Veterinary Assistant

Petco•Highlands Ranch, CO

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Petco is a company dedicated to helping pets live their best lives, fostering an environment where employees can make a difference, build careers, and nurture their wellbeing. Their core values emphasize putting pets first, fostering fun, and committing as one team. For over 60 years, Petco has provided products and expert support for pet parents, operating over 1,500 stores, 250+ Vetco Total Care hospitals, hundreds of preventive care clinics, and eight distribution centers across the U.S., Mexico, and Puerto Rico. They also founded Petco Love in 1999, supporting animal welfare groups and facilitating approximately 7 million animal adoptions. The Veterinary Assistant position is crucial for providing excellent medical care to Vetco Total Care hospital patients and phenomenal customer care to their owners. This role embodies Petco's mission and values, setting the tone for technical and customer support within the hospital. All hospital staff, including Veterinary Assistants, are responsible for ensuring patient needs come first, creating exceptional customer experiences, resolving contentious issues, and fostering teamwork and commitment to shared goals.

Requirements

Preferred to have at least 1-year previous experience working in veterinary practice or sufficient relatable animal care experience to ensure excellent performance at the above-listed skills.
Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Must be compassionate and sympathetic, and be able to maintain a professional attitude and demeanor during emotional and stressful situations.
Must have telephone and computer skills.
Must be a team player willing to learn new techniques and treatments, offer creative ideas, and accept change.

Responsibilities

Greet clients and patients arriving for appointments and escort them into an exam room, obtain weight and vital signs (temperature, pulse, respirations) and record the electronic medical record.
Collect thorough patient histories and document the patient visit in the EMRs.
Assist doctors with appointments (routine and emergency), surgery, dentistry, and euthanasia, under supervision from the veterinarian credentialed veterinary technician, HOM and HLOD.
Perform patient restraint, obtain and process laboratory samples, handle and dispense medications at the direction of the veterinarian and help maintain the electronic medical record.
Schedule appointments, provide client education, relay test results to doctor and clients, and maintain and update client/patient records.
Help prepare patients for surgical and dental procedures and assist doctor and/or veterinary technician in anesthetizing patients.
Under supervision of the veterinarian and/or veterinary technician, maintain patients safely under anesthesia while monitoring vital parameters, help monitor patients during recovery and prepare them for hospital discharge or transfer to an overnight care facility.
Under supervision of the veterinarian and/or veterinary technician, perform in-hospital treatments for sick patients including giving injectable and oral medications as well as intravenous fluid therapy; keep patients clean, watered, and fed (when indicated and directed by doctor), safely walk canine patients when necessary for elimination.
Under direction of the HOM/HLOD, assist in the training of new staff members and general dissemination of knowledge as required.
Keep hospital environment neat and clean; perform regular cleaning of environment based on necessity as well as based on a pre-determined maintenance schedule.
Perform additional duties as assigned.
Provide backup phone and front desk support as needed.