Veterinary internships with wildlife in Costa Rica
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR WILDLIFE VETERINARY INTERNSHIP IN THE NATUWA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY.
Veterinary internships with wildlife in Costa Rica arises with the aim of providing professionals with the opportunity to effectively address theoretical and practical knowledge, which will help them solve real problems in some field of knowledge within zoological medicine.
Mission
Provide the intern with the opportunity to have interaction and experience with a wide range of professional activities related to zoological medicine (for example, preventive medicine, nutrition, operant conditioning, physical and chemical containment, environmental enrichment, animal welfare).
Promote the constant review of literature through daily case discussions and favor its reflective and critical application in daily activities.
General description
Zoological Medicine is defined as a discipline that integrates the principles of veterinary medicine, ecology and conservation, which are applied to the benefit of wildlife animals kept under natural or artificial environments.
Veterinary internships with wildlife in Costa Rica Activities
The Internship Program is made up of several activities focused on animal welfare such as environmental enrichment, operant conditioning, preventive medicine, feeding, emergency assistance, clinical cases, animal containment, diagnosis of death, among others.
Said activities will be carried out with the wild fauna that houses a duly registered wild animal sanctuary in Costa Rica.
Our focus is animal welfare
Environmental enrichment
Among the most important activities to improve Animal Welfare in sanctuaries, zoos and the like is environmental enrichment. Which is widely developed because it improves the quality of life of the faunal species that these sites guard.
The environment for a captive animal should resemble, as much as possible, the conditions in which it lives naturally.
Hence, environmental or behavioral enrichment is achieved by adding objects to the enclosures that allow stimulating behaviors similar to those that occur in healthy free-living individuals.
For example, changes will be made to exhibit structures, feeding times, or social groupings. In addition, changes in the form of food supply. Work will be done on the addition of new displacement surfaces (branches, ropes, fences), construction of nests or bedrooms, among other environmental enrichment activities for wild animals in captivity.
With all of the above, it will be possible to satisfy the physical and psychological needs of the animals, helping to avoid or control neurotic or abnormal behaviors (stereotyped) such as “pacing”, regurgitation and re-eating of food or self-mutilation.
Therefore, the intern will participate in a routine in which he will learn to stimulate the animals to sniff, jump, run, jump, climb trees, fly, swim, among other activities typical of the nature of each individual.
By participating in the Veterinary internships with wildlife in Costa Rica you will learn the bases of an environmental enrichment program in different species, evaluating the interaction and behavior of animals.
Operant conditioning training
The management of wild animals in captivity becomes difficult and dangerous, both for the specimen and for the people involved.
To carry out the different management protocols in any captive wild species, a physical\chemical containment is required.
One of the important aspects of animal training by operant conditioning is the possibility of improving the welfare of the specimens involved. Since, this training promotes physical exercise, mental stimulation and allows veterinary medical procedures to be carried out.
As an intern at NATUWA, you will be able to learn the basic concepts of operant conditioning, and you will have the opportunity to document the evolution of the training program in jaguars, tapirs, macaws and others, under the supervision of the Veterinary Doctor.
Preventive medicine
Preventive health care is an essential part of any captive management program. General Physical Examinations: (Restraint, sample taking, injection sites, deworming protocol).
You will participate in a preventive medicine program where you will learn how to manage animal quarantine properly. As well as performing complementary tests (blood samples, skin scrapings, coproparasitoscopic), the different routes of drug administration will also be identified.
Deworming protocols will also be carried out, including routine examinations in mammals, birds and reptiles. You will make collections for the diagnosis and specific treatment of each species. Detecting and controlling parasites will be part of this exercise; in case of positive tests, the most appropriate identification and treatment will be made to help the animals in their immunity processes.
The intern will learn in a practical way how physical containment is carried out in the wild animals that NATUWA houses in order to carry out a complete physical evaluation of the animal (body condition, general condition, etc.).
Therefore, you will actively participate in the preventive medicine program for wild animals at the sanctuary by carrying out the procedures described above.
Diet preparation, food handling and cross contamination
In this section, the inmate will have the opportunity to work in the food area, for which he will learn about the different diets offered depending on the species in question, he will learn about the handling of food in terms of storage and distribution, and he will be Teach preventive measures to avoid food cross-contamination.
Emergency assistance
The intern may assist the veterinarian in the event of an emergency, such as monitoring the patient as main functions (taking physiological constants, general evaluation of the patient’s condition, documentation of the intervention carried out).
Clinical cases
If clinical cases arise during the internship, these will be discussed with the veterinarians and founders, in order to share different experiences.
A daily report of the case can be made (Complementary studies, Dx. Differentials, definitive Dx, Tx to establish, evolution of the patient, etc.).
Chemical and physical containment in wildlife
It is vitally important that the participant understands that in wildlife management sites such as NATUWA, situations arise where it is necessary for veterinarians to perform restraint procedures (physical restraint) and chemical restraint on the different species of animals in the sanctuary. The reason may vary according to the management objective required, this can range from a routine review to the worst case scenario, when the life of the animal that is protected is compromised.
Chemical containment
Due to the above, the intern will theoretically know the principles of this branch, will learn to carry out these procedures through the use of chemicals such as sedatives, anesthetics and the use of tele-injection instruments (darts, blowguns, etc.) and their correct dosage according to the species and the patient.
Mechanical restraint and restraint
For physical containment, you will learn the use of nets, compression boxes, handling sleeves and other devices that will facilitate the handling of animals according to the objective of containment. On the other hand, you will learn the correct restraint so as not to inflict injuries on the animal, nor that it causes us injuries during the required procedure.
Diagnosis of death
¿Why is it important to diagnose the death of a wild animal?
When working in a wildlife management site like NATUWA, proper necropsy is of the utmost importance.
Necropsy
The corresponding necropsy will be carried out together with the inmate, in this way, through the macroscopic and microscopic findings, complementary studies, a report of the cause of death of the individual can be given, which will be attached to the file.
This helps us:
1. Provide information on diseases and determine the cause of death. Diagnostic value.
2. Check the effectiveness of the treatment. therapeutic value.
3. To be control for zoonoses. Sanitary value.
4. Serve as a teaching aid. Teaching value.
Price
Veterinary Internship Program- ¿What is included?
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Wifi
- Shared or individual lodging*
- Veterinary Guide.
