Medical care is provided not only to all men and women in the Army, but to all animals as well. Government-owned patrol dogs, ceremonial horses, sled dogs and sea mammals all need quality care in order to keep working as hard as they do in the Army.

The animal care specialist supervises or provides the care, management, treatment, and sanitary conditions for animals, with a primary responsibility of prevention and control of diseases transmitted from animal to man and comprehensive care for government owned animals. Some of your duties as an Animal Care Specialist may include:

• Provide routine daily care for animals in veterinary treatment or research and development facilities
• Obtain medical history from owners and/or handlers and measures and records animal vital signs
• Perform physical examinations to detect obvious abnormalities and reports findings to veterinarian
• Position and restrain animals for examination and treatment
• Calculate doses and administers oral and topical medications as directed by the veterinarian
• Maintain sanitary conditions for all components of the veterinary treatment facilities to include operating room and equipment
• Assist veterinarian in surgical procedures and perform euthanasia when instructed by veterinarian
• Clean, debride, and suture superficial wounds
• Collect, preserve, and prepare blood, urine, feces, skin scraping, and post mortem specimens for shipment and evaluation
• Perform routine diagnostic laboratory tests such as fecal smears, urinalysis, blood counts, and chemistries, records laboratory test result

Job training for an Animal Care Specialist requires nine weeks of Basic Training, where you'll learn basic Soldiering skills, and 11 weeks of Advanced Individual Training, including practice in animal care. Some of the skills you'll learn are:

• Patient care techniques
• Emergency medical techniques
• Methods of sterilizing surgical equipment
• Plaster-casting techniques

Helpful attributes include:

• An interest in general science and biology
• An interest in helping others
• An ability to work under stressful or emergency conditions
• An ability to follow directions precisely

Advanced level Animal Care Specialist provides guidance, supervises and trains other Soldiers within the same discipline. As an advanced level Animal Care Specialist, you may also be involved in:

• Perform advanced emergency medical procedures on animals such as triage, tracheotomy, burn and poison management, venous cutdown, and insertion of stomach tubes
• Operate mechanical respirators, heart monitors, and gas sterilizer apparatus
• Supervise non-appropriated fund activities, day-to-day operations, supply management and patient administration procedures
• Prepare budgets, trains handlers in emergency care of animals, and assists on research protocol teams
• Maintain clinical and organizational equipment

The skills you learn as an Animal Care Specialist will help prepare you for a future as a civilian veterinary aide or assistant at a veterinary hospital.

With continued study and experience, you may qualify for certification as an Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician.

• Health Care Specialist (68W)
• Nutrition Care Specialist (68M)
• Veterinary Food Inspection Specialist (68R)

Learn more about the relationship between military training and civilian certification requirements.