Abroad work with Animals

[Ysabel327]

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Hello,

I know I read somewhere on here about someone volunteering abroad with animals. Do any of you have an experience on it and can recommend a place to go or an agency to use? I am thinking of going to the rainsong sanctuary in Costa Rica. Any suggestions would be awesome!!

 

[luplodw]

I went to South Africa a couple of summers ago, and had the experience of my lifetime. I was recently emailed by someone in the program wondering if anyone was interested in doing an internship at a private leopard breeding/rehabilitation project in South Africa this Summer ( SA Winter). If anyone is interested, please email Natasha Louw at [email protected]

 

[Vet Engineer]

Does anyone know of any abroad opportunities that don't cost more than $2000 for everything? Most programs I've seen start at about $2,000, then you have to pay for transportation and a bunch of other stuff.

 

[sumstorm]

Elephant Sanctuary in Thailand. Lek is the one to talk to. however, airfare will still make it more tan $2k

 

[Tiktaalik]

I went on a trip to Nicaragua and Honduras with VIDA (http://vidavolunteertravel.org/index.php), and it was hands-down probably some of the best vet experience you can get for the price, with a little adventure travel mixed in. By the 3rd day, I was doing exams, dosing anesthesia, and performing spays and neuters. The clinics are hard work but absolutely great, everyone is fun to be around, and you're helping animals in need.

The vets take kind of a training-wheels approach to teaching you - there's a crash course the first in all the procedures and the first few clinics they guide your hands, then they slowly let you do more and more on your own, till suddenly you look up from your sutures to see that they've wandered off to get lunch and left you there to finish on your own. I really can't stop raving about it.

Did I mention that trips start at $1395? Totally in your price range, Vet Engineer. Even though I got into vet school already and don't have to worry about building my experience anymore, I'm probably going to try to go back again this year and help out.

Edit: Oh! Oh! And the vet group was small, so we got a lot of attention and guidance when we did need it. Your milage may vary.

 

[deleted266066]

Tiktaalik (love the name by the way!), is there any more information you could give on the VIDA trip? Like how easy is the sign up process, and do you have to make the travel arrangements yourself? I was looking through the website and that sounds absolutely amazing! If I had known about this earlier I definitely would've signed up for the one during my spring break. Wow!

 

[Tiktaalik]

Tiktaalik (love the name by the way!), is there any more information you could give on the VIDA trip? Like how easy is the sign up process, and do you have to make the travel arrangements yourself? I was looking through the website and that sounds absolutely amazing! If I had known about this earlier I definitely would've signed up for the one during my spring break. Wow!

The sign-up is a snap –*I did it at the last minute (like seriously the day before the deadline), and it's basically a form where you fill out personal info, a little essaylet on why you want to go (they reassured me not to go too crazy over the phone), and stuff like whether you're a vegetarian or not so they can plan meals.

You arrange transport to and from the trip, but all travel and housing once you get there is arranged by VIDA. They also provide the majority of your meals. All you need to do is get a round-trip flight (mine was $500, but I bought it really late during vacation season, so you can almost certainly get it cheaper) and bring extra cash for fun, souvenirs, and a few meals that you get on your own. I think I brought like $200 cash and I had leftover money at the end. They also would prefer (although I don't know if you need to) if you brought some donations to help run the clinics - either cash or medical supplies. I got these just by mentioning the trip to the vet I shadow (she gave me so much stuff I couldn't bring it all), but some of my friends also had luck asking human doctors and family or cold-calling medical supply companies.

One important bit of preparation is that they want a vet to vouch for you by signing a form that says that you've observed at least 20 hrs of surgery so you know what's going on when you get there. However, there were some people who didn't get their hours in time or forgot their forms or turned them in late (guilty!), and we still got to participate, so don't stress about that.

Is this info helping any? I'm not sure what else to say - there's a lot to talk about, lol.

And Tiktaalik was the cutest fishapod ever.

 

[deleted266066]

Thanks yes that answers my questions. I'll definitely have to think about it... it might end up being something I'll wait to do until after I (hopefully) get into vet school this upcoming cycle but we'll see 🙂

 

[Tiktaalik]

Thanks yes that answers my questions. I'll definitely have to think about it... it might end up being something I'll wait to do until after I (hopefully) get into vet school this upcoming cycle but we'll see 🙂

That may be a good idea. I know that some schools will help you secure external funding for trips like this (we were talking about it at U of M), so it might be more cost-effective to wait.

 

[cooniexp]

http://worldvets.org/

I went on a one week trip to Loreto, Mexico back in June. I loved it and am thinking about going on another trip during the summer. The price and length of the trips vary so you can look through it and see what suits you. You can PM me if you have any specific questions