Internship at WestVETS, Australia

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WestVETS is offering either a 6- or 12-month internship (3 interns) starting before the breeding season. This is an opportunity for either a new graduate or someone wanting to gain more equine skills to become a very competent and confident mixed practitioner with a strong emphasis in horses. The internship is 75% equine and 25% mixed (small animals/ruminants) which offers a unique opportunity for new graduate veterinarians to learn. 

The internship program was started in December 2019 to give graduate veterinarians opportunities to expand on their skills in both Equine and Small Animal practice. WestVETS Animal Hospital is a unique veterinary practice located in the Suburbs of Brisbane and in the Lockyer Valley. There are two locations; Anstead and Marburg. Anstead is in the Brisbane City Council and within 30 minutes into the CBD of Brisbane. There is multiple 5–10-acre properties surrounding the clinic with a plethora of sport horse clients as well as being close to both Eagle Farm and Doomben racecourses. Marburg is located on the Warrego Highway in the Lockyer Valley, located 30 minutes from Anstead. The Lockyer Valley is rapidly expanding and has a wide variety of clientele. 

The Equine Hospital is located at Anstead and functions as a referral hospital to the surrounding areas. We have referrals from as far south as the Northern Rivers area to as far north as Roma. The Equine Hospital caseload has a really good variety of cases; colics (both surgical and medical), ophthalmology (ulcers, conjunctival grafts, stromal abscesses), neonates (septic and dummy foals), orthopaedic (arthroscopy, fracture repair, arthrodesis), soft tissue surgery (laparoscopy, sinus and upper airway) wounds and medical cases (liver disease, weight loss, diarrhea, metabolic). The clinicians also see a high number of lameness cases (fully equipped with a lameness locator) and prepurchase exams. We also have a very high caseload of routine calls such as dentals (1000 per year) and regular ambulatory work. The Equine Reproduction Centre is located at Marburg, interns are able to gain some exposure to the assisted reproduction such as artificial insemination and stallion collection. Graduate veterinarians will be confident to walk into any equine or mixed practice with a solid start to their careers. 

Both the Marburg and Anstead practices have small animal hospital. The Anstead Small Animal Hospital is a small clinic (1.5 doctor practice) but due to the demographic in the suburbs has a very good caseload with high expectations. There is access to referral practices in the city but the small animal clinicians are highly experienced therefore perform soft tissue and orthopaedic (TPLO and fracture repair) surgeries. Marburg is a rapidly expanding practice; it is a 3-doctor practice but is currently experiencing growth as the population of the Lockyer Valley grows. The same quality of small animal general practice is practiced at both hospitals. Both of the small animal practices offer interns exposure to all the typical cases encountered in small animal practice but with the support of multiple veterinarians.

The intern’s role is mainly based around the Equine Hospital. Interns are responsible for patient care, assisting senior clinicians and running anaesthesia. Skill such as anaesthetic planning, catheter placement, obtaining radiographs, performing nerve blocks, working up colic cases and assessing wounds will become second nature by the end of the internship. The major advantage of the internship at WestVETS is that we don’t have a typical demographic of patients; the veterinarians treat racehorses to companion ponies to Olympic calibre athletes. Interns will also have an opportunity to accompany veterinarians on ambulatory calls to either assist with prepurchase or lameness exams or routine ambulatory calls such as dentals or castrations. As the intern progresses through the internship, they will start to go out on solo calls as deemed appropriate. The intern will have exposure to first opinion small animal consults such as vaccinations, snake bites/rat bait/tick cases, desexing, wounds and general medicine cases. The intern will always have ample back up on solo cases and is encouraged to ask questions to senior clinicians. 

The internship is structured to be a place where learning and collaboration is encouraged. Interns are an integral part of the team. There are afterhours and weekend commitments but the interns are on a rotating on call schedule (1/3) for the nights. There are after hours nurses that assist with night treatments. The interns are supported with nurses in both equine and small animal hospitals. Interns have ample time to pursue other activities outside of the internship. Brisbane is a fantastic city to live in and we are fortunate to be so closely located to the city. The internship schedule is flexible therefore we try to tailor the schedule to allow interns time to pursue activities outside of work.    

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How to Apply

Applicants must be eligible for registration with the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Queensland, Australia
Please contact us (margaux@westvets.com.au) if you would like more details regarding the internship. We encourage applicants to speak to current and previous interns and will get you in contact with them if you would like.

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