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Veterinary Technologists and Technicians

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Perform medical tests in a laboratory environment for use in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases in animals. Prepare vaccines and serums for prevention of diseases. Prepare tissue samples, take blood samples, and execute laboratory tests, such as urinalysis and blood counts. Clean and sterilize instruments and materials and maintain equipment and machines. May assist a veterinarian during surgery.

Related: Cardiovascular Technologists & Technicians Medical Assistants Surgical Assistants Surgical Technologists Veterinary Assistants & Laboratory Animal Caretakers

Industries: Professional, Science, & Technical

Summary
Details

Schedule appointments and procedures for animals.
Prepare and administer medications, vaccines, serums, or treatments, as prescribed by veterinarians.
Take and develop diagnostic radiographs, using x-ray equipment.
Maintain controlled drug inventory and related log books.
Clean and sterilize instruments, equipment, or materials.
Perform laboratory tests on blood, urine, or feces, such as urinalyses or blood counts, to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of animal health problems.
Maintain laboratory, research, or treatment records, as well as inventories of pharmaceuticals, equipment, or supplies.
Discuss medical health of pets with clients, such as post-operative status.
Maintain instruments, equipment, or machinery to ensure proper working condition.
Provide assistance with animal euthanasia and the disposal of remains.
Supervise or train veterinary students or other staff members.
Dress and suture wounds and apply splints or other protective devices.
Monitor medical supplies and place orders when inventory is low.
Perform a variety of office, clerical, or accounting duties, such as reception, billing, bookkeeping, or selling products.
Fill prescriptions, measuring medications and labeling containers.
Care for and monitor the condition of animals recovering from surgery.
Clean and sterilize instruments, equipment, or materials.
Observe the behavior and condition of animals and monitor their clinical symptoms.
Collect, prepare, and label samples for laboratory testing, culture, or microscopic examination.
Provide information or counseling regarding issues such as animal health care, behavior problems, or nutrition.
Perform a variety of office, clerical, or accounting duties, such as reception, billing, bookkeeping, or selling products.
Take and develop diagnostic radiographs, using x-ray equipment.
Clean kennels, animal holding areas, surgery suites, examination rooms, or animal loading or unloading facilities to control the spread of disease.
Perform a variety of office, clerical, or accounting duties, such as reception, billing, bookkeeping, or selling products.
Prepare animals for surgery, performing such tasks as shaving surgical areas.
Prepare treatment rooms for surgery.
Administer anesthesia to animals, under the direction of a veterinarian, and monitor animals' responses to anesthetics so that dosages can be adjusted.
Restrain animals during exams or procedures.
Supervise or train veterinary students or other staff members.
Conduct specialized procedures, such as animal branding or tattooing or hoof trimming.
Monitor medical supplies and place orders when inventory is low.
Bathe animals, clip nails or claws, and brush or cut animals' hair.
Collect, prepare, and label samples for laboratory testing, culture, or microscopic examination.
Prepare and administer medications, vaccines, serums, or treatments, as prescribed by veterinarians.
Prepare and administer medications, vaccines, serums, or treatments, as prescribed by veterinarians.
Give enemas and perform catheterizations, ear flushes, intravenous feedings, or gavages.
Administer anesthesia to animals, under the direction of a veterinarian, and monitor animals' responses to anesthetics so that dosages can be adjusted.
Administer emergency first aid, such as performing emergency resuscitation or other life saving procedures.
Take animals into treatment areas and assist with physical examinations by performing such duties as obtaining temperature, pulse, or respiration data.
Provide veterinarians with the correct equipment or instruments, as needed.
Perform dental work, such as cleaning, polishing, or extracting teeth.

Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.

Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.

History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.

