Kaylie Ricks
Exploratory Studies
Jessica Brolsma
10/24/12
Job Shadow Experience #1
On Friday, October 12, I completed my job shadowing at River Ridge Animal Hospital in
my hometown, Dixon IL. When I went to my appointment I wore nice black pants, a nice shirt,
and heels. I definitely didn’t dress to be a Vet Tech for the day. The vets wore their business shirt
with khakis. They all wore tennis shoes, because they are constantly on their feet moving around.
I was unaware of this. I showed up on time (8AM) and the first thing the receptionist did was ask
how far away I lived. She said I may need to go home and change shoes, but my feet didn’t give
me that many problems. I went to the back where all the vets and CVTs (certified vet
technicians) work. It looks like a lab room. There are tables everywhere and then there is a
surgery room. In the back of the lab room there are kennels with the animals that were getting
surgeries that day, or were healing from surgeries the days before. When I first arrived I watched
the CVT’s take blood from a little Chihuahua. One vet tech held the little 4.5 pound puppy still,
while the other injected the needle into its neck to take blood. The employees have expectations
at their job. One is, of course, to do the work effectively and efficiently. They are required to
take blood from animals, do paperwork, and prep the animals for surgery. They also are expected
to know all the codes for the shots and medicines the pets need. They had a little cheat sheet
because sometimes it can be hard to remember all the specifics. Last, but certainly not least, the
vet techs are required to be not only animal people but also people persons. They need to get
along with who they work with have good communication skills. In fact, I job shadowed Tiffany
Warren, and it seemed like her and the two ladies she worked with were best friends. They were
very friendly towards each other and when one was stressed out, they were nice and supportive.
She definitely got along with her employees, which I think is critical in a good work
environment. All the vet techs also joked around with the vet that was on duty that day. He
performed all the surgeries that I watched, and the girls were always there to help him if he
needed a tool or if he needed help lifting the animal on or off the examination table. The
community there just had a really friendly vibe at that clinic. They all seem to get along and to
know one another personally. The work environment as a whole was friendly and clean. I felt
the animals were in very good hands when I was there. If I were to have a pet, I would definitely
trust these vets and vet technicians to take good care of my dog or cat. After the girls took the
blood of the puppy, they then weighed it, and took its picture. I never got to ask why they took
all the animals pictures. I’m not sure if it is to remember it for next time or if it is for their
personal records. It seemed as if it were a requirement, though. The girls started prepping for the
surgeries that day. They had to get out all of the supplies. They took out syringes and got all the
right medications in each box for all the different “patients”. They also had to get out some
microchips for the animals that were getting that done that day. Prepping for surgery took longer
than the actual surgery. They had to write down all sorts of things and figure out the right
dosages due to the animal’s weight and breed. I definitely learned that there is a lot of paperwork
associated with veterinarian work. That was one aspect of the job that was not interesting to me.
Having to do formulas and figure out what each animal needed was not appealing to me as well.
Then there were several parts of the job that were interesting to me. The actual surgeries were
very… interesting. At times, I felt I may faint and sometimes I had to leave the room because I
became nauseous. I experienced a lot that day. After the girls were finished prepping for surgery,
the actual vet, Dr. Bill Kuhfus, came in and got ready for surgery. One of the vet techs put a cat
in this glass box and attached two oxygen tubes to it. She then covered the box with a towel and
five minutes later she came back and removed the towel. The cat was knocked out, his face was
up against the glass and his tongue was sticking out. The cat looked dead, and that disturbed me
a lot. She then pulled him out and brought him to the table to start surgery. Dr. Bill explained
that this young cat was getting declawed and neutered. The last ten years, they have been using a
laser machine. The laser helps prevent more bleeding and it makes the cuts clean. It also puts off
a terrible smell. When he was declawing the cat, he was talking all about his career to me. I had
to excuse myself because the smell of the laser was like burning flesh. I didn’t have the stomach
for it. I walked over and watched Tiffany clean a little dog’s teeth. She had to take x-rays in
order to see which teeth needed removed. I relaxed a little bit and felt confident enough to go
back into the surgery room. Before that though, another vet walked in which a big dog and asked
for help. Three vet techs helped hold down the dog while he got his nails cut/clipped. The dog
was not having it. He was wiggling all over the place. They have to put a mask over the dog’s
mouth so that he won’t bite anyone. I felt so bad for the dog. I enjoyed being with friendly
people, but the longer I stayed the more I saw what I would need to do if I were a vet tech, and I
wasn’t sure it was something I could do. When asking Tiffany questions earlier in the day, she
said one piece of advice she would give someone entering this field is to make sure that it was
something that you love. “You need to love animals but you also need to be a people person. If
you can’t do those two things, well...” Tiffany said. She made it clear that this was not the job for
someone who couldn’t work with both people and animals. Tiffany got to where she is now by
hard work. She went to Rockford Career College to get her degree. She did the two and a half
year program there and that’s how she got to River Ridge. She believes she is successful in her
position because she has good communication skills and attention to detail. She said her favorite
part of her job was getting patients ready for surgery. She also likes helping out and actually
doing surgery. Her least favorite though is the animal euthanasia, which I could totally
understand. I would say that Tiffany is mid-level at the animal hospital. She has been working at
River Ridge for quite some time. I asked her what the typical salary range for someone starting
in this field was and she said it was difficult to answer. She said, “It really varies from location.
