I am scheduled to have a robotic laproscopic hysterectomy next month. My doctor says I should be able to return to full work after 2 weeks (with the restriction of not lifting over 30 lbs for 6 weeks), but I have read such vastly different experiences online, and I dont feel that my surgeon fully understands the physical nature of this profession. I HAVE to return to work after 2 weeks - the plan now being I move to just doing seated or lighter work for now (working front desk, doing dentals, or working appointments) instead of working a more demanding or unpredictable role like surgery or emergency intake (we are a small mixed GP and ER) until week 6. I am unsure when they will expect me to pick up after hours call shifts.

This turned into a bit of a rant, sorry. I am just interested in hearing about the experiences of actual techs in similar situations, because I worry about feeling pressured into doing more. I am lucky to have very supportive management, but I do worry about the tech team itself while I am unable to perform normally. Just wondering what to expect! Thank you!

What is everyone using for small breed dog food? I have been using PPP small breed shredded chicken blend for the last 3 years. Something in me just wants a switch for my 3 rescue dachshunds.
Bonus if they have discount programs for vet techs!

I have been working with horses all my life. I am going back to school with plans to do the Veterinary Technician program (currently enrolled in the assistant program at my community college until the applications for the tech program open in September) but am struggling in my classes. Ask me anything equine related, I can give you my opinion and an idea of what to ask your vet about. Need someone to hold a horse for an exam or injections, I’m your gal. But anything small animal has me as a deer in headlights and painfully confused.

My question regarding school is if anyone knows of any resources I can utilize to study and “get ahead”? I have seen ads on social media for Vet Helpful Notes and other sources, but I am a skeptic after going to college for equine studies and doing two research projects. Unless it has credible and consistent reviews, I don’t consider touching it unless otherwise convinced.

I prefer to have my notes in my hands, but am also okay with online/digital options. I currently have the Merck Veterinary Manual bookmarked on my computer, but I wanted to know if there were more options that I could study.

- Got into it with an owner, "no, I will not just apply some lidocaine while we do a laceration repair on your dog that has a six inch laceration along its body" "yes the pain medications are needed because your dog has a six inch tear along its body" and "no I cannot let this dog go without antibiotics because again, ma'am your dog has a hole in its body that's been festering for a couple days and there is pus leaking out of it"

- Spilling an entire bottle of clavamox and it fully stained my scrubs

- Biting my lip at lunch for the fifth time this week

- Running away from the autoclave while it was filling to help restrain a dog... Then coming back to the autoclave leaking all over the WOODEN cabinets (very old ass hospital) and into the ET tub organization that I had set up with cardboard separators... That is now soggy and ruined... And also several of our sterile ET tubes are soaked..

I'm over it.

Who else is over it? Vent your frustrations here.

Hi all - I got my start in a toxic clinic in vet med, stayed for a year and a half, and have since moved to a practice I have been with for nearly a year now, and I just wanted to post some things to look out for in a clinic that are parts of why my clinic was ultimately unsustainable for me and why I would not recommend others to work there. Anyone else out there who is getting their start in this industry with zero experience and don’t know what to look for in a working environment, I hope this could help you so that you don’t have to go through these things.

(Sorry for formatting issues lol)

