Equine Veterinary Technician

To stay healthy, horses need periodic exams and vaccinations. Ill horses may need more intensive treatments, including hospital stays.

However, it’s difficult for one person to force a 1,000-pound patient to do something it doesn’t want to do. Equine Veterinarians who try may quickly fall prey to a kick or a bite. They need Equine Veterinary Technicians to assist in restraining the animal so procedures can be performed. Aside from assisting the Veterinarian, an Equine Veterinary Technician is also charged with rewarding the horse for good behavior.

Horse owners may be reluctant to load up their horses and transport them to the clinic. So if you’re an Equine Veterinary Technician, it’s likely that you and your Equine Veterinarian spend much of your time traveling to visit your large patients. Either you or your Receptionist schedules the appointments and asks preliminary questions about the problem. This allows you to prepare any tools, vaccines, or other equipment for your Equine Veterinarian to use.

When you arrive, you restrain the horse using treats, a harness, or horse-whispering techniques. Watching the horse’s movements, such as widening of the pupils or flattening of the ears, can help you alert the Equine Veterinarian when the horse is becoming alarmed and dangerous.

Some sick horses must come to the clinic for treatment. When this happens, the care and feeding of the horse are your responsibility. In the mornings and evenings, you clean the horse’s stall and provide fresh food and water.

You also alert the Equine Veterinarian immediately if you notice any medical changes in the animal. If it requires surgery, you prepare the equipment, assist with the procedure, and clean the equipment when the surgery is done.