Oct 6, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 11 segments
In this episode, Dr. Lottie chats with Ashley Farmer, LVT. Ashley is a licensed veterinary technician, hospital manager and currently works in an emergency clinic. She shares her journey from being…
Ashley FarmerGuestLottieHostOkay, so it would not be a fair discussion if we didn't talk about the crappy side of tagging nursing as well.
So what are a few of the problems or just general struggles that vet techs can have in the industry?
Oh, nice.
We already know in a way that we're being underpaid, right? Because license protection in the U.S.
There are people that are not licensed that can come in and do the same exact job as a licensed tech.
So why would a vet pay someone who's licensed more when you can find someone that can do the same exact job and pay them less? Yeah.
That creates a problem in itself, even for your unlicensed people, because companies can now get away with paying people less.
I think that with license protection and job protection, the more people that get licensed and the more vets that concentrate on hiring licensed techs, Right.
encouraging your unlicensed people to go get licensed you know don't discourage them because you don't want to pay them more we want to see more licensed technicians
yeah
because most technicians can't they don't make a livable wage working a full-time job as a veterinary technician unless you work for great places you know that really truly value their technicians and I would say on that side, on the pay side, then it's culture.
Like I said, hospitals want to grow you physically, like more on the medical side.
They want you to be a great technician, but they're not really concentrating on the other skills that we need to grow, like communication.
Okay, so it would not be a fair discussion if we didn't talk about the crappy side of tagging nursing as well.
So what are a few of the problems or just general struggles that vet techs can have in the industry?
Oh, nice.
We already know in a way that we're being underpaid, right? Because license protection in the U.S.
There are people that are not licensed that can come in and do the same exact job as a licensed tech.
So why would a vet pay someone who's licensed more when you can find someone that can do the same exact job and pay them less? Yeah.
That creates a problem in itself, even for your unlicensed people, because companies can now get away with paying people less.
I think that with license protection and job protection, the more people that get licensed and the more vets that concentrate on hiring licensed techs, Right.
encouraging your unlicensed people to go get licensed you know don't discourage them because you don't want to pay them more we want to see more licensed technicians
yeah
because most technicians can't they don't make a livable wage working a full-time job as a veterinary technician unless you work for great places you know that really truly value their technicians and I would say on that side, on the pay side, then it's culture.
Like I said, hospitals want to grow you physically, like more on the medical side.
They want you to be a great technician, but they're not really concentrating on the other skills that we need to grow, like communication.
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