Spay/Neuter Experience

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DrSacheesyDVM

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Hey y'all!

I am a rising second year at K-state CVM and I was curious if anyone had any recommendations for a spay/neuter program that allows students to participate and do surgery (with supervision, of course!). Like most vet students, we don't get a ton of experience and I was hoping to get more before we go in to junior surgery lab 3rd year and be a baby doctor 4th year! Thanks in advance!

Also, if this page already exists please let me know!
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I did an externship between 2nd and 3rd year with Mission Veterinary Partners specifically to help with a TNR program at one of their hospitals in Michigan! The specific hospital was Grayling Hospital for Animals. I got a lot of experience with spaying and neutering ferals and the medical director who was leading it even got the local shelter to bring us a couple dogs to spay and neuter. There were two of us there for 2 weeks and we were sent off on our own essentially (with drs in the other room) and were knocking down our own animals, prepping, monitoring for anesthesia, and doing surgery. One of us would be monitoring and the other was doing the surgery. I’m not sure if they’re still doing TNR or what since it was on a grant, but you could reach out to MVP and see if Grayling still is or if any other MVP clinic would be willing to let you.
I also did an externship at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, MI after my first year and they let me neuter a dog at the end of my externship, even with only having completed my first year. This one was more of a primary care rotation where surgery is only on select days and the rest is primary care for their dogs in training to be guide dogs, their puppies, and their parent dogs (with some therio experience if you want it).
A girl in my class also spent a lot of last summer at our local humane society doing surgeries with their vet there, so checking with local humane societies isn’t a bad idea too.
 
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ASPCA humane alliance in Asheville, NC has an excellent student program!
 
SkiOtter said:
They only allow clinical year students and I think OP was looking for something before then 🙂
I’m going there in October and I am v excited tho
Click to expand...
Oops! Missed that!
I hope you enjoy your experience! I had an amazing time and even ended up practicing about 1 hour from Asheville for about a year, I adored the area so much. Make the most of your visit! I did tons of hiking while I was there.
 
SkiOtter said:
I did an externship between 2nd and 3rd year with Mission Veterinary Partners specifically to help with a TNR program at one of their hospitals in Michigan! The specific hospital was Grayling Hospital for Animals. I got a lot of experience with spaying and neutering ferals and the medical director who was leading it even got the local shelter to bring us a couple dogs to spay and neuter. There were two of us there for 2 weeks and we were sent off on our own essentially (with drs in the other room) and were knocking down our own animals, prepping, monitoring for anesthesia, and doing surgery. One of us would be monitoring and the other was doing the surgery. I’m not sure if they’re still doing TNR or what since it was on a grant, but you could reach out to MVP and see if Grayling still is or if any other MVP clinic would be willing to let you.
I also did an externship at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, MI after my first year and they let me neuter a dog at the end of my externship, even with only having completed my first year. This one was more of a primary care rotation where surgery is only on select days and the rest is primary care for their dogs in training to be guide dogs, their puppies, and their parent dogs (with some therio experience if you want it).
A girl in my class also spent a lot of last summer at our local humane society doing surgeries with their vet there, so checking with local humane societies isn’t a bad idea too.
Click to expand...
Thank you very much!
 
SkiOtter said:
I did an externship between 2nd and 3rd year with Mission Veterinary Partners specifically to help with a TNR program at one of their hospitals in Michigan! The specific hospital was Grayling Hospital for Animals. I got a lot of experience with spaying and neutering ferals and the medical director who was leading it even got the local shelter to bring us a couple dogs to spay and neuter. There were two of us there for 2 weeks and we were sent off on our own essentially (with drs in the other room) and were knocking down our own animals, prepping, monitoring for anesthesia, and doing surgery. One of us would be monitoring and the other was doing the surgery. I’m not sure if they’re still doing TNR or what since it was on a grant, but you could reach out to MVP and see if Grayling still is or if any other MVP clinic would be willing to let you.
I also did an externship at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, MI after my first year and they let me neuter a dog at the end of my externship, even with only having completed my first year. This one was more of a primary care rotation where surgery is only on select days and the rest is primary care for their dogs in training to be guide dogs, their puppies, and their parent dogs (with some therio experience if you want it).
A girl in my class also spent a lot of last summer at our local humane society doing surgeries with their vet there, so checking with local humane societies isn’t a bad idea too.
Click to expand...
When is a good time to start applying for MVP for pre-clinical summer? Was it easy to explain what you were looking for (ie TNR/surgery experience)?
 
