HUMAN ANATOMY ORGANS DIAGRAM

The duties of a veterinary technologist are very similar to those of a nurse or physician's assistant for a medical doctor. If you work as a veterinary technologist in a veterinarian's office or animal clinic, you will spend part of your time doing crucial paperwork and part of your time working directly with pets of all shapes and sizes. A typical day might include filling out charts and documents, scheduling appointments and updating patient records. Or, you may help in collecting specimens, blood draws and skin scrapings for lab tests. You may even assist in preparing animals, lab equipment and instruments for surgery and other procedures. Other tasks include grooming animals and assisting with routine procedures such as vaccinations, taking x-rays and performing lab tests.

Because there are so many different responsibilities, a veterinary technologist needs to be able to juggle many different tasks and delegate responsibilities effectively. Decision making skills are very important, as is attention to detail. Medical charts must be accurate and readable to avoid the possibility of errors in treatment. A love of animals is, of course, essential to anyone pursuing a degree in veterinary technology. You will spend most of your time around animals and should have a soothing personality for pets in distress, as well as their owners.

There are many career options available for anyone with a veterinary technology Associate's Degree. While the majority of graduates will work in a veterinarian's office or animal clinic, there are also many opportunities in other areas. If you are interested in medical research or the sciences, there are many research facilities that rely on veterinary technologists to take care of animals in their biomedical research facilities. In this capacity, you would oversee all work with animals to make sure humane care is provided and track all research protocols for the supervising scientists.

You can combine a love for the outdoors or wildlife with your career by working at a zoo or wildlife park. Many veterinary technologists work behind the scenes at zoos doing everything from preparing special diets for animals to taking care of newborn animals. Larger cities with professionally staffed Humane Societies or SPCA's often recruit vet techs with Associate's Degrees to assist in caring for the many abused or abandoned animals that come to them. This is a particularly rewarding but taxing job that involves a great deal of healthcare work.

Many people don't realize that pet food and pet supply companies also need veterinary technologists for their Research and Development divisions. These companies are always looking for ways to improve the quality and appeal of products like dog treats, cat food and pet toys. They need staff members who can work with their products and their "testing panel" of animals to determine what is most attractive and also healthiest for their target customers.

A career as a veterinary technologist requires a two year Associate's Degree, which you should seek from a technical school that is approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The program will consist of basic courses in math and business as well as more intensive courses in areas such as zoology, anesthesiology, pharmacology, animal nursing, surgical principles, comparative anatomy, public health and more. You will also be required to serve an externship during which you'll put what you've learned into practice under the supervision of a licensed veterinarian.

If veterinary technology sounds like an exciting career for you, check into various health and business schools in your area. Many of these will offer a vet tech program. Also contact animal hospitals, clinics and veterinarians who can suggest good vet tech programs in your area.

In the mid 1480s, Leonardo moved from Florence to Milan. At that time, Milan was one of the most powerful city-states in Northern Italy. And, it's Duke, Ludovico Sforza, commissioned Leonardo to make a horse like no other to honor the Duke's father, Francesco Sforzo. It was to be a massive, bronze-cast statue - the largest statue ever built, standing 24 feet high.

Leonardo made a great number of preparatory drawings for his Sforza Horse. His notebooks are filled with proportional studies of horses. There are detailed diagrams of the anatomy of horses, along with notes on how to cast it, and it would weigh 80 tons once complete! Leonardo made the clay model to scale, but the bronze horse was not to be. In 1499, the French army threatened an attack. The metal intended for the Sforza Horse would be needed to make canons. Leonardo left Milan before the French Army marched on the city. Seeing the massive clay horse, the French soldiers could not resist using it for target practice.Thereafter it was reduced to rubble. Leonardo became despondent and at the same time, vowed to one day see his horse completely built.

Much has been written throughout history about the "Horse that Never Was". Five hundred years after the destruction of the clay model, based on the notes and sketches of Leonardo, the 24-foot bronze horse was cast. In fact, two full-scale statues were completed. One stands in Michigan, while the other was given as a gift to the City of Milan. United Airline Pilot Charles Dent made it happen. Upon seeing the original sketches that had been rediscovered in Spain, he started the process of raising the necessary funds to build the full-scale, bronze horse. His plan was to give it as a gift to the Italians from the Americans. Being something of a sculptor himself, he built a clay model of the horse to Leonardo's specifications. And, although Charles Dent died in 1994, his dream lived on and over four-million dollars was raised. On September 10th, 1999, exactly 500 years after the French destroyed Leonardo's clay model, the bronze statue was unveiled in Milan. On October 7th, 1999, a second casting of the horse was unveiled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This second horse is known as the American Horse.

Along with his studies of mammals, Leonardo made hundreds of bird sketches. In the medieval publication Lives of Artists, Giorgio Vasari tells how Leonardo would go to the markets and buy caged birds, and then open their cages, giving them back their freedom.(1) Leonardo studied the motion of their wings in flight as well as their anatomy and physiology. He wrote down and illustrated his own theories on the flight of birds and was inspired to make several sketches of mechanical flying machines. He wrote a treatise called Codex on The Flight of Birds in which he made diagrams of a helical wing, beating wings, a parachute, and bat wings. Later he realized the problems with human-powered propulsion and began making notes and diagrams of gliders. He also designed a machine based on a helical screw that was 32 or 33 feet in diameter.(2) It was supposed to lift off and fly as the blade rotated, resembling a modern-day helicopter.

Leonardo's passionate interest in studying animals was unique for his time. He studied and observed animals, and sketched and painted them with grace and realism. Other Renaissance artists like Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Raphael (1483-1520), who focused more on the humanity and divinity in art, did not include animals in their works to the extent as Leonardo did.(3) Without neglecting the Divine in Humanity, Leonardo above all other Renaissance artists, elevated all of nature and made it part of the Divine.