Externship in shelter medicine and surgery and low cost clinic care
Description of experience:
Our shelter has two locations and a separate wildlife center, so having a car or access to one is easiest, though public transportation is available. Each shelter location has admissions, adoptions, medical/surgery, and a low-cost, full service, public clinic. We normally perform surgery 6 days a week and have clinic hours 5-6 days a week. Vets are onsite to provide kennel animal care 7 days per week. We perform between 150-200 surgeries per week, primarily spay and neuter, and serve a population of around 8000 domestic animals and 4-6000 wildlife cases through our program each year.
Our clinic is not means based, so we have clients that can and will do anything and everything (including going to specialists etc.) and ranges to those who have little to no means. We work with everyone to provide the highest standard of care to all of these animals. We also have a robust pet-retention program, as part as our managed intake/intake diversion initiative and see many of these animals through clinic and surgery.
We have a robust Pet Retention program to assist in the cost of procedures for qualifying cases. We also have a Humane Investigative department, and work closely with the local community in these regards.
5 full time veterinarians
Basic in-house labwork including: Procyte, Chemistry 10 and 17, Urinalysis, SNAP test kits, fecal, and basic cage side testing. We routinely send more advanced bloodwork panels to our laboratory partners.
Digital radiography at both North and East locations
A full suite of anesthesia including TIVA and isoflurane
We ask that our externs rotate through all portions of our shelter (surgery, kennel, low-cost clinic), to get a good rounded experience of what we do. Additional opportunities may arise through our Wildlife Center for qualified or interested individuals. Externs should expect to assist or perform basic surgeries, including spay and neuter, and assist with more intensive procedures such as amputations or exploratory laparotomies. Externs may assist with routine non-surgical procedures such as venipuncture, anesthesia, and medication adminstration.
Externs will be expected to contribute to treatment plans and will be allowed opportunities for additional education as they arise.
Closer to the time, I ask that you give me a rough estimate of your surgical comfort/competency. This will allow me to ensure that I have you scheduled with one of our vets appropriately.
How to request externship opportunity
Interested students should contact Dr. Mulhall, the externship coordinator, at emulhall@humaneanimalrescue.org or our veterinary administrator, Angel McDade, at amcdade@humaneanimalrescue.org
The student should provide a resume and dates that they would like to participate as an extern. Further information will be gained and requested once scheduled with our calendar.
Most of our externs stay with friends or family during the externship. However, our veterinarians and staff may have a spare room that a student could use. We ask that you leave your pets at home if you choose this option.