Education

Associate's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

59080/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

28.41/hr

Currently Employed

3,410

Yearly Projected Openings

430

Realistic: People interested in this work like activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They do well at jobs that need:

Stress Tolerance
Self-Control
Cooperation
Cautiousness
Integrity
Attention to Detail

Air rifles or air handguns
Ambulances
Analgesic infusion sets or kits
Animal catching devices
Animal husbandry equipment
Animal shearing or clipping equipment
Animal weighing scales
Arterial line catheters
Artificial airway holders
Benchtop centrifuges
Binocular light compound microscopes
Blood collection needles
Blood collection syringes
Blood gas analyzers
Blood pressure recording units
Cages or its accessories
Cardiac output CO monitoring units
Cardiac pacemaker generators or cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers CRT-P
Chemical or gas sterilizers
Chemistry analyzers
Coagulation analyzers
Dental finishing or polishing discs
Dental handpieces
Dental probes or explorers
Dental scalers
Dental x ray units
Desktop computers
Digital cameras
Electrocardiography EKG transmitters or telemetry devices
Electrocardiography EKG units
Electrosurgical or electrocautery equipment
Endotracheal tubes
Enema kits
Enteral feeding administration sets
Esophageal tubes
Extremity restraints
Finger ring removers or cutters
Flow sensors or regulators or components
Forced air or mechanical convection general purpose incubators
Full body immersion hydrotherapy baths or tanks
Gas anesthesia apparatus or machines
Glucose monitors or meters
Handheld refractometers or polarimeters
Harnesses or its accessories
Hemocytometers
Hypodermic injection apparatus
Hypodermic needle
Intermittent positive pressure breathing IPPB machines
Intravenous catheters
Intravenous infusion pumps for general use
Intravenous or arterial arm boards
Intravenous or arterial tubing adapter or connector
Intravenous tubing with catheter administration kits
Intubation forceps
Intubation gauges or guides
Intubation laryngoscopes
Intubation stylets
Laboratory balances
Laboratory diluters
Manual or electronic hematology differential cell counters
Medical acoustic stethoscopes
Medical aspiration or irrigation syringes
Medical computed tomography CT or CAT scanners or tubes
Medical gas cylinders or related devices
Medical magnetic resonance imaging MRI scanners
Medical nasal cannulas
Medical oxygen masks or parts
Medical radiation films or badges
Medical radiological positioning aids for general radiological use
Medical radiological shielding aprons or masks or drapes
Medical radiological shielding gloves
Medical syringes with needle
Medical ultrasound or doppler or pulse echocardiograph or echocardiograph units for general diagnostic use
Medical x ray darkroom accessories
Medical x ray films or cassettes
Medical x ray intensifying screens
Medical x ray units for general diagnostic use
Microcentrifuges
Microscope slides
Mobile medical service anti shock garments
Mobile medical service intravenous IV kits
Mobile medical services automated external defibrillators AED or hard paddles
Mobile medical services head immobilizers
Mobile medical services litter
Mobile medical services non-suction antichoke devices
Mobile medical services obstetrics kits
Mobile medical services suction antichoke devices
Mobile medical services triage tags
Mobile or transportable medical linear accelerators
Mobile resuscitator or aspirator kits
Muzzles
Nasopharyngeal tubes or airways
Nebulizers
Needleless intravenous injection syringe sets or injection cannulas
Needleless vial or bag withdrawal cannulas or adapters or decanters
Non vacuum blood collection tubes or containers
Notebook computers
Ophthalmic tonometers
Ophthalmoscopes or otoscopes or scope sets
Orthopedic splint systems
Osmometers
Oxygen insufflators
Oxygen therapy delivery system products
Patient stretchers
Periodontal curettes
Personal computers
Protective gloves
Pulse oximeter units
Respiratory monitoring kits
Restraints
Resuscitation masks
Sledge hammer
Specimen collection container
Steam autoclaves or sterilizers
Surgical calipers or rulers or protractors
Surgical isolation or surgical masks
Surgical retractors
Surgical scalpels or knives or blades or trephines
Suture needles
Suture removers
Tablet computers
Therapeutic heating or cooling units or systems
Tourniquets
Ultrasonic cleaning equipment
Urinary catheterization kits
Vacuum blood collection tubes or containers
Veterinary blood pressure testers
Veterinary castration instruments
Veterinary clinical thermometers
Veterinary electrocardiograph ECG
Veterinary injection or suction unit
Veterinary nail trimmers or cutters
Veterinary speculums
Winged infusion needle set