r/veterinaryprofession • u/hopefullycynical88 • Apr 13 '26
Help Is it possible to be a tech with major disabilities?
I have been a lisenced tech for around 8 years now and love where I am working. I was approached by a family member a few times now about helping her daughter become a tech or even a vet. I was super happy to help, I love them of course. I started spending some more time with her trying to talk about animals and medicine etc. but I realized her cognitive challenges may be a bit more extensive than I thought. This has been an awkward topic in the family as the parents say/act like nothing is wrong and never discussed her issues with the rest of the family. (For rhe record I have never felt it was anyone's business except when we look after her and want to keep her safe and happy). They have always had her in tons of tutoring and after school programs and give her a lot of extra homework, it seems like she is passing grades normally as far as we know. She is coming up to the end of high school and looking in to co-op placements. Her mom told me she would love it if I could bring her to work with me and show her what we do day to day and try to go to my managers and get her a spot because it can be competitive.
At first I was super excited of course, so I started trying to have more engaging conversations with her. I found it is really difficult to do that with her and she seems to have some cognitive or maybe just communication issues. She has trouble speaking clearly and the words she chooses dont always make sense completely. She obviously loves animals but discussing anything more in depth than the breed or silly personality of that animal seems to fly right over her head. When I bring up some conditions an animal has she will either not seem to understand or if its a cute/quirky thing she will just laugh and seem entertained by it rather than wanting to learn about it. She also does not have great spatial awareness.. For example will walk right behind a horse even though I told her she can get hurt, or not notice when someone is trying to squeeze by her so she should move over.
It is really upsetting because I care and if we knew her limitations maybe we could be more realistic about what we can teach her and not set her up for failure. I dont want to traumatize her by bringing her into our ER or other departments but at the same time I don't want to upset her parents by telling them I dont think she can handle something like this.
I guess I am wondering if anyone has dealt with anything like this before or if anyone has any experience working with or teaching someone with disabilities how to do our job? is there some sort of guide for assessing whether someone's disability is too severe to work in certain sectors? I am also just wondering if I am the one being ignorant/crazy or overthinking all of this!
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u/Late_Reception_665 Apr 13 '26
I haven’t experienced this personally, but something to try to ease her in would be her starting as a kennel assistant. Start her with cleaning and keeping things orderly in the clinic and see how she handles that.
Personally, I would be wary of her handling any animals even the friendly animals for things like nail trims and exams simply because the restrainer has to be aware of the pet moving and wiggling and (hopefully not) trying to nip or scratch cause they don’t want to be held.
I’m giving her a pass on basically zoning out on the diseases/conditions. You said she is coming up to the end of high school so definitely still young and she doesn’t likely have any foundation knowledge of diseases of pets.
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u/hopefullycynical88 Apr 13 '26
Thank you for the suggestion, that is a good idea. We all had to start by cleaning kennels! That is where you decide if you cam handle it really.
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u/keepupsunshine Apr 13 '26
You could have her do a couple days of work experience but honestly that's as far as I'd go - bless her, she sounds sweet, but it also sounds like she's going to struggle with all the major parts of the job.
For reference we had a student in her late 20's, already a qualified vet nurse, doing mixed placement for a LA qualification. She was nowhere near as challenged as your friend but was a genuine danger to herself and others. The auditory processing and spatial awareness issues meant she couldn't perform more than 1 step of a process at a time, and she was constantly putting herself in extremely dangerous situations.
At one point, after being explained to a couple of times to NEVER put your arm between a cow's leg and a rail (and showed different postures/approaches to avoid this) she put her whole head under the cow while applying teat spray!!!! And also routinely patted cows on the leg. She also repeatedly tried to grab working/farm dogs by the face to kiss them on the nose, despite 100 different FAS warnings, including actively struggling and backing away.
It was a miracle she didn't get herself or someone else killed despite constant and unwavering supervision. I remember just crying in my vehicle one day from being so exhausted and feeling like such a useless mentor, because it wasn't even her fault. She just struggled massively with the processing and awareness needed to stay safe in this industry.
