Veterinarian

For veterinary students, working at one of the clinics in Quito is a great chance to learn the skills of your chosen profession through hands-on work and by assisting our experienced local veterinarians. People in Ecuador are becoming more and more aware of the importance of providing their pets with the care and veterinary attention they require. Despite these gradual changes in the populations’ outlook, high levels of abandoned street dogs and cats remain.

The clinic we work with provide as much care to these street animals as they can on a limited budget, and offer free vaccination or checkups for people that adopt a street dog or cat. Though the majority of patients you will be dealing with are cats and dogs, you may also be required to help with the treatment of other domestic and even wild animals during your internship.

Interns will work together with the veterinarians and animal carers at the clinic with a number of tasks that may include:

• Signing in patients and perform initial diagnostic checkups and taking vital signs. This may include talking to the owner to get an idea of the patients symptoms and if necessary, informing/educating them about how to better care for/ handle their pet.

• Under instruction from the veterinarian, assist in administering necessary medicines to the patients. This can be either by injection or orally depending on the case. You will be taught safe methods of weighing animals (if necessary) and to calculate dosage based on the animals’ weight prior to administration of medicine.

• Assist during spay and neutering operations at the clinic and mobile spay and neutering campaigns in poor communities and neighborhoods.

• Assist during minor surgeries at the clinic, and at the discretion of the veterinarian and depending on the nature of the specific case, potentially assist in major surgical procedures. After operations, you will also be required to help monitor the animal to make sure it is recovering well.