internship for zoo med residency

[svzoom]

Hi!
I am really interested in doing a Zoological Medicine residency in the future. They all require at least 1 year of working experience in private practice or completing a 1 year small animal rotating internship. Do you guys think doing an exotics internship is ok?
Has anyone gone down through that path?

If anyone has any advice or anything...I'd really appreciate it! Thanks guys 🙂

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pp9]

Hi!
I am really interested in doing a Zoological Medicine residency in the future. They all require at least 1 year of working experience in private practice or completing a 1 year small animal rotating internship. Do you guys think doing an exotics internship is ok?
Has anyone gone down through that path?

If anyone has any advice or anything...I'd really appreciate it! Thanks guys 🙂

I don't think we have any zoo med residents/interns on these boards...yet.

I've always been told that typically, the most competitive applicants will have done a rotating internship (usually small, but I know a zoo resident who did one with large animals) then a zoo/exotics internship.

An exotics internship is typically fine as long as it has a decent case load with a lot of exposure to a variety of animals. I would make sure that if it's a private practice exotics internship, you spend at least a few days with the place to be sure they see as many exotics as you feel will prepare you/make you competitive.

I would also try to establish some sort of mentorship with a zoo vet to bounce ideas like this off of. If your school doesn't have a zoo/exotics service, AAZV and WDA are doing a joint student mentorship program for paying student members.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

In a tiny specialty like zoo med, making connections is essential. Expanding on what pinkpuppy said with regards to mentorship, I would start cultivating relationships with zoo and exotic vets as soon as possible. Your letters of recommendation will be critical in the application process for smaller specialties.

 

[cheathac]

Does anyone know how competitive zoological pathology is? My mentor was talking about it to me and seems pretty interesting, but a very very small niche.

 

[pp9]

Does anyone know how competitive zoological pathology is? My mentor was talking about it to me and seems pretty interesting, but a very very small niche.

I think the fact that there's like, 5-6ish actual zoo path residencies in the country makes it inherently competitive, but I imagine there are also fewer applicants. There are also extremely few 'zoo pathologist' jobs out there relative to zoo vet jobs even, which is really saying something. I know someone who went through a zoo path residency and was only able to find work as a general (but boarded) pathologist. Just keep in mind that the goal of zoo path residencies is to be boarded through ACVP, so those residencies still have a ton of domestic animal work.

Illinois has a zoo path residency that takes externs if you wanted to get more exposure. http://vetmed.illinois.edu/vet-reso...stic-laboratory/zoological-pathology-program/

 

[racccjlm]

I have two friends that went the zoo residency route - both ended up doing a rotating internship and an exotics internship prior to matching to a residency. Both aimed to have their internships at places that were going to be offering residencies, or to train with people that had significant influence in the field. Once you get into niches this small, connections are everything.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I think the fact that there's like, 5-6ish actual zoo path residencies in the country makes it inherently competitive, but I imagine there are also fewer applicants. There are also extremely few 'zoo pathologist' jobs out there relative to zoo vet jobs even, which is really saying something. I know someone who went through a zoo path residency and was only able to find work as a general (but boarded) pathologist. Just keep in mind that the goal of zoo path residencies is to be boarded through ACVP, so those residencies still have a ton of domestic animal work.

Illinois has a zoo path residency that takes externs if you wanted to get more exposure. http://vetmed.illinois.edu/vet-reso...stic-laboratory/zoological-pathology-program/

I don't even think there are >5.

Often if you want to specialize in zoo path, you do a regular pathology residency and then you can do a fellowship (formal or informal) that takes 1-2 more years or so. The San Diego Zoo has such a program. There are zoo path focused residencies, but they are very few in number and I was under the impression that the first 2 years are still spent at a regular vet school and you only start focusing on zoo path in your third year (and generally have to move to a zoo). San Deigo also does this in conjunction with UCD, and the Illinois one mentioend above at least still puts you in the teaching hospital doing regular stuff for a year (not long enough in my opinion).

I personally would NOT suggest a very zoo-focused pathology residency if your goal is to pass ACVP boards, unless you are prepared for what could quite possibly become a world of pain. The lack of exposure to the normal companion animal, food animal, equine, etc caseloads at a regular hospital will come back to bite you in the butt come board prep time. Sure, you can acquire extraneous learning material for gross and micro and try to "teach yourself" , but IMO it doesn't nearly compare to multiple years of having your own cases and seeing them firsthand, to being exposed to all of these species and their diseases every day on the floor and at rounds, etc.

 

[Psorophoraferox]

Hi!
I am really interested in doing a Zoological Medicine residency in the future. They all require at least 1 year of working experience in private practice or completing a 1 year small animal rotating internship. Do you guys think doing an exotics internship is ok?
Has anyone gone down through that path?

If anyone has any advice or anything...I'd really appreciate it! Thanks guys 🙂

Everyone I talked to prior to last year's match advised against applying for exotics/zoo internships without doing a small or large animal rotating internship (or having lots of private practice experience) first. So naturally I did exactly the opposite and applied to only exotics/zoo internships. 🙄 Sure enough, the people who knew what they were talking about were right, and I didn't match with any programs.

But... then one of my top-ranked programs had their matched applicant withdraw after results were posted. When the spot opened up it was offered to me, and I accepted. I was very lucky. It worked out for me in the end but I would NOT AT ALL recommend doing what I did. The unmatched scramble is not fun. And I have no idea how it's going to go for me with this year's applications, because you're correct - a lot of programs have that rotating internship requirement. Can I convince them that my internship has given me equivalent preparation? We'll see.

Also, many of the zoo vets I've been talking to recently are looking for internship/residency applicants who have clinical experience with large/mixed animals. I struggle daily to overcome my lack of background in all things ruminant/swine/equine so I understand where they're coming from!

 

[Psorophoraferox]

[accidental double post]