Offsite Electives

The Pet Emergency and Specialty Center is a 24-hour specialty referral hospital serving San Diego. We have two locations. Our main hospital in La Mesa provides referral services which include internal medicine, emergency/critical care, oncology, surgery and avian/exotic medicine along with 24/7 emergency care. Our facility is closely associated with advanced imaging centers, making MRI readily available and we recently installed a 16-slice CT machine. We are affiliated with Eye Care for Animals and ophthalmologists receive cases in our La Mesa location twice a week. Our Chula Vista location is a 24-hour emergency hospital. At this site we are affiliated with a local dermatologist who sees appointments at our facility one day every other week. There are 21 staff veterinarians including two board certified criticalists, three board certified internists, two board certified surgeons, one board certified medical oncologist, one board certified anesthesiologist, an avian/exotic specialist (also board certified in aquatics) and fifteen highly trained internship trained emergency doctors. Senior students will shadow senior ER clinicians and criticalists on cases as well as some shadowing with our other specialists. They will participate in twice daily cage side patient rounds. Students will also participate in weekly intern topic rounds presented by one of our specialists and bi-weekly radiology rounds.

We are an AAHA accredited hospital.  We do CO2 laser surgery, digital radiolgraphy, MedRX videoscope, companion therapy laser.  

The student will participate daily in necropsy, biopsy or ZEAPS services and at the end of the elective shall be able to

• Perform all aspects of a necropsy, including gross evaluation, tissue trimming for processing, histopathology, and correlation of pathologic findings with history, clinical questions and ancillary testing, to formulate a final diagnosis.

• Perform all aspects of a biopsy, including tissue trimming for processing, histopathology, and correlation of pathologic findings with history and clinical questions, to formulate a final diagnosis.

• Synthesize and communicate findings in a written format.

The student will participate in anatomic pathology residency training functions.

The student will develop scientific writing skills

IEVC is a very busy avian-exotic full service animal hospital.  Extern will gain exposure to many different species and common medical, surgical, and emergency procedures. Extern will shadow one of two staff veterinarians during the 2 week program.

The students will be able to assist in surgery, shadow a veterinarian while going into rooms to exam the pet and work with the Dr. to do follow up.

The course in the Small Animal Section consists of exposure to the Diagnostic Services of MJR-VHUP, namely clinical pathology, anatomic pathology (necropsy service), parasitology and microbiology.  The course is focused on development of clinical pathology skills and a practicum learning how to perform necropsies and interpret findings.  A portion of the rotation is also directed towards skill development in parasitology and microbiology.

The bioanalytical pathology portion, which comprises clinical pathology, parasitology and microbiology, will be divided into microscopy, discussion, and online interactive lesson sections. During the microscopy section, students will work with the supervising clinical pathologist or resident in the evaluation, interpretation, and reporting of cytologic specimens and blood film reviews. Discussions involving parasitology and microbiology will also include treatment options and best practices. Online lessons include work in parasitology, clinical pathology and microbiology.

Students are also required to perform necropsies, write necropsy reports and to familiarize themselves with the pathophysiology, histopathology and the clinical manifestations of various disorders encountered. Participation of students in presentation and discussion of cases is required. Students will be evaluated based upon enthusiasm, effort, ambition, and advancement in pathology knowledge as evaluated through the directed group discussions, necropsies, microscopy sessions and clinical competency outcomes assessments. A short paper is required.

There is a web-based introduction to VPTH710 Diagnostic Services and VPTH770 Diagnostic Services Elective, which students must review prior to the start of their rotation. Students may find this introduction by logging in to https://learn.vet.upenn.edu with their Penn Key and Vet Domain password. Please note that it will take approximately 3 hours to review the video and written materials on the website.

I would love to be able to provide a student with practical small animal experience.  Although, we all would love to be able to fully work up each case, the real world does not always allow this.  Being a small animal vet for over 9 years and servicing a lower income clientele I feel I can help students think beyond a text book diagnosis.  Also, I feel any real world veterinary experience they can gain before going into the "real" world is beneficial. 

Student will be paired with one of our experienced Medical Directors to shadow and assist them throughout their work day.  Student will get a wide range of experience in our full service small animal hospitals including surgery (featuring surgical lasers), dentistry (including dental radiographs), ultrasound, and radiology.

Elective experience will encompass activities associated with that of a Technical Service Veterinarian and focus on Poultry vaccines and the vaccination process.

1.  Technical Service Field calls to evaluate bird health, vaccination programs and efficacy, crew vaccinations, and USDA Health Inspections for export.

2.  Hatchery inspection and audits of hatchery vaccination processes.

3. Field posting sessions and sample collection for laboratory evaluation.

4. Visits to Diagnostic Laboratory Support Facilities/  University of Pennsylvania and Aviserve in Delaware

I’m a private poultry veterinary consultant.  I have clients in British Columbia, Canada, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Utah and Montana.  I work with all poultry species (layers, turkeys, broilers, ducks, squab (pigeons) both as commercial and breeders.  We will have long days (12 hours +) and short days. 

Students will perform all the duties I routinely perform including the following: taking blood and environmental samples, necropsy, performing Animal Welfare, FDA on-farm Audits, reviewing on farm bio-security protocols, reviewed BMP for poultry production (commercial and breeder level).  Work with turkeys, squab, layers (Conventional, cage free & pastured raised) and broilers (conventional, ABF).