The Center for Bird and Exotic Animal Medicine (CBEAM) is a very busy, exotics-exclusive emergency and routine care practice that is open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Our externs spend 5 days a week with us, shadowing and participating in rooms, as well as assisting with routine and emergency cases (including performing treatments and helping in surgery). We are happy to have students with a strong interest in exotics spend time at our hospital.
The Center for Bird and Exotic Animal Medicine is a beautiful, state-of-the-art, 7000 sq. ft. exotics-only veterinary hospital located near Seattle, WA. Our enthusiastic, compassionate veterinarians and staff are focused on providing excellent patient care and positive client experiences in a collegial atmosphere. We are dedicated to the practice of high-level medicine and advancement of avian and exotic animal knowledge.
We offer full medical and surgical care, ranging from routine annual examinations to emergency and critical care. In addition to our day practice, we are the only dedicated exotic animal hospital offering 24 hour emergency services/staffing in Washington State. Our caseload is approximately 50% small mammal/27% avian/21% reptile and amphibian/2% other (fish, swine, goats, macropods, invertebrates, etc.). We treat all types of animals except for dogs, domestic cats, horses and cows.
Our hospital is equipped with the latest equipment available to exotic animal medicine, including CT, high definition digital radiography, full dental unit with digital dental radiography, specialized small mammal dentistry equipment, Storz flexible and rigid endoscopy suite, in-house laboratory, digital ultrasonography with doppler, EKG, surgical ventilator, full surgical monitoring, Force Triad Ligasure system, Ellman radiosurgical unit, cold laser, and more. We have strong relationships with local specialists and collaborate regularly to provide advanced veterinary care (radiology, cardiology, oncology, clinical pathology, surgery, dermatology, and ophthalmology)
Externs work 5 days a week 8 am to 6 pm (generally off Friday and Saturday, but this is flexible). Please inform us if you have particular time off requests, or if there is a desire to have a variation on this day shift.
Students are expected to be on call for after-hours emergencies on the days they work. This is a great opportunity to get hands on experience.
Students start by shadowing staff (bringing in emergencies, taking histories, helping with diagnostics, treatments, discharges, including learning how to teach clients to administer treatments), then performing these tasks when comfortable. The student will start focusing on shadowing doctors and following through with medical and surgical cases when they are comfortable with Avimark and the appointment/emergency triage and history taking process.
Students can help at all levels of patient care (including in surgery), but always with supervision.
One bedroom is available on a first come, first served basis (housing is not guaranteed) There is no cost. No pets allowed.