Veterinarian Assistant Salary

A veterinarian assistant works with a veterinarian as well as the veterinary technicians to help care for animals. It is an absolute necessity that these individuals have a passion for animals and enjoy working with all different types of animals as well as their owners.  A veterinarian assistant will be asked to work with animals which will mean that he or she must be comfortable around animals, love animals and be will to take care of them when they are at work. The job of a veterinarian assistant will require the person to do a lot of lifting, holding of animals along with other administrative tasks and duties.  In this article I will discuss a veterinarian assistant salary along with all of the details that will go into the job of a veterinarian assistant. 

Required Duties

A veterinarian assistant salary is taken into consideration when the jobs duties and requirements are taken into consideration.  A veterinarian assistants job is not very complex with the duties and requirements being quite minimals.  A survey recently came out that asked veterinarian assistants if they felt that they were compensated accordingly the results were overwhelming.  Roughly around ninety percent of veterinarian assistants stated that they were payed well and were quite happy with their veterinarian assistant salary.  Any veterinarian assistant, technician as well as the Vet themselves, will tell you that in the business of animals, individuals do not decide to get into this business for the money, they do it for their love of animals.

A veterinarian assistant is required to assist the veterinarian and the technician during the day. Some of the daily duties that a veterinarian assistant is required to do are things such as ensuring that all janitorial duties are met and making sure that the clinic, inside as well as outside is clean and orderly.  They are also responsible for cleaning and sterilizing all equipment.  A veterinarian assistant is in charge of ensuring that all equipment is maintained and up to date.  A veterinarian assistant will be in charge of taking care of the animals and making sure they are being fed, given water as well as being exercised daily.  A veterinarian assistant will also be in charge of making sure that the animals are being restrained properly, that they are in their cages and secured at night.  They will also be in charge of clerical duties such as answering phones, greeting customers, record keeping, taking appointments and much more.  They will ensure that all animals are up to date on their medicines, they will fill as well as administer vaccines, shots and other medications under the watchful eye of the veterinarian and the veterinarian tech.  A veterinarian assistant will also make sure that the animals are prepped for surgery and ready to go. They will take care of the animals teeth and other cleaning duties and responsibilities of the animals.  They will fill prescriptions for the owners, help with laboratory testing and prepare the animals for veterinary examinations. 

Jobs

There are a ton of different places that a veterinarian assistant can work. These different places typically will alter a veterinarian assistant salary by a little bit depending on where they chose to work.  You will find a large majority of veterinarian assistants working in animal hospitals where they will be the one's to greet you and your pet along with checking you in and prepping the animals for any surgery or procedure that is about to take place.  Another popular location that you will find a veterinarian assistant is at a pet store.  Typically these individuals are around to ensure that the animals are kept safe and that they are being exercised, fed properly kept clean and well taken care of.  Another location you will find a veterinarian assistant working is in kennels where they will make sure the animals are being exercised, cleaned, fed, given water to as well as attention.  There are a ton of veterinarian assistants working in zoos, amusement parks and ranches. These individuals will work with a wide range of different animals where their knowledge is more diverse which typically means that the veterinarian assistant salary for these individuals will be much higher.  You will also find veterinarian assistants working in places such as animal shelters and rescues. These individuals will typically be the ones helping to oversee the health and well being of the animals. The animals that come into shelters and rescues have been beaten, hurt or worse. Veterinarian assistants will help to ensure these animals are cleaned up, given the help that they need and the love they deserve.  Some veterinarian assistants will work in places such as a groomers, for an animal trainer or behaviorist or even for lab caretakers.  No matter where a veterinarian assistant chooses to work, they will be taking care of these animals day in and day out and ensuring that they are being loved the way they deserve, taken care of physically and emotionally.  

Education

A veterinarian assistant does not require a person to have to go through four years of college. Typically what is required for a veterinarian assistants education is that they have their high school diploma or GED.  Once they have gotten this most places will require their veterinarian assistants to receive a CTE program completion.  Typically these programs are around nine months to a year and the programs will consist of both a hands on training along with in class work to help prepare the student for work after they graduate.  I would like to note that this is just an added bonus, not all jobs will require a veterinarian assistant to have a certificate from these programs. 

Veterinarian Assistant Salary

You will find that the average veterinarian assistant salary is roughly around fourteen to thirty thousand a year.  Depending on the years of experience that a person has along with where they live and work a veterinarian assistant salary can go upwards to fifty to sixty thousand a year.