Offsite Electives

We believe in hands on experience; therefore, students will actively participate in all phases of pathology, including performing daily nonhuman primate necropsies and observing clinical and anatomic pathology laboratory procedures, all while researching, developing and drafting a manuscript for publication. The goal is that they will become experienced at performing necropsies, recognize normal and abnormal findings, and learn about what is required to manage/oversee anatomic and clinical pathology laboratories. Students will also attend weekly pathology rounds that include veterinary pathologists from the San Antonio area and working/observe daily animal colony activities.

Nestlé Purina PetCare, the world leader in pet food products, is announcing their Veterinary Externship program. In our continuing effort to maintain leadership in the veterinary medical field, we are extending educational opportunities for DVM students to work alongside veterinary professionals in our Cattery/Kennel at our St. Joseph, Missouri Product Technology Center.

Under the supervision of Dr. Dawn Gau and staff veterinarians, students will practice and observe veterinary medicine for dogs and cats residing in the facility. Nestlé Purina PetCare’s long history of excellence in nutritional research offers students a unique opportunity to become familiar with today’s research industry while obtaining on-the-job training in the care and treatment of large populations of companion animals.

The Veterinary Externship program is designed to fulfill a rotation requirement for DVM students who are between their junior and senior year and/or during their final year. Students will work full-time for three weeks at the Product Technology Center.

We operate three (3) satellite veterinary clinics across the Navajo Nation and are a Navajo Nation Government Agency. We serve as Public Health, State and Regulatory Veterinarians for the Navajo Nation and provide Direct Services to the Navajo people. We also operate a mobile unit during summer and fall months

Phillips Animal Hospital is a well-established, full-service, small animal veterinary hospital providing comprehensive medical, surgical and dental care. Our practice thrives on compassionate fear-free animal care, personal client service, and a pleasant working environment for the staff. We have a strong relationship with a local shelter and can arrange 1-2 spays or neuters at our clinic for the extern to gain more experience. The extern will also be asked to take at least one appointment a day with supervision from history taking to treatment and discharge. The rest of the time will be filled with surgical and veterinary observation.

3rd and 4th year veterinary students will shadow veterinarians rotating through general practice, ER and various specialty services at Friendship Hospital for Animals. 

The student will be exposed to all aspects of private practice animal hospital.  We offer digital radiography,  digital dental radiography, U/S, complete in house blood/urine analyzers, and video vet scopes.  Also, we are a full service practice offering wellness exams, surgical procedures (both soft tissue and orthopedic), and examinations of ill patients.  Our goal with the students is to offer a hands-on approach highlighting the importance of the private practioner.  We will also concentrate of the importance of client communication, and empathy with our clients while making important decisions regarding the pets' treatments.  Lastly, we will stress the importance of economics of a private practice and how to make decisions regarding profitablity .

Here at Pointe Animal Hospital we would be able to provide a real world experience as a small animal general practice practitioner.  Students will be given the opportunity to observe and conduct physical examinations, take and interpret radiographs, draw blood, read and interpret CBC and chem profiles, give vaccinations/medications, care for hospitalized patients, prepare and read cytologies, aid and assist in surgeries and dental cleanings and extractions, and generally aid in any of the other varied tasks that arise when acting as a general practitioner.  We are quite busy for a single practitioner clinic, seeing an average of roughly 20-25 patients per day along with 2-3 surgeries per day.

Our veterinary hospital is comprised of 13 progressive general practioners; two ABVP board certified practitioners and five specialists.   Our board certified specialty team consists of two surgeons, dermatologist, cardiologist and a dually boarded IM/ECC specialist.   Twelve to fifteen of our GP/ABVP veterinary staff are previous interns who completed a HAH internship and have remained a part of the HAH family for anywhere between 1 and 30+ years.

To round out our specialty team we have three members of the American College of Veterinary Radiologists who are available for consultation to the practice in the reviewing of our digital radiographs as well as Antech Imaging Services. These groups provide additional radiographic expertise for the intern group, as well as daily written tele-radiographic consultation.

We use Antech as the main reference laboratory, in conjunction with our fully staffed in-house lab.  We are able to perform routine chemistries, hemograms, and cytology daily.   An Idexx Catalyst dry chemistry unit is available for after-hours or STAT chemistries.VCA HAH has a dedicated veterinary pharmacy with a knowledgeable and friendly staff. 

We have an extremely busy emergency room requiring us to have point of care testing to include I-Stat, Alpha Trak and a hand held Lactate meter.   In addition, TFAST and AFAST ultrasound is available .  The hospital maintains 18 anesthesia stations with state of the art monitoring and anesthesia capabilities including, a CT machine,  Life Window and BioNet physiologic monitors, respiratory monitors, Doppler blood pressure and SurgiVet pulse oximetry.  There are three operating suites, with a total of six tables, available as well as two dental tables with Schick digital dental radiography.  Other radiographic capabilities are provided with two 600 MA 100 Kvp x-ray units with Eklin digitalized processing.   

During the externs time here, they will rotate through specialists, 5 days a week putting in 8 hour days, for ideally two weeks.  In total, they will spend 4 days with our boarded surgeon Dr. Brianna Danielson, 2 days with our dermatologist Dr. Melanie Hnot, 2 days with our cardiologist Dr. Dewey Carpenter, 1 day with our criticalist/internal medicine specialist Dr. Randi Fishkin, and one day with one of our ABVP staff DVM's Dr. Anne Murphy.

Unfortunately we do not have facilities for the housing of students.

Perdue Foods LLC is the 4th largest broiler producer in the USA, producing approximately 13 million broilers per week. Perdue is the 6th largest US turkey producer, growing over 8 million turkeys per year.

Student will shadow and assist experienced poultry veterinarians and assist poultry production personnel in their daily duties.  This will include visits to hatcheries, broiler farms, processing plants, and poultry diagnostic laboratories.  Student will attend meetings where poultry diagnostics, health program planning, regulatory, and poultry production planning topics are discussed. Student may assist in sample collection in hatcheries and on farms. Student may assist with poultry vaccination or vaccination audits. Student will learn the company's detailed poultry welfare program and the detailed biosecurity requirements. Student will perform and/or assist with poultry necropsies. Student may assist or perform poultry welfare or biosecurity audits. Student will interact with poultry farmers. Student will learn about standard vaccination programs for both broiler breeders and broilers, as well as anticoccidial programs for broilers. Student will learn about NAE (No Antibiotics Ever) broiler production and Organic broiler production. Student will learn how to properly prescribe antibiotic treatments for commercial broilers. Student will learn to review diagnostic lab reports with regard to making subsequent veterinary recommendations. Student will learn how to collect and analyze complex production statistics and evaluate their relevance to poultry health. Student will be exposed to emergency preparedness (HPAI, LPAI, weather, etc.) as it relates to large integrated poultr operations. Student may spend time with non-Perdue poultry veterinarians in the area as well, performing the aforementioned activities, depending on scheduling. Student is required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement.

Students receive training and familiarization with all facets of the Army veterinary/public health program.  They are mentored by an Active Duty veterinary officer and are rotated through 1-4 veterinary clinics operated by the Public Health Activity.  They are exposed to preventive veterinary medicine with privately owned animals, as well as surgical procedures with both canine and feline patients.  In addition, they are exposed to the veterinary food safety aspects of the Army mission.  They accompany a veterinary food safety officer to both military food establishments, as well as commercial vendors supplying food to the military and conduct facility inspections and food safety audits.