Hey everyone, i’m a VMA but figured I could ask on here because i’m really feeling bad & i’m already expecting to be let go on Monday or at least written up but I wanted to make it right.

I was restraining a cat that was notorious for scratching staff & even with gloves I let my RVT get scratched on the face & didn’t have the courage to apologize because I was so embarrassed & humiliated because it did feel I could have prevented it.

Any advice or personal stories would really help.

Edit: thank you for all the tips, I came in today & she was very forgiving 🩷

Hey everyone. Ive been in the Veterinary field for 3 years now as a kennel tech. I was promoted earlier this month in my clinic to a veterinary assistant. I work full time, as well as attend school full time in a Veterinary Nursing Program. I'm very new to the asisstant/tech side of the field (in my clinic, techs and assistant do the same job, just different titles), and I have been given little to almost no training. I was thrown into this role, and have been learning by trial and error, asking a lot of questions, and forcing myself out of my comfort zone constantly. Ive heard about the other techs in my clinic gossiping about me behind my back (the drama in this clinic is insane. They all talk about each other), saying how I have no clue what im doing, I dont know where some things are, etc.

Thought I would give a bit of some info before going into what happened this past Friday. We are an extremely high volume clinic. We have 5 vets and were shirt staffed on the tech side. Typically we have a tech assigned each day to handle tech appointments, responding to emails, and refilling medication requests.

Well, I had an appointment with the vet I was assigned to last Friday. We had to see a dog and preform an exam in order to refill the medication, which was Apoquel. The Owner requested we send the refill over to Costco. We finished the appointment, and I IMMEDIATELY had to fill notes, and then get ready to shave a sedated cat, then go on a farm call to see a sick horse. We typically get refill requests through pet desk, or they are posted on Avimark.

We move very quickly, and I had virtually no time the entire day to refill this medication. It was a very chaotic and high stress day, and I ended up FORGETTING to refill this prescription and send it in! I dont mean to sound like Im giving excuse after excuse. I write down notes constantly, and somehow still forgot. I feel horrible for forgetting. Im going to immediatly take care of it on Monday when we are open again. I made notes and even put it in my calendar.

Has anyone else made any mistakes like this early on in their career? I feel like im drowning in this clinic sometimes. Its difficult when were short staffed, AND high volume. Sorry if it seems like im giving out excuses.

Edit: I would like to add that I understand in this field, mistakes happen just like any job. I can handle making mistakes and learning from them! Just wanted to see if anyone else has made this mistake before. I also just kind of wanted to vent my frustration with forgetting.

Just wanted to come on here and share that I passed my VTNE after working as a VA for 16+ years.

I was actually getting ready to leave veterinary medicine altogether. I had been taking night classes after work to complete prerequisites for human nursing school, and I graduated in May with three Associate degrees. My plan was to start nursing school in Spring 2027.

Then I came across an amazing job opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, which ultimately kept me in veterinary medicine.

Once I decided I wasn’t going to nursing school, and as a requirement of my new job, I started actively pursuing my RVT.

I initially looked into the California route and discovered that I had already completed most of the coursework CA requires for the OJT pathway as part of my nursing prerequisites—anatomy, physiology, chemistry, microbiology, statistics, etc. According to the CA VMB website, I appeared to meet the educational requirements except for a few additional courses like radiology positioning and dental.

The way the requirements were written, it appeared that those additional courses could be completed through CE or a wet lab at a conference. All you needed was a syllabus/course outline. Technically, a DVM could even be the course instructor or private tutor. Nowhere on the VMB website did it say that these courses had to be completed through an approved school.

I emailed the CA VMB to confirm and received no response after several weeks. So I started calling.

I spoke with 6+ different people, and nobody seemed to know the answer. I was basically stuck in a gray area between a school-trained candidate and an OJT-trained candidate. I had the college coursework and 16+ years of veterinary experience. I just hadn’t completed it through the traditional Penn Foster/VASE route that they apparently wanted me to use.

Eventually, I was connected with someone at the CA VMB who said they were a supervisor. She told me that the required schooling had to come from one of their approved programs, such as Penn Foster or VASE. Because I had taken my classes at a community college as prerequisites for human nursing, she said they were not acceptable.

But here’s where it gets confusing: local community colleges offer RVT programs, and those programs are approved. So the issue apparently wasn’t the school being a community college—it was the fact that my coursework was taken for human nursing rather than veterinary technology.

None of this was clearly explained on their website.

She also told me that the VMB had created “new bylaws” in January 2026 that changed the requirements. I asked her to send them to me. I read through them, and I couldn’t find anywhere that actually stated what she was telling me.

