Pet Care Assistant

The Pet Care Assistant works with the veterinary medical team to provide and prepare for the best medical care of pets.

Essential Responsibilities and Tasks

• Live and exemplify the Five Principles of Mars, Inc. within self and team.
• Prepare the treatment room for examination of pets. Prepare all necessary medical items and supplies (e.g. vaccinations, fecal loops, slides, etc.) for the veterinarian and/or veterinary technician. Set up fecals, smears, and skin scrapings as allowed by state rules and regulations.
• Serve as support to the Client Services Coordinator, Veterinary Assistant and Veterinary Technician.
• Hold or restrain pets during examination, treatment, or inoculation.
• Prepare routine in-house laboratory tests (e.g. canine heartworm, feline leukemia, FIV, and canine parvovirus)as allowed by state rules and regulations.
• Monitor the comfort of hospitalized patients. Ensure the comfort of hospitalized patients by "walking", exercising, feeding, and cleaning cages and pet (when approved by the veterinarian or veterinary technician).
• Bathe and dip pets when necessary to treat dermatological conditions(when advised by veterinarian or veterinary technician.
• Clean the surgical suite and instruments.
• Ensure cleanliness of the hospital including but not limited to housekeeping such as laundry, dishes, mopping, cage cleaning, trash collection and removal and instrument cleaning as outlined by hospital protocols
• Other job duties as assigned.

The Five Principles

Quality –The consumer is our boss, quality is our work and value for money is our goal.

Responsibility –As individuals, we demand total responsibility from ourselves; as associates, we support the responsibility of others.

Mutuality –A mutual benefit is a shared benefit; a shared benefit will endure.

Efficiency –We use resources to the full, waste nothing and do only what we can do best.

Freedom –We need freedom to shape our future; we need profit to remain free.

Leadership

• Customer Focus
• Peer Relationships
• Integrity & Trust
• Action Oriented
• Listening

Functional

• Preventative care and OWPs
• Communication Skills
• Client Service Skills
• Priority Setting
• Time Management

Special Working Conditions

• Ability to work at a computer for long periods of time.
• Ability to be confident around pets (i.e., dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, etc.)
• Client needs and work volume may require more than 40 hours per week to complete essential duties of this job. This position requires special hours including working weekends and evenings.
• Must have mental processes for reasoning, remembering, mathematics and language ability (reading, writing, and speaking the English language) to perform the duties proficiently.
• The noise level in the work environment is moderately high.
• Requires sufficient ambulatory skills in order to perform duties while at hospital.
• Ability to stand, walk, stoop, kneel, crouch, and climb as well as manipulate (lift, carry, move) up to 50 pounds.
• Requires good hand-eye coordination, arm-hand-finger dexterity with the ability to grasp, and visual acuity to use a keyboard and operate equipment.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• Associate is routinely exposed to a variety of pets that may bite or scratch, and on occasion, exposed to anesthesia, radiation, biological hazards and medication/controlled substances.

Experience, Education and/or Training

• High School Diploma preferred.
• Must be at least 18 years old to perform duties involving radiography (x-ray) and exposure to radioactive substances.
• One year related experience required with customer service preferred.