A Bit About Me...

Well, I guess I should say a bit about myself....

My name is Vanessa, currently, I am a registered animal health technologist in Alberta, Canada. Animal health technologists (or Veterinary Technicians in the U.S.) are similar to human nurses, but with a much wide variety of tasks. Of course, alot of our daily duty is generalized nursing, however, we also do all the lab work, all of the radiology duties and other diagnostic procedures, surgical assisting, anesthesia, some reception, nutrition, behaviour, grief counselling etc. My work days are never the same, always different.

I always had a passion for animals. At the age of 10 I started to help out with my neighbours dog grooming salon, sweeping up hair and discharging clients. I remember that was the first time I ever saw someone express a dogs anal glands, I almost fainted, to say the least. I couldn't comprehend what this offensive goopy, smelly substance this was comming from a dogs back end, and why anyone would want to put their hands in a dogs bottom to do this......I have since realized the necessity of this act, and now it's unfortunatly part of my daily job..ugh...

My first 'real' job with animals came in high school. I signed up for a high school work experience program called the Dolphin Academic Research Team at a local aquarium. I went to the orientation with about 300 other students from the area. The next week I had the daunting task of being the first interviewed for the 6 prestigous placements. The following week, I recieved a phone call from the head dolphin trainer letting me know that I would be starting my work experience the following weekend.
Every weekend for the school year I thawed fish, measured buckets, cleaned buckets, thawed fish some more, and pressure cleaned filters from a 200,000 gallon dolphin habitat, I remember picking scales off various parts of my body for days after that. It truly was a great experience, I learned not only what it takes to be part of a team that cares for captive marine species, but also about the natural setting of these wonderful animals, and how important it is to both them and us as the human race to preserve it.

Soon after my work experience was comming to an end, they hired me on staff. This was my dream job coming true. I had the experience to work with not only dolphins, but penguins, reptiles, sharks, sea turtles, many tropical fish and flamingoes. While I was there, one of the dolphins gave birth infront of thousands of people. The birth of a marine mammal was something I always wanted to see, and I saw it, first hand, but I also saw the act of death right in front of my very eyes. The calf was born, mom pushed it up to the top for its first breath of air, it swam around for 3 minutes, and the hand of God came down and took that life away. To see an infants life be taken away, either human or animal, is soul crushing. The mother was depressed, didn't eat for days, wouldn't swim other than to take a breath of air....we tried...we tried, as part of her family, to console her, to interact with her, but it wasn't the same from there on. She passed away almost a year to the day. The remaining dolphin was sent to another facility in the U.S. to be with another pod of dolphins.

I focused the rest of my work on the other animals. We developed a husbandry training program for 3 green sea turtles and 3 common caimen (similar to aligators) to decrease stress during medical procedures. I loved training animals, not for show and entertainment, but to show trust, understanding and to decrease any stress that they may have in their environments, but my mind was always on the health of these animals. I realized that with any animal, whether in a zoo, aquarium, refuge or in a domestic home, animals need healthcare first and formost. They need to be healthy to be truly happy, and thus I embarked on my journey to be an animal health technologist.

Before graduating from my program, I had to complete a 6 week hands-on animal health practicum. I moved out to the west coast of canada, rented my first apartment and started my practicum at the aquarium. I assisted in daily rounds with the animal health team, ultrasounding dolphins, training voluntary blood draws from whales, fish anesthesia and sea lion radiology. I even had the chance to work with the local marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation program specializing in harbour seal pups. After my wonderful experiences on the west coast, and realizing that my potential salary at a local clinic could not sustain life in such an expensive city, I returned home to the praries, where life was reasonable and ordinary...or so I thought.

Since graduating in 2006, I have worked in a mixed-animal practice (meaning both large/farm animals and small companion animals) and a small-animal/exotic practice. My first job was at a mixed-animal practice about 30 minutes outside the city, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We would do everything from spays/neuters to bovine semen testing (gross, I know). We also were the Veterinary Health Team for the local zoo, and this made my days even more different from the rest. It was a rotating door of cats, dogs, lizards, snakes, ruminants, horses, camilids, parrots, primates and marsupials.

Currently, I am employed at a local small animal/exotic (small mammals) clinic, in a very affulent area of the city. I never thought that I would truly enjoy working in a small animal clinic (always wanted to go back to a zoo or aquarium), but my mind has since been changed. I love it here, life is never dull. I love my boss (how many people can really say that), co-workers, clients and of couse their animals (well most of them...not too fond of the ones that have required me to get a tetanus shot, or 10 days of antibiotics). We see mostly cats and dogs, with the occasional rabbit, guinea pig or other small rodent (and yes I know that rabbits aren't rodents, they're lagomorphs). Our clients range from the city's top paid NHL hockey players to tv hosts, and the regular you and me, and yes, they are all equally important, it's just exciting when we get a celebrity in!

So this pretty much brings me up to now. I finally moved out of my parents domicile a few years ago and in with my signifigant other. We have a growing family of 2 fighting fish, blueman and redman; 3 guinea pigs (triplets born in our bedroom), max, cala and daisy; 2 mini-lop rabbits, loki and lucy; and our recently adopted cat, Walter or Wally for short, all of us living humbly together in 700 sq feet.

Welcome to the life of an animal health tech!