Real-Life Math
"Animal health technologists (AHTs) are referred to as the 'right hand' of a vet," says Cathy Hall-Patch, an AHT and an instructor in animal health technology. "Technologists take X-rays, blood work, collect samples, set up IVs and catheters, prep animals for surgery, induce anesthesia and often assist the vet in surgery.
"It's very diverse," says Hall-Patch. "We're a radiologist, lab technician, surgical assistant and medical nurse all rolled into one...it's an exciting and challenging career."
Animal health technologists need math skills in order to do their jobs and help their patients, notes Hall-Patch. "We use it for drug calculations, determining dilutions, fluid flow rates for IVs, calculating the nutritional needs of an animal and in research [specifically, statistics are required for figuring out probabilities and rate distributions]."
It's very important to do these calculations properly -- someone's animal could die if you make a mistake. This is especially true when an animal health technologist is preparing anesthesia for an animal about to go into surgery.
A woman has brought her border collie in for surgery. The vet has asked you to prep the dog and induce anesthesia.
According to the owner, the dog named Hobbes weighs about 45 pounds. The anesthetic your clinic uses is called Pentothal. It comes in a powder form, which you've already mixed to create a 2 percent solution (20 milligrams per milliliter). (Some clinics use a different dilution; it can range from 2 percent to 5 percent.)
To effectively anesthetize an animal, you need to give it 10 to 12 mg per kilogram of its weight. Your clinic generally goes with a ratio of 12 mg/kg.
How many milliliters of solution do you need to give Hobbes?
(Hint:1 pound = 0.45 kilograms. Don't let the metric measurements throw you off!)