Veterinary Technician Alaska

Veterinary Emergency Critical Care Technicians: Saving Animal Lives
by Emily Kerr

Emergency rooms for animals need veterinary emergency critical care technicians. Similar to the way nurses and medical assistants help surgeons, vet-techs help veterinarians perform emergency procedures on various species of animal. This may include prepping patients, developing x-rays, readying surgical equipment, and even discussing a pet's condition with its owner. If you love animals, what could be more rewarding than a career as an emergency veterinary technician?

Veterinary Technician Education

Before you can become a licensed, certified, or registered emergency veterinary technician, you'll have to acquire a number of specialized skills. Furthermore, veterinary emergency critical care technicians must graduate from an approved veterinary technician program, which may include coursework in the following fields:

• medical terminology
•animal management and clinical skills
• animal care skills
• inorganic and organic chemistry
• anatomy and physiology
• microbiology
• veterinary diseases
• parasitology
• microbiology

Students in a veterinary technician program may also enjoy a number of related electives, such as animal behavior, aquatics, zoology, exotics, wildlife and ecology.

Job Outlook for Veterinary Technicians

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the job market for veterinary technicians should grow much faster than average through the year 2014. While salaries vary depending on setting and location, the median hourly wage for a vet-tech in 2004 was $11.99. Top earners in the field, which include emergency critical care technicians, made an estimated $17/hr that same year.

Source
Bureau of Labor Statistics

About the Author
Emily Kerr is a freelance writer with over 350 articles in print. She writes about topics from business to education and arts to animals and everything in between.