Offsite Electives

Students will be involved in a program of strictly feline medicine and surgery.  The facility offers high quality medicine and surgery including complete dental and surgical services.  There is also a special emphasis on preventative Feline Medicine and correction of behavioral problems.  A high volume of broad spectrum (i.e. primary and referral) cases will be experienced by the student.  Students are encouraged to participate in all aspects of the practice including a full discussion of practice management.

We are a four DVM general practice is a suburb of Los Angeles, California.  We exclusively see cats and dogs.  We are fully equipped with digital radiology, ultrasound, digital dental radiology, and video otoscopy.  Our case load is substantial and varied.  We do quite a bit of dermatology and surgery.  Students will be able to shadow veterinarians in examination rooms, scrub in and assist in surgeries, and help provide treatments to dogs and cats.

Externs participate in laboratory animal medicine activities and comparative medicine research, but may emphasize one or more areas depending on their interests.

LABORATORY ANIMAL MEDICINE: externs participate in the day to day activities of providing clinical veterinary care to research animals. They assist and participate in routine health care and diagnosis and designing treatment plans for a diverse group of animals including dogs, cats, rabbits, swine, rats, mice and genetically-engineered animals. Externs gain experience in laboratory animal practice/facility management by observing interactions and problem solving between laboratory animal veterinarians, research staff and animal care staff. Externs may also participate in experimental surgeries and facility inspections if the latter are ongoing during the externs visit.

COMPARATIVE MEDICINE RESEARCH: Externs are assigned a research project, depending on project availability. The extern conducts a literature review, implements the project, analyzes data generated and gives a short presentation at the completion of the externship. Externs can also rotate with post-DVM trainees of the CMP who are actively engaged in research projects. During these rotations, externs discuss projects and participate in laboratory procedures.

ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES: Externs may also participate in a variety of ongoing activities such as seminars, review of pathology slides, lab meetings, journal clubs, animal handling laboratories and rounds. Externs are under the direct supervision of clinical veterinarians, research scientists, comparative pathologists and post-DVM trainees throughout the externship.

Board Certified Specialists 

We offer the following services that students will participate in:

- Complete medical and preventative health care individualized for each patient

- Behavioral counseling and low stress handling

- Nutritional counseling

- Occular Pressure testing

- Electrocardiograms

- Consulting services with cardiologists, an orthopedic surgeon and radiologists

- In-house pharmacy stocked with over 200 different medications

- Exotic animal care, including rabbits, ferrets, rodents and small birds

Columbia University Institute of Comparative Medicine Externship Program Columbia University offers an externship program to provide Veterinary students with experience in clinical laboratory animal medicine and surgery and veterinary pathology through participation in our comparative medicine residency. Externs will:

• Gain hands on experience in surgical and medical management of research species by accompanying veterinary staff on daily rounds
• Will participate in journal club, seminars, veterinary ground rounds, and IACUC protocol reviews
• Learn about facility design and management
• Understand preventative health programs applied to rodents
• Discuss the laws and regulations that govern the care and use of laboratory animals

Columbia offers a 2-4 week externship period. Please submit a letter of intent, resume, and 3 references. If you have any questions, please contact: Rivka Shoulson, DVM, MPH, DACLAM

The Animal Emergency & Referral Center of MN is located in the east metro of the Twin Cities. We are a small animal clinic that started as an emergency clinic 30 years ago, and has morphed into an emergency and referral center, offering complete patient care with multiple specialties. We are a team of highly skilled veterinarians,
specialists, and technicians, who work together to provide quality patient care. We place an emphasis on learning and have a strong program for veterinary student externs and vet tech interns. We have had vet student externs from throughout the country. We limit the extern rotation to 2 students per 2 week rotation, on alternating
schedules, to maximize individual learning. Each extern will get one on one time with various criticalists and multiple ER veterinarians. This allows exposure to a variety of practice methods.  Other specialties are available as well.

Externs are expected to be able to interact with clients, take histories, perform physical exams, perform minor procedures, scrub in on surgeries, and take part in rounds.   We have an extremely positive work environment and are very welcoming to students. Our primary hospital is in Oakdale, MN, which is open 24/7, with a satellite clinic in St. Paul, also open 24/7. Students spend a majority of the time at our Oakdale clinic, but also will spend at least 2 shifts at our St. Paul clinic. Students can customize their schedule. Each shift is up to 8 hours long, with a mix of days, evenings, weekends and holidays, for a total of about 40 hours per week.

Well-qualified externship candidates should have a declared interest in equine sport horse and reproductive medicine, have career ambitions to join an ambulatory practice, and have demonstrated experience in handling and assisting with treatment of horses. Externs are expected to assist the veterinarians in daily work, and to be available for emergency calls at night and on weekends. Externs should also have a good work ethic and positive attitude. Successful completion of an externship at ODEA is a pre-requisite for those candidates interested in pursuing a future internship with our practice.

We have a 24 hour veterinary hospital.  During the day we operate as a traditional hospital seeing routine and non-routine cases(vaccines, dermatitis etc...).  We typically have 3 or 4 doctors seeing regular appointments.  We see quite a few emergency walk ins during the day also and have 2-3 doctors dedicated to the ER side during the day.  In the evening(after 7pm) we transition to an emergency hospital and everything is walk in only.  We have an in house lab with 2 Med Techs running it, digtal x-ray and 2 ultrasound units, digital dental x-ray with multiple high speed units, and endoscopy .  A typical externship involves some time on day shift, some time spent on weekend shift and some time spent on overnight/emergency shifts.  We try to expose the students to all aspects of our practice.  We also have an internal medicine specialist here 4 days a week and a surgeon here 3 days a week.

Dells Veterinary Services is a mixed animal facility in SE South Dakota.  Our practice is 40% dairy, 30% beef and 30% companion animal.  We currently serve 25% of the dairy cows in SD (250-5500 head facilities).  Dairy services include reproductive, calf raising, heifer ranch, milk system evaluation and ventilation.

Beef services include cow calf to feedlot.  Breeding soundness exams and ob's will be the primary in the spring and additional services follow seasonally.

As a companion animal facility we are AAHA members and starting the AAHA accreditation process.  We have a full line of diagnostic evaluation tools from blood work to digital x-ray and digital dental x-ray.  We offer bone pin/plating and other orthopedic surgery services as well.

Expectations are that this will be a hands on experience.