Veterinary Related Careers
If you're interested in working in the animal care industry, there's a multitude of options available to you. In conjunction with any certificate program, or degree, you can set yourself up for a lifelong, nearly recession-proof, career. Whether you're seeking a career, or just hunting for job, animal welfare is an industry rife with possibilities.
To start with, check your phone book, or look online for local animal groomers. Though you may need a certificate to be a groomer proper, a groomer's assistant requires nothing more than an ability to get along with animals. As an assistant, you would be required to trim nails (which, admittedly, can be trying for the uninitiated), bath, brush and dry the groomed cats and dogs. You will clean up the work station for the groomer between animals. Depending on the groomer, you may be required to run customer service: Phone calls, appointments, payments, etc.
Another job open to entry level would be kennel tech for the local animal shelter. To start with, your job would focus on cleaning crates in the mornings and feeding the animals, as well as cleaning up after them as need be. Be warned, it is a fast paced job environment. Depending on the size of the shelter, animal control, along with the public, may drop off up to ten animals a day, sometimes more. As you become more comfortable in the shelter environment, you will be able to enter new animals in the system, temperement test new animals, administer shots, draw blood, perform tests to diagnose diseases such as heart worms and much more.
Unfortunately, kennel tech does seem to be the least respected job in animal welfare. It's dirty, grunt work, but it's full of learning experience and patience building. As a kennel tech, there is a distinct possibility you will arrive at work to find ten dogs, fifteen puppies, and seven cats (three of which are feral), have been dropped off, only to find that you have a parvo and kennel cough outbreak that you have to keep in check, meanwhile a seventy pound dog might decide your face would make a nice chew toy while you're trying to draw blood to see whether or not it has heartworms. You'll take it with a grin, because you've seen worse. Your days will be hectic, and few people will really have an idea of what it is that you have to go through every day, but don't let that turn you off, the work is fun and stimulating. There's never a dull moment as a kennel tech.
The next step up would be Vet tech. If you can handle the daily grind of kennel tech, vet tech should pose no problem. Typically, you will need have a degree, or at least be enrolled in a degree program to be a tech, but experience can carry you a long way in this field. Though some of the responsibilities remain (vaccines, blood tests, medications, etc.), the physical labor will decline, to be replaced with more mentally challenging responsibilities. You'll most likely be responsible for taking X-rays, assisting surgery, cleaning surgical tools and performing dental procedures. Depending on skill level and certification, a vet tech can earn anywhere from ten to possibly twenty dollars an hour.
We've barely even scratched the surface on the number of jobs, even full-on careers, that can be obtained taking care of animals. In addition to the typical dogs and cats, there are exotic pets veterinary clinics, emergency clinics, training acadamies and rescue groups. Any combination of work and school in this field will lend itself to a near-endless array of possibilities. Not bad for a job that says it's okay to stop what your doing and go play with the dogs.
