Vet Nurses......Then and Now

I know that Tupacs is a Vet Nurse, and am hoping for her input here as well as any other VN's out there.

Some 45 years ago I was a Vet Nurse, and although I loved it the pay was appalling and eventually I had to give it up to become a boring old Secretary! The minimum O level requirement was 5 which had to include a Science (mine was Biology) and English. The training was two years living in with a vet, plus night school. At the end of this, I was qualified to do the nursing bit of course, plus develop x rays; do worm counts on horse/pig/cow dung; prepare dead animals for post mortems; give intramuscular and subcutaneous injections; assist with operations; sterilise equipment etc. etc. All rather mundane compared with what I believe that Vet Nurses are now qualified to do.

On our frequent visits to the vets, the Nurses seem to be very much more at the sharp end of treatment, and certainly do very much more than I ever did. I assume and hope that the pay is correspondingly better too!!!

Given that our dogs are now as much in the hands of the Nurses as the Vets when we leave them for operations etc., I would love to hear the up to date version of Vet Nursing. I was proud of what I did (for £2.50 a week!) but sometimes wish that I was a modern Vet Nurse.

Look forward to reading some replies as I have just applied to do some volunteer work at ours vets with the aim of training as a student vet nurse come June/July

Oh well done you - I am sure that you will find it so rewarding. Much more so than when I did it

It sounds really interesting, i bet you have some stories to tell
I was brought up in pubs and my favourite thing ever from a really young age was listening to locals telling stories of their career vets, midwives etc, like you said so very different from todays modern medicine and a pill for everything! xx

It was something I always wanted to do... I spent 2 days work experience at a vets when I was 14 - privately arranged as schools didn't do that then, it was at the vets my mum & dad went to with our dog & cat.

Oh boy, I can remember it all.... Flushing tear ducts on a Basset hound. Entropion operation on a spaniel. Neutering cats. Spaying dogs. A very lovely dog who was dying in hospital after being poisoned with slug pellets. Autopsy on a Great Dane. Farm visits to cattle & sheep farmers.Taking the pin out of the leg of a GSD pup after a fracture.

Years later I had a Saturday job assisting at a local clinic, which I held for 18 mths. I had really hoped it might lead to a trainee position at their main premises but there were very few vacancies; none I could apply for.

Years later my best friend was a RANA and she encouraged me to try to get into the profession. I went for interviews she found for me in the Record, including one very interesting interview which was conducted while the vet was spaying a CKCS. He actually gave me the job, but I did my sums and I wouldn't have been able to keep a roof over my head.

Another place I tried gave me the job, only to retract it later because of an industrial tribunal.... They had tried to sack their trainee nurse because she got pregnant. I am happy to say I didn't get the job because she won...

So although I had the calling, so to speak, I never quite made it for one reason or another.

I think that those stories you heard would make a fascinating book! Yes, I have some memories - some wonderful and some dreadful.

Wonderful............the road traffic accident collie that I spent three days and nights nursing when the vet had said it should be put to sleep. Not only did it live and fully recover, but I found the owner.

Dreadful...........a beautiful pedigree puppy came in for a routine, minor, op. Half way through injection of anaesthetic Pentothal it died. Idiosyncratic reaction, and nothing could be done to save it. Vet went out on a visit just before owners were due to pick the pup up leaving me to explain what happened. I was only 16. Those poor owners.

You sound as if you would have been an excellent Nurse, such a shame.

This will be a lovely thread to read

As a kid I always wanted to be a vet nurse, or a vet but I 'didn't like blood' so never went down that path.

I've trained for 8 years to qualify as a BSL interpreter. I now don't mind blood one bit! I wish I'd gone down the vet nurse, or vet path

I wouldn't have wanted to grow up any other way

Such highs and lows and those things have such an impact that you remember them forever...how worthwhile is that??!! Knowing you have given someones best friend back..amazing xxx

Thank you - I know I would have loved it

It's a little easier now as there are college courses you can do to prepare. Beforehand, it was only being taken on by a vet, a kind of apprenticeship. I have a young friend who has gone through these courses, got placements and been taken on and is now enjoying a great career as a VN - and with the possibility of going onto vet school that way - which is something we couldn't do years ago.

I've been qualified as a VN for just over 5 years now. To get there I did the unconventional route of studying for the NVQ and Degree in parallel and was lucky to stay on at the practice who saw me through my placement blocks.

Life is vary varied in practice. Quite frequently we are asked by the vet to xray conscious/sedated animals and in the 8 years of being at my practice have seen developing change from hand, to automatic and now to digital. We now get to be a bit more involved with surgery and are able to do basic dentistry and stitch ups. Scrubbing in to assist with more complex procedures such as orthopaedics, is fairly routine.
From a medical aspect, nurses place most animals on intravenous fluids and take any blood samples and are eternally grateful for wonderful kennel assistants.

Most of my time is on nurse consultations getting to know my clients. One of my favourite clinics is the puppy and adolescent checks, certainly helps with the canine phobia of the vets and you get see the dogs grow.
Least favourate is anal glands and rabbit teeth trimming.

Lab work is also a big part of our practice with nurses having to run machines for biochemistry, haematology, blood gasses, electrolytes and deal with samples for aerobic/anaerobic culture, anti-biotic sensitivities, fungal cultures, parastite i.d., urine anaysis, faecal anaysis, blood smears, microbiology, cytology....endless list.

Though with all the things that VN's do, with the RCVS VN qualification, we are not classed as suitably qualified to dispense frontline or drontal!