Sunday, October 13, 2013

What Is a Veterinary Technician? | National Veterinary Technician Week

This year, National Veterinary Technician Week runs through October 13th - 19th. Veterinary Technicians are like nurses, but for animals. Unlike human nurses we are skilled in a much broader range or tasks and roles within a veterinary hospital.

I'm helping syringe feed a sick rabbit in this picture.

It's actually kind of hard to make a complete list of everything that Veterinary Technicians do. There is just so much to list! Instead, it might be simpler to just list what they are not allowed to do.

  • Prescribe medication
  • Perform surgery
  • Diagnose a patient

That list is pretty short. These 3 tasks are up to the veterinarians themselves, but without the assistance of a good veterinary technician or two it would be pretty hard to accomplish these things. The main role of a vet tech is to perform technical duties. This way, a veterinarian has time to do other important tasks that they need to do. 

Here's a good list of what many veterinary technicians do on a daily basis. There is more that could be added to this list, but these are some of the main things that vet techs do. 


If anyone wants to share the above image this week, be my guest. And if you'd like to show your veterinary technicians a little appreciation this week they love breakfast foods, coffee, snacks, thoughtful cards, or a simple "thank you".

23 comments:

  1. Thanks for this post ! Veterinary technicians are very, very important and I'm glad I have a good one (she laughs always at my signature on the heater)

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  2. We have been very blessed to get to work with some awesome vet techs in our career as pet owners. Thanks to all the vet techs who work tirelessly to take care of our pets when they are at the clinic. Lee, Phod and their Lady

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  3. That's a lot of jobs to do!

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  4. Yep, the Vet Techs almost do it all and we love ours, they are all so very nice!

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  5. Lunch Lady? ... Golden LOVE our vet techs in our clinic. They do a lot and Golden Thanks. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

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  6. We love our vet techs! Great post Ann!

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  7. This was a wonderful post! It is amazing how much I didn't know about Vet Techs. You guys do so much work. Thank you for all that you do!!!

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    1. Thank you Spencer! There is so much more, but this is the main stuff :)

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  8. Thank you for this really helpful and informative post, Ann. We love the vet techs who work at our vet's office!

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  9. We don;t have vet techs at ours, not that I have ever seen one. We have nurses who only give flea stuff and cut nails, they must help behind the scenes with operations . Hope all's going well at home :) xxooxxx

    Mollie and Alfie

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    1. Ah yes. Nurses are the ones who always do the nail trims. I'm sure they are doing other stuff in the back too.

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  10. Vet techs are doing an impawtant job and I appreciate (except, I must admit, when they try to take my temperature...).
    Thank you and Happy Vet Techs Week! I'll be sharing your post on my FB page =^.^=

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    1. Thanks Texas! It is kind of rude of us to do the temperature thing huh? No hard feelings I hope ;)

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  11. Love the infographic! Thank you for sharing info about your job! Will share your post right away!!!

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  12. We like our vet, but we LOVE his vet techs....they do a lot for our animals and give us a lot of support too. When we lost our dog Moses to cancer, it was the vet techs who really were there for us....they cried with us, and they went the extra mile to help us through it. Vet techs are truly wonderful and multi-talented!

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  13. Our vet clinic has very nice vet techs. Very caring.
    Sue B

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