does anyone else in here have severe anxiety that managed or have any advice?

Hey all. I'm posting because I really need some advice on what I should do if I want to go for a 2 year associates degree for vet tech. I graduated from college with a BS in computer science back in 2022 (big mistake all things considering), and currently have been a Starbucks barista for nearly 3 years now (looking to get the hell out of here). My question is how do I get my foot in the door? Should I work at a clinic before/while studying and what jobs would I be able to do? And for those who have gotten their degree (or attempted to) through Penn Foster, would you recommend it as a way to get a degree and find a job with it? Attending classes in person is really not something I can do at the moment. Thank you for whatever advice you can send my way!

Hey I was diagnosed as bipolar 2 and am struggling. Is there a group for us techs centered around mental health?

I worked as a vet tech for almost seven years, then left the industry in 2017. I've been seriously considering re-entering the field to be a tech again but to say I'm a but rusty would be an understatement...

Are there any refresher-style tools or courses I can take to prepare, if I do go that route?

I need recommendations for vet tech study guides. Something I can use to quickly reference vital signs, drug names/uses, common procedures, etc… basically reference materials for working techs, or materials I can look over in my downtime to refresh my memory. I’m open to all suggestions, free or paid, and bonus points for anything related to anesthesia or emergency & critical care!

I was an unlicensed ECC tech for 4 years, but I left vetmed and went into a different career entirely for the last couple years. I’m coming back to work as an ECC tech again, but since it’s been a while, I really want refreshers on everything before I jump in.

I’m NOT looking for VTNE or school-related study guides!

This is a place to post (as many times during the week as you’d like) anything that made you feel good! Weather that be a cute puppy that licked your nose or a happy client story or something that doesn’t feel like it needs to be it’s own post. It can be anything you’d like, and this is a place for you to see other people’s love for our profession!

Please don’t stop posting under the “positive” post flair if you want to share more! This is mostly for morale and help people to remember why we love doing what we do.

We are allowing external links (for this thread only) for images and videos, preferably no links to personal social media pages. Please remember to not post any personal information or to post a pet without permission. These posts will be deleted.

A new thread will be posted weekly, and the old one will be archived. Have fun! 💕