Veterinary nursing a rewarding calling

WHEN Clare Zagata enrolled in a veterinary nurse course in her native England, no one was surprised.

The young school leaver had grown up around animals, especially horses, and loved caring for her pets.

The 46-year-old has worked at the same vet surgery in Earlville for 20 years. It is now a Greencross franchise.

“It’s looked at a little bit more of as a profession in England, but we’ve come a long way in Australia,” she said.

“There’s a huge amount of responsibility – we do everything from customer service, relations with clients, anaesthesia, cleaning kennels, walking dogs to X-rays and medical and surgical nursing.”

Mrs Zagata said the best part of her job was seeing a critically ill animal pulling through.

“It’s such a nice feeling when you’ve worked really hard and you’ve got an animal through a critical care situation,” she said.

“I love the client contact too. Because I’ve been here so long I know all the clients.”

She said the most interesting case she had come across was at a clinic in Wollongong where she had to check over a group of baby snakes.

“That was a bit weird, to have a bunch of pythons all over you,” she said.

But the job also had its downsides, she said.

“The hardest thing is when you have to put an animal down or let them go but it’s normally because everything has been done that can be done,” he said.

Mrs Zagata said the most important attribute was a desire to do the job and “do it really well.”

“Have the best interests of your patients at heart,’’ she said.

“Listen to what they want but be able to offer the best standards of care, and they can choose what they want to do.”