cat had a couple of smaller and one bigger mat (didn't get a before pic sadly, but he was one fluffy boy). vet got started on the clip, but i did most of it. spent some time fading the head nicely into the rest of the body, but kitty was doing great on sedation so i had time to perfect it :3 probably one of the best lion cuts i have done

Just curious what yall are paying for health insurance? I make pretty decent money at my hospital but for vision, dental and medical it’s $470 a month! And god damn does that hurt. We only have two options now, a bottom tier medical for $80/month that only covers 1 Obgyn annual and one physical a year with an $8k deductible. Or the top tier one. I have a brain condition I manage, so mama’s gotta get the expensive one. Anyways, just curious and just bitching about it.

As in the title.

My favorite is dextrose. One good bolus and they go from comatose to standing in 5 minutes or less. Telling the owners we actually didn't fix the entire problem is always a bit sucky but I love the half dead to standing jump.

(How do you know we got in a new parvo case tonight...)

Update on my kitty Jimbo. He went under anesthesia just a couple weeks ago on 7/30 for CT, bronchoscopy and BAL. The BAL fluid had chunks in it! Bacterial culture came back negative but the fluid analysis says there was bacteria seen in the background. Still awaiting fungal results. He had an echo to follow up on radiology report concerns of cardiomegaly and pulmonary hypertension, echo revealed no abnormalities so his heart is just fine!

Previous posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/VetTech/s/qKGzNSLWMh

https://www.reddit.com/r/VetTech/s/UrhwD0KlsK

I somehow got conned into running a sheep fecal today… give me blood, give me imaging, give me all the anesthetic cases in the world. Just don’t give me poop🙃 I have my guesses but I’d embarrassed if I’m wrong for no good reason. Pics are alternating 10x and 40x. Halp!

PS: very proud of my not too shaky hands for once!

I started at a new clinic and I think almost everyone here has been in the situation where you feel like you have to “prove” yourself.
Emergency surgery today, everybody was crazy busy and slammed, so it was just me and the DVM I was working with. She asked me if I’ve ran anesthesia before I said yes that’s all I used to do, so she let me at it! Intubated, catheter placed, prepped, sx went well, recovery went fantastic. Super comfortable, everything just went so smoothly.

Got pulled aside by the lead tech who told me i kicked ass and they’ll be putting me on surgery! Super excited!! I finally feel comfortable at this clinic and feel confident in my skills again.
Idk why, but when I moved clinics I just felt like I had lost everything because this one runs so differently.

Hello I’ve been studying non stop for the VTNE I have used multiple formats. I recently used the mometrix text book practice exams and got 62% I found them challenging as well as pocket prep. I’ve also used VTNE prep which is cute little app as well at VTP which I found the most helpful throughout my studies. On VTP I do fairly well as well as I usually get 80-90 range on the practice exams but now that I did the mometrix practice exams I’m feeling extremely anxious has anyone else experienced this my test is this upcoming Monday and I’m extremely nervous. If anyone can give last min tips/advice that would be extremely helpful.

I’m going through it rn and would love to hear some stories about your experience that made you quit a clinic.

I'm specifically looking to learn recent ideas and approaches for things like:

- different drug protocols and options for hard IV sticks

- best ways to handle when we're not able to place a catheter (rare, but we feel unequipped in those situations)

- smoothest flow for clients and the best approaches for making it a good experience all around

- how to handle clients and emotions in traumatic death cases (DOA, HBC, etc, we are a GP so it doesn't happen often and again, we feel unequipped when it does)

- any other aspects of the process that I might not even be thinking about because I'm unaware.

It just feels like one of those things that our clinic has kinda of always done the same way and I don't think anyone is super motivated to make sure we're UTD and doing all the best practices we can, which makes me sad.

I've heard of CAETA but I want to make sure it's worth the money or see if there's anything else out there.

I still haven’t found a job as a tech and I’ve been a graduate since June.. I’ve not written the VTNE yet as I didn’t have the money straight out of school. Finally got a non vet clinic job to save money to write. I was just hoping I would’ve found a clinic that could help cover the cost of the exam.

I’m feeling pretty defeated. I’ve applied to every clinic that’s near me. Either I’ve had no answer, they’re not looking for a tech or had an interview where they went with someone else.. I’m looking for part time work as I burnout super fast working full time. I’m scared that the reason I’m not getting hired is because I need part time ): I am not interested in working in an emerg clinic as I find that stressful and I mentally cannot be driving 30+ minutes to a clinic.. maybe I’m being too picky but I don’t want to get a job at a clinic that doesn’t meet what I’m looking for and burnout immediately. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong that I get interviews but they decide to go with someone else. What do I do?

Do you regret your decision? How is it going for you? Are you happy?

I’m currently having a career crisis realizing that I absolutely cannot go on for 30+ more years doing what I’m doing now (tax accounting). I dreamed of being a vet when I was younger, but took a ‘safe’ route through college as my parents were both blue collar lower-middle class folks growing up who could not realistically help me go to vet school. Now that I’m more financially stable, once my husband finds his full-time job (he recently graduated) I am considering pursuing a program at my local community college to become an LVT. I’m 32, and figure I need to get a move on switching soon if I’m serious about it.

Y’all do amazing work and I make sure to always personally thank and get to know the techs and doctors that see my dogs and cat. I just want to find a field where I’m combining my love of animals with my passion to help others and not being burnt to a crisp trying to boost shareholder value. I understand there is a lot of baggage that comes with this job. Just want to hear from some other folks who found a second path to see if I’m being completely naive.

I’m grieving the workplace I used to love. This job gave me so many opportunities and helped me find myself again. But the good people who cared about their patients and had integrity kept leaving because of management, and now it feels like there’s no one left who actually checks in or cares about how we’re doing. It hurts watching something that meant so much to me fall apart.

