A veterinary assistant is the one who helps the veterinarian when performing his or her work. The veterinary assistant’s tasks usually include feeding, cleaning, weighing and taking care of animal patients in their clinic. Additional work includes cleaning the workplace, preparing the equipment, passing surgical instruments and materials to veterinarians during surgery as well as restraining and moving the animals during testing and other medical procedures.
If you think that being a vet assistant is an easy job, you’re definitely wrong. The truth is, this job can be downright messy. And even if you’re very interested, there are certain requirements that you need to comply before this job is given to you, things that are listed here:
- You must have at least a High School Diploma to have this job. To become a veterinary assistant, it is required that you have graduated at least high school in order to get qualified.
- Get the proper Licenses and Certifications that you will need. In U.S., the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America offers an Approved Veterinary Assistant (AVA) certification. In addition to that, the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) also offer certifications which come in three levels, namely;
- ALAT or Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician
- LAT or Laboratory Animal Technician, and;
- LATG or Laboratory Animal Technologist
- Get the required skills for the veterinary assistant’s job. In order to become a veterinary assistant, you must have compassion, dexterity, physical strength as well as detail-oriented, for you to be able to handle the animal patients better.