It was a typical busy night in the ICU. Patients were coming in several at a time, procedures were piling up and multiple animals needed to be hospitalized for immediate treatments. As I rushed from patient to patient, filling in my technician on what needs to get done, receiving results from blood/ urine tests and… Read More
I Graduated… Now What?
I graduated last week. That’s something I’ve been looking forward to saying for almost three years now. I graduated. I am officially a Veterinary Technician, Virginia License pending. Everyone talks about how exciting it is, how proud they are, how they can’t wait to get out and start working but no one talks about the… Read More
The Toll Time Limits Can Take
Everything is damp; the air, the grass, the leaves. All is grey. Suddenly, a flash of black. The road sign glistens red as I slam on my breaks, then the yellow of my hazard lights illuminate it. Slowly, I approach a small bundle of blackness. A puppy! I scoop up the shivering pile of wet… Read More
Why Female Veterinarians Should Embrace The “B” Word
I remember so clearly sitting across the table from the three faculty members who would determine if my life-long dream of becoming a veterinarian would come true. You know, the scary interviewer drilling you with tough questions, the nice interviewer relating to you about your “outside” hobbies and the third interviewer acting sympathetic when you… Read More
It’s Just Business
Vets are notorious under-chargers. According to one source, veterinarians give away the equivalent of $60,000 in services every year. EVERY. YEAR. Apparently, medical math and financial math are two very disparate mathematical species, and we are much better at calculating complicated CRIs than we are at adding up money dollars. We often hear the call… Read More
Running from Scissors
From the beginning of veterinary school, I suspected I was not going to be a surgeon. In the first semester anatomy lab, cadaver dogs were issued to groups of four students. Ours was a shelter dog we named Barney. We used him all semester to figure out where muscles, tendons, bones, and organs were. On… Read More