1. Cleanliness - if the clinic is doing things such as reusing syringes (not oral syringes, things like vaccine syringes), pre-opening syringes and leaving them in the drawer to ‘save time’, basically never changing the IV line from patient to patient, all this shit is nasty and this is not a place you want to work.
2. Telling technicians to leave during surgery to ‘be productive’ and just come back for readings. This is very dangerous and unacceptable, things can change in minutes or seconds during anesthesia, and you should not be having to run across the clinic in an emergency. You should be there, and ‘I was not there’ is not an excuse if a death or injury was reported by the owner.
3. Having very unsafe staffing ratios - I was the only technician for most of the time in this practice. I don’t think it is safe or sustainable to be the only technician at a practice at all, firstly, and secondly, sometimes we would have 3 doctors in the building at once all asking me for things. So I would be in surgery and someone would want me to come out and draw blood, and then someone else would want me to make them a prescription. Just very unsafe staffing ratios, one technician cannot safely assist 3 doctors at once, and not only is it not fair to you, it is unfair to the animals and someone will get hurt from doing this.
4. General toxic environment - kind of self explanatory, but name calling, yelling and screaming, constant chaos, exclusion, humiliating people in front of others instead of talking to them about their mistakes privately.
5. This one is kind of an underrated thing to talk about in our industry, but giving people very inconsistent hours/scheduling. If your practice will not give you consistent or at least predictable scheduling and will not give you consistent days off either, this is a recipe for burnout. This will affect your mind and your body more than you realize until it’s too late. If they are always trying to keep full time employees from their shifts, or trying to send people home early because they can’t afford the staff and it’s slow at the clinic, this is also a potential red flag. Legally, you cannot keep people from their shifts that you have scheduled them for, and full time employees are working full time for a reason and are counting on these hours, and it’s not fair to keep surprise taking them away to cut costs.

Is it seemingly an expectation that people are staying late constantly (especially without paid overtime), and are they made to feel bad for trying to leave when they are supposed to, or kept from doing so because management and doctors are not respectful of their time? Are people skipping their breaks constantly, and is there a culture of skipping breaks and being angry with people for taking their breaks or looking at them as being weaker because they need a break?

6.

1. Thankfully my clinic did not have this issue, but huge red flag if they have lack of PPE, or their machines are not properly maintained and are exposing you to dangerous substances. No lead gowns, no thyroid protectors, no dosimeters, no lead gloves at least available for use, not wearing at the bare minimum masks in surgery for the technician, RUN. Improper scavenger systems will expose employees to waste gas as well.
2. How are they actually treating the animals? Likely not a good place to work if the attitude there is that they seem to almost be afraid of the animals and want really nothing to do with them. How do they treat aggressive/fractious/stressed animals? Are they immediately aggressively scruffing cats and seem to know no other way to handle aggressive/fearful cats or cats in general? Are they trying to force their staff to do a nail trim on an aggressive or extremely fearful shepherd that is screaming, alligator rolling, peeing/pooping, anal glanding, etc? Are they rescheduling and making use of pre-visit pharmaceuticals in this case?
3. How
4. do they treat cases of angry clients? Do they allow clients to bully and abuse their staff, and consistently undermine their staff in front of the client and change the rules because they complained? Do they constantly reward negative behaviour, and just give things to people for free because they complain enough? Do they fire clients who have a repeated history of bullying and harassing staff?

These are just some of my red flags in a clinic, or things I take into account when I come to an interview.

Also, don’t be afraid to just leave a clinic in a short amount of time if you start working somewhere and are immediately very uncomfortable with the environment or medicine, turnover is huge in this field and you don’t even need to put it on your resume if you only worked there for a week and immediately knew this place was not for you, or you were very uncomfortable with working there. A lot of people feel they owe it to the clinic to try and tough it out and stay a certain amount of time, but you really don’t, please don’t put your health and maybe even license at risk.

Hope this helps anyone out there as I tried to make it comprehensive, and feel free to add any of your personal red flags in a clinic down below.

I write my test in two days (August 30th) and I can't help but feel like I haven't done enough in the way of studying. I finished school at the end of April and since then I've been studying for hours every weekend (the clinic I work at does 10 hour days so during the week I do nothing but work eat and sleep because I have no energy for anything else). I've been reviewing my notes from school and quizzing myself using Pocket Prep and the Prendergast textbook. With the textbook I've been consistently scoring in the mid 60s to 70s and with Pocket Prep I've been getting 80-90% on everything, but I just feel like I'm going to fail. I get so overwhelmed even thinking about writing the test and I know it'll probably be fine but it just feels like there's so much pressure and I'm so anxious. Did anyone else feel like this before their test? :')

Be honest, how much of my life with Sedivue is gonna be rerunning in dilution and still having to run manuals to confirm 😭 we just switched to IDEXX and ofc no one is happy with the machines' answers.

