ASPCA externship

[Mythical]

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I was wondering if people who have done this externship can share their thoughts on the program? Is it worth it or can you get a similar experience elsewhere? Are there any similar externships? (I think Penn has one but my understanding is it’s for Penn students only.)

One more q: for ASPCA, what’s the dorm situation like? Even though dorms are the cheapest option, I’m not sure I can handle for two weeks if it’s like being back in college!

 

[SkiOtter]

@Trilt did it and raved about it. I’m currently signed up to do it this fall with @Doggo Labs and @Barkley13 and one of my friends off-SDN

 

[Mythical]

@Trilt did it and raved about it. I’m currently signed up to do it this fall with @Doggo Labs and @Barkley13 and one of my friends off-SDN

Thanks! Yes, I think I saw somewhere that you and others on here were scheduled for the fall. I am going into my third year and I know the application opened in May of this year for people in my class (2023), so I signed up for a time slot now because I didn’t want to wait and then find out all the dates were filled.

Definitely will be eager to hear about your experiences! As far as I know, there is no other externship quite like this one (not counting ones that may be available only to students at specific schools), so any feedback you can share after you go would be much appreciated!

 

[kaydubs]

I believe there are some externships at other school (Mississippi State had one and I know other schools have some mobile spay/neuter vehicles or high s/n options) bu I’ve been out for a bit so things may have changed especially post covid.

I did the ASPCA externship and despite detesting dorms, I enjoyed it cause I was in the same room as my friends from school. There were 5 from our school that went but I was with my 2 other friends.

you can request to be with people and a lot of schools have multiples from their own school sometimes. The experience gained from the externship was highly worthwhile for me.

 

[Trilt]

Re:Humane Alliance.

I did about as many surgeries in like, four days at a random shelter n FL as three weeks (they don't offer that anymore, I don't think) at Humane Alliance. It's nooot high volume by any means.

However, I actually use the techniques taught there in literally every spay/neuter I do, and can forever put that I was trained there on my resume, which is super nice if I ever transition into shelter/higher volume work.

I do think just getting volume is super helpful, and had well over a hundred surgeries when I graduated. But the hands-on, systematic teaching at HA was still so freaking helpful compared to just getting chucked into abdomens for me that I'll eternally push it lol.

Plus Asheville is fantastic (breweries! hiking!) and the hours are great so I didn't feel bad at all using a chunk of vacation block for my rotation.

Definitely still highly recommend. My recommendation gets more and more dated every year, though, because my clinical year was now - argghhh - five years ago.

I think the best combo would be humane alliance and then a month or so later, some shelter who just lets you do as much surgery as you can accomplish. Basically learning techniques, then hammering them in with volume.

I actually *am* doing some hqhvsn work nowadays, and I had an intern with me yesterday. I walked her through her like, 3rd and 4th cat spays and 2nd dog, and I definitely said "at humane alliance I learned" more than once. She also thought it was my full time job, so the **** works!