By Coy Martin

Cian Meier-Gast grew up in his family’s vet clinic. “At a young age I was just kind of thrown into it but after many years of growing up in the clinic, at the age 14, I actually got a job there and I enjoy it now,” he said. If you ever travel to Marion to the Meier Vet Clinic you will see your average cats, dogs, and other common house pets in the clinic. Sometimes it can be very busy with patients rushing in and out, while other days there isn’t an animal in sight.

A normal day for Meier-Gast during his senior year in the clinic involves clipping nails, sterilizing tools, treating ear infections or taking blood. He said that taking blood is one of the more important things they do around the clinic because it can tell you what diseases your pet might have.

Even after all the years Meier-Gast has worked in his family’s vet clinic, he said he’s never really seen anything too strange and nothing bad has ever really happened. Sometimes during a surgery animals tend to wake up, so another job Meier-Gast has would be to give them a shot to put them back to sleep.

Although he’s grown up in the veterinary business, Meier-Gast said, “There really isn’t a job for me like this in the future, even though there are many occupations as a vet and it’s a good field but the amount of debt you go into as a veterinary student in college can be upwards to hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Meier-Gast does plan on going to a college for a different major.

During the week Meier-Gast usually doesn’t work unless he is called in because he is a very busy student and also participates in robotics. But on the weekends, Meier-Gast puts  time aside to help his family out at the clinic.