Do you like Working With Animals? 5 Reasons You’ll LOVE a Career As A Veterinary Assistant!

If you love working with animals but maybe aren’t ready to commit to a full 4 year degree as a veterinarian, then a veterinary assistant might be a perfect match for you! This provides you the opportunity to work with animals without all the same commitments. If you’re interested in learning more about being a veterinary assistant, here are some need-to-know details! 

What Is A Veterinary Assistant?

Veterinary assistants typically do it all, from assisting with surgical procedures to feeding, bathing, and exercising animals. They need a compassionate outlook, a healing touch, and a keen eye for details. They should need a love for animals and a desire to make the world a better place, one pet at a time. Without veterinary assistants, it would be almost impossible for veterinarians to take care of our animals as effectively as they do now! 

Benefits of Becoming a Veterinarian Assistant

Do you have a passion for animals and would like to turn your love for them into a fun and exciting career? There are many benefits to choosing a vet tech career, and we will examine a few of the top benefits here.

• Unique work environment

This career is a work environment that is fast-paced and varies daily. This requires you to use both hard and soft skills. A typical day may involve collecting specimens, forming relationships with human and animal clients, physically restraining nervous pets to prevent injury, conducting lab tests, working directly alongside the vet during a surgical procedure, giving an animal its medication, and even working with exotic animals. Assistants learn about each animal’s specific personality, health history, and behavioral patterns – and you will likely find that you truly get to know patients and their owners over the years.

• A strong job market

This career as a veterinary assistant provides you with a kind of job security that few other professions typically offer. Fewer people are working as veterinarian assistants today than in the past, there is an incredibly high demand for them. This means that you likely will not have to wait long to find a job once you have finished your training and obtained your licensure. Though, sometimes finding a job as an assistant requires relocation to another town or state. 

• The knowledge that you are making a difference

As a veterinary assistant, you get to experience that beautiful bond every day – and help to strengthen and extend it by keeping animals happy and healthy. It is nice to be able to return home every day knowing that you helped to save a pet’s life, manage their pain, or properly diagnose a medical condition. You also have the chance to educate clients about how to take the best possible care of their pets. Because the veterinarian is often busy racing from one room to another, you will also have the chance to spend much more time with the animals than they will. You will come to love your “regulars” just as much as their owners do.

• An opportunity for growth

Assistants’ jobs also offer a unique opportunity for growth and the chance to pursue education to earn a great higher salary over time.

You can choose to focus on areas like surgery, dentistry, equine care, nutrition, internal medicine, and much more.

What are some career options for veterinarians?

Veterinarians can work in a multitude of animal care settings. This post highlights 5 viable alternative career options for veterinary graduates that will hopefully help stoke your excitement for a career beyond the walls of a veterinary practice.

• Public Health

Do you like the sound of migrating your career from working in veterinary practice to working in public health? There will always be a need to write the regulations and rules that guide pet ownership and care, and you can do that in public health

• Corporate

Huge companies that focus more on many different areas and are constantly hiring veterinarians. These organizations are also willing to pay very healthy salaries to obtain them. If you can find a company that also shares your personal values, then you might be looking at an ideal career match

• Entrepreneurship

Most successful companies are those that understand their customers and help to solve real problems that their market is facing. Who better to identify the struggles that need solving than an actual veterinarian? Plus, who do you think other veterinarians are more likely to want to buy from a fellow coworker or a business person who can’t relate 

• Military

The military provides career opportunities for veterinarians in areas such as food safety and military working dog care. 

• Education

This demand for educators is likely going to start increasing in time. If aspiring young minds inspire you, this career path might be just what you’re looking for.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve got a glimpse of the benefits of being a veterinarian assistant, make sure to do your own research before getting a veterinarian degree. Also, consider the factors that will fit your needs. If you enjoy taking good care of pets and earning at the same time this might be for you.

References

1. Retrieved May 26, 2022 5 Reasons to Become a Vet Assistant (granvillecollege.ca)
2. Retrieved May 26, 2022 Reasons to Become a Vet Assistant – Search (bing.com)
3. Retrieved May 26, 2022 10 Reasons to Become a Veterinary Assistant Infographic | Penn Foster Career School
4. Retrieved May 26, 2022 6 Top Reasons to Become a Vet Assistant | Caris College
5. Retrieved May 26, 2022 Top Three Reasons to Become a Certified Veterinary Assistant (blackstone.edu)
6. Retrieved May 26, 2022 Top 5 Reasons to become a Vet Assistant – Stellar Career College | Accredited Career College (stellarcollege.edu)
7. The Top Benefits of Becoming a Veterinarian Technician (imbc.edu)