If you go into emergency animal hospitals then the pay will definitely be higher.” Therefore the
work would be very different at other levels. If you were just starting your pay may be less or if
you were more educated it could be higher. It also, like Tiffany said, depends on where you
work. I experienced so many interesting things when I job shadowed at the clinic. I saw a cat get
declawed. I also saw cats get spayed and neutered. And a little dog and a big dog get neutered. I
saw some animals get neutered with the laser technology and I saw one dog get neutered not
using the laser. There was a lot of blood involved in that one. Tiffany said that the most
challenging part of her job is the safety between patients and the client. She said sometimes the
owner of the pet can’t afford the best solution and that’s sometimes frustrating because you want
to do what is best for the animal. The dog that I watched used a knife instead of a laser and it
caused more bleeding, but it was cheaper and the way the owner wanted to go. Tiffany also said
that when the owner complains that is challenging and sometimes you don’t get the nicest
animals. All of those challenges you can encounter on the typical week. In fact, the typical week
is very busy and fast pace. When I was there for my 3.5 hour shadow, I witnessed over five or
six surgeries and much more. The day was very busy, but Fridays are always busy. Tiffany said
there are surgery appointments every day and although their jobs are rather routine, you really
see or learn something new every day. Something that definitely surprised me was how the
surgeries were performed. While I was in the room waiting to lose my breakfast, the vets were
very tuned into what they were doing. They made it look so easy and made it seem like no big
deal. Really, the surgeries are probably very difficult and they are quite graphic. Vets are very
good with animals and you can tell that everyone in that room loved animals. There aren’t too
many ethical dilemmas in this line of work besides perhaps the putting down of animals.
Sometimes when a pet gets sick or they are overcome with a disease the owner will decide to let
their animal go. Some people see this as morally wrong for putting a dog out of its suffering
when it’s not by natural causes. The vets do what they have to do, and that is one ethical
dilemma they may need to face. After job shadowing, I understand this profession more.
Throughout the day, I was queasy watching surgery but as the time passed, I was totally used to
it and comfortable being in the room. I thought that I could never be a vet or a doctor because
inside of bodies gross me out. After being in the surgery room, I found this false. I was okay with
seeing dogs cut open. I don’t know if I could personally do it every day, but I did learn that that
career is possible for me to do. One question I still have is whether or not there is a job for a vet
tech or someone in that field that wouldn’t have to actually perform blood work or surgery on the
animals. I would love to just be that person who played with the dogs and cats before and after
surgery but not have to actually do anything medical related. This experience has impacted my
decision making because I know I can stomach this job, but I also know that I wouldn’t want to
work around blood and animal parts every day. I loved having this experience and it truly was
life changing. Who can all say they’ve seen a dog get neutered? Not a lot. I know that I probably
won’t be going into the veterinarian field. If I decided that I had wanted to further my
exploration I could definitely do things here at Butler. To begin, I could research what classes
would be needed to major in this. I could also take those classes and job shadow once again. This
time I would job shadow in Indianapolis because it is a big city compared to the small town of
Dixon. I’m sure there would be some major changes in the way things were ran. I could see it
being very fast paced and more busy. I’m so glad that I decided to job shadow at a vet clinic. I
got to actually cross two jobs off my list. I’m always saying there are too many jobs, how am I
going to choose? I now know that job shadowing is a great way to see for sure what you want to
do. I know that being a vet or a CVT is not what I want to do. It feels refreshing to know that I
have less options and I am a step closer to finding out what I need and want to do in my life. I
think vets are truly a blessing to so many people, but I don’t want to do that with my life. This
assignment helped me figure that out, and I couldn’t be happier.