Beautiful Aussie at School!

**pitc9** · 03-04-2008, 08:04 AM

I was LOL at the picture of Charlie!!
Sophie IS beautiful!
Is she up for adoption??

**buttercup132** · 03-04-2008, 08:26 AM

She's so cute, I'm glad your having so much fun.
Good luck with school.

Sure hope she's not just a Lab Rat to be practiced upon!

Do you really think Jessika would do that especially with a dog she likes so much..? Lots of dogs go in colleges from other vets that need work.

**Jessika** · 03-04-2008, 12:25 PM

OMDog you guys, no, I'm studying to become a vet tech, not animal testing!! We work closely with a no-kill shelter and will "adopt" some of their animals where we take care of them completely. We provide them with spays, vaccines, food, exercise, any operations they may need, any special needs animals, etc. YES it's for learning purposes, but we will NEVER EVER harm and animal or do something to them that their life didn't depend on. After an eight week term we adopt out all animals except small animals, and usually every single one gets taken home. In fact there's a mixed pup there with a brain tumor they almost lost, he's like the school's favorite pup there, he's had close brushes with death but he's pulling through thanks to the hard work of the vet there and the upper classmen.

I'm actually kind of surprised you guys would think I would do something harmful to another animal, much less one I love and respect so much

**sasvermont** · 03-04-2008, 12:51 PM

We are often more protective of the animals than of the PetTalkers! Forgive us? I will confess that I know nothing about vet tech courses and do know that vet schools are often accused of "experienting" on animals for the sake of education. My guess is that the experimenting has improved, but still exisits. Educate us!

**Jessika** · 03-04-2008, 01:24 PM

Well I'm still new so I don't know all of the ins and outs of the courses yet, but I do know nobody touches an animal until they've practiced on "stuffed animals" (really, really, really expensive stuffed animals). They have restrictions on what you can do and how many times you can do it to an animal, such as drawing blood -- you only get two tries, and if you can't get a vein by the second try, you stop and the animal is put away (unless they *need* blood drawn, in which case the vet on staff will do it).

Basically, we don't just jump in and practice on the animals first; we learn, practice, and lastly use the real animal.

We also have what's called "kennel duty", we're put into small groups and on a three or so week cycle. If ifs your week for kennel duty it is your responsibility to come in early and stay late to completely clean and sanitize the kennels, exercise the animals, feed, water, bathe (if needed), observe them, give them medication, etc. They are VERY strict about this, it's 50% of the grade and if we miss even one day we can fail the class. We even have to come in on weekends.

I can give more information as I get more into the courses thought