Luckily, you don't have to become a doctor to get the experience of taking care of animals in a veterinary setting. You can just earn a Bachelor's Degree for veterinary nursing jobs.
Veterinary Technologists, or veterinary technicians, is one of the veterinary jobs that you can pursue with only a Bachelor's Degree in Veterinary Technology. Just like doctors, Veterinary Technicians need to pass a state exam for laboratory animal technology. With the degree and exam passed, you are now a certified Veterinary Technician.
Your job responsibilities would be to work under a licensed veterinarian and making sure that animals get the correct medications, conduct tests, and do research. Tests that you would be able to perform include urinalysis, microbiology, hematology, serology, and more tests. Other duties you could be responsible for are to scrape the skin of animals for tests, venipuncture, perform and handle radiographs and administer anesthesia.
The average salary for these veterinary jobs is between $23,000 and $35,000.
Another great career choice that only requires a Bachelor's Degree is a Laboratory Animal Health Technician. For this position, you need a Bachelor's Degree and you need to have at least six years' of experience in some sort of technical field of work. Also, you have to become a certified laboratory animal technician designation.
The responsibilities you will perform for these veterinarian nursing jobs are basically to be a licensed veterinarian assistant. For this job, you would have to perform tests, interpret and report the health status of an animal, and you will most likely have to observe animals on a daily basis. Also, for surgeries, Laboratory Animal Health Technicians perform any pre-surgery treatments and assist the veterinarians during the surgeries.
For these veterinary jobs, the salary is around $43,000.
One other job in the veterinary field is a Small Animal Laboratory Supervisor. Obtaining a Bachelor's Degree and experience in an animal laboratory facility that totals at least five years. Along with those, you need to be certified by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. For this career, your responsibilities include taking care of animals and their medical records for research, managing and training staff, and working on the financial plan and budget.
The average salary for these veterinary nursing jobs is around $33,000.
These careers are some of the most popular up and coming job paths. More and more veterinarians are requesting these people to help assist them in their practice. These careers paths only require a Bachelor's Degree, and some of them require you to be experienced in the certain field to be qualified. Just like the doctors, you have to be certified by the state in which you work. So, if you want to work with aiding animals, but don't have the time or money to become a doctor, one of these veterinary jobs will certainly be satisfying.