The Alvarado Veterinary Clinic offers an excellent externship program for 4th year Vet Students. Our externs have come from every veterinary school in the U.S. as well as from Canada, Germany, England, Poland, Ireland, and Australia. A typical externship lasts from 1-6 weeks and varies depending on the student’s needs. We provide a place to stay located just behind the clinic.
Not sure what area of veterinary medicine you want to practice in? As a busy large mixed animal practice you will get to experience all areas of veterinary medicine. You will be able to observe case work ups, surgeries, go on farm calls, and assist with after hour emergencies. Our goal at the Alvarado Veterinary Clinic is to be as good as any specialty clinic that focuses on small animal, food animal, or equine medicine
We also offer a 1 year internship program and our interns are generally picked from the prior year’s class of externs. To see more details on the AVC hospital and facilities, and to check out internship opportunities, please check the Internship portion of the website.
We are probably 60% small animal, 20% equine, and 20% food animal. We average approximately 100-120 cases a day
We have 11 full time clinicians and 5 interns.
Rounds start in the horse barn at 7:30am. That is a good place to start on your first day. After settling into the routine of the clinic, most externs arrive around 7am and help the interns with care of hospitalized cases. Rounds end and the clinic opens at 8 am. AVC is run as a non-appointment clinic. We do schedule surgeries and farm calls. Externs are encouraged to gravitate to their areas of interest. You are welcome to spend the day out in the barns, in surgery, or on farm calls. We usually try to break for lunch from noon until 1pm. There are numerous fast food offerings within 3 miles of the clinic, including a Burger King next door. Some people bring lunch and get involved in a game of dominos at the clinic. Many externs walk back to their house for lunch. At 1pm we start back. Often major orthopedic surgeries are scheduled at 1:30. Externs are invited to scrub in on select surgeries, and occasionally we are able to have you perform a surgery on animals who do not have any owners presented to us from a shelter. We usually shut down around 6pm. Externs are encouraged to stick around and help with emergencies, although that is not technically part of your externship. Most externs feel the after hour cases are a lot of fun and a large part of their enjoyment of the entire experience. Friday mornings we meet in the equine surgery room at 6:45 a.m. for breakfast and journal rounds. Each week 2 interns will make a presentation, one large animal, and one small animal. This will take the place of rounds on Friday. Saturday we do not have rounds, and the clinic is open from 8-12. Occasionally, externs need to be gone for the weekend, and that is okay. We encourage you to be here if possible, and asked to communicate with the doctor on call. Most schools require a minimum of 40 hours a week.
AVC currently owns 2 double wide trailers on the campus. One is usually interns only, and the other house is shared by interns and externs. Interns in the shared house have their own room. There are 2 rooms for externs, with 2 twin beds in each room. It is possible you will be sharing a room. Rarely, we have opposite genders in the same room. Let us know if that is a huge problem, although it usually only happens once or twice a year. Please remember that you are a guest in the home of the clinic, and more importantly the interns. They are sharing the kitchen, bathrooms, etc. with you.