WonderingStudent said:
When is a good time to start applying for MVP for pre-clinical summer? Was it easy to explain what you were looking for (ie TNR/surgery experience)?
Click to expand...
I actually applied the same summer I did it because my other plans got cancelled last summer because of covid. The one I did was specifically listed under jobs as a surgical externship. I don’t think anytime is too early to start contacting places about summer stuff. I think if you contacted MVP sooner they would have more time to see if a clinic would be willing (and able and have a source of animals) to do a surgical externship.
My first year I contacted Leader Dogs in September when I was barely a brand new baby first year and did an externship there my summer after first year (they do book up far in advance for the most part). That one was GP and had options for therio if interested and t o n s of baby puppies 10/10 recommend for pre-clinical or clinical (I’m actually going back in October)
 
Operation Catnip in Gainesville FL also takes student "interns" for several weeks as part of their TNR clinic (so all cats), you see their foster appts early in the week and Friday through Sunday are surgery days. From what I can tell they start the students off on neuters and work them up to spays but we also did some stuff like amps and hernias with them too. Seemed like a good experience and most of the ones I talked to were first or second years and from a variety of schools. Could be worth looking into.
 
vetmedhead said:
Operation Catnip in Gainesville FL also takes student "interns" for several weeks as part of their TNR clinic (so all cats), you see their foster appts early in the week and Friday through Sunday are surgery days. From what I can tell they start the students off on neuters and work them up to spays but we also did some stuff like amps and hernias with them too. Seemed like a good experience and most of the ones I talked to were first or second years and from a variety of schools. Could be worth looking into.
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Do you know if 1st/2nd year students were mostly there for the full summer or just 2 weeks?
 
WonderingStudent said:
Do you know if 1st/2nd year students were mostly there for the full summer or just 2 weeks?
Click to expand...
I don't think it was the full summer but was definitely longer than 2 weeks - I think it's closer to 6? I had been going in for over a month before I went to some other work projects and they had been there before I started in July and just had their last day around the very beginning of August.
 
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SkiOtter said:
I actually applied the same summer I did it because my other plans got cancelled last summer because of covid. The one I did was specifically listed under jobs as a surgical externship. I don’t think anytime is too early to start contacting places about summer stuff. I think if you contacted MVP sooner they would have more time to see if a clinic would be willing (and able and have a source of animals) to do a surgical externship.
My first year I contacted Leader Dogs in September when I was barely a brand new baby first year and did an externship there my summer after first year (they do book up far in advance for the most part). That one was GP and had options for therio if interested and t o n s of baby puppies 10/10 recommend for pre-clinical or clinical (I’m actually going back in October)
Click to expand...
How long were you there (edit: at each externship)? That sounds like awesome experience.
 
WonderingStudent said:
What did you get to do during your externship at Leader Dogs?
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Got to see appointments with the vet on their dogs with puppy raisers and do exams and see all their dogs in training for different things like ear infections and just general exams every so often during the training process. I also got to help with their OFA hip and elbow exams on their dogs before being placed as service dogs. They also do surgeries there and I got to scrub in and they usually will let you do sutures on some dogs. When you’re there as a 4th year they definitely let you spay and neuter on your own, but I don’t know how common it is to get to do that earlier in school. They also have therio stuff there that you can watch and help with, but I didn’t end up doing much of that when I was there. It’s pretty much GP but exclusively dogs and mostly labs and goldens.
 
To provide an alternate viewpoint I didn’t see mentioned, the externships I did the most surgeries on were when I visited small one doctor mixed animal clinics in small rural towns near where I’m from. They weren’t official spay neuter programs, but at these practices I was basically allowed to act like a doctor, I’d just run my plans by them for recommendations, advice, and help when I needed. I did 2-5 spays and neuters every morning then saw patients in the afternoons. I did an enterotomy and mass removals plus got to help with lateral suture ACL repairs and fracture repairs. I did a declaw and watched several ear crops too…neither of those procedures are ones I wanted to do again myself, but it was a good experience to see and expose myself to. It’s an area where referral is 2+ hours away and there’s no specialists, so the GPs do a lot on their own.
 
JaynaAli said:
To provide an alternate viewpoint I didn’t see mentioned, the externships I did the most surgeries on were when I visited small one doctor mixed animal clinics in small rural towns near where I’m from. They weren’t official spay neuter programs, but at these practices I was basically allowed to act like a doctor, I’d just run my plans by them for recommendations, advice, and help when I needed. I did 2-5 spays and neuters every morning then saw patients in the afternoons. I did an enterotomy and mass removals plus got to help with lateral suture ACL repairs and fracture repairs. I did a declaw and watched several ear crops too…neither of those procedures are ones I wanted to do again myself, but it was a good experience to see and expose myself to. It’s an area where referral is 2+ hours away and there’s no specialists, so the GPs do a lot on their own.
Click to expand...
What year(s) did you do these externships? Were they before 4th year?
 
