What do Vet Techs do early in their careers?
Most vet techs work in various environments and pursue specialties as they move through their careers. Those can be explored on other pages of this website.
Early in their careers, most vet techs start in private veterinary practices. This experience provides a foundation for developing skills and exploring interests.
These typical veterinary practices are described here. With Experienced Faculty, Career Services success (90%+ graduate employment rates), and over 8,000 graduates since 2003, we think we can share some insights.
Core Responsibilities: A Hands-On Role in Animal Care
Daily life for a vet tech in a typical veterinary practice involves important hands-on tasks across clinical, surgical, laboratory, and client-facing domains.
Clinical Support & Patient Care
Veterinary technicians frequently serve as the primary caregivers, often spending extensive time directly with animal patients. Specific duties usually include:
- Patient intake: obtaining & recording histories
- Physical exam assistance: handling and restraining patients and developing nursing care plans
- Administration of vaccines and medications (subcutaneous, intramuscular, and sometimes intravenous)
- Place and maintain IV and urinary catheters
- Nursing care: monitoring vitals, assessing pain, ensuring comfort
Surgical & Anesthesia Support
In surgical settings, the role of vet techs is to allow the veterinarian to be effective and efficient. Specific duties usually include, but are not limited to:
- Surgical site preparation
- Sterilization of instruments and equipment to prevent infection
- Patient preparation, including proper clipping and skin antisepsis
- Intubation and anesthesia administration & monitoring during surgery
- Perform dental scaling and polishing
- Assisting veterinarian during surgery
- Recovery care and monitoring of post-operative patients
Laboratory & Diagnostic Procedures
Accurate diagnosis of patient issues is incredibly important, and vet techs perform a wide range of key laboratory and imaging tasks. Specific duties usually include, but are not limited to:
- Specimen collection (blood, urine, & tissue samples) via venipuncture and cystocentesis
- Performing in-house lab tests (urinalysis, blood cell counts)
- Positioning animals and taking X-rays
- Operating and maintaining in-house diagnostic equipment
Client Education & Communication
Vet techs serve as vital communicators and educators, often “translating” complex medical information into understandable terms. Specific duties usually include, but are not limited to:
- Educating owners of their pet's condition
- Explaining the whats and whys of medication instructions,
- Explaining post-surgical care
- Educating owners about nutrition and behavior
- Providing emotional support to owners during difficult times
Summary: Challenging, but packed with Impact and Fulfillment
Early-career vet techs most often work in veterinary practices where they can be generalists. These years allow vet techs to become quite experienced with a variety of hands-on skills and develop effective communication skills.
The environment can be challenging, especially when the owners of a patient have to make difficult decisions. Perhaps there is something to the old saying that “Nothing worth doing is easy.”
In return, being a vet tech can be a profoundly rewarding job and career path. Vet techs have a unique opportunity to make a tangible difference in the lives of patients and their human companions. Utilizing hands-on skills and continuously improving knowledge, vet techs can go home each night proud of themselves and fulfilled by what they have accomplished.
If you want to Learn More about other environments where vet techs work, click here.
If you want to Learn More about what it takes to be a successful vet tech, click here.
If you want to Learn More about vet tech careers and specializations, click here.
Or you can explore Our Program, Career Services, or Our Campuses.