ANIMAL CARE ATTENDANT

Overview :

The Animal Care service supports the Foster Hospital for Small Animal's mission by providing general housekeeping services ensuring care, cleanliness and comfort for all the dogs, cats and exotic pets who are treated in our inpatient, outpatient and emergency services.

What You'll Do :

The Animal Care Attendant is responsible for patient care and feeding general housekeeping and maintenance of the clinical space in the Small Animal Hospital.

The Animal Care Attendants provide assistance to the Veterinary Technicians in completing daily treatments.

As an Animal Care Attendant you will :

• Provide high quality patient care to include the following :
• Provide patients with food and water as ordered by clinician.
• Assist technicians in completing patient treatments while demonstrating proper animal handling and humane restraint techniques, basic and species-specific husbandry techniques and proper daily care of medical equipment.
• Clean and maintain cages and clinical spaces.
• Clean and stock patient care areas and food room.
• Clean and maintain dog walk areas.
• Provide laundry service.
• Assist with proper disposition of patient remains including preparation of clay paws and proper preparation of a body (including tags) for disposition.
• Patient Transport.
• Assist with patient visits.
• Assist with patient drop offs and discharges.
• Transport patients between services within the Hospital.
• Transport deceased patients to mortuary room.
• Other duties as assigned by supervisor.

The schedule for this position is Wednesday to Saturday 6 : 45 AM - 4 : 00 PM

Schedule will include University holiday and calendar holiday coverage. This position is considered essential and is therefore required to report to work as scheduled during emergency closings.

What We're Looking For :

Basic Requirements :

• Knowledge or experience as typically acquired by a High School Diploma or the equivalent with up to one year of related experience.
• Ability to effectively work as a member of a team.
• Pride in maintaining assigned areas in a hospital environment.
• Basic computer skills including the ability to learn the electronic medical record system.
• Ability to lift up to 50 lbs. with or without accommodation.

Preferred Qualifications :

• Vocational / technical training or Associates Degree preferred with one or more years of experience.
• Knowledge of animal behavior, restraint, feeding and basic sanitation.
• Exotic animal handling skills. Exotic animals include birds, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, rodents, special small mammals (such as chinchillas or hedgehogs), reptiles, and amphibians.

For Animal Care Attendants working primarily with the Zoological Companion Animal (ZCAM) program, exotic animal handling skills.