#it'll be a bit stressful getting used to being a veterinary assistant again but so fucking worth it omg

[threnodians]

things are finally looking up and falling into place and if everything could just continue getting better or honestly just not get any worse again for a year or so that'd be super mega very appreciated 🥲🤞🏻

[threnodians]

hi i was reading your tags and i hope you get a wonderful night's sleep, and the job right afterwards!! can i ask you if it's ever really hard to be a veterinary assistant, like emotionally or anything? do you get attached to animals and then have to watch them get sick/die? or is it calming just to be part of their lives for a short time? i've thought about pursuing that career, but i'm hesitant about it for that reason. no stress if it's a bad time to answer this ask, get lots of rest and everything! <3

thank you!!! 💗 i don't know if i've got the job yet unfortunately and ofc i still definitely don't wanna get my hopes up but!!! i have a good feeling!!! 🤞🏻

okay so regarding your question – i may have typed you out an obscenely long thing but i've got the power of anxiety + caffeine + adderall on my side right now so hopefully it works and also hopefully you don't think i'm totally insane! 😂

i've loved animals my entire life and i've had a lot of pets my entire life as well, and i worked at a veterinary hospital for almost 2 years (not including the internship i did at a different hospital while taking the veterinary assistant certification courses) and i LOVE it – but as with every job there are good days and there are bad days and there are days that are in-between, and as much as i hate to say it a majority of people who go into the veterinary medicine field get desensitized to stuff really quickly (i did but i know for some people it can take a while which is healthy and makes sense) so watching surgeries or euthanizations or witnessing a dog being beheaded in order to send it in to get rabies tested (which i witnessed while working – a german shepherd came in that had died of suspected rabies and we legitimately need to saw the entire head off of such cases and mail it to cornell university for them to study and/or test it and yes – it is as gruesome and messy and emotionally scarring as you're imagining), but as long as blood/viscera/pus/poop/pee/general bodily fluids (as a veterinary assistant you'll need to collect and package a lot of the fecal matter and run labwork on blood and search for ear mites with the microscope and clean up explosive diarrhea, etc) is something you can handle it should be fine! plus honestly nobody ever expects you to just be able to walk in an assist with surgery on your first day, everywhere i've gone/worked has been very understanding if you need to ease into it. and just with a majority of jobs, your coworkers and the practice manager and the veterinarians make a massive difference. if they're all good people and are competent and good at their jobs and genuinely empathetic towards both people AND animals, it'll make everything a lot easier emotionally. the practice manager at the place i worked at had been placed there due to nepotism and the company that bought the hospital being shitty and she was miserable and incompetent and mean, and everything went downhill from there tbh. hardly anyone that i used to work with there is still there, if that tells you anything about the state of things.

got a bit off topic there, apologies. but as for the emotional stuff, there's a lot of good! you'll get to see a lot of kittens and puppies (and exotics if you're lucky enough/willing to work at a vet that sees exotic pets)! and healthy animals need checkups and vaccines too! and a lot of people bring their animals to the veterinarian to get their nails trimmed too, or for boarding (depending on the hospital you work at ofc)! and after a pet gets proper treatment or meds for whatever ailment they had if they were sick/had surgery they'll come in again for a recheck and it's so good to see them happy and healthy again! but with that of course comes the bad stuff, and honestly? i'm not going to sugarcoat it for you because i'm not that kind of person and i don't want you to think working in veterinary medicine is all rainbows and kittens) – the bad outweighs the good some days. some days we'd have one euthanasia. the next day we'd have 10. you'll get parvo puppies. breeds that aren't healthy at all due to their "aesthetic" (ie: pugs). abandoned kittens that are covered with mites. pets with infections that are going necrotic. animals who's owners waited too long to bring them in, and it's too late to save them, so they yell at you. animals that are abused or neglected. animals that are surrendered to you because their owners either don't give a shit about them or simply can't take care of them anymore (my youngest cat, ruby, was surrendered to the hospital i used to work at because her owner was an older man who's health was declining and he had to go into a nursing home and ruby is quite honestly one of the best things to ever happen to me, but it doesn't always have as happy of an ending). and most importantly, not all pets get better. also, not all pets are friendly and/or cooperative. i've never been bitten, but i've been scratched by both dogs and cats and i know many people who HAVE been bitten.

now, with all of that said – if you truly love animals and prefer your job/career to be constantly moving around and doing things and sweating and cleaning up all sorts of messes, then being a veterinary assistant is for you. you do still have to deal with people, of course, and probably (in my experience at least) about half of the owners you meet will be miserable and treat you like shit. i've had people legitimately tell me that i must've gotten treated so much better when i was a veterinary assistant as opposed to my most recent job, a cashier. absolutely not. i laughed because i thought they were joking. they were not. it's still customer service. but yeah. i have multiple chronic illnesses/autoimmune diseases and mental health issues and the happiest i've ever been is when i worked as a veterinary assistant because i desperately need the constant motion in order for my body to function. some people prefer and handle staying in one spot and doing the same thing all day every day. that is not a veterinary assistant. you will constantly be moving, and you will constantly be cleaning. i was always, and i do mean ALWAYS, doing at least two things at once all throughout the day every single day i worked as a veterinary assistant.

tldr: if you truly love animals and want to help both them and their owners, enjoy constantly moving around, enjoy cleaning, don't mind getting down and dirty with all sorts of bodily fluids, are capable of being a self-starter (aka you don't need to constantly be told what to do) – you should definitely give it a shot. you don't need to commit immediately though, call up your local/favorite veterinary hospital and ask if they'd allow you to come in and shadow for a few hours or an entire day – they'll probably allow it. that way you'll really get to see what it's like, because even though i've basically typed you out a goddamn novel (i apologize again, i get really passionate about this), nothing can really prepare you for working in veterinary medicine other than experiencing it firsthand. so basically if you're genuinely considering it, try to get in somewhere and shadow for a day! and ask questions if you have them, veterinary hospitals desperately need/want people who have experience and know what to expect so they'll appreciate the interest and honesty.