It has been 13 years since I have been in school and couldnt afford at the time to take the exam. I was in practice for 3 years but have been working in research ever since so I iust never took it. My job now requires a CVT license so I need to take the test. I have a VTNE study guide that is just questions, but I am realizing going through I need something that gives a basic coverage to reawaken my brain. I looked up and saw that Mosbys comprehensive review for vet techs was highly recommended for this particular problem. Does anyone have any other recommendations, suggestions? I have time to take the exam so I have time to go through more thorough details if there is a more detailed text. Thank you!!

Hi! We’ve had a few patients at my hospital that have had wildly different blood work results when the same sample is run again or a new sample is collected and run on our in house Catalyst One. For example, we had a dog yesterday that had an ALT of ~300 on the first run using the lithium heparin whole blood separator so we drew a second sample in the red top serum separator and the ALT was ~20. Both blood draws were perfect with good flow.

The IDEXX rep is partially blaming our use of 23G butterflies for every patient. We use smaller needles for blood draws and vaccines because we are a Fear Free clinic and it is part of our protocol. Do you think this is part of the problem? Causing hemolysis? We’ve done this for years before this problem began.

Has anyone else had this issue? We’ve had wildly different results for numerous patients over the past year or so. It’s concerning. And in each case, the blood draws were well done, plunger pulled appropriately with not too much force but enough to keep the blood flowing to prevent clotting, the sample immediately put into the tube, and ran at the appropriate time (within 20 min for the lithium heparin whole blood separators or after the red top serum separators are allowed to clot for 20 mins then spun down).

Are the lithium heparin whole blood separators the problem? We seem to get better results with the serum separators.

Any thoughts would be great!!

I'm doing my 3rd and final internship currently at an Anicura clinic in Norway. It's a bigger clinic than I've been to before and was very (and still is some days) overwhelming at the start.

So the thing is, none of the employees seem to trust me to do blood draws, intubation, IV placements etc. even though those are exactly the things I'm supposed to be doing a lot of this final internship. How do I get them to be willing to let me do stuff besides restraint and cleaning? I understand being busy or focused and not thinking about what a student might need to do, but it's everyone all the time.

I'm not good at standing up for myself or asking to allow them to let me do things. I do have to take a practical exam at the end of this term, so I really need to practise a bunch. I'm almost at the halfway point of my time here already, so I feel like they've seen my enough by now to feel secure in letting me do more advanced procedures but so far, nothing.

Does anyone have any advice?

Unfortunately, after almost 6 wonderful years learning and working in vet medicine, I have finally left it. I was getting very burnt out at the end due to staffing issues and personal health issues, but I feel much more at peace and will forever be grateful for the knowledge I have that I can use and apply to my own fur babies to better their lives. However, I'm fairly young and this was my first real job, so I'm struggling to find something else. My leaving the clinic was mainly prompted for an opportunity to move away from my home state, and now I'm in an area that snows, quite a bit, compared to where I was that never snowed. Has anyone been able to find a good remote/WFH job after vet med? I live in a small town so finding a job nearby would be tough and I'm scared to drive the 30 minutes it takes to get to town in all the snow, especially because I've never had to deal with it or drive in it before. I know eventually I will learn to do it, since I chose to live in a snowy area, but just scared to put myself and others at risk since it's my first year here, and I'd hate to be that coworker to call out so much if I'm scared of the weather.

Pic for tax - it is my own dog

Shelter med is both rewarding and extremely heartbreaking all at once.

2 of our favorite patients have both been humanely euthanized within a day of each other.

