r/VetTech

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 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!

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.

Are we beefing? Why ia there always a tension in the aor like two internally growling cats? What did we do?

It’s actually SO easy and satisfying, tech of 2 years and I don’t think I will ever go back to intubating cats with a holder. Just learned today from one of my coworkers and it’s VERY satisfying once you get it. Also used the stylet to help with that, which I haven’t used much before. Y’all should try it and that’s my win for the week!

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.

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!

Hey everyone! I'm currently a student and work at an ER Hospital. I have been recently working on blood draws from the Lateral Saphenous vein in dogs or the Medial Saphenous in cats. I feel as though my technique is great and even the LVT watching me says so too but I just cannot seem to get any blood. One I locate the vein, sterilize the area, etc. I press next to the vein with my non-dominant thumb to stabilize it, I have my bevel up, I usually press the needle right along the vein before entering. I do tend to enter pretty shallow since I know they are superficial veins and I get worried about puncturing. I pull back, but nothing. Even the LVT says that I am right there. I practice one-handed with a syringe all the time to make sure I am pulling back without pushing the needle forward. I know its hard for any of you to help since you haven't seen me in person, but any advice would be incredibly helpful.

Hi all, just as the title says. Does anyone have any experience working as a field representative, particularly in imaging, at IDEXX? I’ve been interviewing with them and the pay and benefits sound great, but it is a lot of travel so I’d love to hear if anyone has any direct experiences in this role. Thanks in advance!

I have applied to a two year Vet Tech program and been accepted. I'm in Canada if this makes any difference, and already my experience with the university has been positive. I have autism which is why I'm in more contact with the university before it starts to get my accommodations. But I'm not as worried about the university anymore as I am about the job that im going into.

When I look up videos about vet tech all I see are people suffering, discussing their terrible pay and how they are treated badly at work and how they are going to quit soon, already have, or most if not all other people who they did it with have quit.

I don't care about having a ton of money but I want to live a comfortable life and have a cat or two (or three..). Living alone isn't really my end goal as my goal would be to have a partner to live with. But I'm just worried Im going to go into this, enjoy the university and then realize it was for nothing or just to have a bad job. Also not to mention I havent seen or heard of any autistic person being a vet tech...

Do any of you actually enjoy the job and dont see yourself quitting??? Should I just run while i can??

Sorry this post is sort of sad but I want to ask people who have experience instead of just searching on videos and websites.

New product for feline stomatitis associated with calicivirus. Heard my doctor talking about it in an exam as kind of a one off of “I just heard about this new thing..”

Wondering if anyone has prescribed this yet or seen any patients on it. My own cat has stomatitis related to fcv so I asked if my doctor would like to try it with him as patient 0 and she said yes if we ever order it.

My issue is that right now his only option is another dental that I can’t afford (payment due at time of service for employees too) and hes an old crunchy man that likely wouldn’t tolerate it very well. I guess I should see how bloodwork looks first before deciding that for him but this GingiPro seems like a really good option rn and 2-3x cheaper than the dental

I’ve seen a few posts on here about working for Ethos but they’re older. I received an offer, and they pay better than what I make. Is it worth it? Are some locations/states better than others? I’m generally pretty anti corporate but the job market is abysmal right now and I need to be making more than I am.

I can tolerate being overworked, even if it’s not ideal. I cannot risk going somewhere where there are inappropriate layoffs, 0 advancements, and management making up bs to get people in trouble.

I’m applied to an ER tech position in Arizona.

I started working at my GP clinic two years ago. I just recently graduated from my vet tech program and passed the VTNE. The raise I got for getting licensed was only 99c, not even a whole dollar. I’m now getting paid $4 below the average for a vet tech in my area and I’ve been there for two years. Management also started talking about having LVTs at the clinic start doing non anesthesia dentals which I do not feel comfortable doing. I’ve also wanted to branch out and see what else I can experience besides GP. This has all led me to seeking employment elsewhere and I’ve since been offered a job at a biomedical laboratory working with primates. I have a friend who works there and loves it. It pays MUCH better with amazing benefits and I’d feel like I’d be doing myself a disservice to turn the offer down.

I just feel so bad about leaving. I know they were excited to have another LVT but I just can’t accept that pay and even if I asked for a raise it’s not going to be nearly as much as this new job offers. They’ve treated me well otherwise, even sent me two weeks worth of groceries after I had major surgery. I’d really miss a lot of people and I’m worried about what would happen if I don’t like this new job. I could probably go back if I ended up not liking it. I’ve been gone for a whole month and just recently came back because I had a big surgery and I’d feel bad putting in my two weeks almost immediately after that. But I feel like if they really wanted to keep me they’d pay me better. I’m not sure if I should be honest with them about why I’m leaving too. I want to leave on good terms. I’m excited for the boost in pay and new opportunities but it just seems so bittersweet.