College of Veterinary Medicine

This is a zoo externship for 4th year veterinary students. The student will work with vet department staff on medical work-up and preventative medicine cases. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has about 1,200 animals, including 20 giraffe, African elephants, gorillas, orangutans, and large carnivores. The zoo also does captive breeding of critically endangered species, including black footed ferrets and Wyoming toads.

• Head vet: completed zoo internship and residency
• Associate vet: TO BE HIRED BY 12/11
• Conservation vet: 15+ years zoo clinical experience, species advisor for black footed ferrets
• Regular collaboration on cases with local specialists and with the veterinary school

• Journals: Journal of Zoo & Wildlife Medicine, Journal of Wildlife Diseases
• Library including many recent publications in zoo/wildlife medicine
• Daily case discussions with vet staff on active cases

Under direct supervision of veterinarian, students will assist with medical work-up or surgery of anesthetized patients. This may include monitoring anesthesia, placing IV catheters, taking x-rays, cleaning teeth, collecting blood samples, running in-house bloodwork, or assisting with other aspects of the procedure. Students will review x-rays and bloodwork with the clinical vet and help determine additional treatment/work-up plans. Students will also be shown multiple remote drug delivery techniques. Under the supervision of the veterinarian or veterinary technician, the student will also do patient rechecks. Students will also be involved with in-hospital patient care and may be asked to check on critical patients overnight.

The student will not be working without direct supervision of a veterinarian, and a veterinarian is on grounds 7 days/week. Depending on clinical cases, the student will likely be working directly with the veterinarian 4-8 hours daily. Unless there is a big case, the expectation is that the student will work 8AM - 5PM Monday-Friday during the externship.