Veterinary Technician Specialties

Veterinary Technician Specialties

Working in a pet clinic is a great way to begin your new career. But as a vet tech, there are many more ways to put your skills to work, and you may find yourself drawn to a particular specialty area.

Critical Care

Critical Care is a specialty area worth considering. In the critical care environment, a veterinary technician is literally a vital member of the team. When every moment counts, a skilled vet tech needs to be a good decision maker and critical thinker. You need to think and act quickly.

During emergency procedures, a vet tech often performs the following functions:

• Replaces lost fluids intravenously
• Administers general anesthesia
• Takes radiographs and specimens
• Assists with diagnoses and treatments
• Performs invasive procedures, such as drawing blood
• Carefully monitors vital signs

Veterinary Internal Medicine

Veterinary Internal Medicine is a specialty born of the need for further research into animal diseases. General wellness and preventative medicine are the focus of this specialty. Particular attention is paid to chronic disease, anatomy, physiology and non-surgical pathology issues of small to large animals. Cardiology and oncology are sub-specialties of veterinary internal medicine. If you like research and want to affect the quality of veterinary care directly, Internal Medicine is a great specialty.

Zoo Keeping

Zoo Keeping is a desirable, competitive field, involving the care of animals in zoological parks or aquariums. In this environment, a vet tech helps with the maintenance of captive exotic animals for the purposes of conservation, research, public education and recreation. In addition to the daily care of these special animals, you may have the opportunity to work in a zoo hospital, where a wide spectrum of medical emergencies is handled.

Zoo hospitals are concerned with cross-species disease, quarantining animals and year-round health care of animals from very different climates.

Duties performed by a vet tech in a zoo are numerous. Some may include:

• Assisting veterinarians with clinical cases
• Treatments for a variety of species
• Immobilization of large and small animals
• Surgical assistance
• Medical record keeping
• Lab work

More Career Paths for Vet Techs

“There are many opportunities out there,” says Mary Mould, an experienced vet tech who began teaching after 12 years.

There is no question that there are many options available to a veterinary technician. Indeed, the opportunities grow greater every year advancements in veterinary technology. In addition to the specialties detailed above, other specialties include:

• Avian Medicine
• Biomedical Research
• Clinical Pathology
• Dentistry
• Emergency Medicine
• Exotics
• Large Animals
• Small Animals
• Surgery
• Clinic Supervisor

Continue and compare vet techs and vet assistants.