Exotic animal experience in vet school

[Smiller]

Hi!

I was hoping some of you can help me out. I'm interested in eventually working in small animal general practice (companion and exotics), but am worried about gaining exotic animal experience in vet school. I'll most likely be attending University of Missouri CVM this fall (although Minnesota CVM is also an option, it's just so expensive for out of state students!) - are there ways to seek exotic animal experience at schools such as Mizzou that aren't necessarily known for exotic animals? Will seeking out these opportunities prepare me to work with exotics upon graduation? Thank you!!

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[Ashgirl]

Hi!

I was hoping some of you can help me out. I'm interested in eventually working in small animal general practice (companion and exotics), but am worried about gaining exotic animal experience in vet school. I'll most likely be attending University of Missouri CVM this fall (although Minnesota CVM is also an option, it's just so expensive for out of state students!) - are there ways to seek exotic animal experience at schools such as Mizzou that aren't necessarily known for exotic animals? Will seeking out these opportunities prepare me to work with exotics upon graduation? Thank you!!

Mizzou student here!

There are absolutely tons of ways you can seek experience! During the school year, we have ZEW club, which takes field trips to zoos, wildlife places, and hosts nights where people bring in birds, reptiles, etc where you can practice your exam and clinical skills on.

During the short summers, you can either do research in close proximity to our lab animal folks (who are awesome!), or you can go out and do some exotic shadowing or even externships in your second summer. During clinics, you have 10 weeks of electives (We have a 6 (or 8?) week elective for lab animal that is popular, and I'm sure a few others of these can be used for exotics!) and up to 16 weeks of off-block time you can use to go to other clinics and wildlife/zoos and extern at. We recently just got a school-wide email offering an exotic specific externship at a clinic somewhere, so they are here and available for the taking!

 

[racccjlm]

In state. Please do yourself a favor and go in state! Looks like they have an exotics symposium http://exoticssymposium.missouri.edu/

 

[Smiller]

In state. Please do yourself a favor and go in state! Looks like they have an exotics symposium http://exoticssymposium.missouri.edu/

I am not in state - I was not accepted to my in state school so I am weighing my other options!!! I am extremely fortunate that Missouri allows change of residency, though. Thank you for the link! That is helpful for sure!

 

[Smiller]

Mizzou student here!

There are absolutely tons of ways you can seek experience! During the school year, we have ZEW club, which takes field trips to zoos, wildlife places, and hosts nights where people bring in birds, reptiles, etc where you can practice your exam and clinical skills on.

During the short summers, you can either do research in close proximity to our lab animal folks (who are awesome!), or you can go out and do some exotic shadowing or even externships in your second summer. During clinics, you have 10 weeks of electives (We have a 6 (or 8?) week elective for lab animal that is popular, and I'm sure a few others of these can be used for exotics!) and up to 16 weeks of off-block time you can use to go to other clinics and wildlife/zoos and extern at. We recently just got a school-wide email offering an exotic specific externship at a clinic somewhere, so they are here and available for the taking!

Thank you so much for the reply! It was very helpful and much appreciated!

 

[Folkvang]

A bit late I know tho...

Here in Brazil we have vet specializations councils and associations. in this especific case we have
Exotic and wild animals study groups wich we affiliate to that exotic and wild animals veterinary association.
We discuss clinical cases, anatomy specifities and more than that we manage to keep an active clinical routine.