Offsite Electives

Equine sports medicine practice covering hunter/jumper, eventing, dressage, working cow horse and rodeo disciplines in the San Francisco Bay Area and greater Los Angeles regions.

Students will be immersed in the daily functioning of a specialised veterinary ophthalmology practice, gaining exposure to advanced diagnostic procedures, surgical case workflows, clinical decision-making, and multidisciplinary coordination across patient care. The experience provides insight into medical protocols, clinical documentation, client communication, and ophthalmic case management in a high-volume environment. Learning is observational and educational in nature, with opportunities to engage in daily case rounds, once-a-week literature review, clinical discussions, case reviews, and academic learning sessions with the medical team.

Working one on one with a board certified surgeon in an outpatient surgery center. Duties will include partaking in surgical consults as well as scrubbing in for surgery. 

This elective experience offers DVM students an intensive, hands-on learning opportunity in the high-stakes environment of a 24/7 emergency and specialty veterinary hospital. Under the guidance of experienced emergency clinicians and board-certified specialists, students will actively participate in a wide range of clinical activities, gaining valuable experience in both emergency care and advanced specialty medicine.

Key Learning Objectives and Activities:

• Emergency Triage & Stabilization:
  Gain experience in assessing critically ill or injured patients, participating in triage and stabilization procedures, and learning how to prioritize care in a high-pressure environment.
• Advanced Diagnostic Techniques:
  Participate in diagnostic workups, including radiology, ultrasound, and laboratory diagnostics to help guide rapid decision-making in emergency situations.
• Specialty Services Exposure:
  Work alongside specialists in fields such as internal medicine and surgery. Observe and assist in advanced procedures, such as endoscopy, surgery, and specialized imaging, providing a broad view of veterinary specialty care.
• Clinical Decision-Making:
  Develop and refine clinical reasoning skills by participating in daily rounds and case discussions with attending veterinarians, specialists, and technicians. Learn how to approach complex cases that require both immediate intervention and long-term planning.
• Client Communication & Compassionate Care:
  Enhance communication skills by interacting with pet owners, explaining complex diagnoses, treatment plans, and financial considerations, particularly in emergency and high-stress situations.
• Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration:
  Participate in case management with a multidisciplinary team, including emergency clinicians, specialists, veterinary technicians, and support staff, learning how to collaborate effectively in a dynamic, fast-paced setting.

High Performance Equine is an ambulatory equine sports medicine practice based in northern Virginia, with winter time coverage in the Wellington, FL marketplace. We see appointments Monday through Friday on an elective basis. The caseload is focused on English sport horses, especially show jumper and dressage sport horses. Students will accompany our veterinarians on farm calls, participate in case discussions, and observe lameness examinations and associated treatments. We offer a range of veterinary services including performance examinations, purchase examinations and consultations, and diagnostic imaging. Our treatment plans utilize innovative techniques, such as ultrasound guided injections and regenerative medicine.

Throughout the externship, students will work alongside experienced DVMs to develop essential skills and knowledge in various aspects of the veterinary practice. Under the guidance of DVMs, students will actively engage in client interactions, participate in the comprehensive evaluation of patient cases (including history-taking, physical examinations, diagnostic testing, and treatment planning), learn to formulate differential diagnoses and develop appropriate management strategies, and will observe and practice efficient time management skills essential for maintaining workflow in a fast-paced clinical environment. This includes prioritizing tasks, optimizing patient care, and balancing multiple responsibilities effectively. Students will also have the opportunity to assist DVMs in surgical procedures, gaining hands-on experience in surgical preparation, anesthesia monitoring, sterile technique, and surgical assistance.

Stonewall Veterinary Hospital is a small animal hospital with a patient profile of canine and felines. The clinic is located in rural West Virginia in a small town. We offer routine wellness exams, geriatric wellness exams. We offer routine surgeries including ovariohysterectomy and castration for feline and canine patients. We also offer soft tissue surgery including wound repair and mass removals. We are equipped with a vessel sealer for surgical procedures. We also offer routine dental procedures. We have Companion Animal Laser for post-surgery, arthritis, wounds, etc. We also have digital radiographs and ultrasound available. Stonewall Veterinary Hospital has Idexx laboratory equipment for in house analysis. The student will gain experience by participating and observing from the things listed above.

Student will spend 40 hours per week observing and shadowing board-certified radiologists and radiology residents. 

