Can I become a Vet Tech at 50?

December 14, 2020 11:08 PM

I'd like to be more useful, learn new skills, build more social connections into my daily life. I'm 49 years old, living in Cape Town, South Africa. At the moment, I teach an online graphic design course from home, and write fiction. This used to work out well for me as the teaching takes up the minimum of brainspace, so I can focus on my writing. But even before lockdown I felt frustrated by being so socially isolated, and not feeling useful or needed by others. Now I am frustrated, bored, and lonely and I want next year to be different.

I would like to learn new skills that I could use to help others and feel more useful. Or to take part in some project or be part of an organisation that I can contribute to in a useful way. I want to be part of a team, to collaborate. I want to be able to make somebody else's life a bit easier, even if it's only in small ways. At the moment, it would be better if this was online rather than in person, because of covid.
I've tried volunteering at local organisations (an aquarium, an animal shelter) but so far that hasn't really worked out well. While initially enjoyable, I ended up feeling under used, not learning enough or making use of my skills. I'm happy to do boring slog work if it's useful, but most of the time we were doing make-work just to keep us busy. Still open to this possibility though so far I've not found a place to volunteer at that practices safe social distancing.
I am part of a program that mentors young writers, and that's worked out well so far. But I only have one mentee, so it's not really enough.
I care a lot about animals and the natural environment. I wonder if it's possible to train myself up in more specialised skills but I'm a bit clueless as to what this might look like, or what is needed. For example, the skills needed to assist a vet? Or care for animals in need?
My qualifications are a degree in fine art, specialising in bronze casting, and a masters in information technology. I have 20 years of experience as a teacher, both in the classroom and online.
I am good at teaching myself new things, for example I taught myself CSS, HTML, and the XML needed for creating an EPUB from scratch and format ebooks at a professional level. I'm not a programmer, but I do have some aptitude for that kind of thing.
I'm good at writing clear instructional content. I created the graphic design course I'm teaching at the moment, and it's been pretty successful for a number of years, getting very good feedback from the students.
I am socially awkward, and while I'm not shy if I have a specific role (for example teaching a classroom full of people) I'm not good at unstructured social interaction (for example, having to approach a busy person to ask them how I can help them). My social anxiety has limited my life, and I want to change this. Being reluctant to approach people, network, make others aware of what I can offer has been a significant handicap.
I think I'll need several different approaches, for example, find an online volunteer opportunity to meet my short term needs for human connection and interesting work, while studying a course in (what?) to gain new skills and qualifications in the long term.
Any advice on any of this? How do I find out who might need my help, how do I approach them? Do you know of projects I could be part of? Or how to start such a project? Have you been where I am, and how did you improve your life?

posted by Zumbador to Education (3 answers total)

To be a vet tech in the US you need to go to a technical school, take a state exam and become licensed. Looks to be similar in SA. They will teach you the basic skills you need, like giving injections, Anesthesia, some pharmaceutical concepts, assisting surgery and dentals, etc. You can absolutely that at 50! I decided at 52 to get a certificate in data analytics from a state university via online classes and ended up getting a job that utilizes those skills, otherwise I would have been stuck in my 25 year career that I was very bored with. In situations like this I tell myself “Well, your going to be here a year (or 4, whatever) anyway so you may as well just do this challenging thing and get the degree. I’ll worry about how to get the job once I’m done with that.” I got through undergrad and grad school telling myself this on a regular basis. If at the end you decide you don’t want to be a vet tech you don’t have to be but at least you will have the diploma in case you want to do it later on.
posted by waving at 7:49 AM on December 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

One of the people in the same animal fostering program as me retired from her day job in her 50s, went to school to get trained, and became a vet tech, so it's definitely doable.

I'll caution you that it's hard work for many people. I know quite a few people that were techs in their 20s and the burnout rate was high. The pay, at least in the US, was barely above minimum wage, you get scratched and bitten, and while most animals go home from the vet healthier than when they came in, obviously some will need to be put down. It can also be tough when people that are tight on money have to agonize when the animal can be saved but will require expensive treatment that they can't afford. You would gain regular social interaction with the staff at the clinic but most of the people that would be coming in would be people you only see once or twice a year and often won't be in a great mental state for small talk, so I don't know if it would build the human connections you're looking for.

As far as other ideas on increasing your socialization, have you considered teaching an in-person class (at least once covid is under control)?
posted by Candleman at 9:25 AM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

When I first read your question I wondered for a second if I had somehow sleep-posted it, until I saw the part about living in South Africa. As such, I don't have a good answer, only slightly more time trying to sort out the problem. I ran into the same issue that volunteers are generally not well utilized at all, but was able through luck, work, and competence to insinuate myself in a situation where they did need someone. As a result, I eventually worked for about a year as a paid vet assistant at a zoo, which had its frustrations, but was on the whole great and very rewarding and was exactly the "part of a team" type thing I wanted. Unfortunately, I was always a temp, and COVID and the city's budget put an end to things. I have been dithering about whether to go back to school and get a proper vet tech degree (post-pandemic), but...from talking to our volunteers, many of whom were vet techs in their day jobs, working in private practice basically consists of getting paid minimum wage while being treated like crap by vets, yelled at by clients, and bitten by dogs. Even for these young, strong, dog-loving people, this was clearly not an optimal job. I feel the job _shouldn't_ be that way. At a minimum, there's no reason any boss shouldn't prefer to treat their employees with respect in order to keep good workers happy, and surely _somewhere_ out there are good vets to work for (my bosses at the zoo were lovely), but the overall culture seems broken.

Random suggestions - if you like hiking, there may be ecological fieldwork volunteering positions open, some of which might actually let you do something useful. (I hate hiking due to my extreme fear of heights, and also don't like to drive, or I would be trying this myself.) If you have any interest in fan fiction (or just in maintaining a site where others can post it freely), An Archive of Our Own is a very nice place to volunteer with a thriving online volunteer community.

If you'd like to ask me anything about my volunteering/vet teching experiences, feel free to MeMail me, and...good luck.
posted by LadyOscar at 5:47 PM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]