The minute it goes under the anaesthetic you re in charge of making sure the animal is breathing and the heart rate and body temperature are okay. You do get used to the blood and gore side of things. The aftercare is very important until they re fully round. In the evenings, after the animals have gone, you need to thoroughly clean out and disinfected the cages so the next animal won t receive any germs from the previous animal. We also do dentistry work.
Animals come in for a polish and scale and the majority have a bad tooth that needs to be removed.
Once the vet has done this, I will scale the teeth down with an ultrasonic scaler and finish off by polishing all the teeth. Part of our surgery is an equine centre. I have to trot the horses up and down before the vet, so they can see any lame risk problems. I also handle them for x-rays or turn them out into the field and feed them. It s similar to a stable hand job but with a lot more extras.