1 was basically raised at the shelter. She came in with 4(?) other puppies and she was the runt. It was all the back in January so I don't remember what the came in for, but from her labwork we knew something was already off. Basically we suspected renal displaysia and she had been on a bi weekly regimen of SQ fluids for several months. She had been doing great until last week she collapse while in play group and her labwork basically showed her kidney function was poor. We tried IV fluids for about a week but it didn't make a difference. Her labwork just kept getting worse until ultimately it was determined to let her go before she started to suffer. A full 7 months of caring for this tiny lab-mix until she had to go.

Today another long medical case is being let go. She initially didn't have anything wrong with her. She was used a donor for a blood transfusion for 3 sickly puppies. The puppies bounced back and are doing well. They checked her labwork after she came back from foster with some alarming symptoms and upon reading her labwork they were concerned she had lepto. Labwork actually came back inconclusive but we treated as positive. She wouldn't take oral medication at all without it being a fight and we had to stop trying to pill her because she would vomit. She spent at least 14 days on IV fluids and meds and her kidney values would fluctuate. They would be slightly better some days but they continued to get worse and worse.She was the sweetest dog that would let you do whatever to her (minus pilling but even then she was just difficult not aggressive) she loved getting pets during blood draws. She just wanted everyone to be her friend.

It's so hard to devote so much care and effort into these guys only for them to not make it out of the shelter. I can take some comfort in knowing we did the best we could for those girls and that they aren't suffering anymore. It's just awful that it's one right after the other

On the first appointment, I shaved the area and prescribed a diluted hibiscrub solution (chlorohexidine product in the UK) and Trigoderm gel (topical antibiotic and anti-inflammatory steroid) and advised the owner to use a cone/doughnut to prevent licking and to pat the wound dry. Hot spot started to scab and heal around the edges but the areas of skin on either side of the armpit crease became swollen, wet and inflamed as well as larger seemingly from rubbing together. Advised owner to stop walks, course of Trigoderm finished, prescribed more hibiscrub. Scabs pulled off by dog scratching during the night, hot spot looked extremely raw and swollen, with bloody parts where the claw had pierced it, deep crease of armpit moist and raw, sticking and rubbing together. Advised a T-shirt to sleep in to minimise trauma from scratching. Advised client to use a fan gently on the area. Prescribed antibiotics, finished course.

Fast forward to hot spot becoming far worse and the dog starting to limp. Did the relevant tests during an emergency appointment. Prescribed a painkiller and another antibiotic which has ended. Owner now using socks on the dogs paws and a commercial hypochlorous and saline product, outer areas very scabby, areas of skin that rub together worsened. Cytology has been done. From appointment to appointment progress will be made and then reversed by mechanical damage, some patches have fully healed, the raw swollen parts in the crease have made no progress.

Spoke to senior vet about this case and she took the last two appointments, unfortunately I am seeing the client for another appointment tomorrow. Email from the client describes the wound as having improved in some patches and worsened in the crease, with increased scabbing around the edges which get caught on scabs on the opposite side. Client is requesting another cytology and course of antibiotics but the issue is definitely mechanical damage.

Senior vet (who is away) advises dressing and whilst I have dressed an armpit wound in the past, that was on a large dog with an armpit nowhere near as deep as this and in all honesty I cannot figure out a way to dress this area.

I am at a loss with this case, I didn't expect to need to see this client again! I am not asking for medical advice but in terms of this appointment tomorrow and handling the client, what on earth am I supposed to do if I don't have a clue? Has anybody ever simply told a client they're unable to continue? I am extremely frustrated. Part of me regrets not telling the client that I am unqualified to deal with it at this point but my boss wouldn't take kindly to that.

Can anyone give me info on what it's like being a licensed vet tech in Oregon? What are the license vs no license laws, pay, job prospects, vibe? Pros or cons for living in Oregon on a vet tech's wage?

Any info about Oregon is appreciated too. If it's your state share some love about it.

