Details

Learn the practical skills you'll need to be a valuable veterinary assistant or educated pet owner. This course is the third installment in the "Become a Veterinary Assistant" series.

Throughout the course, you'll benefit from videos that demonstrate many procedures and techniques, as well as state-of-the-art interactive graphics. It's as close as you can get to actually being right there in the veterinarian's office!

Enrollment Options:

Instructor-Led
6 Weeks Access Course Code: psk
Start Dates* Mar 13 | Apr 17 | May 15 | Jun 19
*Choose start date in cart

$129.99

USD
Self-Paced
3 Months Access Course Code: T9722
No Instructor, Start Anytime

$129.99

USD

Enroll before 28th February and get high quality lamination on your hardcopy certificate absolutely free! Use your certificate to your advantage by showing your certified credentials to prospective employers and recruiters.

Syllabus

Basic Dog Restraints

You'll begin this course by learning about one of the basic duties of veterinary assistants—how to safely and securely hold animals. Proper restraint techniques are the keys to ensuring that you and the person performing a procedure are safe. In addition to learning those techniques, you'll find out how to assess a patient's body language, how to remove a dog from a cage, and how to use different equipment to control a patient.

Basic Restraint Techniques

You focused on dogs in the last lesson. In this lesson, you'll change the focus to cats. Their body language cues differ from a dog's, so how you handle them will change, too. You'll learn the "stretch," the "scruff," and the "kitty burrito" restraint techniques. Then, you'll examine how to restrain rabbits, birds, and other exotics.

Exams, Pilling, and Nails

Now it's time to learn how to put your new restraint skills to work. Nearly every day, a veterinary assistant will be asked to help restrain an animal for any number of reasons: blood collection, injections, and routine examinations to name a few. Other times, you'll have to conduct a physical exam, give medication, or trim nails. This lesson will provide you with videos as well as detailed, step-by-step instructions to help prepare you for these duties.

Blood Collection

A blood test is a vital way for veterinarians to determine what's wrong with a patient. So taking blood samples and having a working knowledge of an animal's circulatory system is key for a veterinary assistant. After a review of the circulatory system, you'll look at the most common sites for taking blood—jugular, cephalic, and saphenous veins. Then, you'll take a look at the equipment you'll be using (needles, syringes, and blood collection tubes).

Blood Tests

Now that you have a blood sample, what can you do with it? In this lesson, you'll learn about the tests you might help to perform and explore how veterinarians diagnose diseases. Though there are thousands of diseases, a few important ones are anemia, diabetes, kidney disease, and liver failure. You'll quickly learn the difference between white blood cells and chemistries and how to do a PCV and blood smear.

Urine Tests

All fluids tell a story. In this lesson, you'll look at urine and how to take samples. You could just put a bowl under a dog, of course, but there other methods that will help ensure that the sample remains uncontaminated. You'll also look at the tests that you might help to perform on urine, and go over what duties you'll be responsible for.

Surgeries

In this lesson, you'll move into the surgical suite. Although the veterinarian will do the surgery itself, she won't be able to do it alone. You may be asked to clip and scrub a patient for surgery. Other responsibilities could include preparing surgical packs, knowing the names of the surgical instruments, and cleaning and sterilizing those instruments properly. You'll also have a front row seat to a life-saving surgery that was performed on a little dog.

Hygiene 101

While it's not the most glamorous of tasks, keeping anal sacs clear and anal glands healthy is a big part of basic health care for companion animals. You'll learn how to identify an impacted sac and two techniques you can use to remedy this condition. You'll also examine how to clean ears, administer medication, and provide a bath—all common responsibilities that you may be assigned as a veterinary assistant.

Gender, Age, and Dosage Calculations

Suppose someone brings you a little kitten and wants to know if it's a boy or a girl. Can you do it? In this lesson, you'll look at how to identify the gender of kittens, puppies, and bunnies, as well as how to tell their age. Knowing the age of a patient is important when figuring out how much medication to give, so there's also a segment on how to calculate doses of medication to help you figure out what and how much to give your patient.

Exam Room Skills (TPR)

Now you'll move into the exam room. Yes, assistants have to know how to set up the room, but they can also play an important role in preparing the patients before the veterinarian sees them. In this lesson you'll learn about TPR—temperature, pulse, and respiration. You'll also discuss how to take a patient history, what to look for while performing the TPR, and how to identify dehydration.

Radiology and Medical Terminology

Do you know metatarsals from metacarpals? How about ventral from dorsal? In this lesson, you'll get a crash course in medical terminology and how to use it when taking radiographs. You'll also learn how to read x-rays and why bones look white and lungs look dark. You'll discover how to train a dog so you can take a hip x-ray without sedation.

Injections, Vaccines, and Worms

In this last lesson, you'll take a closer look at how to give injections (including vaccines) and how to diagnose one of the most common ailments that afflicts cats and dogs: worms. You'll study collection techniques, proper equipment, what to look for in a sample, and how to identify different types of worms. Finally, the lesson wraps up with some memorable veterinary cases. Maybe they'll inspire you to become a veterinarian yourself!

Requirements

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC or Mac.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 8 or newer.
  • Mac: OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Instructor

Jeff Grognet has been a companion animal veterinarian for 25 years. He was a pioneer in the field of veterinary assistant teaching, developing his first course more than 18 years ago. Due to the success of his veterinary receptionist/assistant courses, he expanded his teaching into other high-demand areas including pet first aid and alternative medical therapies for companion animals. He practices at a veterinary hospital and contributes regularly to several magazines.

Reviews

The employment of veterinary assistants is expected to rise by 16% through 2029!


According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov), the median annual pay for veterinary assistants was $30,930 in May 2021. So, as a veterinary assistant, you can earn a decent amount of money while helping a cause for NGOs, veterinary hospitals, or private vets. As the employment of veterinary assistants is expected to rise by 16% from 2019 to 2029, they are in high demand in the U.S.

Your love for animals and skill in science could lead to a stable, well-paying career. With this course, you will have everything you need to successfully advance your career without disrupting your life. A knowledgeable instructor will guide you through the basics of animal biology to help you diagnose why an animal might be sick. And you will do it all online at your own pace with a facilitator who will provide one-on-one interaction by answering questions and providing feedback on your performance. Join the ranks of hundreds of individuals who have successfully completed the ExpertRating Veterinary Assistant Certification and go on to help diagnose and treat animals under a veterinarian's supervision

About ExpertRating

ExpertRating is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company offering online certification and training services to individuals and companies globally. Over 25 million people have benefited from ExpertRating Online Certifications and assessments. ExpertRating is the winner of the Google SME Hero's award for showing outstanding use of technology in delivering trusted services to thousands of people on a daily basis. Our affordable certifications are an excellent way of demonstrating your knowledge and skills to prospective employers as well as vastly boosting your chances of moving ahead in your business or career.

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ExpertRating is a winner of the Google SME Heroes award. This award has been instituted by Google to honor IT companies that have excelled in their domain and have leveraged the internet to grow and expand their businesses in innovative ways.


ExpertRating is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company, which reflects that our courses and tests conform to the highest international quality standards. Our training material is prepared by thorough professionals with years of experience, and goes through several rounds of analysis by expert teams to help develop well-balanced, comprehensive and meaningful content.


Your fee includes worldwide airmail delivery of the hard copy Veterinary Assistant Certification. The Veterinary Assistant Certificate can be used to prove your certified status and does not mention the word "online". Also receive an online transcript that mentions your score and which you can use to prove your certified credentials on the internet at any time. Plus you get the in-depth Veterinary Assistant Certification courseware including scenarios and case studies.