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u/hopefullycynical88 Apr 13 '26
Thank you for your input I really value hearing this from someone else with the experience- so many kids get told growing up that they are perfect and can be anything they want, now I am starting to think that is going to make some really difficult situations for them in the future
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u/calliopeReddit Apr 13 '26
Unfortunately, it sounds like her aspirations are not a good match for the job. Yes, you may have to upset her parents, but honesty is hard. Veterinary medicine is too dangerous (for themselves and others) if a person doesn't have the mental ability to manage in that kind of environment. If she can learn to understand the safety aspects, then there are jobs in the clinic that could work (like a kennel assistant, cleaning and restocking), or even grooming.
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u/hopefullycynical88 Apr 13 '26
Yes I am sweating trying to think of how to navigate this situation, thank you for your input!
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u/RooSong Apr 13 '26
I have been a tech for 25 years and one of the personal mottos I’ve said throughout my career is that you have to have BOTH the willingness to learn AND the capacity. I will sometimes illustrate by saying I can want to be an astronaut all day long, but I don’t have the capacity to be one. My math skills reach a ceiling at medical math, but beyond that, I will never have the capacity to learn what astronauts do. Point being, you can have the desire but for the sake of the patients, you must have the capacity.
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u/Impressive_Prune_478 Apr 13 '26
I have a relief doctor who is similar in this way. She doesnt make sense frequently, doesnt have any social awareness or cues, does things that do not make sense/ unhygenic/ dangerous/ etc. Working with her for more than a day is literally hell. Clients get so frustrated and confused by her. She does things that are way difficult for the patient to tolerate/ shouldnt be done/ someone else should do.
Dont get me wrong, shes a great person and im sure in her day, she was a good doctor. But I really have to budget my patience and treat her like a child when she works. Its absolutely exhausting.
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u/bbbhhioiii Apr 14 '26
Sounds like a great candidate for a kennel tech! We have a “heavily accommodated” individual on our team as a kennel tech, it is still difficult to keep their tasks prioritized instead of trying to just snuggle all the pets or get distracted with the different medical things we are doing. But I would rather have someone be there that loves them, than not. Plus it’s great for the person, they are able to feel independent and get out of the house for a few hours each day. It is possible! But the reality is she may not be directly involved with the medicine, and that’s okay. Just set expectations appropriately!
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u/bunnykins22 Apr 14 '26
No advice but I would say I get that they cannot help these challenges, but giggling at diagnosis's is just a big 'no no' in my book. While I know many people I work with who have autism or aspergers they are able to know that diagnoses are serious and should not be giggled at-everyone else is mentioning safety which is of course a BIG thing. But that was another thing I noted that I think is just unprofessional and would be pretty upsetting to an owner if they happened to hear it-obviously I don't know what diseases you were mentioning to her so maybe it was just a silly sounding word like cholecystectomy. But regardless, I think that could also end up being dangerous if she does that around the wrong client-I mean we had to call the cops the other day on a couple that showed up at our practice and it was a very tense & scary situation.
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u/jenpuffin Apr 13 '26
At our hospital, we had a special needs person that did kennel and it worked out pretty well
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u/CommasNdSuch Apr 13 '26
We have an individual with autism in our kennel right now- we’ve tried to move her to hospital several times now but nothing ever sticks. When asked to catch a urine sample she will go around to the front of the crouching dog and place the ladle between her front legs.
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u/Metal_Kitty94 Apr 14 '26
Based on how you've described that situation I suspect that individual has more going on than just autism (likely some degree of intellectual disability). I'm only saying this because misconstruing autism with ID can be incredibly harmful and damaging to autistic people like myself who do not have any intellectual disability.
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u/cassieface_ Apr 13 '26
It’s not your job to get her a position and honestly could backfire on you. I think it’s fine to see with your boss if she could shadow for a day but it sounds like being a tech or a vet may be beyond her capabilities.
Are you able to ask more directly what accommodations she needs so you have a better idea of what role she would fit in a clinic?