Clinical Year Choice

[sevvet]

Hello everyone!
I'm a current DVM student at St. George's and we have just received our school choices for our clinical year.
I'm extremely interested in exotic medicine, specifically ZCA. Does anyone have any advice on schools that might best cater to this? I really like Wisconsin's program, as well as Tufts, but they say ZCA space is limited and not guaranteed for the latter. Any suggestions or personal experience is very helpful! Thanks much.

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[battie]

Is Illinois one of your options?

 

[sevvet]

It’s on my long-list, so to speak. I’ve heard some great things about the program, but I’m not to keen on living in Champaign. Willing to overlook the year there for a quality education, though. I just haven’t heard much about the exotics exposure.

 

[battie]

I was strongly involved in the wildlife medical clinic during the didactic years, which I understand has a rotation now. The last I heard, we have a full ZCAMS service with one fully boarded clinician, a specialty intern, and a resident. There are other boarded individuals, just not 100% sure how involved they are with ZCAMS directly.

Not for nothing, I would be willing to bet the majority of schools will not guarantee you the space in such a specific rotation depending on how rotations are set up. When I was at Illinois, ZCAMS was a primary care choice, then you could potentially take it for all of your electives if you go approved for it.

 

[smarz11]

Hey there! I did my clinical year at Purdue which saw a number of companion animals regularly on their community practice rotation - including bearded dragons, leopard geckos, ferrets, guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, and koi fish. I also help splint a goose and neutered a skunk during my first week on clinics. That said - I also wrote to Dr. Keller at Illinois, who is no longer there, and asked about doing an external rotation with ZCAMS as one of my externships. She and the rest of the team were able to accommodate me and I LOVED the rotation. It was very educational and so much fun. I would highly recommend Illinois for that rotation experience. I worked with chinchillas and snakes in addition to the above species I listed from Purdue. For reference this was in March-April 2022, but if you're interested in a potential residency down the line this would be a great place to make a connection. Hope this helps! I also took care of a ferret with adrenal disease for the bulk of the rotation, and during my rotating internship ended up taking in 2 ferrets with adrenal disease that the owner couldn't pursue treatment for - so very full circle

 

[DVM2024]

NCSU has a fantastic ZCA department!