Covers the principles of maintaining animal health by preventing and managing disease via husbandry, immunization, and diagnostic testing. Focus is on domestic species; primarily dogs, cats, horses and cows. Topics include parasitology, microbiology, immunology, and clinical, gross and histopathology. Laboratory activities include fecal flotation, urinalysis, complete blood count and blood chemistry, bacterial culture and sensitivity testing, gram staining, serology, laboratory safety, and principles of sample collection and quality control. VTEC and AAS majors only.

Essential skills and knowledge for the care of small animals, focusing on companion animal species. Wellness protocols an basic nursing skills (medication administration, nail trimming, ear cleaning, anal gland expression, wound care, injections, phlebotomy, electrocardiogram, blood pressure measurement) will be discussed and practiced.

This course provides study in the area of veterinary medicines emphasizing classes and actions of drugs, calculating dosages, proper administration, and dispensing of drugs. Topics include general pharmacology, calculating dosages, pharmacy regulation guidelines and record keeping. Case-based learning is utilized to correlate common diseases in companion animals with associated pharmacological agents. Specifically, disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment options are discussed along with pertinent technician interventions and evaluations.

Students manage a wellness clinic for pets, developing staffing/appointment schedules, and perform appropriate procedures on pets. Additionally, students travel off campus to provide medical care for shelter animals. A surgical rotation is conducted to reinforce techniques in anesthesia/surgical nursing and dentistry. Nursing care assignments are due throughout the semester to aid students in the integration of knowledge gain during their academic coursework. This is a four-credit course offered for VTEC majors only, and by permission only.