Profession general veterinarian

Veterinarians diagnose and treat sickness, disease and injury in all types of animals, and advise on preventative action.

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Personality Type

• Investigative / Realistic

Tasks general veterinarian

• Examine animals to detect and determine the nature of diseases, disorders or injuries.
• Carry out diagnostic tests, such as x-rays, blood samples and ultrasound, and interpret the results.
• Treat sick or injured animals, e.g. by prescribing and administering medication, setting bones, dressing wounds, or administering anaesthetics and performing surgery.
• Perform routine medical tests and checks, and inoculate animals against various diseases such as rabies and distemper.
• Euthanize animals.
• Advise animal owners regarding sanitary measures, feeding and general care necessary to promote the health of animals.
• Educate the public, e.g. about diseases that can be spread from animals to humans.
• Train and supervise workers who handle and care for animals.
• Inspect hygiene and care standards in animal quarters, e.g. farms, zoos, kennels, riding stables, pet shops, cattle markets, animal shows and sporting events.
• Maintain records, and provide reports and certificates in compliance with current legislation.
• Manage practice finances, marketing and staff recruitment.
• Conduct research in animal health and related areas.

Related professions livestock

• Agricultural advisor
• Arable farm manager, field crop or vegetable
• Arable farmer manager, mixed crop
• Artificial inseminator
• Cattle breeder
• Cattle station helper
• Dairy producer
• Herdsman
• Livestock breeder, all other
• Livestock dealer
• Livestock farm manager
• Livestock farm worker
• Livestock farmer
• Livestock machinery installer
• Livestock machinery mechanic
• Pig breeder
• Poultry producer
• Quality inspector cattle, meat, fish
• Stockman
• Subsistence livestock farmer
• Veterinarian inspector
• Veterinarian, all other
• Veterinary aid
• Veterinary technician
• Veterinary vaccinator

Knowledge

• Signs of animal illness

  Physical, behavioural and environmental signs of health and ill health in various animals.

• Animal production science

  Animal nutrition, agronomy, rural economics, animal husbandry, hygiene and bio-security, ethology, protection and herd health management.

• Conduct ante-mortem veterinary health inspection

  Perform clinical assessment and certification of the health status of food animals prior to slaughter.

• Anatomy of animals

  The study of animal body parts, their structure and dynamic relationships, on a level as demanded by the specific occupation.

• Biosecurity related to animals

  Awareness of hygiene and bio-security measures when working with animals, including causes, transmission and prevention of diseases and use of policies, materials and equipment.

• Zoonotic diseases

  Zoonoses are infectious diseases of animals that can naturally be transmitted to humans. They consist of a wide range of diseases and range from endemic zoonoses such as brucellosis, anthrax, bovine tuberculosis, parasitic diseases (hydatid disease, echinococcosis, trichinellosis) and rabies to emerging zoonoses, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, Nipah/Hendra disease and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.

• Animal behaviour

  The natural behavioural patterns of animals, i.e. how normal and abnormal behaviour might be expressed according to species, environment, human-animal interaction and occupation.

• Safe work practices in a veterinary setting

  Safe work practices in a veterinary setting in order to identify hazards and associated risks so as to prevent accidents or incidents. This includes injury from animals, zoonotic diseases, chemicals, equipment and working environment.

• Animal food products

  The principles of traceability, hygiene and processes involved in the production, manufacture, storage and putting into circulation of animal feedstuffs, or foodstuffs of animal origin intended for human and/or animal consumption.

• Veterinary clinical sciences

  Aetiology, pathogenesis, clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment of common diseases and disorders. This includes veterinary areas such as propaedeutics, clinical and anatomic pathology, microbiology, parasitology, clinical medicine and surgery (including anaesthetics), preventive medicine, diagnostic imaging, animal reproduction and reproductive disorders, veterinary state medicine and public health, veterinary legislation and forensic medicine, and therapeutics.

• Physiology of animals

  The study of the mechanical, physical, bioelectrical and biochemical functioning of animals, their organs and their cells.

• Animal welfare

  Universally recognized animal welfare needs as applied to species, situation and occupation. These are: need for a suitable environment need for a suitable diet need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns need to be housed with, or apart, from other animals need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

• Animal welfare legislation

  The legal boundaries, codes of professional conduct, national and EU regulatory frameworks and legal procedures of working with animals and living organisms, ensuring their welfare and health.

• Fundamental veterinary sciences

  Veterinary anatomy, histology, embryology, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, pharmacology, pharmacy, toxicology, microbiology, immunology, epidemiology and professional ethics.

• Environmental enrichment for animals

  Types, methods and use of enrichment for animals to allow the expression of natural behaviour, including the provision of environmental stimuli, feeding activities, puzzles, items for manipulation, social and training activities.

Skills

• Certify the performance of veterinary procedures

  Produce accurate descriptive certification of procedures carried out by a veterinarian.

• Provide anaesthetics to animals

  Select, administer, and monitor anaesthetics in animals in preparation for surgery.

• Control animal movement

  Direct, control or restrain some or part of an animal's, or a group of animals', movement.

• Manage the use of vaccines

  Prescribe, administer and manage the use of vaccines, immune stimulants and suppressors and anti-sera.

• Evaluate information in the field of veterinary nursing

  Be able to read, understand and utilise the most current research available to justify decisions based on best practice.

• Handle veterinary emergencies

  Handle unforeseen incidents concerning animals and circumstances which call for urgent action in an appropriate professional manner.

• Collect samples from animals for diagnostic purposes

  Obtain specimens of an animal's body fluids, secretions, excretion or other tissues, in order to facilitate the diagnosis of health and disease.