MedVet Phoenix is a 21,000sqft ER/Specialty Hospital in Scottsdale, AZ serving the greater Phoenix community.  Recently opened in September 2025, we currently have full-time Emergency and Critical Care (2 board-certified Criticalists and 5 ER doctors), 2 surgeons (one board-certified, one board-eligible), a board-certified medical oncologist and a board-certified cardiologist.  We have support from local board-certified radiologists and a board-certified internist for imaging and consultations.  Electives can be geared towards a specific specialty or more of a rotating experience, although our close departmental collaborations offer the ability to follow a case through workup, diagnostics, and treatment.  Our elective ECC experience ideally rotates students through day/mid/overnight rotations.  Housing/stipend is not currently offered.  

Verde Oveja is a non-profit commercial sheep dairy farm in the Andes mountains of Ecuador.  The flock consists of approximately 300 East Friesian and Lacaune dairy sheep, with a commercial dairy and an on site cheese factory.  The purpose of the foundation is to improve the local knowledge about sheep as livestock production animals in Ecuador, provide jobs to the locals and create a unique product that doesn't exist in Ecuador.  We started the farm in 2020 and it has grown to be a thriving sheep dairy with a reputation of having the best animals in the country.  We have planted several other sheep dairies in Ecuador in the last years.  We focus on a tightly controlled reproduction program, led by Dr Heather Steyn (reproduction specialist) in conjunction with the genetics department at Genovis in Guelph.  The farm is located at 10,000 ft in elevation on the equator in Ecuador and has no seasonal effect on breeding.  Lambing "season" is every 6 weeks year round with synchronized groups of about 40 ewes that are always in rotation.  We raise approximately 40 lambs in each group, born every 6 weeks.  We produce meat lambs as well as dairy ewes and run a meat flock as well.  Here is a list of all of the experiences and frequencies that occur at Verde Oveja.  

Daily/Weekly experiences:

• Sheep milking (about 70 ewes) twice daily at 6am and 5pm - year round
• Jersey cow milking (1 cow) twice daily at 6am and 5pm
• Milk bucket training lambs - lots of lamb handling
• Daily weighing of lambs and dosing with coccidiostats
• Moving sheep flocks to new paddocks every 2 days in an intensive rotational grazing system with intentional pasture planting
• Mixing grains for balanced rations (each week 2Tons are made) and formulating balanced rations for different groups
• Making yogurtized milk replacer for lambs
• Feeding all animals on the farm (Sheep, cow, alpaca, geese, ducks, chickens, horses, kangal dogs)
• Measuring milk production on dairy ewes throughout lacatation cycles
• On-Site Farm lab: Milk composition analysis, somatic cell testing, performing culture and sensitivity for bacterial mastitis identification
• Fecal egg counts on sheep flock
• Weighing the flock, FAMACHA and BCS scoring
• Vaccination, deworming, supplement administration
• Management of an intensive breeding program, genetic evaluation and scoring system with GenOvis (Guelph University program)
• Meat flock management (separate from the dairy flock), that includes weighing, BCS, Famacha, hoof management, genetic selection
• Verde Oveja Cheese factory: Cheese manufacturing and production (aged hard cheese, semi aged cheese, fresh cheese and yogurt, fresh dairy product production of cream, sour cream, butter, buttermilk)
• Managing a laying flock of 60 chickens
• Growing organic vegatables on the farm and in the greenhouse for team consumption
• Software management system for flock records, medical records, breeding records, pedigrees, etc - "Herdboss"

Monthly and/or Ocassional experiences:

• Sheep sheering (250+ sheep in 2 days every 4 months)
• Hoof trimming every 3-4 months on the entire flock
• Ewe synchronization and breeding every 7 weeks
• Pregnancy ultrasound using a POC Butterfly ultrasound every 2 months
• Groups of 20-30 ewes are synchronized to lamb together in a 5 day window, every 2 months
• Evaluation and treatment for mastitis, including CMT, SCC and culturing
• Treatment of anemia, bottle jaw, pneumonia and other lamb illnesses
• Treatment of pregnancy toxemia, metabolic acidosis and other metabolic diseases
• Assisted lambing including mal-presentation and corrective lambing
• Intensive lambing and neonatal care techniques

Other experiences on the farm:

• Sheep cesarean sections
• Unilateral mastectomy for treatment of gangrenous mastitis (Blue bag)
• Necropsy - all animals that die or are euthanized on the farm receive a full necropsy
• Intensive care for an adult sheep or lamb illness
• Laprascopic insemination with frozen semen on synchronized ewes (2-3 times per year)
• Embryo collection on ewes as well as embryo fertilization and implantation on ewes (1-2 times per year)

• Annual horse dental clnic on 8 horses with an Eq specialist doing power dental prophylaxis