Top 12 Veterinary Technician Skills to Put on Your Resume
In today’s job market, veterinary technicians need a nimble mix of technical know-how and people skills. A resume that spotlights the most relevant, in-demand abilities can tilt the odds in your favor and move you closer to the role you’ve been chasing in animal care.
Veterinary Technician Skills
- Phlebotomy
- Anesthesia monitoring
- Radiography
- Surgical assistance
- Laboratory analysis
- Dental prophylaxis
- Patient restraint
- Medication administration
- IV catheter placement
- Digital X-ray
- Ultrasound imaging
- Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
1. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy in veterinary practice means drawing blood from an animal’s vein for diagnostics, monitoring, or therapy. Quick hands, calm handling, clean sticks.
Why It's Important
Bloodwork underpins diagnostics, tracks disease, and checks treatment response. Without reliable samples, decisions wobble. With them, care gets sharper.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Make the poke smoother, safer, and faster with targeted practice:
Repetition with intention: Practice on models and then under supervision on patients, starting with larger, easier veins before advancing to smaller targets.
Know the anatomy: Map surface landmarks to venous pathways for each species you handle. Visualize the vessel before you touch the skin.
Refined restraint: Low-stress, species-appropriate restraint reduces movement and bruising. A calm setup pays dividends.
Right tools, right size: Match needle gauge and syringe or vacutainer to patient size and vein quality to improve first-attempt success.
Asepsis always: Cleanse properly, avoid repeated probing, and label tubes the moment they’re filled.
Feedback loops: Ask an experienced tech or veterinarian to critique your hand position, angle, and follow-through.
Skill grows fast when you combine steady technique with thoughtful animal handling.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
2. Anesthesia monitoring
Anesthesia monitoring means tracking vital signs and depth of anesthesia continuously—heart rate and rhythm, respiratory rate, oxygenation, ventilation, temperature, blood pressure—then responding fast when the numbers drift.
Why It's Important
It’s the safety net. Catches hypoventilation, hypotension, hypothermia, pain. Keeps patients stable and comfortable while the procedure gets done right.
How to Improve Anesthesia Monitoring Skills
Pre-anesthetic checks: History, exam, lab screening, ASA status, plan. Place IV access, label lines, verify doses, and prepare emergency drugs ahead of time.
Use the full toolkit: ECG, pulse oximetry, capnography, noninvasive or invasive blood pressure, temperature probes. Capnography and blood pressure trend lines change the game.
Active temperature management: Warmers, fluid warmers, and wraparounds to prevent hypothermia from induction through recovery.
Titrate to effect: Adjust vaporizer settings, fluid rates, and analgesia based on monitored data and clinical signs, not guesswork.
Checklists and logs: Standardize checks at fixed intervals and record values. Trends matter more than isolated numbers.
Recovery vigilance: Airway, temperature, pain, and mobility—monitor closely until the patient is truly awake and safe.
How to Display Anesthesia monitoring Skills on Your Resume
3. Radiography
Radiography uses X-rays to capture images of internal structures. Positioning, exposure, and protection drive quality and safety.
Why It's Important
It reveals fractures, foreign bodies, lung patterns, dental pathology, and more—without a scalpel. Clear images speed accurate diagnosis.
How to Improve Radiography Skills
ALARA mindset: Keep exposures “as low as reasonably achievable” with collimation, correct exposure charts, and minimal retakes.
Positioning precision: Use sandbags, troughs, foam wedges, and markers. Symmetry checks and orthogonal views prevent missed lesions.
Protect the team: Proper PPE, distance, and shielding. Rotate holders and never compromise safety for speed.
Exposure consistency: Maintain and refine technique charts by species, size, and region. Review images for noise, contrast, and motion blur.
Quality assurance: Routine system checks, detector care, and a repeat/reject log to spot patterns and improve.
Sedation when needed: Calm, still patients produce diagnostic images and reduce retakes.
How to Display Radiography Skills on Your Resume
4. Surgical assistance
Surgical assistance spans prep through recovery: room setup, sterile field management, instrument handling, anesthesia support, and postoperative care.
Why It's Important
Good assistance makes surgeries smoother, faster, safer. It protects sterility, maintains patient stability, and helps the surgeon stay focused.
