The Pet Emergency and Specialty Center is a 24-hour specialty referral hospital serving San Diego. We have two locations. Our main hospital in La Mesa provides referral services which include internal medicine, emergency/critical care, oncology, surgery and avian/exotic medicine along with 24/7 emergency care. Our facility is closely associated with advanced imaging centers, making MRI readily available and we recently installed a 16-slice CT machine. We are affiliated with Eye Care for Animals and ophthalmologists receive cases in our La Mesa location twice a week. Our Chula Vista location is a 24-hour emergency hospital. At this site we are affiliated with a local dermatologist who sees appointments at our facility one day every other week. There are 21 staff veterinarians including two board certified criticalists, three board certified internists, two board certified surgeons, one board certified medical oncologist, one board certified anesthesiologist, an avian/exotic specialist (also board certified in aquatics) and fifteen highly trained internship trained emergency doctors. Senior students will shadow senior ER clinicians and criticalists on cases as well as some shadowing with our other specialists. They will participate in twice daily cage side patient rounds. Students will also participate in weekly intern topic rounds presented by one of our specialists and bi-weekly radiology rounds.
We are a busy emergency and specialty referral hospital. Staff includes internship trained emergency veterinarians as well as two board certified criticalists, two board certified surgeons, three board certified internal medicine specialists, a board certified oncologist and a board certified avian and aquatic specialist. Specialized capabilities include two ultrasound machines with color flow doppler, video endoscopy, bronchoscopy, laparoscopy, arthroscopy, positive pressure ventilation (Esprit), three well equipped surgical suites for soft tissue, orthopedic and neurologic surgical procedures, digital radiography, 16-slice CT machine and chemotherapy. The ICU is equipped with indirect and direct blood pressure monitoring, oxygen support, central venous pressure monitoring, pulse oximetry, ECG telemetry, blood products, nutritional support, capnographs and in-house laboratory. We have approximately 20 RVT and 45+ experienced unlicensed technicians and client service representatives on staff.
Students will be scheduled for shifts primarily with the ER service which include times typically busy for the service such as nights and weekends. The shift hours will be for days or swings and no overnight shifts are required. Students will not have primary case responsibility or client communication.
Student housing is occasionally available with members of the staff however externs must secure their own housing and transportation.