Im back, animal jobs???

sillylilykitty

Well, I have been gone for about a month. I have visited occasionally though. But I moved back home from college! And now I have a problem. I graduated with an AAS in Veterinary Technology and decided I dont want to be a vet tech, I have always known this to some extent. Now Im trying to think of animal jobs I could have. Right now I am a kennel manager for a Shar Pei/Siamese cat breeder. While I am living here on this island my choices are very limited, but I would like as many suggestions as possible (in case I move back to the mainland in a year or so).

It's nice being back on Kauai, but I miss living with my older sister (and Tanzie!). And my younger sisters cat wants to attack my Lily so they can never be loose together (Lily has already been attacked once and we have had a lot of close calls).

Ender

Why did you decide against being a Vet. Tech.?

AkiraleShiba

A cat trainer I have the same question as Ender ... what happenned?

AirForceAngel

I wonder if you could do something as an animal behaviorist maybe? Or work at a company that does animal therapy?

Lorina

If I didn't think I'd end up getting arrested myself for killing someone, I'd love to be an animal cruelty investigator.

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sillylilykitty

Well, during my internship I got to see what it was like to be a tech. I was in a busy clinic, definatly not my "style", I would rather be in a small clinic who spent more time with their patients. I interned at a Banfield (Petsmart), they didnt pay enough attention to the animals individually IMO. They would spay them put them in the cage and that was it until it was time to remove catheters. Unless they made too much noise then it was put on an e collar and put them in the back kennels. I want to take care of animals, happy animals. A lot of dogs were aggressive and needed muzzles, peed everywhere because they were scared. And surgery, techs are in charge of anesthesia, I dont want to be in surgery, it isnt fun. I didnt like "dealing" (more like watching other people deal) with the people who didnt have the money or didnt want to spend the money on stuff to help their pets. We had a family bring their old Boxer in with a huge distended abdomen and it had been like that for 5 days. They didnt want to do anything too expensive. They only agreed to do radiographs which showed an abdomen filled with fluid (and it wasnt bloat) and that was it. The people were loaded with money, even bragged about spending 10,000 dollars on their last Boxer.

I guess I dont have what it takes to be a tech. I dont like that it feels like the diagnosis rides on my shoulders, if you do a urine analysis wrong or some other test wrong.....Maybe I had a bad experience at this clinic, I wouldnt really know if thats different then what normal clinics see because it is my only experience....Thats really all I can think of at the moment.

Lol, I think Im not aggressive enough to do that.

Haha! I would like to be a cat trainer! But that probably wouldnt work out since I prefer to work with dogs (they are so much more easy going!)

AkiraleShiba

Maybe an internship at a small rural clinic or a clinic with one or two vets? I don't know but I would never bring my dog to a petsmart clinic for serious business, I would think that they are to busy to deal with my dog. Honestly I would be super mad if people at a clinic decided to put an e-collar on my dog !!!

Dog training can be fun too and the classes aren't too long most of the times.

Katzyn

Why? I interned at that Banfield with SLK, and a lot of those dogs DID need that e-collar. Some that didn't get an e-collar SHOULD have gotten one. We had a few dogs that chewed out their catheter (even one dog who we had to send him home with the catheter in, and he was with his owners), and were in serious danger of dying from blood loss. There was a cat who, mutiple times, pulled out a fluid line from her catheter, and could have died. She had to be put down anyway, but still.

Dakota Spirit

I could be wrong, but I think Akira may be confusing e-collar with the electric shock collars people use. Usually when vets refer to 'e-collar' they are talking about the elizabethan, cone type collars that healing animals wear.

Katzyn

I hope so. =/

Love's_Sophie

Perhaps you could pursue dog training...it sounds like that might be a great option for you. Or even doggie daycare, or something else like that...grooming perhaps?

Katzyn

Yup, I think training would be great for you. After all, you were so good at helping my sister's dog while we were away...

cshellenberger

How about working for the local shelter? I know it can be rough, but thy always need vet techs.

AkiraleShiba

Yes I'm relieved I thought that they would put electric shock collar on sick animals to keep them quiet

Katzyn

Oh, GAWD no. That would be animal abuse. Not to mention, we would have NO authority to decide to do something like that.

Ender

Small, rural clinics aren't that great either. We're not as advanced as bigger clinics and it's harder for our doctors to diagnose/care for more complicated conditions. I've watched several animals die because we couldn't give them the care they needed. And we still don't have time to give every patient the attention they need because there are always other patients to look after. I think it's the same everywhere you go really, you just have to make the best of it and do what you can for the animals.

secondchance

I went through the same vet burnout that it sounds like you are experiencing. It seems like everything has to be a fight in vet medicine, the animals are scared and often aggressive which is very frustrating (especially in an e-vet situation where they are usually in pain and there is time pressure but they wont let you safely touch them) and if it isn't the animals it is the useless owners who don't value their pets and accept lower standards of care for their animals. And forget getting the spca involved, most of the time they can't get it together to actually do anything for an abused animal (at least that is the case here... we had a yorkie in once that a guy had hit in the head with a hammer, his excuse to the police was that he was swinging for his girlfriend who was holding the dog, anyways the dog went home with owners ARG!!!)
And then there is the part where you are always second guessing yourself, what if this test wasn't done right? what if I administer the wrong med or the wrong dose? then you add the extremely emotional situations you find yourself in (telling the family who lost their mom from cancer that their dog who they got for their mom while she was sick has cancer) and you start to wonder why you got yourself into it right?

I dropped all my shifts and just quit one day, got a stupid low paying job somewhere else. I realized that animals are my passion and that I don't want to resent them because I struggle with them all day at work. So now I am going to school so I can make lots of money doing something else and support my animal addiction on my own time and can afford to do lots of rescues.

Anyways, I know where you are coming from, and that's how I handled it. Hopefully this is helpful??

sillylilykitty

Exactly! I dont want to get upset with them, I didnt at internship but I think if I worked as a vet tech eventually I would get burned out on dogs and cats.

Well, I just dont think I could work in a non-animal job. I still want to help animals. Thats why I am starting to volunteer at my local shelter (after I attend the next orientation meeting). I think Im in for a bunch of different jobs in my future, to see what I like best.

Animal therapy, I like that idea I'll keep that in mind.

Dog training, I think thats a good one too, I would have to go back to college or enter into a program for that. Because I dont have my own dog to work with, the Shar pei's I work with I tried positive training with them and they didnt care for treats. But I dont have many good treats to use (The dogs and I all hate the treats the breeder has for them....Ol Roy treats!).

Grooming, Im actually going to try that out first, if I get the job.

Katzyn

WHAT! She uses...WHAT? >_< Silly woman.

I started working at Petsmart today. It....well, it doesn't seem like it'll be as bad as I thought, but...It's definately not the dream I had when we were going to Bel-Rea. =P

I hope that grooming job comes through for you.

Lexite

Petco is better . I had problems with Petsmart when i was trying to find a job and i have been really unhappy with them since. But aside from that. I like working at Petco. It gives me the chance to help people and help them take better care of their pets. Im able to tell people about the dog or cat food they are feeding their pet and show them better foods when their dog is having hot spots of itchy skin. And stop people from putting goldfish into bowls. Thats my big thing. I hate seeing them be sold to bowls and i wont unless it is a 2 gallon or larger tank depending on the size of the fish. Working for pet stores that care about animals is a great place to work. I dont like the stores that sell cats and dogs, thats just wrong, there are too many and those stores do not take good care of them a lot of the times.

Id recomment working for Petco or Petsmart or any other friendly pet store in your area. But grooming is really awsome too. You get the chance to do the same there since you are a little closer to your customers.

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