What is a veterinarian?
A veterinarian is a doctor for animals. Just like how you go to the doctor when you are sick, animals do too! Vets take care of pets such as dogs and cats, and livestock such as cows and sheep, but they also take care of wild animals like tigers, polar bears, frogs, fish, and more!
Veterinarians…
- Perform check ups to make sure animals are healthy
- Perform surgery to fix something inside an animal
- Run bloodwork and other tests to figure out why animals are sick
- Give animals medicine to treat them when they are sick
What tools do veterinarians use to do their job?
Stethoscope: Just like doctors for humans, vets use this to listen to animals’ hearts and lungs to make sure they are working properly. It is one of the most important tools they use to make sure an animal is healthy!
Thermometer: Veterinarians use thermometers to check an animal’s body temperature. This helps them see if the animal has a fever, which can be a sign that they are sick or have an infection.
Otoscope: Veterinarians use otoscopes to look inside an animal’s ears. An otoscope has a light and a magnifying lens that helps the vet to see deep into the ear canal. This helps them check for problems like ear infections, ear mites (tiny bugs that can live in animals’ ears) or any blockages.
X-Ray Machines: Veterinarians use X-ray machines to take pictures of the inside of an animal’s body. these pictures, called X-rays, help vets see things like bones, organs, and tissues. This is useful when an animal has a broken bone or swallowed something they shouldn’t have.
Ultrasound Machine: Veterinarians use ultrasound machines to create images of the inside of an animal’s body using sound waves. Unlike X-rays, which show bones, ultrasound are better for looking at soft tissues like organs.
Surgical Instruments: Veterinarians use surgical instruments when they need to perform surgery on an animal. Surgery is when a vet has to operate on the animal’s body to fix something that can’t be treated with medicine alone.
There are many other tools that veterinarians use to ensure that animals are healthy, but these are some of the most common.
Additional resources:
Click here to play a review KAHOOT based on this article!
Click here to read about how to make your own homemade stethoscope!