I work for a 24 hour referral, critical care, and emergency facility.  The practice I work for has specialists in the fields of critical care, dermatology, behavior, emergency, internal medicine, neurology, oncology, radiology, and surgery.  We have a full service laboratory that vet clinics in the area send all their lab work to.  We are one of the only hospitals in the area to have an I-131 program for hyperthyroid cats.  My hospital is one of 7 in the entire US to own a linear accelerator.  People travel from out of state with their pets to come to our facility to see our specialists.

As an emergency technician, I work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights from 6PM to 8AM.  I have a strong interest in critical care and spend a majority of my time in our intensive care unit.  My duties are numerous, and range from "grunt work", such as cleaning cages and restraint of animals, to more technical things such as placing IV catheters, central lines, urinary catheters, placing nasal cannulas, blood draws, and assisting in emergency surgeries.   Other duties include answering phones, entering client information into our computers and maintaining records, client communication, triage.

The hours are long, and the job is physically and emotionally draining.  I hate to see the animals suffer, but when a sick or injured animal leaves my facility happy and healthy, it is wonderful to know that I had a hand in making the pet well again.  I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing!