The Complete Guide to Becoming a Veterinary Assistant
If you’re weighing career paths and are looking for a vocation that allows you to help animals without requiring years of schooling, becoming a veterinary assistant is worth considering.
While you will not earn as much as a veterinarian (or have to spend nearly as much time in school as one), veterinary assistants can make a decent living and still get to spend their working hours helping save lives.
Dispelling Confusion Between Vet Assistants and Vet Techs
There is a hierarchy among staff at vet clinics and animal hospitals. Veterinarians are at the top of the chain. Veterinarians may go to school longer to specialize in a field such as animal dentistry, in human terms, but in general they correspond to your family practitioner.
Once you get past veterinarians, the job titles get a little confusing. People tend to use the titles “vet assistant” and “vet tech” interchangeably, but they are absolutely not the same.
Veterinary technicians must go to college and complete at least a two-year associate’s degree and be licensed or certified. Their duties correspond loosely to those of nurses in a human healthcare setting. Vet techs are allowed to do more clinical work than vet assistants.
Veterinary assistants are best thought of as the support staff that makes the jobs of veterinarians and vet techs go more smoothly. These vital team members typically must have a high school diploma or equivalent. It’s also extremely advantageous for aspiring veterinary assistants to learn medical basics, such as medical terminology, how to check vital signs in pets, take lab samples, and more.
What Do Vet Assistants Get to Do?
Just because vet assistants don’t have a two-year associate’s degree doesn’t mean they are relegated to cleaning kennels and filing patient paperwork–although there can be a good bit of that.
A lot of vet assistant duties put them in close contact with animals most of the day, however. Vet assistants:
- Check patients in and help soothe nervous patients and pet parents.
- Weigh animals
- Help restrain animals while they are being examined or getting vaccines
- Bathe animals
- Feed and exercise pet patients
- Provide monitoring and care for animals in post-op
- Clean and dress wounds
- Take lab samples
- Give certain medications (controlled substances and painkillers may be off-limits, depending on state regulations).
- Take vital signs
- Talk to pet parents to find out what’s at issue
Vet assistants hop from duty to duty. Expect to be on your feet a lot and ready to step in wherever needed!
Depending on the practice, vet assistants may be the first to arrive in the morning in order to check on patients in post-operative or kennel care and make sure everything is in order for the day before the rest of the staff and the first patients arrive.
What Qualities Do the Best Vet Assistants Have?
A passion for animals and providing great care are high on the list, but as mentioned, it’s a pretty demanding job.
Not every patient makes it. Saying “goodbye” to pets you’ve cared for throughout their lives is tough. Emotionally, some people can’t take goodbyes.
Communication skills are a must. Being a people person is also a plus for a couple of reasons.
- You’ll be working with and supporting several other staff members. Being able to work as part of a team is crucial.
- There are always plenty of high-strung, worried pet parents on any given day. Empathy and good people skills are a must.
The best vet assistants are flexible and able to bounce from one task to the next with a high level of competency.
In addition to endurance, vet assistants need to be physically strong. Lifting dogs on and off exam tables is part of the job, but so is hauling heavy bags of food, bedding, kitty litter, and other supplies.
Computer skills are a definite plus. Vet assistants often perform a lot of clerical work and billing, so it helps to know your way around a Mac or PC.
Where Can Vet Assistants Work?
Besides vet clinics, animal hospitals, and emergency care centers, vet assistants are needed by any facility that houses or cares for animals. Animal shelters and humane societies often need vet assistants. So do research labs at universities and other facilities.
In addition, zoos and wildlife rehabilitation centers frequently hire vet assistants, so if your interests lie more in exotic or wild animals, being a vet assistant allows you to care for more than just domesticated animals.
Vet Assistant Salary
If you are concerned about salary–and who isn’t–vet assistants earn a salary on par with many other careers that do not require a degree. Bank tellers, preschool teachers, receptionists, and vet assistants all earn an average salary in the mid-$30,000 range.
In May 2022 the Bureau of Labor Statistics cited the median salary for a vet assistant or animal lab caretaker at $34,740 or $16.70 per hour.
How to Become a Veterinary Assistant
As indicated, a high school diploma or equivalency is all that is required by most employers. You can be hired as a vet assistant and get on-the-job training.
In all honesty, however, it takes a good bit of luck to land a vet assistant job without any more experience or credentials than a high school degree. So many people want to work with animals that you’ll be up against job candidates with animal care experience or a veterinary assistant certificate.
If you keep applying for jobs and getting turned down, you might want to consider earning your veterinary assistant certificate. Earning a veterinary assistant certificate only takes about a year and can be accomplished online.
In your certificate program, you’ll learn about such topics as:
- How to safely restrain animals so they can receive care
- Animal first aid and CPR
- How to clean and prepare exam and surgical rooms
- How to assist in surgery
- Pharmaceutical information
- Animal nursing care
- Laboratory procedures
With your certificate in hand, you can become a more desirable job candidate. It tells potential employers that you are serious about working in a veterinary setting. Graduates of a vet assistant program are also in demand because they already know what the job entails and will need little training.
Finding a Veterinary Assistant School
Animal Behavior College has been training people for animal careers since 1997, and we offer excellent training for would-be vet assistants. Our comprehensive curriculum includes all you need to know to start working in a veterinary setting as soon as you earn your certificate.
Once students complete the online portion of the program, it’s time to get some real-world experience in our externship. Each student is paired up with a nearby mentor facility to see what a real vet practice is like and to practice newly learned skills. You may be asking, is there a veterinarian near me? Give us a call at the number below, and we will let you know as to which veterinarian you may be paired up with.
You can enroll anytime! Just call 800-795-3294 and an admissions counselor can help get you started!
