Veterinary Nurse

Grace: Hi I’m Grace, I’m a Vet Nurse, at the SPCA, Wellington Centre.

Working at the SPCA is quite different to working at a private practice.

You naughty little puppies.

At SPCA we deal with a lot of stray animals. Whereas in a private practice you are solely based on client animals. As a Vet Nurse we don’t just assist the Vet. My main responsibility is to ensure that all the animals within the centre are as comfortable as possible. It’s really important to minimise fear and stress in animals that are here because they are in a new environment. Some of them are injured. Some of them have come from abusive situations. In my job we do switch between roles each week. One week we’ll be in hospital and the next on surgery, and then assessments and then consult nurse so it’s very varied. In surgery we admit patients, get everything ready, give the animals a check over, pre medicate them and then we monitor them closely under anaesthetic.

So this dog is getting castrated and his hernia repaired. So I’m just shaving it and then giving it a wash to sterilise the site.

We also work as the assessment nurse and we basically triage all the incoming animals. When the animal comes into the centre we assess their behaviour, check them over, give them vaccination, flea and worming treatment.

There you go.

They get a good check over by the Vet. Then we write down all the details about the animal, advertise them on Lost Pet, and then they are either taken down to hospital if they need vet treatment or their taken to quarantine where they go for their seven day stray hold.

This is Rupert. So he’s had one eye removed and he has also had surgery on the other eye. He’s been in our care for a couple of months and he’s about to be adopted out.

So hospital is where the animals come that need a little bit more care and medical treatment. When we are in charge of hospital we come in and see what needs to be done first. We also have volunteers, so we need to assign them tasks and then it’s important to give all the animals their pain relief get all the food ready for all the animals, we feed them, medicate them, we clean their litter tray, we clean up their cages, and then write down on the monitoring sheet everything so we can keep track of how they are going and then throughout the day as the hospital nurse you basically assisting the Vet doing whatever procedure and things that needs to be done in hospital, blood test, cytology, urine tests as well.

So we are one of the only SPCA centres that does have a private vet clinic. So we do private nurse consults as well.

No day here is the same, you don’t know what animals are going to come in, and in what condition. One week I’ll be working eight to five, and the next ten to seven. Some weeks we do work seven days in a row. and the next week we’ll do three.

It’s definitely not just cuddling kittens and puppies. You do need to get your hands dirty. You’re on your feet pretty much the whole day. There’s a lot of cleaning involved, to which can also include bodily fluids.

You need to have good interpersonal skills because you will need to deal with the general public and obviously be comfortable with working closely with animals.

Oh my god.

Puppies are very full on.

Aren't you?

This job is definitely very emotionally draining. It can be really upsetting and heart-breaking seeing some of the animals that come into us but all the nurses and vets work super closely together. We're always there for each other. It’s a really awesome team.

To become a vet nurse there’s a certificate in Veterinary Nursing. From there you can go on to do the Diploma in Veterinary Nursing which makes you fully qualified and much more likely to get a job in the industry having both of those qualifications.

I’ve just been so passionate about animals my whole life. It’s so rewarding getting to work with animals every day and provide them with a temporary home and show them love and affection and everything they need. This is my perfect job.