Offsite Electives

A two-week veterinary externship with the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) offers students an immersive experience in regulatory veterinary medicine, animal disease control, and public‑health–oriented veterinary practice. BOAH’s mission is to protect Indiana’s animal agriculture, safeguard public health, and support a safe food supply through disease prevention, surveillance, and inspection programs. During this externship, students work directly with BOAH veterinarians and staff to gain hands‑on exposure to the unique responsibilities of state regulatory practice. Activities may include:

• Animal Disease Surveillance & Field Investigations: Students accompany BOAH veterinarians on farm visits to conduct disease testing, evaluate livestock health, and assist with sample collection for laboratory diagnostics. These activities support BOAH’s mandate to prevent and control the spread of infectious and zoonotic diseases in Indiana’s livestock populations.
• Regulatory Medicine & Public Health: Students learn how state veterinarians enforce animal‑health laws, respond to reportable diseases, and collaborate with producers, industry partners, and federal agencies. This includes exposure to emergency preparedness planning and response efforts for foreign animal diseases such as avian influenza or African swine fever.
• Food Safety & Inspection Programs: Students may observe BOAH’s meat, poultry, and dairy inspection programs, which maintain a vital link in ensuring a safe food supply for Indiana consumers. This provides insight into how veterinarians contribute to food‑system integrity beyond clinical practice.
• Interagency Collaboration & Outreach: Students gain experience working with other state agencies, extension personnel, and agricultural organizations. Opportunities may include participating in producer education, youth agriculture programs, or community outreach events.

The externship also emphasizes: understanding the role of veterinarians in state government, developing communication skills for interacting with producers and industry partners, strengthening diagnostic reasoning in population‑level medicine, and gaining exposure to career paths in regulatory and public‑health veterinary practice

BOAH’s student programs are designed to provide real‑world insights into veterinary public health, enhance professional readiness, and broaden students’ understanding of non‑clinical veterinary career opportunities

An externship at the Emergency Veterinary and Specialty Hospital of Roanoke will allow a student to experience a high case load of urgent and emergent cases on a walk in basis.  We provide 24 hour hospitalization with consultation available from multiple specialties.  Our doctors are accustomed to acting as hospitalists as well as managing an outpatient case load.  

The student will primarily shadow the ER doctor with occasional opportunity to observe surgery with a board certified surgeon and observe imaging with our boarded internist. The ER doctors will also allow the student to observe emergency surgical cases that are not deferred to the specialty service.  The student will observe crucial conversations with clients and the occasional student is given the opportunity to communicate directly with clients, under observation.  Students will additionally be exposed to electronic medical record keeping

An elective shadowing experience at Vital Vet Animal Hospital offers veterinary students a well-rounded, hands-on look at modern companion animal practice within a collaborative, Fear Free–certified environment.

Students will be exposed to a diverse caseload that reflects the full spectrum of small animal medicine. Cases range from routine wellness visits and preventive care to sick appointments, urgent care presentations, and a variety of surgical procedures. While the majority of patients are cats and dogs, approximately 30–40% of cases involve exotic species, including small mammals, birds, and reptiles. This provides students with valuable exposure to multi-species medicine and the nuances of handling and treating non-traditional companion animals.

Throughout the experience, students will actively observe and engage in physical examinations, participate in discussions surrounding diagnostic workups, and review laboratory and imaging findings. They will have the opportunity to observe diagnostic procedures and surgeries, while also talking through differential diagnoses and treatment plans with the veterinary team. Emphasis is placed on clinical reasoning, case management, and client communication.

Students will also gain insight into the spectrum of care approach practiced at Vital Vet. They will observe how treatment recommendations are tailored to align with each client’s goals, financial considerations, and their pet’s needs—learning how to provide high-quality medicine while respecting individual circumstances.

As a Fear Free–certified practice, Vital Vet prioritizes minimizing stress and anxiety for patients. Students will see firsthand how low-stress handling techniques, thoughtful scheduling, environmental modifications, and client education are integrated into daily workflow to improve patient outcomes and overall experience.

Overall, this elective shadowing experience provides a dynamic and educational opportunity for veterinary students to develop clinical insight, expand their species exposure, and observe compassionate, client-centered care in action.

This elective experience is designed for students seeking hands-on exposure in a small animal preventative medicine–focused practice that is actively expanding its surgical capabilities following new ownership in January.