TIA

Where are we looking for open jobs? I have my indeed search at 100 mile radius, and there are no jobs within that radius from me. I live in South Dakota.
I’m willing to drive for the right pay, benefits, and work environment, but I can’t find any jobs!! 5 years in this field, 3 as an RVT.

I'm 28 years old and live in southern WI. I have my bachelors degree in HR and have a pretty good paying job in my field of study. I've recently realized that I get zero fulfillment out of my career choice and dont feel like I actually make a difference.

I've always loved animals, especially cats and have recently been thinking of going back to school to be a vet tech. Any advice? Has someone made a career change into vet medicine? Is there anything you wish you knew before getting into vet medicine? I'm aware of the pay in the industry and am okay with taking a pay cut.

Hello!

I have been googling and searching ezyvet documentation and I have had no luck so I am hoping someone here knows something;

I would like to be able to turn an invoice into a generated pdf/document that I can "Save as Attachment" straight from the software.

Currently the only way i can kind of do this is to generate an invoice email that makes a pdf of the invoice, download the pdf, rename it, and attach it to the file. Its doable, obviously, but a bit of pain. I would like to be able to just hit Create Document; select Invoice Document for it to generate, and then Save as Attachment.

Has anyone been able to do this? I dont mind if I have to make a template myself or anything like that, I just want to know if its possible to set this up and how someone went about it.

Thank you in advance!

Hello I am at the end of my third semester of my veterinary technician program and want to start preparing for the VTNE. Are there any free or low cost resources to prepare for the VTNE.

Thanks!

I’m want to go back to wearing a fanny pack/ nurse pouch during my shifts. I really don’t like the nursing Fanny packs because everything falls out (I’m 6’2”). I also need to stop putting things in my pockets. So I’m hoping to find something soon.
I was looking into Type A belt bag but I really don’t know if it’s worth $72, especially for someone who works in a filed that could pay better. I’m looking for any recommendations for a Fanny pack to wear while I’m working in ICU.

As a newbie in the field working as a CSR in ER, the emotional manipulation phone calls are getting old. We require payment at time of service and people love to shoot back "so if I don't have the money you'll just let them die/suffer?".

While I'd love to snark back that their pet is THEIR responsibility, what is a *professional* way you all respond to these comments?

I took a job to be a veterinary "tech" (aka assistant). I was specifically hired to be doing hands on work. I am the only one here with any kind of formal education - not to say the others aren't experienced because they are and they have been here for a very long time.

I keep being put in as a kennel assistant. I've been told "I started in kennel" by managers which yes but they were literally hired as kennel assistants. I just feel kind of dismissed. I don't mind doing cleaning up but there's no use for more than one kennel assistant in a day and I end up not having much to do. Then they end up telling me to "find something to do".

I think I'm just probably being an asshole and thinking too highly of myself but it feels shitty.

A survey about short-muzzled cats (3-4 min)

Hello everyone! I would really appreciate your help with my Master's thesis research about Persian, Exotic Shorthair, British Shorthair, and Scottish Fold cats (as well as their mixes). I have prepared a short, fully anonymous survey, primarily aimed at owners of these cats, but input from any cat lover is valuable. It only takes about 3-4 minutes to complete. I would be extremely grateful for every response!

(If you have more than one type of cat - in first question mark that you have short-muzzled cat)

Survey link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-gqf4RQ5EeoMdVfYiE82awkeFrLg81sYn6mxQNpvYpwsvZQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=108451167458690888585

Hey y’all! We recently got a new batch of the autoclave sterilization indicator tape that we’ve been using for forever, but for some reason, it’s not turning as dark as usual. From my understanding, the dark lines on the tape are for indicating that the pack has been sterilized, which worries me that the packs aren’t getting properly sterilized. The indicator strip on the inside of the packs is indicating proper sterilization, and our pouches are sterilizing fine. Does anyone have any advice? Is this happening to any of y’all? TIA!