10/23/2026
You've seen our posts this week to celebrate our wonderful Licensed Veterinary Technicians during Veterinary Technicians Week.
In New York, Veterinary Technicians must complete an accredited veterinary technician program (usually a 2 year degree), pass the Veterinary Technician National Examination to earn their license, and maintain ongoing professional continuing education in order to keep their license.
But do you know what a Licensed Veterinary Technician actually does?
Here's a short and incomplete list:
- take accurate histories from owners (this is a more skilled job than you'd think! A good tech can learn a whole lot just from chatting with you about your pet, and this is vital to providing appropriate care)
- take vital signs
- give injections (under the skin, into a muscle, into a vein, all are different skills with different medications)
- draw blood and collect other samples
- place IV catheters and run IV fluids
- induce, monitor, and run anesthesia (including intubation, local anesthesia, specific dental local blocks)
- scale, polish, and radiograph teeth (we perform full mouth radiographs at every dental, you know who does that? The technician!)
- perform radiographs (this is more complicated than you'd think)
- perform laboratory tests like ear cytology, skin cytology, urine sediment a**lysis, heartworm tests, etc.
- take intraocular (eye) pressures
- administer medications
- assist with surgery
- client education
- clip nails, express a**l glands, clean ears, minor grooming
- meticulously accurate documentation
Think about the human medicine side, there are usually different people performing these tasks. But Vet Techs do it all! Vet Techs are nurses, dental hygienists, radiology techs, laboratory techs, etc. etc.
So happy Veterinary Technicians Week and thank you to ALL Veterinary Technicians, especially our own Bekka, Emily, and Cydney. We quite literally couldn't do it without you!