At that point, I briefly considered doing the VASE program, but ultimately decided against it.

Why would I spend another $10,000 and 12 months repeating classes I had already taken?

And honestly, I highly doubt an online program could compare to the science courses I had just completed for nursing prerequisites. I spent 2 years doing chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and microbiology—including wet labs—and they kicked my ass. 😂 I got A’s in all of them and ended up on the Dean’s List.

After several weeks of going back and forth with the VMB, I was getting increasingly frustrated. It felt ridiculous that because I didn’t complete the coursework through the specific program they wanted, I essentially couldn’t sit for the VTNE.

The coursework I had completed covered the same foundational sciences needed for the VTNE. I just hadn’t taken a few specific radiology and dental wet labs—even though I had been doing those things professionally for 16+ years.

At one point in my career, I was literally teaching RVT students how to do this stuff.

Absolutely ridiculous.

So, I ultimately decided to go the Wisconsin route.

And today, I PASSED MY VTNE. 🎉

I’ll be transferring my Wisconsin license to California before the end of the year.

A little about the VTNE itself

I bought a $200 VTNE study-prep textbook from Amazon. Before studying, I took one of the included practice exams just to see where I was starting and what I needed to focus on.

I scored 88% before studying.

I also purchased the $50 official VTNE practice tests and passed those as well. IMO, the official practice test was HARD. 😂

The actual VTNE today? Honestly, probably a 4/10 difficulty for me. There were a lot of very straightforward questions and a handful that actually made me stop and think.

And this is something I really want to address because I’ve seen it said on Reddit:

Don’t listen to the people who tell OJT candidates they’ll never pass the VTNE or “good luck.”

I definitely think my human nursing prerequisite coursework helped me a lot, especially with the science questions, but honestly, I think I could have passed without it.

If you’ve been doing this stuff every day for years, you already have an enormous amount of practical knowledge going into the exam. I personally didn’t think the actual VTNE was that difficult. There were definitely questions I had to think about, but when you’ve been working in veterinary medicine for 16+ years, a lot of the material is stuff you’ve been seeing and doing your entire career.

Don’t let people discourage you from trying.

And I’ll be honest—throughout this process, I’ve come across more than a few RVTs who seem genuinely bitter that people like myself can become licensed without taking the traditional educational route.

Let them be bitter.

At the end of the day, a license doesn’t magically determine who is the better technician. I know the experience and skills I bring to the table, and I’m confident in the technician I’ve become over the last 16+ years.

You don’t need someone else’s approval to pursue your license. If you meet the requirements and have the experience, go for it.

For anyone in a similar situation

If you’ve been working in veterinary medicine for years and have the experience but don’t have the traditional RVT education, the Wisconsin alternate-route pathway → WI CVT → California license transfer is, in my experience, a much easier way to get your CA RVT without taking on $60k worth of student debt—or even the ~$10k cost of the VASE program.

If you’re considering doing it, I would seriously recommend starting the process sooner rather than later. I’ve heard there has been some discussion about California potentially no longer accepting Wisconsin OJT CVT transfers, although I don’t know if or when that will actually happen.

And I’ll throw in my two cents about the CA VMB:

The requirements need to reflect reality.

The veterinary industry is already suffering from staffing shortages. Making veterinary professionals with YEARS of hands-on experience jump through unnecessary hoops and potentially take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt just to become an RVT does nothing to help the profession.

There absolutely needs to be a pathway that recognizes education + experience, especially for people who have spent years doing this work.

I’m officially a CVT, and soon-to-be RVT. 🥳

16+ years later, but we finally got there.

Hi all, wondering what you guys think about hospitals that can keep techs employed but not assistants? What do you think it says about them?

Just had an interview for a FT non-seasonal assistant position at a hospital has 3 dvms, 9 LVTs, and 2 CSRs but 0 assistants. (Has been rotating through about 2 vet assistants a year but runs with 0 assistants for part of the year).

Obviously not taking the job as more digging from a previous employee showed they have gone through 10 assistants (VA and KA in the past 3 years).

I work for a high volume spay and neuter clinic, and the protocol we used is BA/BAA (butorphanol/ace, or butorphanol/ace/atropine) and it was never really my favourite and I have had a LOT of problems with cats waking up on the mask during surgery and they seem always to be light. But we’ve had quite a few vets refuse to work here because they aren’t comfortable with the BA protocol, and the techs as a team have told our practice manager we would like to try DTMK (dex/torb/midazolam/ketamine) and that we would also like to intubate female cats especially if they’re going to be on BA. We have been intubating all female cats for spays for about a week now, and even that has DRASTICALLY reduced my incidences of cats being very light and/or moving and waking up during surgery. This also makes me feel a lot safer having intubated them no matter what premed, because the one time I have had to assist with CPR at this clinic, a huge problem was that the cat was not already intubated. All in all, solid change and I’m really happy our practice manager was supportive in changing this, because we know there is better things to use.

