PRE-VET INTERNSHIP PROGRAM - QUALIFIES VET TRACK STUDENTS 

HANDS-ON ANIMAL CARE - QUALIFIES VET TRACK STUDENTS

Volunteers are accepted into Community Animal Network’s "Pre-Vet Internship Program" based on a serious interest in learning about cats and/or advancing into veterinary medicine. The program is also open for those that may have missed their calling to work with animals and are adults reflecting on their career choices and wishing they could have worked with animals.

We request a commitment of at least one day a week for 6 hours and a minimum of a 16-week term. Summer Internships are shorter but please be signed up before June 1st and ready to start. If you are a student, get signed up and be ready to start right after finals or graduation.

Community Animal Network’s pre-vet internship program works in sync with the organizations, "Pets For Seniors" program and provides veterinary treatments for the lifetime of the cats in the program.

Hospitalizations of the organizations animals are managed at the sanctuary and interns drive the cats to their vet appointments on weekdays.

• *The program satisfies "Hands-On" animal care experience for "Pre-Vet" students and is a stepping stone with experiences that build a resume and give opportunity to interview for a paid job in a vet hospital prior to applying to veterinary school. DiAnna Pfaff-Martin, the director of the program, helps those that leave in good standing with resume writing, mock interviews and guides students to identify learned skills to discuss with potential employers.

Students in the program learn cat care and work with senior and geriatric cats that have treatable diseases that are managed with medications. Board certified feline specialist and author, Dr. Elaine Wexler-Mitchell prescribes the treatment plans for the organizations cat’s and the interns follow medication orders and administer medications that mange and treat the diseases. (There are only 150 vets are certified feline specialists in the U.S.).

This non-paid internship teaches students to administer pills and medications associated with chronic conditions, drawing blood to check glucose levels and give injections, brush, shave, trim nails, learn to scruff, administer medications, cut pills, manage pharmacy inventory, help with restocking supplies as well as perform kennel duties, (scooping, sifting and cleaning litter boxes and if needed extracting marking areas to keep the environment at a healthy standard). In additions, interns learn time-management which is critical to working in a busy veterinary hospital.

Volunteer opportunities are in the evening / night. We try to work around serious "vet track students" class schedule changes, too.

The internship program may also include getting familiar with vaccine set ups and preparing subcutaneous IV fluid bags and the IV lines. End of life stages require critical-care management: force feeding, IV-line subcutaneous fluid therapy is all part of assisting an animal as they age or an animal that is sick.

Some other volunteer opportunities offered may include admin duties because many veterinarian offices hire staff that can work both in the front office and be skilled to work with the animals in the back and this adds to your resume of skills.

The internship program is supported by donors and all pre-vet interns help with handwritten thank you notes expressing gratitude for the program and what they learned or share about a specific cat’s treatment.

• Weekly homework assignments are relative to diseases, bacteria’s, protozoa’s that cause veterinary issues and the medications used or research topics assigned.