Finding LA experience

[HowIMetYourPet]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hey guys, I've just about exhausted the search options, so I suppose I'll just go ahead and post....

How have you found your LA experience (not just LA vet exp) ? I have THOUSANDS of exp hrs with small animals, hundreds with horses, but I feel my app is in desperate need of LA experience.....I have some with sheep and goats from growing up, but I live in a city and I can't seem to find anyone I know/friend of friends with any sort of large/working farm with LAs.....I'm not afraid to get in and get dirty and work my a** off for no pay at a ranch/farm/whatever, I just can't FIND one...I've found a few dairy farms online that are within a few hours of me, and I've tried e-mailing them (no phone # was listed) but no responses yet.....So...how did you find your LA experience? and any tips for those looking?

Thanks so much!!

 

[pp9]

My school has an animal science program, so I am lucky enough to get some experience through clubs there. I have gotten to show dairy and horses, as well as take classes that teach handling skills. No LA vet experience yet, though.

Try looking for sanctuaries or places that are more volunteer based. In the case of livestock, you are talking about someone's livelihood. Most are not too keen on having anyone but themselves work on their farms (insurance concerns, general trust issues, etc). Sanctuaries, however, depend on volunteers! You can try to schedule your hours around when the vet comes in to do exams or whatnot. Then you can shadow without looking like it 😛

You said you have a lot of horse hours, but you might be able to exchange chores for riding lessons/general horse handling time to add to your experience. Or offer to come in whenever the vet comes in (or even ask who the vet is and contact him/her).

 

[xhaikux]

I spent a spring break in upstate New York (Lake George area) where I got my large animal veterinary-related experience in. The clinic, Granville Veterinary Services Large Animal, allowed me to ride with one of their veterinarians. If you have a chance to spend a week there, the vets there seem more than happy to have someone shadow them. Lake George is a tourist town, so you can have a mini vacay there as well as gain experience. Granville is about a half an hour drive from Lake George.

 

[Kyoht]

Try looking in the rural areas around the city where you live. Many times there are mixed animal clinics that have a large amount of farmer cliental. The clinic were I work is like that. We see large amounts of food animals, but also a lot of the farmer's pets. Also, the vet were I worked at had a contract to provide vet services when there were sales going on at certain livestock auctions. He even paid for me to learn how to test for brucellosis at these sales. I would look for such a place and try and contact the vet there. Sometimes we had to travel over an hour to these sales so this might not be feasible for you. Another opportunity I found was with the USDA. I met the barn inspectors while at livestock auctions and they gave me contact info for vets that work in public health. They said that I could just call and set up a ride along.

 

[TheComfyCat]

You can look for large animal rescues in your area, they often need volunteers. I volunteered at a horse rescue for a while that taught new volunteers about basic horse handling/care/etc. Someone else in my pre-vet club volunteered at some sort of educational farm rescue.

 

[WolvesDragon55]

You probably won't have much luck with dairy farms; most of the farmers are scraping by (at least here) and will not want to take the time to train someone from scratch when they hardly have any time as it is. There are some interesting internships out there however, and if you are willing to travel a bit you may find some. There is a website called Proud to Dairy (or something like that) and if you search around a bit you can find some listings for farms looking to take summer interns. It never hurts to apply, and most of them offer housing.

I ended up getting a job doing feeding on a CSA farm, and got lucky enough that the owners were ecstatic to have me and willing to each me. Now I get to help with birthing, prolapses, vaccines, castrations, deworming, herd health issues, etc. in sheep, cattle and hogs and have learned a ton. The pay isn't great but I could care less. I got the job after I sent out emails and phone calls to literally every farm within an hour and a half of my house that i could get information for and asked if they were hiring for summer hands. I got a lot of no's, but it only takes one yes. Be persistent!

If all else fails, find a relative who lives somewhere rural and beg to sleep on their couch for a couple weeks, then try to find the local LA vets. 🙂

 

[Elasmobranchiiphile]

Have you looked into the Select Sires internship program? They offer paid internships you just have to apply by Jan 1st for the year. Also I asked my workplace and even though it's a small animal practice, most of them were familiar with some nearby/had ideas on where to look.

 

[tromboneplayer1]

Maybe you can try looking into working/volunteering at a petting zoo. I'm not sure what city you live in, but in the Queens borough of NYC there is a petting zoo, so perhaps there is one in your city.

 

[WillowLeaf]

Maybe you can try looking into working/volunteering at a petting zoo. I'm not sure what city you live in, but in the Queens borough of NYC there is a petting zoo, so perhaps there is one in your city.

You could also look into zoos in general, not only petting zoos. The zoo I volunteered at had a farm exhibit and a pygmy goat exhibit, and some volunteers were involved in taking care of goats, sheep, cows, chickens, and some kind of pig.

 

[HowIMetYourPet]

Thanks everyone for your replies!! I was able to find a mixed practice vet about an hour away! I'll be commuting over my spring break 😀 I'm still going to try to find some husbandry experience too (I'm really hoping to get to go to the UK, I know US schools don't care so much about LA husbandry if you have the vet hrs, but I think-were i to get accepted both in the UK and here in the US- I'd pick the UK!!). I was able to find a family friend who has a bison farm, but they're about 6hrs away, so I have to figure out how to make that work logistically.

Thanks everyone for your help!

We do have a zoo, but getting an internship/volunteer position that even lets you look at the animals is as competitive as, well, vet school!! I will certainly try though!! I actually looked into it last year, but their orientation week overlapped with my finals week, and you HAD to attend orientation, and I couldn't get out of my finals :'(