Internship Help: Utica Zoo Internship veterinary or animal husbandry?

[jpwil100]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering what everyone thought opinion wise either that have been at the Utica Zoo Veterinary internship or have opinions based on the description provided. I have accepted the internship, but I am able to switch into an animal husbandry department if I do not think the veterinary one will fulfill my needs.

The description for the veterinary internship:There are some opportunities to be hands on during the procedures, assisting with animal care in the quarantine facility, the veterinarian is there at least once a week and I would be shadowing her, a lot of data entry of veterinary medical records, fecal floats, drug inventories, cleaning of the veterinary hospital, sending out bloodworm and more filing and data entry.

The animal husbandry internships: Cleaning of enclosures and potentially more time working with animals hands on. Not directly involved with the veterinarian and the technician, but still able to see some procedures. Working on animal enrichment in their enclosures. (Seems to be more hands on activities with the enclosures).

I was leaning more towards the veterinary one even with the amount of data entry to simply have more time with the veterinarian and the technician! I just really wanted anyone else's opinion! Thank you in advanced!

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[Devastating]

What are your needs? If you are looking to gain experience for vet school apps, then a veterinary-based internship would probably be your first priority over general animal exp. As you said, you would have more time around the vet and technicians, and even though it may not be 100% "hands-on" work, you'll get valuable experience with different aspects of the job--working with data entry and medical records is definitely a great skill to have. It would count towards your veterinary experience hours--plus, you'd have a greater chance to make connections with the veterinary staff.

I actually had a husbandry-based internship last summer at an aquarium. One like this would qualify as animal experience. While I did get to occasionally see/help with vet procedures, the vast majority of the work was enclosure cleaning/feeding, enrichment, training, diet prep, and helping to run a show. I interned for the bird/mammal department, but also got to shadow/work in the other animal care areas (wildlife rehab, marine mammal, and fish/herp) for one day each. It's still a great internship to pursue, and I really appreciated the insight it gave me when it comes to how a zoological facility works (career options, etc.), but if I were able to take a veterinary internship I would have in a heartbeat (currently they are only offered to vet students). I wouldn't pass up the awesome vet experience.

 

[SkiOtter]

Hi everyone!

I was wondering what everyone thought opinion wise either that have been at the Utica Zoo Veterinary internship or have opinions based on the description provided. I have accepted the internship, but I am able to switch into an animal husbandry department if I do not think the veterinary one will fulfill my needs.

The description for the veterinary internship:There are some opportunities to be hands on during the procedures, assisting with animal care in the quarantine facility, the veterinarian is there at least once a week and I would be shadowing her, a lot of data entry of veterinary medical records, fecal floats, drug inventories, cleaning of the veterinary hospital, sending out bloodworm and more filing and data entry.

The animal husbandry internships: Cleaning of enclosures and potentially more time working with animals hands on. Not directly involved with the veterinarian and the technician, but still able to see some procedures. Working on animal enrichment in their enclosures. (Seems to be more hands on activities with the enclosures).

I was leaning more towards the veterinary one even with the amount of data entry to simply have more time with the veterinarian and the technician! I just really wanted anyone else's opinion! Thank you in advanced!

In my opinion, I'd probably recommend you go with the veterinary one if you're hoping to go to vet school. You'll need vet experience to apply, which has to be working with a vet/supervised by a vet/shadowing a vet and you'll eventually need at least 1 letter of recommendation from a vet.
The husbandry one does sound cool, but it sounds like you'll really only be getting animal experience from that (which IS still asked for on VMCAS, but in my opinion, is probably easier to get than quality vet experience) and a tiny bit of vet experience, seeing some of the procedures.
Good luck with your internship!!

 

[jpwil100]

What are your needs? If you are looking to gain experience for vet school apps, then a veterinary-based internship would probably be your first priority over general animal exp. As you said, you would have more time around the vet and technicians, and even though it may not be 100% "hands-on" work, you'll get valuable experience with different aspects of the job--working with data entry and medical records is definitely a great skill to have. It would count towards your veterinary experience hours--plus, you'd have a greater chance to make connections with the veterinary staff.

I actually had a husbandry-based internship last summer at an aquarium. One like this would qualify as animal experience. While I did get to occasionally see/help with vet procedures, the vast majority of the work was enclosure cleaning/feeding, enrichment, training, diet prep, and helping to run a show. I interned for the bird/mammal department, but also got to shadow/work in the other animal care areas (wildlife rehab, marine mammal, and fish/herp) for one day each. It's still a great internship to pursue, and I really appreciated the insight it gave me when it comes to how a zoological facility works (career options, etc.), but if I were able to take a veterinary internship I would have in a heartbeat (currently they are only offered to vet students). I wouldn't pass up the awesome vet experience.

Thanks for the advice. They just seem to discourage the veterinary one. Perhaps they have had complaints about the work load in the past! I have plenty of veterinary experience in a small animal emergency clinic (close to 1500 hours), equine vet (200), large animal and production (150). I had applied to vet school last year at Cornell, VAMD and Tufts and was denied most likely due to my GRE scores. Cornell had also commented on getting one more area of vet work, so I am hoping doing this and retaking my GREs will get me in this coming cycle!

In my opinion, I'd probably recommend you go with the veterinary one if you're hoping to go to vet school. You'll need vet experience to apply, which has to be working with a vet/supervised by a vet/shadowing a vet and you'll eventually need at least 1 letter of recommendation from a vet.
The husbandry one does sound cool, but it sounds like you'll really only be getting animal experience from that (which IS still asked for on VMCAS, but in my opinion, is probably easier to get than quality vet experience) and a tiny bit of vet experience, seeing some of the procedures.
Good luck with your internship!!

Thanks!!