Our practice emphasizes comprehensive wellness care, client education, and early disease detection while maintaining a strong commitment to compassionate, relationship-centered medicine. Students will gain practical experience in preventative care including wellness examinations, vaccination protocols, parasite prevention, nutritional counseling, dental health assessments, and chronic disease management.

With recent growth in surgical services, participants will also observe and assist in an expanding range of procedures. Exposure may include routine soft tissue surgeries (spays, neuters, mass removals), dentistry, and select advanced surgical procedures as our offerings continue to grow. Emphasis is placed on proper case work-up, anesthesia protocols, pain management, surgical monitoring, and post-operative care.

This elective provides a unique opportunity to experience the evolution of a privately owned practice during a period of growth and transition. Students will gain insight into clinical decision-making, surgical skill development, team collaboration, workflow efficiency, and the integration of expanded medical services into an established preventative care model.

Ideal candidates are motivated, team-oriented learners who are eager to strengthen their clinical confidence in both wellness medicine and surgical fundamentals within a supportive, family-oriented practice environment.

At our AAHA-accredited practice, veterinary students will work with a team of doctors practicing high-quality small animal medicine in a supportive and collaborative environment.  We value the principles of Fear Free and Cat-Friendly veterinary visits to ensure the best experience for our patients and their owners. We offer a variety of services including wellness care, surgery, dentistry, cold laser therapy, ultrasound, radiography, urgent care, avian/reptile medicine, acupuncture/traditional Chinese veterinary medicine, and end-of-life care. Our goal is to provide veterinary students with a well-rounded approach to practicing high-quality veterinary medicine, surgery, and dentistry in a general practice setting.

Atlas Veterinary Urgent Care is an independently owned small animal urgent care hospital designed to bridge the gap between general practice and 24-hour emergency medicine. The hospital provides same-day, appointment-based and urgent care services for non-life-threatening illnesses and injuries, while stabilizing critical patients for transfer to a full-service emergency facility when necessary.

This fourth-year elective provides immersive exposure to urgent care medicine in a fast-paced outpatient setting. Students will participate in evaluation, diagnosis, treatment planning, and case management of common urgent presentations, including:

• Gastrointestinal disease (vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia)
• Lameness and minor orthopedic injury
• Dermatologic conditions
• Otitis and ocular disease
• Urinary tract disease
• Wounds and lacerations
• Toxin exposures
• Acute pain management
• Stabilization of critical patients prior to referral

The rotation emphasizes triage and prioritization, efficient outpatient case management, cost-conscious and transparent client communication, development of clinical reasoning skills, and confidence in managing urgent cases and emergency stabilization. 

We are a mixed animal practice with 5 veterinarians.  In a usual week, we have 1 doctor on farm calls, 1 in surgery, and 2 in small animal appointments each day, with 1 doctor off.  Students have the opportunity to shadow farm calls, surgery, small animal appointments each day, and can decide what they want to shadow each day.  Having different doctors allows opportunity to observe different techniques. We try to allow students to participate when feasible.  

The Veterinarian Extern will be supervised by the Attending Veterinarian / Director of Veterinary Services and will engage broadly with the veterinary, animal care, operations, and quality teams. In this role, you will shadow the Attending Veterinarian and the Clinical Veterinarian. A typical day will include morning rounds, observing medical decision making for treatments and relaying instructions to the animal care team, observing surgeries on swine, engaging in sample collections, and shadowing ultrasounds and necropsies. This position is based onsite in Northwest, Indiana. 

Students will work alongside with attending veterinarian on a wide variety of small animal medical and surgical urgent care and emergency/critical care cases. Student will gain familiarity with triage, physical assessment, client communication, formulating differential diagnoses, selection and interpretation of diagnostics, formulating therapeutic plan, performing diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, and monitoring of hospitalized patients. 

This internship is designed for veterinary students with an interest in laboratory animal medicine. Interns will work alongside five clinical veterinarians and three resident veterinarians. The internship provides exposure to a wide variety of species including nonhuman primates, sheep, swine, mice, rats, zebrafish and frogs. Interns will participate in clinical cases, assist in veterinary rounds, and attend the resident’s weekly didactic trainings. As scheduling permits, interns may also attend IACUC meetings and Journal Club, gain hands-on training in rodent procedures and anesthesia, and assist with nonhuman primate quarantine. Interns will also conduct a short enrichment research project on a topic provided by the Enrichment team, and present their results to veterinary staff at the conclusion of the internship.