Dear Veterinary Technicians,
Thank you for caring for our pets and the pets of so many others. That may seem like a small thing to thank you for, but it encompasses so much.
You make your patients comfortable – injections seem exciting (or at least not so scary) and blood draws turn into cuddles and playtime. You don’t mind too terribly much when a puppy urinates on you or when you have to look through vomit for foreign bodies.
You love patients as you love your own pets – giving them the comfiest bed, making sure they can get to their water dish when they can’t move, and hand feeding them if they’re a little leery about eating after vomiting nine times.
When worse comes to worst, you worry about patients that aren’t doing well, you do CPR, and you cry when you lose patients that meant so much to you.
Thank you for taking care of your patient’s people. You celebrate with owners when their pets make strides in the right direction and commiserate when they worsen.
You help the human family members understand what’s happening to their pets, either during appointments or hospitalization. You educate them on preventative health care, diseases, treatments, and what needs to be done at home for recovery from illness or surgery.
Thank you for knowing every person by name, sending owners photos of their pets, and giving them updates when they can’t visit their family members.
Thank you for being skilled, for taking the time to learn how to do difficult and intricate procedures.
You are anesthetists, x-ray technicians, and lab technicians. You know how to set up and operate complicated machinery, including MRI and CT equipment. You’ve learned how to troubleshoot the blood analyzer, run advanced tests, and look at cytologies. You know how to do confusing and convoluted medical math. You’ve delivered puppies, performed blood transfusions, and placed feeding tubes.
Thank you for taking your weekends and time off to attend lectures and labs to become even better at what you do.
Thank you for being veterinary technicians and doing what it takes to help all animals – fuzzy, feathered, hairy, furry, or scaly.
Beyond that, thank you for being such kind, compassionate, and wonderful human beings – we can’t do this without you.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Emergency Veterinarian at Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota
