HANDS-ON ANIMAL CARE - QUALIFIES VET TRACK STUDENTS   

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Volunteers are accepted into Community Animal Network’s "Veterinary Medical 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 take COVID-19 precautions seriously! On site volunteers wash their hands upon entry, change shoes, wear masks, separate, clean workstation before and after. We request a commitment of at least one day a week for 6 hours and a minimum of a 20-week term. Summer Internships are shorter.

Community Animal Network is a veterinary medical rescue and the veterinary medical internship program works in sync with the organizations, "Pets For Seniors" program that provides senior people with mature cats and provides the veterinary services and treatments for the lifetime of the cats.

**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 inject insulin, to groom cats; brush, shave, scruff to trim nails and learn to 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 at night or during the day. We try to work around serious "vet track students" class schedule changes, too. Volunteers commit to at a least once a week for a five-month term, (20 weeks) and you can calendar off in advance for mid-terms and finals, family events and birthdays. However, interns interested in having resume and job interview guidance for paid hospital work are generally with Community Animal Networks’ vet internship program over a year before interviewing at vet hospitals for paid positions. Interns will be expected to learn to pronounce medications, understand the dosage and observe animals’ intake of food, water, and notice excrement to confirm the need for medication additions or changes and if an animal needs to visit the vet.

Veterinary transports to vet appointments are as needed and are on the weekdays only and prior to COVID-19 have witnessed physical exams and opportunities for observation of procedures. Again, prior to COVID-19 there were planned excursions; observations of veterinary procedures, surgeries, visiting vet hospitals and the crematorium. However, at this time these opportunities may not be available.

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 about a specific cat’s treatment.

Volunteers arrive wearing a mask and bring shoes that are worn only at the sanctuary, or the bottoms cleaned. A 20-minute snack or meal break is given and weekly homework assignments are relative to diseases, bacteria’s, protozoa’s that cause veterinary issues and the medications used or research topics assigned.

*We suggest double masking because when learning to handle animals and learning how to give medications we are unable to social distance; administering medications, restraining animals for one another, close proximity necessary to support one another’s learning and need for help.