Educating Owners about Pet Health Care
Part of your job as a vet tech will be educating owners about the care that their pets need. Some people really don’t have a clue about taking care of an animal aside from feeding and petting them. As a vet tech, you will need to teach them what they need to do to ensure the pet’s optimum health.
Vaccinations
You will need to educate pet owners about their pet’s need for vaccines. This is especially important for the owners of young puppies and kittens. There are many sneaky disease and viruses that can kill a young puppy or kitten. You will need to make sure that the owners know about these viruses and the vaccines that will prevent them.
The series of puppy vaccines are the most important part of the puppy’s early health care. Take for instance the horrible virus Parvo. To see a puppy with this virus will break your heart. This is one vaccine puppies must have. Parvo is highly contagious and is a killer when it comes to very young puppies.
You will also need to tell owners about distemper, Bordatella(Kennel Cough), Canine Adenovirus,and Coronavirus. These vaccines come in a series of boosters after the first initial vaccine. You will need to inform the owner of their puppy’s vaccine schedule. You will also need to tell them that puppies don’t get a rabies shot until after four months old. Make sure to give them pamphlets with the vaccine schedule tucked inside it.
Kittens also require a series of vaccines to prevent them catching some pretty nasty viruses. One of the saddest things you will ever see is a very young kitten that has an upper respiratory disease. This is one virus that kittens need to be protected from. Kitten vaccine will protect them from Rhinotracheitis, Calicivirus, Distemper, and Panleukopenia. The vaccine schedule will need to explained to owners and a copy of the vaccine record for their kitten needs to go with them.
Educate owners on keeping their pets healthy
When you are discharging an animal to go home, that is the best time to talk them about pet care. If they have an animal that is not spayed or neutered, tell them the importance of spaying and neutering. Keep a supply of printed information to give to owners. The pamphlets are going to help you in explaining everything to the owners and they will have a record of those explanations to take home with them.