Vet nursing

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Name: Tammy Goodman


Age: 24


Job title: Vet nurse


Working hours: Nine-hour days, 10am to 7pm three days a week, 8am to 5pm for two days, and one weekend a month from 8.30am to 1pm or until work is finished


Employer: Cambridge Veterinary Services


Pay: From $8 to $25 an hour depending on experience


Qualifications needed: National Certificate in Vet Nursing


Career prospects: Head vet nurse, work in specialist clinics



Q. What do you do?

A. When I first arrive at work I clean out kennels, feed the animals and give them medication. Surgery starts at 10am and goes to 1 or 2pm. After lunch we clean up instruments and so on.

If the vets have been doing horse surgery out at studs of racing stables, I re-stock anaesthetic kits in the mobile surgery. In the afternoon we get ready for the next day and feed and re-medicate the animals.

It's important to care for all the animals and to get knowledge out to people about what they can to do look after their animals. I do a lot of the processing of horse x-rays. There can be lots of shots - sometimes 40 shots for each horse.

Yearlings might sell for a $1 million at Karaka and buyers want to know what they are getting. Ninety per cent of yearlings sold at Karaka would have x-rays.

Q. Why did you choose the job?

A. I love animals. I grew up in Cambridge and Hamilton and I've always ridden horses, mostly for pleasure but I've done a few gymkhanas and shows.

I started working in studs and racing stables and did track work.

I travelled around Europe for four years managing a polo team of 15 ponies. We also took them across to America.

In 1995 I was doing trackwork when I fell off and injured my back. Horses are my biggest passion and if I couldn't ride I still wanted to be involved with them so I did the National Certificate in Vet Nursing at Wintec last year. I started at Cambridge Vet Services, which is a big equine practice, last December.

Q. What's the best part of the job?

A. It's definitely not cleaning up the cat litter. It's seeing the animals recuperate, seeing them get on the road to recovery.

The worst is losing an animal. You can put a lot of time into them and it's hard to lose one.

Lots of strange things happen, lots of different things, like the cat that had got caught in a possum trap and had its leg mutilated. The leg had to be amputated. There's always something to keep you interested, like an interesting surgery.

Q. What are your strengths?

A. I'm not squeamish and I've had a lot of equine experience. There's always a lot to learn and you have to keep practising. I learn a lot from the other nurses here.

You have to love animals and want to care for their well-being to be a good vet nurse. You need lots of initiative, be able to make decisions, and have some get-up-and-go.

Q. What are your goals?

A. I'll look at doing the Diploma in Vet Nursing if I can do it by correspondence while I work but my main aim is just to get more experience. An equine hospital is opening in Cambridge. It would be good to go there.

Q. What would you tell others?

A. Get in and do the training and then look for a job. You do work experience as part of the vet nurse course and that's the time to do your best and get a foot in the door. Not a lot of jobs are advertised. It's mostly by word of mouth.