The Externship Project Blog

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Hitting the ground running

Posted June 14, 2017

My first week at the Milverton-Wellesley Veterinary Clinic was a busy, satisfying, exhausting week. They’ve welcomed both Amy, another 4th year student veterinarian, and I like family! Due to my interest in food animal medicine, I’ll be spending most of my time on the road with the farm animal service. I’d argue that there is nothing comparable to driving on open roads through the countryside on a sunny day, and this first week was full of sun!

First two weeks focus on mixed animal experience

Posted June 13, 2017

It has been an exciting start at Black Horse Animal Hospital! My first two weeks have really captured the mixed animal clinic I was looking for. Typically, I ride along with one of the five large animal veterinarians at the clinic.

We spend most of the day on the road doing farm calls that range from dairy herd health checks to colicing horses and even white tail deer. Each doctor has a set schedule that is made in the morning. If calls come in during the day, whoever is closer will pick them up.

The heart of any veterinary practice

Posted June 12, 2017

Trying to decide what to share from my first week was very hard, it was an incredible week, so many interesting cases! As I got closer to the end of my first week I realized that there is a side of veterinary medicine that is often overlooked, the clinic’s support team: veterinary technicians, the receptionist, the veterinary assistant, the practice manager; the heart of any veterinary practice. They do so much for your pets, for the veterinarians, for the clinic and for the...

An opportunity to broaden my horizons

Posted June 9, 2017

Hey everyone! My name is Arianne and I’m a 4th year vet student. Wow. Fourth year, it’s such a surreal concept to believe that I am finally in my clinical/final year. Time to pull up the big girl pants: the real show now begins. ​

As you may already know, final year vet students at OVC must complete an 8-week externship at a mixed animal clinic, which can be anywhere of their choosing. For me, I wanted to choose a clinic that would be able to provide me with the best possible experience and allow for the greatest amount of growth, but that can be hard to determine unless someone has already been there before. So for myself, I chose to focus on taking advantage of this opportunity and trying to get experience in another country to broaden my horizons and see how vet...

Looking forward to gaining experience with a wide variety of species

Posted June 8, 2017

Hi everyone, my name is Hannah Chenail and I am a third-year veterinary student at Ontario Veterinary College. After completing my undergraduate degree at SUNY Cobleskill, in Cobleskill, New York, I chose OVC because of its overall warm, welcoming atmosphere, high marks on the NAVLE (North American Veterinary Licensing Exam), overall ranking among other veterinary schools and the thought that Canada can’t be that much different than home. Ps, I was wrong; it is very different.  OVC requires students entering their fourth year to conduct an eight-week externship over the summer.   I will be completing my summer externship at Hoosick

Follow along with me this summer as I work in rural Ontario

Posted June 8, 2017

Hi, my name is Shannon Finn and I’m an Ivory Owl heading out to my externship for the months of May and June. I’m so excited to be a part of the Externship Blog Project… I have followed it faithfully since it started in 2014, which was the summer I found out I had been admitted to OVC. I thought it was a great way to provide some insight into the things I could look forward to in my final year, as well as showcase the great relationship OVC has with external practices in Ontario and abroad.

I have chosen the Food Animal “stream” for my fourth and final year at OVC. Picking a stream gives us a way to direct our clinical training towards...

Excited to share my externship experience with you

Posted June 6, 2017

Before I head off to my 8-week externship at Black Horse Animal Hospital in Kinzers, Pennsylvania and dive into the fun stuff of the externship, I would like to introduce myself. I have wanted to be a veterinarian all my life. I have changed my mind quite a few times on what species I wanted to specialize in but I have finally settled on mixed animal because I couldn’t choose just one.

I grew up in the suburbs of Merrick, New York, about 40 minutes...

Journey to my ideal destination

Posted June 5, 2017

Dreams are a reflection of our hopes, our perceived happiness, our goals. We call them dreams because they seem sometimes so far, almost impossible to reach. What if we referred to them as an “ideal destination” instead?  Would we be more willing to take the journey? Would we be more willing to take detours, change plans, make adjustments to the itinerary and wait for long periods of time (years in many cases) if there are unforeseen circumstances?

It's hard to believe that I'm starting my externship now! The beginning of one year of clinical rotations for the last year of my journey towards my “ideal destination”. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to start the most exciting year of vet school at Troy Veterinary Services! It is a practice where I can see myself growing, learning, and training to be the best vet I can be. I am beyond excited to start my 4th year of vet school under Dr. Dupuy’s mentorship.  I will be sharing with you...

Follow our DVM students on their Externship journey this summer

Posted May 30, 2017

It’s finally here – for fourth year student veterinarians at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College, their fourth and clinical year marks the step from lectures and labs to a year of intensive clinical and diagnostic training.

A vital part of this training is the eight week externship at a rural veterinary practice.

Supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), students...

Pig people

Posted September 8, 2016

In my previous blog, I mentioned the components that make up a pig farming system. Swine veterinarians help manage this dynamic system by keeping the host, agent, environment and nutrition in harmony to minimize problems in each farm. However, the true success of a pig production system depends on its people.

Barn managers like Rod are one in a million! He is passionate...