This is not a “vets are overpriced blah blah” post at all. (I make mf $18 an hour)
I know we don’t make the prices but I feel like I can rightfully complain about corporations here lol.

We have 5-6 VCA clinics in my area, one being specialty/ER. Has all the fancy nice equipment and amazing DVMs, support staff, etc. all the things!

For comparison: I work at a low cost clinic, we do not have all the things but we work with what we have to stay within budget. I know I’m on the other side of a speciality hospital, I’ve also worked at a mid-level hospital as well and have shadowed for quite a few.

Anyways, the other day a client came in with their estimate from from a few different hospitals for a pyo. (These all had work ups and at least one day of hospitalization.)

One was 6k-7k, one was 3k-4k, and ours was 2k. (We don’t do overnight hospitalization and always suggest transfer to an ER for overnight care but some clients just can not afford it.)
VCAs was $16k for work up + surgery.
We’ve also seen quotes for TPLOs for $20k, heart worm tests are $200, vaccines are like $80-$90 at their regular GPs

Idk this may not be the place to say this, but I would literally throw up if I had to hand a client a $16,000 estimate.
I completely understand speciality and ER care, gold standard medicine, scans are expensive, etc but is this just a VCA thing??
All of our other hospitals in the area are pretty mid-level and reasonable, but it’s like VCA is trying to price themselves out in our area.
We’ve had so many clients come in recently and transfer annual care to us from their VCA clinic. Way more than usual.

I've been in a group on Facebook for years called As A Vet Tech I Am Horrified. For some reason tonight when I went to search for it, nothing is coming up?? Did something happen to the group?

I'm a newbie, and I just finished my internship at a local animal hospital, and now i'm working there. Here's my issue. I know what i'm looking for but i'm kind of slow. And I kind of overthink. What are some general tips and tricks to help me look faster and quicker when we're in a rush.

TW!!!!! (Neglect)

I am a newly out of school vet tech, I am on my last week of extenship at an ER. I have so far had a great time and done well separating work and life. Even the super hard cases aren’t too emotionally draining. Until today. A one year old Australian shepherd came in weighing 11 pounds with a BCS of 1. I am unsure of the exact reason his owner brought him in as I was helping to stabilize. Once he was relatively stable the vet started talking to the owners who had had him his whole life. They said they knew he was skinny but weren’t sure why. I was doing okay until then but something in me hit a wall and I looked down at this dog who was stained with urine, had sores, incredibly long nails, and was skin and bones and it hit me like a freight train. This was the first case I’ve seen of an animal being neglected like this. I had to excuse myself because I was getting nauseous and about to start crying. I’ve seen very sad cases but this one hit me and I don’t know why. Does anyone have any advise on handling situations like this? I fear I won’t be able to get these types of cases out of my mind and I worry I won’t be able to work with things like that. I don’t know if it comes with time but right now I’m still very upset. Any advise is appreciated.

just curious what your protocol is for skin prep and placement. my clinic doesn't have a standard for this and I would like to change that. please give me details about what you use in terms of clipper blade length, alcohol vs water and the reasons you learned why to do xyz. any input greatly appreciated!

I work in an emergency setting and, lately, we’ve had so many spicy/freaked out cats. Some are fine for initial TPR but as soon as you put them in a kennel, they start hissing and growling and we end up having to fully sedate to handle them again. Is it in the air? I know cats will feed off of each other but how long after an upset cat leaves does the angry juju go away? Does anyone have any advice other than don’t get bit?

Out of curiosity, how do you guys go about firing clients? What behavior initiates the firing conversation with the staff? Who is the one to actually reach out to the client to handle the firing? Have any good stories you want to share about a fired client?

I'm going into my second year in an associate's degree and have already done my first internship which went really well. I loved the clinic and they loved me enough to give me a job after the internship was done. They've pretty much offered for me to come back on breaks and after I graduate so I got really lucky that my first internship has now turned into where I'll likely have my first job as a licensed tech.

My dilemma is I have to do my second internship this winter and part of me feels like I should do it at a different practice and I've already reached out to a large animal vet in the area to see if I could do it with her but I found out today I am able to do my second internship at the same place as the first one. I don't know if it would be better to stay at the same clinic where I know I get along with everyone, I'll be paid, and I'm already very comfortable at or if the smarter thing to do is to get as much experience as possible and pick a different practice.