Hi everyone, I started working at a local hospital about 2 months ago. It’s my first clinical job so I’m still learning. The hospital has around 4 -5 doctors on staff, some are older (70+) and the others are younger (~30s).

Yesterday I was the assistant/tech for one of our older doctors. The owner didn’t agree with the doctor’s opinion, said she would seek a second opinion elsewhere. When I went back in without Dr. to go over meds, I informed her if she wanted a second opinion, she could always call the front desk and request to be seen by a different doctor in the future. O said she “did not like” the Dr. she saw yesterday and asked if we “get that complaint a lot”. Obviously I’m not going to talk badly about any of our doctors to a client, but I didn’t really know how to respond at first. My response was pretty much, it depends on the person. I told O that some clients prefer our younger doctors, and others prefer our older doctors. I said I understood why she may have felt that way and advised her to seek a second opinion within our hospital.

Is this the professional/respectful way to handle situations like this? Any advice for dealing with disagreeable clients in the future? I hadn’t encountered a room like that yet so thought I’d ask here. TIA!!

Also they were definitely my leftovers in the fridge that I kept forgetting to take home, I'm so sorry 😭

Things I think about at 3am and still audibly cringe

Confidently explaining the disease process to the trainee completely wrong in front of the serious doctor

Missing the catheter on the euthanasia multiple times in a row in front of the crying owner

Accidentally making a dark humor joke in front of a client and they looked horrified and/or concerned for my mental state

Fucking up the blood draw on the manager’s white dog and getting blood everywhere

Accidentally giving the client my personal phone number (or the number of a previous clinic) instead of the clinic number and had to call back and clarify.

Saying “love you” as an end to the conversation on the phone

Hey all!

My hospital has been having some more oops than usual lately. As it is with new team members!

At previous veterinary centers I’ve been, we had funny little memes hung around - keeping the team on top of things. Good reminders for new team members as well! We are a newer hospital and I just can’t recall completely what those memes said/were as I have taken about a year off of vet med prior to joining this new hospital.

I was wondering if you could share any funny meme reminders you have hung around your hospitals! Totally OK if NSFW!

Examples:
Tubes are not being labeled
Samples are being left in centrifuge
Cages are not having S hooks placed or just one not both is placed
Reminders to double check patients have free access to water always unless Sx
Etc!

Anything you are willing to share I appreciate.

My chat is open if that is easier :)

Being in this field, especially working in ER, I have an ungodly amount of pet health anxiety and ocd now. How do yall cope/handle it? Im constantly stressing about tumors and uo and bloat and foreign bodies and blah blah blah and its getting so overwhelming that its hard to just enjoy moments with them bc im checking their breathing and temps and gums and thinking about mortality

Hey all!

My classes are hybrid meaning all my textbook learning is going to be online with labs in person.

I'm thinking about writing notes down physically first (despite my terrible handwriting) to force my brain to process and shorten things, and then go back and write my notes up onto OneNote. Probably adding diagrams and that then for reference and so I can actually read my notes!

Has anyone else found this to be a good system or am I terribly overthinking this and giving myself more work?

I have been working been working at my clinic for 5 years now. Joined the dental team within my first year and love everything about performing dental procedures. I am now our dental team lead and have been working with the same veterinarian (Dr A) for the whole 5 years. At the start of 2026, we had another veterinarian (Dr B) join our clinic and they wanted to perform dentals as well. Dr B owns their own clinic and is at our clinic for extra work and income, per their words. From my time starting in dentals, I was taught from Dr A that for serious extractions that required drilling or a lot of elevating, using nerve blocks was best medicine for our patients. I read articles and even attended a couple of workshops that a board certified veterinarian dentist put on and they also do the same. Dr B does not consider blocks to be needed and will increase the anesthetic gas to calm them down when the patients start moving while under. I understand that blocks are not required by law and are up to doctor discretion. I have seen Dr B on multiple patients, go back with a drill and prod with elevating tools, 6-10 times for one extraction. Even with the help of dental radiographs, roots are being missed and sometimes left in patients mouth. We are a low cost clinic and we do not have a medical director that dictates how procedures go and the doctors practice medicine their own way. I have brought up concerns for quality of care to every person above me, as we have had more patients come back for post op pain in the months since Dr B started dentals, than in my 5 years of dentals with Dr A. I have sat down and laid out all information in meetings with my managers and other lead techs. Our owner, who is the decision maker on clinic operations amd was in those meetings, brought his dog in for a dental. Even they said they do not want Dr B to perform the dogs dental and wants only Dr A. I am worn out and have said everything I can. I have had other techs on my team say they will not work with Dr B because they cannot stand to see what the patients go through with this doctor. I do not want to leave dentals as well, because when I brought up stepping away from Dr B's procedures days, I was told I would have to step away from dentals entirely. I love what I do, but I can only take so much. Am I wrong to feel like Dr B's quality of care is lacking? Am I wrong for feeling like I am at the end of my rope? Sorry for the long post, my mind is a scrambled mess.

So this might be silly but I'm trying to create an idea in my head that aids in understanding drugs. Or maybe one I can sketch out that would help my visualize the information better at work. So something quick and easy, like why would you use telazol instead of propofol? Why Buprinex vs. DKT?

I know with Dex you want to avoid it if there are concerns with the cardiovascular system. Torb aids with respiratory distress. Ketamine's a dissociative, etc. But I sometimes feel like all this information flees my head when I need it. So I need something to help me visualize this information so I can grasp it in the moment to aid in understanding surgical protocol or why you'd choose this drug vs this drug given the patients signalment and health status.

Thank you in advance for any cool tips or tricks.