Iowa Vet Tech common mistakes
Iowa Vet Tech · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Calculating a drug dose from a percentage solution without converting to mg/mL first - for example drawing up '2 mg/kg of 2% lidocaine' as if the bottle were 2 mg/mL instead of 20 mg/mL.
Candidates memorize the mg/kg formula but drill it with tidy whole-number concentrations, so the '%' symbol never gets translated into a working unit under time pressure.
What to do instead
Before every calculation, write the concentration as a fraction: X% = X g per 100 mL = 10X mg/mL. Do three practice conversions for lidocaine 2%, epinephrine 1:1000 (1 mg/mL), and dextrose 50% (500 mg/mL), then chain them into a full dose calculation with units cancelled line by line.
Reaching across an open sterile field, turning away from the table, or letting a gloved hand drop below the table edge and then continuing to handle instruments.
Candidates watch the surgeon's hands rather than their own, and they were taught 'sterile technique' as a concept rather than as a set of spatial boundaries that are violated the moment a hand crosses unsterile air.
What to do instead
Rehearse the rule aloud: hands stay above the table and in view; never cross an unsterile surface; anything below table level is contaminated. Practice gowning and gloving with a spotter calling out breaks, and state 'contaminated' out loud and replace the item rather than hesitating.
Skipping full-mouth periodontal probing and charting before scaling, treating only the visibly tartar-covered teeth and calling the prophylaxis complete.
Heavy calculus draws the eye, and probing all six sites per tooth is slow; candidates also under-call normal sulcus depth, expecting pathology everywhere or nowhere.
What to do instead
Probe and record every tooth in a standard order (starting at the right maxillary fourth premolar and moving around the mouth) before any scaling, using the reference depths of roughly 1–3 mm in the dog and 0.5–1 mm in the cat. Chart probing depth, bleeding, mobility, and furcation exposure as you go, not from memory afterward.
Reading the buffy coat as part of the packed cell volume on a microhematocrit tube, or reporting a PCV from a tube that was under-sealed or spun short.
The buffy coat is a visible pale band and candidates mis-map it to the red column, and they also skip checking that the clay seal is flat and that the centrifuge reached full speed for the full spin time.
What to do instead
Read only the red column: PCV = length of red cells ÷ total length of plasma + buffy coat + red cells. Two-thirds fill the tube, seal with a flat clay plug, spin at the setting for the machine until complete, and always read against a card with the tube at eye level; note buffy coat thickness separately as a leukocyte/platelet estimate.
Flushing an intravenous catheter without first checking for resistance, swelling, or a dislodged cap, and leaving the injection port uncapped or the dressing loose after use.
Catheters are treated as a task to finish rather than a device to maintain, and a quiet patient is assumed to have a working line even when the limb is swelling under the bandage.
What to do instead
At every use: occlude above the site, palpate the limb for swelling, aspirate gently to confirm blood return before flushing, feel for resistance, then recap the port and re-check the tape and bandage. Document catheter placement day, site, and appearance each shift, and remove any line with pain, swelling, or no blood return.
Submitting a single lateral radiograph for a long-bone fracture or an abdominal study and calling the series complete.
Candidates judge image quality by whether the anatomy is recognizable rather than by whether the study answers the clinical question, and orthogonal views take extra time and restraint.
What to do instead
Before imaging, state the question ('is the femur fractured and how is it displaced?') and take the minimum standard series: two orthogonal views of every long bone, and right lateral plus ventrodorsal (or dorsoventral) for the thorax and abdomen. Reject and repeat any film where the region of interest is rotated, cut off, or obscured, and check the whole film edge to edge before releasing the patient.
Inducing anesthesia and connecting the patient to the breathing circuit without performing a pressure leak check on the machine and without confirming the soda lime is not exhausted.
The machine check is taught as a list at the start of the day and gets skipped when the previous patient's setup 'looks fine', and exhausted absorbent still looks like granules from the outside.
What to do instead
Run a fixed sequence every patient: oxygen supply, a closed-circuit pressure check with the pop-off valve closed to confirm the system holds pressure, unidirectional valve movement, reservoir bag size and integrity, scavenging, and absorbent color/texture. State each step out loud or initial a checklist; if the canister is more than two-thirds discolored or crumbly, change it.
Giving a fixed 'shock dose' of crystalloid as a single bolus and moving on without reassessing perfusion, or skipping the dose calculation for the actual species and weight.
Numbers are memorized as one figure rather than as a range titrated to endpoints, and the team moves to the next intervention before the patient's response is measured.
What to do instead
Calculate the dose for that patient (dog up to 90 mL/kg, cat up to 45–60 mL/kg of an isotonic crystalloid, given in increments of roughly one-quarter of the calculated volume), then stop and reassess heart rate, pulse quality, mucous membrane color, capillary refill time, and mentation after each increment. Recheck blood pressure and lactate, and record the response before the next bolus.
Concluding a patient is not painful because it is lying quietly and its heart rate is near normal, instead of scoring pain with a validated instrument.
Cats and stoic dogs hide pain, and tachycardia is affected by drugs, fear, and fluid status, so single-parameter judgment misses painful patients that are simply still.
What to do instead
Score every patient at set intervals (on admission, after surgery, and with each reassessment) using a validated species-specific tool such as the Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Scale or the Colorado State acute pain scale, and treat to the score with a multimodal plan. Treat the patient that is reluctant to move, guarding, or not grooming as painful even with normal vitals.
Interpreting a free-catch urine sediment showing many squamous epithelial cells and mixed rod bacteria as a urinary tract infection.
Any bacteria seen under oil immersion are read as infection, and the collection method and the presence of squamous cells are not factored into the interpretation.
What to do instead
Before interpreting, confirm the collection method: cystocentesis for culture, midstream voided sample for urinalysis only, and note squamous epithelial cells as evidence of distal genital or skin contamination. In a voided sample with heavy squamous cells, describe the bacteria as probable contaminant and recommend a cystocentesis sample with culture before antibiotics are chosen.