Posts Tagged ‘certificate of veterinary assisting’

Veterinary Assistant Certification

Sunday, June 13, 2010 posted by Laura Mueller

If you love animals but cannot afford to go to medical school to be a veterinarian, you can opt to get a veterinary assistant certification. With this degree, you will be able to fulfill your dreams of helping animals and working closely with creatures that warm your heart.

There are many schools where you can earn a veterinary assistant certification. Typically, when you enroll in a school to earn your veterinary assistant certification, you will study from around nine months to 2 years. The length of the program will depend on the school. With this degree, you will learn record-keeping, proper interaction with pet owners, analyzing lab results, and performing other tasks that will be given to you by the veterinarian.

A veterinary assistant certification also prepares you for more specific tasks in a veterinary clinic or any other place where you may find work. Some of your responsibilities will include feeding, grooming, and exercising the animals, answering phones or taking appointments from customers, preparing animals for surgery, filling prescriptions, doing lab tests, cleaning and sterilizing instruments, and restraining animals when needed.

Aside from working in clinics, a veterinary assistant certification can also qualify you work in pet stores, kennels, ranches, rescue centers, zoos, animal grooming places, and animal training facilities. You will also earn an hourly wage. The rate depends on your experience and place of work. According to reports, vet assistants earn an average or $12 per hour. But this number was true many years ago. The rate is most likely bigger now.