Each has their own reason as to why they are in the Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital’s ICU late into the night.
Some are night owls. Others picked the shift because it was the only one available. Others just like it more than a day shift.
“I enjoy working at night and I do a lot of dog sports and classes in the early evenings, so overnights tend to work better with my schedule,” said Tasha Patterson.
But there is a common dominator among the veterinary technicians and animal caretakers work overnight – it’s where they are needed.
“I work overnights because it is where I was most needed as an animal caretaker,” said Sierra Edmundson. “Also, overnights were when a lot of emergencies happen which allows me to assist in more cases.”
The Hixson-Lied Small Animal Hospital is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. While other services in the hospital are on call those hours, it is the emergency services that offer evaluation, medical care and surgical treatments to animals with urgent medical needs at all hours of the day.
The ICU and Emergency Room are staffed overnight by a combination of residents, interns and fourth-year students.
Then there are a crew of veterinary technicians and animal caretakers. These individuals work one of two shifts – either 4 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. or 9:30 p.m. to 8 a.m.
The overnight technicians and animal caretakers are responsible for every in-patient in the ICU. These are both emergency cases that come in during the night hours as well as patients who are being kept overnight in the ICU.
“We are responsible for triages that come in, everything from stabilizing the patient to diagnostics to making them comfortable overnight,” said Kalyssa Merritt, veterinary technician. “The ICU can get a little crazy, but the normal routine is doing hourly treatments and monitoring of all patients in the ICU.”
“Hourly treatments are done throughout the night but midnight, 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. are some of our bigger treatment hours,” Patterson said.
Overnights are different. In addition to providing treatment and medications and feeding and walking patients, if an emergency arises, the veterinary technicians are responsible for running all bloodwork and diagnostics while taking X-rays. During the day, these duties that are handled by other Hixson-Lied staff.
“Overnight we typically do not have help from different departments,” said Alyssa Bittner, veterinary technician. “During the day, the patient’s fourth-year student usually will come in and do their patient’s treatment. That typically doesn’t happen overnight. We have to do that for every patient.”
“There is no clin path, radiology or pharmacy overnight,” said Amelia Saltzman, veterinary technician. “We have to do all those things ourselves.”
January 2026