A Day In The Life of a Veterinary Assistant

What does the life of a Veterinary Assistant entail? What are their everyday tasks? And how do they use their certifications? To find these answers we traveled to Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital and asked two of VetBloom’s Veterinary Assistant graduates to show us around. Watch our video or read more below to see the day in the life of a Veterinary Assistant and see if it’s the right career move for you

Sarah, who has since promoted into a Veterinary Technician position, and Stephanie, a Veterinary Assistant and single mother, both agree you must have a strong heart and stomach to succeed in the position.

“The first thing I do when I come in is to go check on the animals in the ICU, you have to love animals to do this job,” Sarah says. “There are a lot of hard aspects – lots of cleaning up after animals, a lot of them are really sick.”

The job also requires technical skills to assist in the setting up of different machines and running tests on animals.

“When I come in in the morning I turn on the ultrasound machine, turn on the ultrasound gel warmer, I look at our schedule to see if we have any ultrasounds lined up, I get them on our schedule to get the day rolling,” Stephanie says. “I will help hold for ultrasounds, I’ll help set up for CT scans, assist with x-rays, import radiographs that are forwarded to us from referring hospitals.”

On top of technical aptitude, customer service is key. Veterinary Assistants are often dealing with worried pet owners and require a softness to destress clients. If you’re an animal lover with technical and people skills, who can handle a tough situation, Veterinary Technician might be the right career for you.

MedCerts has partnered with VetBloom to create an industry-relevant 26-week Vet Assistant career training program to prepare students to take the Approved Veterinary Assistant (APA) exam and begin their new career. This program includes courses created by industry experts and a hands-on externship at a veterinary hospital near you. Interested in learning more about the MedCerts VetBloom program? Fill out the form below!