Where I Work: Alamo Hills Animal Hospital

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Since I was 5 years old I’ve wanted to help animals. I always was the one at parties who would greet the cats and dogs before people and always had some type of animal I was feeding or nursing back to health in our backyard. Growing up in a small town in western Wisconsin there was always some animal somewhere that I would take care of. 

In high school, I started taking veterinary science courses and job shadowed at a mixed-practice veterinary clinic. I absolutely loved going on farm calls and feeding the calves. Energized by my work at the clinic, I later enrolled at a university where I was planning on getting a bachelor’s degree in biology on the pre-vet pathway. But I realized quickly that a four-year degree wasn’t for me and that what I really wanted to be was not a veterinarian but a veterinary technician. I wanted the nursing part of the career, the advocating for my patients, and all that came with it.

After earning an associate’s degree in veterinary technology, I moved to San Antonio, where my husband’s grandparents live and where he had gotten a job as a firefighter paramedic. The same day I arrived in San Antonio, I was offered a position at Alamo Hills Animal Hospital.

Most people when they hear I am a veterinary technician think that I just play with puppies and kittens all day. While that is a perk of the job, it’s not all I do. My patients try to bite and scratch me, I deal with vomit and diarrhea on most days and am lucky if I don’t go home with stains on my scrubs. I have to go from a family saying goodbye to their beloved pet of 15 years right to a new puppy coming in for the first time and have to be able to keep my emotions at bay.  

My typical day starts early. Some days I’ll be with a doctor in examination rooms, seeing sick patients, new pets, going over wellness care or having end-of-life discussions. When I am not in examination rooms, I’m usually assisting the doctor with routine surgeries like growth removals, spaying or neutering — or my favorite part: dental cleanings.

Dental cleanings have a lot of instant gratification for technicians. We are the ones that scale the teeth to remove all the tartar, take dental radiographs, polish the teeth and apply any sealant that is requested. We are also monitoring anesthesia and our patient. It is so cool to see teeth go from gross to freshly cleaned.

An important part of my work is advocating for those who can’t speak. Pets can’t tell you what hurts or what is wrong, so technicians and doctors investigate what is going on. We rely on body language, physical signs and symptoms, our knowledge and labratory work to figure out what is wrong. The veterinary staff has to be the voice that explains to owners why we run all these tests and what it will do for us for diagnosis and treatments. 

The most challenging part of this is when we can’t do all diagnostics to figure out what is wrong. Unfortunately, sometimes money is a deal breaker and we can’t always treat every case we see the way we want to with every diagnostic and medication because of the cost. 

Outside of my work at Alamo Hills Animal Hospital, I like to give back to the community through SNIPSA’s The Big Fix, an event offering free spay/neuter, DHPP/FVRCP and Rabies vaccines and microchipping for qualifying zip codes. It’s always a super busy day, but so worth it to help reduce the stray population.

The work I do is incredibly rewarding, and it’s affirming to be part of a team as dedicated as I am to helping animals. Seeing our patients go from not eating for days and just lying there not feeling well to wagging their tails, eating all the food and giving kisses is the ultimate reward. It’s why I do this work and why I can’t see myself doing anything else.