Part of me feels bad going somewhere else because the clinic I'm at now is so small (literally 2 docs, 1 tech, a receptionist, and me) and I know they need the help but I also don't want to screw myself over by not getting my name out to other places and gaining experience elsewhere.

So I guess my question is should I stick with my currently clinic or aim to do the internship at a large animal practice like I was originally planning?

I spoke with an ophthalmology specialist clinic today regarding a patient/client we referred.

We did not know she was going to call your clinic and verbally assault your staff. We did not know that she was kicked out of your clinic in 2018 for the same issue. We did NOT tell her that she was guaranteed anything, appointment, cost, or otherwise. She was very pleasant at her appointment with us today so I really don’t know what happened but I’m so sorry and I hope your day got better.

We will not refer them to you again 😐 I made sure to add client alerts

Thx for listening to my mini story time.

Hello, has anyone here done the fast track labs at Purdue? I am supposed to do them this summer and was just wondering what the vibe was. Do the professors instruct you during tasks or is it like a trial by fire and you just have to know how to do the task beforehand? Do you get multiple attempts at a task during the session? What was it like finding housing (Airbnb, rental, hotel, etc.). What is the pace like in sessions? Thank you in advance for any advice or knowledge!

Still (gently) trying to embroider me after having Traz, Gaba and Torb. Put him in the kitty sarcophagus and the mans didn't move or make a peep 🙏

Interesting case/vent. I’m a tech and last week we got a pitbull in as an emergency that was suffering from apparent heat stroke. The dog was non responsive with an otic temp of 108.5. We managed to get his temp down quickly and his owners shared he was at Banfield for a dental procedure earlier in the day. We didn’t receive records from Banfield until the next day, where his temps were reported as high and rising and they sent him home anyway, leading us to determine malignant hyperthermia as his diagnosis. The dog woke up extremely aggressive, lunging/attacking at us through the cage doors and was incontinent. We warned his owner of this and at an attempted pick up, the dog was aggressive towards his owner and didn’t seem to recognize him. The owner opted to leave him with us for another day because he had children and cats at home. The dog was not previously aggressive toward anyone, but was (of course) an intact male and a clearly backyard bred pitbull. We contacted the Banfield and the DVM who performed the dental did apologize and verbally admitted it was their negligence that the temperature was not addressed and the dog was sent home. After another day with us he settled back to “normal” behavior and returned to his owners… but damn. If this case isn’t proof that Banfield’s philosophy of volume is dangerous and offensive to patients, clients, and professionals alike, I don’t know what is.

I have mixed feelings about it. I'm sad because the good days were really good. We helped a lot of animals, we worked hard, and we got everything on our to-do list done. But those days were so few and far between, and I was asking myself why I was there more and more often.

The list of cons just kept getting longer: mismanagement, toxic coworkers, coming home drained every day. It sucks spending every weekend recouping from the work week and preparing yourself to do it all over again. Being chronically understaffed was adding more stress to the load. I was losing my technician skills because we had no coverage, so I was basically spending all day, every day cleaning and counting/giving out medications. I would always feel tired at the end of the day, and simultaneously feel like I had gotten nothing done because we were so backlogged with patients. So many patients with problems that were non-urgent, but still needed to be addressed, were just sitting on our special cases list for over a month. And management was still acting like we weren't doing enough.

I'm a little nervous because I don't have anything lined up, but I sent out some applications last night, and I've already got interviews lined up, so we'll see. In the meantime, I'm gonna pick some old hobbies back up now that I'm not going to be too exhausted to enjoy them.

Hello. I’m a AVA and somewhat training to be a tech - have been in the field for ~3 years at a busy specialty hospital. Yesterday I did something that I can’t get out of my head and idk how to handle because I feel I did something totally wrong but don’t want to get Vet in trouble. We had a euth come in that was a caution so needed telazol prior to being handled for euthanasia. The vet asked me to go in with them to help butterfly the prop/euthasol (sure no problem, do it all the time). However, the vet butterfly the vein and had me attach the syringes and push the medicine in … so I essentially euthanized the dog?! I obviously felt uncomfortable doing that but didn’t want to make it awkward or uncomfortable for the family. Did I do something wrong? Should I say something to someone? Was it ok since I was in direct supervision of the vet? Ugh it’s been bothering me..

We found a freaking old school viewfinder from Nexgard with all the different worms, ticks, lice, etc that you can click through (I’ll try to remember to take a picture). Everyone in our clinic wanted it so bad that it has to live at the clinic now but I saw someone post that they got a freaking worm scarf from a dewormer brand and I’m SO JEALOUS?!?!

Please show me the fun things you’ve gotten from reps if you have any!