Rainheart said:
ASPCA humane alliance in Asheville, NC has an excellent student program!
Click to expand...
For this 4th year rotations, what’s the best time to apply? I know that it’s a popular program and don’t want to miss the best time to apply.
 
WonderingStudent said:
For this 4th year rotations, what’s the best time to apply? I know that it’s a popular program and don’t want to miss the best time to apply.
Click to expand...
They open the window the May before your clinical rotations start. I would definitely sign up right when they open it to have full pick of the dates. The new system they have you pick your 2 weeks you will be going instead of applying and waiting to hear back and then picking dates. Here’s the site where the app is and it says when windows are open
www.aspcapro.org

ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance Veterinary Student Externship

The ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance Veterinary Student Externship is a two-week (40 hours/week) unpaid learning opportunity, designed to deliver spay/neuter surgical instruction, and offer students a look into spay/neuter and shelter medicine.
www.aspcapro.org www.aspcapro.org
 
alleycat03 said:
What year(s) did you do these externships? Were they before 4th year?
Click to expand...
They were my 4th year. I did work at one of these clinics summer between 1&2 and 2&3rd years…didn’t do surgery because I hadn’t had those classes yet but they did let me do more than just your typical pre vet shadowing at that point. I assisted in surgeries those summers, interpreted bloodwork/rads, etc.
 
SkiOtter said:
They open the window the May before your clinical rotations start. I would definitely sign up right when they open it to have full pick of the dates. The new system they have you pick your 2 weeks you will be going instead of applying and waiting to hear back and then picking dates. Here’s the site where the app is and it says when windows are open
www.aspcapro.org

ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance Veterinary Student Externship

The ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance Veterinary Student Externship is a two-week (40 hours/week) unpaid learning opportunity, designed to deliver spay/neuter surgical instruction, and offer students a look into spay/neuter and shelter medicine.
www.aspcapro.org www.aspcapro.org
Click to expand...
Thank you! 💜
 
WonderingStudent said:
For this 4th year rotations, what’s the best time to apply? I know that it’s a popular program and don’t want to miss the best time to apply.
Click to expand...
Yes, 4th year. I think they are booking about 1.5 years ahead (at least when I was there 5 years ago).
 
SkiOtter said:
They only allow clinical year students and I think OP was looking for something before then 🙂
I’m going there in October and I am v excited tho
Click to expand...
Have they (ASPCA) resumed the program? I signed up to go this past May but got cancelled because of COVID :bigtears:
 
SkiOtter said:
They have! They’re limiting enrollment a bit more than normal but they’re doing it again. I’m sorry you got cancelled 😞
Click to expand...
That's great! Their website still said All on-site training programs at ASPCA Spay/Neuter Alliance are currently suspended due to risks associated with COVID-19, so I thought they haven't resumed it.
 
I’d also recommend checking out local high volume/low cost clinics- I was able to do loads of spays & neuters while on externship. Was able to scrub in an a few other sx, and got to work up medicine cases with the doctors there too!
 
SkiOtter said:
I did an externship between 2nd and 3rd year with Mission Veterinary Partners specifically to help with a TNR program at one of their hospitals in Michigan! The specific hospital was Grayling Hospital for Animals. I got a lot of experience with spaying and neutering ferals and the medical director who was leading it even got the local shelter to bring us a couple dogs to spay and neuter. There were two of us there for 2 weeks and we were sent off on our own essentially (with drs in the other room) and were knocking down our own animals, prepping, monitoring for anesthesia, and doing surgery. One of us would be monitoring and the other was doing the surgery. I’m not sure if they’re still doing TNR or what since it was on a grant, but you could reach out to MVP and see if Grayling still is or if any other MVP clinic would be willing to let you.
I also did an externship at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, MI after my first year and they let me neuter a dog at the end of my externship, even with only having completed my first year. This one was more of a primary care rotation where surgery is only on select days and the rest is primary care for their dogs in training to be guide dogs, their puppies, and their parent dogs (with some therio experience if you want it).
A girl in my class also spent a lot of last summer at our local humane society doing surgeries with their vet there, so checking with local humane societies isn’t a bad idea too.
Click to expand...
This is practicing without a license which is a felony in Michigan. Better read the law.
 
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