24 Sep More Than A Hitching Post, Proud to be a Veterinary Technician
Proud to be a Veterinary Technician, Bryce Morgan LVT
I am more than just a hitching post.
I think I can speak for many, if not all of us, in saying that we chose this field because we share
a passion for animals. Not just our own, but yours. The joke stands, “If we were doing it for the
money, we would have gone into human medicine”. Some of us chose the technician route as
a starting point to eventually becoming a vet. Some of us knew that we wanted to be a nurse
and that was the end goal. Whatever the goal, the drive was the same — save animals.
The role of the veterinary technician is a somewhat new position in the veterinary field. It is a
position that many clients don’t understand, simply due to lack of education. This is where the
“hitching post” metaphor is derived from. We are seen as someone to hold horses during
procedures, feed cookies and clean up when the doctor is done. Sadly, I have found that there
is a routine lack of respect from clients towards technicians until their pet is walking the tightline between the knife and the grave. This is when we are able to gain due appreciation.
I am not one to feel entitled to respect. I am happy to prove myself and my abilities to clients and in
being a competent surgery tech and anesthetist, I have been able to do so over the last three
years. I am most proud to be a technician when working side by side with my doctor in the
surgery room. In the chaos of prepping a crashing colic for surgery at three o’clock in the
morning after working a fifteen hour shift. In the surgery room trying to stay calm and collected
while internally breaking down because his blood pressure just tanked and heart rate is sky
rocketing, meanwhile extinguishing your pharmaceutical resources in an attempt to get him
back to a state of equilibrium. In recovery, hoping and praying that he stands up because the
little boy who loves this horse is outside the door with tired eyes, waiting on him. In the
following weeks, sharing countless hours in the stall with him, continuously putting him through
the rounds of rectal exams, nasogastric tubings and pain meds in an attempt to keep him
comfortable. Finally, on the day the trailer pulls in and the little boy jumps out of the truck, runs
into the stall, throws his arms around the horse’s neck and kisses his forehead that’s still
missing hide from thrashing prior to surgery. When he halters his horse and gets ready to load
him into the trailer, and just before he jumps in, he looks over and says thank you, and smiles. That is when I am most proud to be a technician.
I am proud to be a veterinary technician and I am more than just a hitching post.
Bryce Morgan, LVT
Desert Pines Equine Center
Las Vegas, NV