• Manage animal biosecurity

  Plan and use appropriate biosafety measures to prevent transmission of diseases and ensure effective overall biosecurity. Maintain and follow biosecurity procedures and infection control when working with animals, including recognising potential health issues and taking appropriate action, communicating site hygiene control measures and biosecurity procedures, as well as reporting to others.

• Maintain veterinary clinical records

  Create and maintain clinical records for animals according to national regulatory requirements.

• Assess animal behaviour

  Observe and evaluate the behaviour of animals in order to work with them safely and recognise deviations from normal behaviour that signal compromised health and welfare.

• Provide first aid to animals

  Administer emergency treatment to prevent deterioration of the condition, suffering and pain until veterinary assistance can be sought. Basic emergency treatment needs to be done by non-veterinarians prior to first-aid provided by a veterinarian. Non-veterinarians providing emergency treatment are expected to seek treatment by a veterinarian as soon as possible.

• Perform veterinary diagnosis

  Identify and determine the physiological status of animals and the nature and cause of diseases in animals through evaluation of patient history, clinical examination, and the selection, taking and reviewing of confirmatory imaging, laboratory and other ancillary test data.

• Perform laboratory testing on samples of animals

  Conduct and interprete simple procedures in a veterinary practice laboratory on samples of an animal intended to detect, identify, or quantify disease agents, evaluate organ functions, or determine the nature of a disease.

• Advise on livestock disease control

  Advise livestock owners of economic aspects of disease eradication. Advise consumers of public health implications of diseases transmissible from animals to humans.

• Supervise animal handling for veterinary activities

  Supervise the handling and restraint of animals in connection with veterinary examination or other procedures.

• Manage pain for veterinary patients

  Select, administer and monitor analgesics in animals.

• Manage animal welfare

  Plan, manage and evaluate the application of the five universally recognised animal welfare needs as appropriate to species, situation and own occupation.

• Develop an animal handling strategy

  Develop plans and strategies to deal with the animal in order to achieve established goals and optimal results.

• Inspect animal welfare management

  Monitor animal health and welfare management and husbandry, and analyse risk factors in relation to animal health, disease and welfare status.

• Implant microchips in animals

  Implant microchips under the skin of animals.'

• Provide animal training

  Provide training in basic handling, habituation, and obedience to enable the completion of day-to-day tasks while minimising the risks to the animal, the handler, and others.

• Provide sedation to animals

  Select, administer and monitor sedatives dispensed to animals for a medical intervention.

• Safely interact with animals

  Ensure a safe and humane interaction with the animal avoiding factors that will negatively affect their behaviours. This includes the use of humane training aids/equipment, as well as explaining their use to owners/keepers, to ensure they are used appropriately and the welfare of the animal is protected.

• Apply safe work practices in a veterinary setting

  Apply safe work practices in a veterinary setting in order to identify hazards and associated risks so as to prevent accidents or incidents. This includes injury from animals, zoonotic diseases, chemicals, equipment and work environments.

• Apply veterinary epidemiology

  Analyse animal and zoonotic disease morbidity and mortality in a given population and relate findings to the norm. This includes collection and analysis of data and information for use in individual animals, groups or more widely as part of a network of disease surveillance. Implement intervention and control measures.

• Manage licensed animal medications

  Prescribe and/or administer all kinds of medications, including fluid replacement therapy by all routes. This includes assessment of the safety and efficacy of a single medicine, and of combinations of medicines, for use in the animal, while ensuring neither compromising the owner, nor public health.

• Monitor the welfare of animals

  Monitor animals’ physical condition and behaviour and report any concerns or unexpected changes, including signs of health or ill-health, appearance, condition of the animals' accommodation, intake of food and water and environmental conditions.

• Carry out veterinary professional communication to the public

  Provide veterinary information and insight, in cooperation with public health officials, with regard to zoonotic and infectious diseases, as well as to general animal care and welfare.

• Conduct veterinary client consultation

  Conduct structured and empathetic communication with clients in order to ascertain or provide relevant clinical information concerning health status, treatment options or other ongoing care of the veterinary patient.

• Perform euthanasia on animals

  Kill painlessly an animal suffering from an incurable and painful disease.

• Practise veterinary professional codes of conduct

  Adhere to veterinary professional codes of practice and legislation.

• Perform surgical procedures on animals

  Apply operative manual and instrument specific techniques on an animal with the intention of modifying physiological status, and/or restoring normal organ or tissue function or structure.

• Perform gross post mortem examination on animals

  Perform gross examination of the animal corpse for the purpose of diagnosing the aetiology and pathophysiology of disease or death of animals and for the safety and quality of animal products entering the food chain.

• Issue certificates for animal products

  Issue certificates related to animal health and welfare or to animal products, based on the necessary examination or testing, in accordance with the principles of certification agreed at European level.

• Prescribe physical therapy to animals

  Prescribe physical methods for therapy in animals, such as modification of exercise, massage, heat treatment, electrical and other wave based treatments.

• Manage animal hygiene

  Plan and use appropriate hygiene measures to prevent transmission of diseases and ensure an effective overall hygiene. Maintain and follow hygiene procedures and regulations when working with animals, communicate site hygiene controls and protocols to others. Manage the safe disposal of waste according to destination and local regulations.

• Assess animal nutrition

  Assess the nutrition status of animals, diagnose dietary imbalances and prescribe correction.

• Advise on animal welfare

  Prepare and provide information to individuals or groups of people on how to promote the health and well-being of animals, and how risks to animal health and welfare may be reduced. Provide recommendations for corrective actions.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB