Animal Health Care VAG100

Work for a vet or as an animal care technician or assistant? You can use this course as a vocational pathway toward employment in these industries. Learn to care for the health of any type of animal and understand the scope of services offered by animal care services, including in veterinary practices. This course is appropriate for anyone interested in working with animals including on a farm, a wildlife park or a veterinary practice. It is a sound foundation course and designed to cover most of what is found in a typical veterinary assistants course in many countries around the world.Lesson Structure There are 12 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Animal Health Care

• animal welfare and control
• veterinary services
• code of practice
• transporting animals

2. Common Health Problems

• causes of ill health
• injury
• conditions
• nutritional problems
• living organisms
• parasites
• family pets common conditions
• dogs
• cats
• caged birds
• aquarium fish
• mice
• wild animals common conditions
• reptiles

3. Animal Behaviour

• communication in dogs
• scent
• barking
• body language
• handling cats
• bird language
• types of behavior
• time orientation
• space orientation
• territorial behavior
• aggression
• horse psychology

4. Signs of Ill Health

• vital signs
• the healthy animal
• signs & symptoms of diseases
• recognising ill health
• diagnosis of diseases
• taking smears
• taking tissue samples
• diagnosis and control of different types of diseases including
• viruses
• bacteria
• protozoa
• parasites
• mites
• fleas

5. Veterinary Facilities

• first aid kit
• record management
• enclosure for animals
• environmental requirements

6. Safety Procedures

• duty of care
• lifting heavy weights
• reducing back injury
• protective equipment
• dealing with chemicals
• skin penetrating injuries
• risk categories
• separating animals
• disposal of dead/infected tissues
• dangerous non-animal wastes
• storage and handling of medicines
• handling larger animals

7. Administration of Animal Health

• animal insurance
• quarantine
• importing animals
• managing a veterinary office
• telephone usage
• record keeping
• filing information

8. Animal First Aid

• types of wounds
• cuts
• punctures
• tears
• treating and cleaning wounds
• granulating wounds
• stitching a wound
• bone and joint problems
• broken bones
• tendon injury
• poisoning
• restraining animals during first aid
• restraining cats
• restraining dogs
• restraining horses
• restraining cattle
• restraining sheep

9. Preventative Health Care

• diet
• insect control
• dip
• vaccinate
• avoid stressing livestock
• vaccination

10. Routine Health Treatments

• de-sexing
• castration
• vasectomy
• spaying
• tubal ligation
• castration of cats
• dogs
• pregnancy
• gestation periods
• euthanasia
• anaesthesia and analgesia
• preparing an animal for surgery
• sterilising equipment
• castrating a colt

11. Health Problems in Domestic Pets

• burns
• urinary tract infections;
• shock
• electrolytes
• ticks
• reptiles
• fish problems

12. Rehabilitation Care

• animal nursing
• planning a recovery

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school\'s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims

• To be able to describe the scope of services offered by animal care services, including veterinary practices.
• Describe common health problems in various animals, including injuries & diseases, causes of ill health problems in family pets
• Explain the natural behaviour of different types of domestic animals in different situations - natural behaviour of animals, problems in wild animals, and behaviour in domestic animals
• Identify common signs of ill health in different animals - vital signs, the healthy animal , signs & symptoms of disease , and diagnose and control of diseases
• Describe the purposes of different facilities used in veterinary practice, the contents of a first aid kit, suitable enclosures for animals
• Determine safety procedures for a veterinary practice, workplace safety issues, aspects of health and safety for veterinary practices
• Describe different administration procedures in a veterinary practice, including animal insurance, legal considerations, day to day management of a veterinary office
• Describe/select first aid procedures/treatments for different animals in response to common health problems in animals, identify types of wounds and suitable treatments
• Describe requirements for maintaining good health in domestic animals, including nutrition & preventative medicine, preventing ill health through correct management, vaccinations
• To develop an understanding of routine treatments for healthy animals such as de-sexing, managing a pregnancy and euthanasia
• To develop a broader awareness of health problems and their treatment in domestic pets, discuss ticks and tick borne diseases, Australian animals, birds, reptiles, and fish
• To develop skills in caring for animals prior to, during or after treatment, planning a recovery and animal nursing

What You Will Do

• Contact several bodies/organisations that are concerned with animal welfare, and obtain any literature or other information which you can, regarding issues such as:

o Restrictions placed by local councils upon the keeping of pets.
o Legal requirements on animal owners, with respect to animal welfare

• Find two different types of domestic animals which you can observe (ie. different species).

o Observe each on two different occasions, for at least 15 minutes each time.
o Make notes of their behaviour.

• Note any similarities between behaviour on the different occasions, and between the different types of animals.
• Describe methods used for controlling/restraining animals during an examination
• List as many things as you can that might cause a dogs temperature to go to 40oC.
• Contact a state government veterinary/agriculture department, and find out anything you can about health risks to humans from domestic & farm animal diseases in your country.
• Try to determine what animals are the biggest threat; what diseases are a more serious threat, and what controls are in place to minimise such problems.
• List any animal diseases which may be also contracted by man, which you are aware of?
• Research exotic diseases in your country or region and take notes.
• Design a standard "Patient record" card/form for use by a general practice veterinarian.

Veterinary Services

These may include:

• The General Practice Vet
• Specialist Vets
• Pathology Laboratories
• Animal Hospitals
• Government Veterinary Services
• Pharmaceutical Departments
• Educational and Research Organisations

Veterinarians are scientists who have university level training. They are highly skilled professionals.

They are commonly supported/assisted by veterinary assistants or nurses who may work in any or all of the following areas:

• Reception and general office duties
• Medical nursing -including investigative procedures
• Surgical nursing
• General cleaning
• Technical maintenance

Traditionally, veterinarians have employed people at various levels to undertake different combinations of these tasks.

The lowest level has been an "Animal attendant" or "Trainee veterinary nurse" who has been responsible for tasks such as:

- Basic office duties such as answering the greeting customers, answering the phone, typing, processing mail etc.

- Basic animal care such as grooming, feeding, cleaning and restraining (e.g. placing animals in a cage, or holding them during an examination).

An Animal attendant would normally be closely supervised in their duties, by a veterinary nurse or a veterinarian. An animal attendant might not necessarily have any formal training; but people employed as such are often expected to pursue a course of training to develop further skills and qualify them to work at a higher level as a trainee veterinary nurse, and eventually a qualified veterinary nurse.