How to Improve Surgical Assistance Skills
Sterility mastery: Correct pack wrapping, chemical and biological indicators, aseptic gowning and gloving, and sterile draping without contamination.
Instrument fluency: Know names, functions, and passing techniques. Anticipate the surgeon’s next move.
Anesthesia support: Monitor, adjust, and communicate changes promptly. Pain scores inform analgesic decisions.
Organization and checklists: Count instruments and sponges, label syringes, and keep the field tidy to cut down on errors.
Equipment readiness: Autoclave logs, light checks, suction and cautery tests, and backup plans if something fails mid-procedure.
Recovery handoff: Smooth transition to recovery with clear notes on fluids, drugs, and complications to watch for.
How to Display Surgical assistance Skills on Your Resume
5. Laboratory analysis
Laboratory analysis covers collecting, preparing, and testing samples—blood, urine, feces, cytology—to inform diagnosis and track therapy.
Why It's Important
Objective data anchors clinical judgment. Reliable results steer treatments, catch problems early, and validate outcomes.
How to Improve Laboratory Analysis Skills
Pre-analytical rigor: Correct patient ID, proper tubes, timely processing, and temperature control to prevent hemolysis or degradation.
Quality control: Run controls, calibrate equipment on schedule, and document everything. Delta checks help flag improbable shifts.
SOPs that stick: Standardize methods for each assay and specimen type. Consistency reduces variability.
Maintenance habits: Clean lenses, balance centrifuges, change reagents on time, and track maintenance in logs.
Interpretation skills: Understand reference intervals, interferences, and when to repeat or add-on tests for clarity.
Biosafety: Appropriate PPE, sharps protocol, and waste handling keep people and samples safe.
How to Display Laboratory analysis Skills on Your Resume
6. Dental prophylaxis
Dental prophylaxis is professional scaling and polishing under anesthesia, often with dental radiographs, to remove plaque and calculus and curb periodontal disease.
Why It's Important
Healthy mouths mean healthier bodies. Dental disease fuels pain, infection, and systemic issues. Prevent it early; treat it properly.
How to Improve Dental Prophylaxis Skills
Full-mouth assessment: Charting, periodontal probing, and intraoral radiographs when indicated reveal hidden pathology.
Technique refinement: Gentle ultrasonic scaling, careful subgingival debridement, thorough polishing, and targeted irrigation.
Pain planning: Preemptive and multimodal analgesia—local nerve blocks, NSAIDs as appropriate, and monitoring during recovery.
Infection control: Strict instrument sterilization and waterline maintenance. Replace worn tips early to protect enamel and efficiency.
Client education: Home care plans (toothbrushing, dental diets, approved chews) and realistic recall schedules keep results lasting.
How to Display Dental prophylaxis Skills on Your Resume
7. Patient restraint
Patient restraint means holding or positioning animals safely so exams and procedures can proceed with minimal stress and zero injuries.
Why It's Important
It protects patients and people. It also improves diagnostic quality by reducing motion, tension, and fear-driven resistance.
How to Improve Patient Restraint Skills
Low-stress methods: Species-specific approaches, gentle holds, towel wraps for cats, and thoughtful use of muzzles when indicated.
Read the room (and the patient): Watch body language and adjust quickly. Breaks help. Treats help. Tone helps.
Team choreography: Assign roles before you start. Count down moves. Clear cues prevent slips.
Tools and setup: Nonslip mats, proper table height, fear-reducing pheromones, and pre-visit pharmaceuticals when appropriate.
Know when to sedate: Chemical restraint can be the kindest, safest route for certain patients and procedures.
How to Display Patient restraint Skills on Your Resume
8. Medication administration
Medication administration is preparing and delivering drugs correctly—dose, route, timing, and documentation—under a veterinarian’s direction.
Why It's Important
Right drug, right patient, right time. That precision drives outcomes and prevents errors that can derail recovery.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
The five (plus) rights: Right patient, drug, dose, route, time—plus indication and documentation. Verify allergies and interactions.
Double-check systems: Independent verification for high-risk meds and weight-based calculations. Label syringes clearly.
