This is a thank you to those who:
- Remembered my brain when I left it in the truck or at home.
- Found the exact drug I needed in the critical seconds before the world exploded.
- Took my diagnostic plan and translated it into the correct number of sample containers and blood vials filled, spun, and sent to the lab at the precise temperature needed.
- Prepared my patients (and their owners) for surgery.
- Helped me MacGyver lifesaving equipment out of baling twine, duct tape, and clothes hangers.
- Retained and shared their memories of what my other colleagues have done in the same situation over the years.
- Saved my sanity from an endless list of things that drove me batty.
- Saved my life. Literally. Kept me from being kicked, dragged, scratched, bitten, and trampled over and over.
- Read my mind, saw into the future and had everything laid out for the procedure even before I myself knew what we were doing
This is a love letter to my technicians.
For all of the times you said, “Would you like me to draw up a bit more sedation,” when you really meant, “For the love of My Aunt Hannah’s Radish Bed, would you please sedate this horse more before we all die?”
For all of the times you responded to my 3 a.m. “Help! The dying horse died in the stall and I need to move it before we open in the morning” phone calls.
For all of the times you managed to miraculously organize and coordinate the seven million blood tubes with the correct numbers of cattle, mystically fill out the arcane forms so that all I had to do was scribble something resembling my name, and whisk the whole mess off to the lab with appropriate postage or number of owls or whatever.
For all of the IV bags and lines you changed, catheters you placed, wounds you prepped, bandages you changed, creatures you bottle fed, drugs you ordered, equipment you fixed, phone calls you saved me from, and patients you kept safely anesthetized.
For all of the times you drove the truck so that I could look up drug dosages, catch up on paperwork, nurse a migraine, or pump milk for one of my nursing infants.
For all of the times you told me, “I know you can do it; I have great faith in you.” You will never know how important to me it was to hear that!
Thank you.
Veterinary technicians are more than just the person in the scrub top who takes your dog’s temperature or asks you a few questions before the vet comes in. They are more than the person who holds your horse for vaccinations so that you don’t have to be the bad guy.
Veterinary technicians are a lifeline connecting you, your veterinarian, and your animals. They are educated and trained to perform a raft of procedures and provide the best possible nursing care for your animal. Their job frees the veterinarian to do the things that only we are allowed to do – diagnose illnesses, perform surgery, etc.
The veterinary technician may fill a different role in a multi-doctor small animal hospital than in a large animal ambulatory practice, but no matter the practice type, veterinarians need our technicians, and you and your animals need them too.
In the U.S., National Veterinary Technician Week is always the third week of October (Oct. 12-18 in 2014). Thank your friendly neighborhood vet tech for all that they do. Baked goods are standard thank-you-currency in most clinics.
19 Comments
Teralin Aker
October 16, 2015
Jo Wynn
October 15, 2015
Victoria Elam
October 15, 2015
Elena
October 15, 2015
Leigh Faulkner
September 17, 2015
Rosalinda
September 17, 2015
Debi
September 16, 2015
Sandra Kirkwood, DVM
January23, 2015
Stacey
October 19, 2014
Kathy
October 17, 2014
Cathy Shea
October 15, 2014
Rev. Sarah Diane
October 15, 2014
Sara Dechance
October 14, 2014
Veronica Navarro
October 14, 2014
Janis McCarthy
October 14, 2014
Donna Watson
October 13, 2014
Angie Poos
October 13, 2014
Danielle
October 13, 2014
JLP
October 13, 2014