The Animalife Veterinary centers are a three hospital group in Naples Florida started by Dr. Randy Eisel in 1996 and this year acquired by NVA as majority owner. The practices are all small animal, primarily dogs and cats with some exotic animal medicine including small mammals, reptiles and birds. Dr. Eisel is the consulting veterinarian for a large reptile breeding facility in Naples and for a wolf rescue facility that also houses coyotes, big cats, raccoons and foxes along with a very large number of rescued wolves and wolf hybrids. Along with our regular caseload of dogs and cats the extern will have the opportunity to visit multiple facilities and learn handling, behavior and treatment of numerous species of exotic animals. However, the majority of the externs experience will be in the care and treatment of dogs and cats in our three hospitals. The extern will have the opportunity to work with our staff of doctors learning surgical techniques, internal medicine, dental procedures, labwork interpretation, physical examination skills, client communication, inpatient and outpatient hospital care. The elective experience will focus on traditional mentorship with hands on instruction in all aspects of veterinary care under the direct supervision of highly qualified and experienced veterinary practitioners.
The Animalife Veterinary Centers are staffed by highly qualified veterinary practitioners and a large, highly trained staff of veterinary nurses and client service representatives. All of our hospitals have full in house blood chemistry labs, digital radiology, dental radiology, fully equipped surgical suites, pharmacy and exam rooms. Our hospitals have access locally to specialists in internal medicine, emergency medicine, cardiology, neurology, oncology, reproduction and surgery, including our own staff residency trained surgeon.
The extern will not have a set schedule but will be expected to spend at least 40 hours per week in the clinics with our staff doctors. However, given that this is an externship and that the extern should want to gain as much experience as possible, there will be no limits set on the number of hours or days that the extern would be allowed to be in the hospital. In fact, we would encourage the extern to spend as much time as possible gaining valuable experience. The student will have the opportunity to take the lead role in managing cases under direct supervision. The student will also have the opportunity be directly involved in surgeries including doing shelter and rescue spays and neuters under direct supervision.