Storage and handling: Respect cold chain, light sensitivity, and beyond-use dating. Separate look-alike sound-alike meds.
Owner communication: Demonstrate techniques (e.g., eye drops, oral tablets), provide written instructions, and confirm understanding.
Legal and ethical guardrails: Follow controlled drug logging, compounding policies, and regional regulations for extra-label use.
Record everything: Dose, route, time, site, lot number when needed, and any adverse effects.
How to Display Medication administration Skills on Your Resume
9. IV catheter placement
IV catheter placement creates reliable venous access for fluids, meds, and emergency interventions. Common sites include cephalic and saphenous veins, and the jugular when appropriate.
Why It's Important
It enables rapid therapy, steady anesthesia support, and swift response when a patient crashes. Access buys time—and options.
How to Improve IV Catheter Placement Skills
Preparation first: Gather the correct catheter size, flush, tape, sterile prep, extension set, and securement dressings before restraint.
Aseptic technique: Clip, scrub, and don clean gloves. Let antiseptic dry. Contamination invites phlebitis.
Vein selection and angle: Choose a straight, palpable segment. Insert bevel up at a shallow angle, advance smoothly, and thread gently.
Securement that holds: Use a chevron, sterile dressing, and an extension set to reduce motion and contamination.
Confirm patency: Flush without resistance and monitor the site for swelling, pain, or leakage.
Ongoing care: Keep lines capped, change dressings if soiled, and replace catheters per hospital protocol or at first sign of trouble.
Supervised practice and simulation sharpen technique quickly. Confidence follows repetition.
How to Display IV catheter placement Skills on Your Resume
10. Digital X-ray
Digital X-ray (digital radiography) uses sensors instead of film, delivering immediate images, cleaner detail, and seamless storage and sharing.
Why It's Important
Instant feedback reduces retakes and speeds decisions. Better contrast and post-processing can reveal what film might miss.
How to Improve Digital X-ray Skills
Optimize acquisition: Use exposure index targets, proper grids when needed, and consistent positioning to keep quality high.
Detector care: Protect plates from drops, contamination, and undue pressure. Clean per manufacturer guidance.
Post-processing savvy: Adjust window/level, noise reduction, and edge enhancement judiciously without masking artifacts.
DICOM discipline: Accurate patient data, markers, and views. Store to PACS and back up routinely.
Repeat analysis: Track reasons for retakes and correct root causes—exposure, motion, positioning, or equipment.
How to Display Digital X-ray Skills on Your Resume
11. Ultrasound imaging
Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to create live images of soft tissues—liver, spleen, kidneys, heart, and more—without radiation.
Why It's Important
Real-time imaging reveals structure and motion: fluid, perfusion, organ texture. It complements radiographs and guides decisions quickly.
How to Improve Ultrasound Imaging Skills
Probe and preset choice: Match transducer frequency and machine presets to patient size and target depth for crisp detail.
Patient prep: Clip, apply warmed gel, and fast when appropriate to reduce gas artifact. Sedate if stress or movement blocks quality.
Image optimization: Dial in depth, gain, TGC, and focal zones. Sweep systematically in multiple planes and document cine loops.
Doppler when useful: Assess vessels and flow when lesions or perfusion questions arise.
Standardized protocols: Use checklists (e.g., AFAST/TFAST where applicable) to avoid blind spots and improve consistency.
How to Display Ultrasound imaging Skills on Your Resume
12. Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
EMRs are digital patient records—history, labs, imaging, medications—accessible across the team and often integrated with scheduling, inventory, and billing.
Why It's Important
They tighten communication, reduce errors, speed retrieval of data, and create a clean trail for medical and legal continuity.
How to Improve Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Skills
Templates that work: Build species- and visit-specific templates, smart phrases, and checklists to boost speed and consistency.
Seamless integrations: Connect lab instruments, imaging, and pharmacy so results and charges flow automatically into the record.
Data hygiene: Accurate signalment, problem lists, and medication histories. Standardize terminology across users.
Security and access: Role-based permissions, strong authentication, audit trails, and regular backups with a tested recovery plan.
Training and support: Short, recurring training bursts for new features. Create quick guides for common workflows.
How to Display Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Skills on Your Resume
