PIONEER EQUINE HOSPITAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Compassionate and High-Quality Care

Pioneer Equine Hospital is located in California’s central valley in Oakdale.  We are nestled between the foothills of the Sierra Mountains and the valley’s vast agricultural landscape.  Pioneer opened its doors in 1973 when two veterinarians had a vision to form the premier equine veterinary clinic in the area.  Drs. Britton and Black built one of the most recognized equine hospitals in the country for equine surgery and lameness.  From those deep roots, Pioneer has grown to become a full-service referral hospital.  In addition, we provide full service primary care on both an outpatient and ambulatory basis.

Facility:

              The hospital is a 22,000 square foot full-service facility on 20 acres in Oakdale, California.  It has two spacious surgical suites with adjacent viewing rooms.  There are four padded induction/recovery rooms which are utilized by surgery and MRI.  There are seven large examination rooms including specialty rooms for standing surgery, radiology, ultrasound, and endoscopy.  The covered lameness area is 140 x 300 feet with hard and soft ground for optimal evaluation.  We have the only high field MRI in northern California and a Pegaso CT with an impressive 120cm gantry.  There are two 20 stall barns which separate the surgical and lameness patients from the medical, emergency, and isolation cases.  The on-site podiatry center offers highly skilled farriers who see outside appointments and work closely with the veterinarians in cases that need therapeutic or corrective shoeing.  Our reproductive services include assisted reproductive technology, artificial insemination, sub-fertile mare management, foaling, full-service stallion management, breeding soundness evaluation, and collection of semen for shipping and freezing both domestically and internationally.

Doctors and Staff:

              Pioneer has 7 associate veterinarians, which include two board certified surgeons, a board-certified internist, a certified veterinary acupuncturist, and certified animal chiropractor as well as an associate who specializes in orthopedic and soft tissue ultrasound.  We have multiple intern veterinarians and a large team of equine health technicians and front office staff.

Type of Practice:

              100% equine practice – predominantly performance horse with emphasis on western, hunter, jumper and dressage.  We also serve our local non-performance horse community.

Caseload:

              The hospital treats approximately 5,700 horses annually.  Case allocation is as follows:

Lameness - 30%

Emergency/Internal Medicine - 25%

Surgery - 15%

Reproduction - 10%

Primary Care (ambulatory, dentistry, preventative medicine) - 20%

Estimated Breakdown of Daily or Weekly Workload:

              The intern performs morning treatments and assessments of the patients prior to morning rounds.  Interns will rotate through multiple departments during the internship.  Interns will spend two-week blocks on anesthesia/surgery, lameness/ambulatory, and hospital, seeing daytime emergencies and facilitating in-hospital case therapy.

              Approximately 30% of an intern’s time will be spent performing anesthesia or assisting on surgical cases, 30% assisting the primary clinicians with lameness evaluations including performing perineural and intraarticular injections, 20% performing diagnostics, 10% assessing and treating hospitalized patients, and 10% ambulatory duties.  Routine treatments including overnight care and monitoring are performed by the technicians.  Interns are responsible for all daily treatment sheets in hospitalized patient records and performing call backs on each patient seen at Pioneer Equine Hospital.

              Rounds are frequent at Pioneer including didactic, clinical skill and journal club.  Additionally, interns will sharpen their presentation skills by presenting monthly ground rounds as well as giving hospital tours and participating in community equine activities.

Philosophy of Practice Internship:

              Pioneer Equine Hospital strives to provide the highest quality care for our patients in a friendly and fun work environment.  Interns are considered an integral component of the practice.  We rely heavily on the interns to use their knowledge and skills as veterinarians and not as inexpensive labor to perform duties the primary clinicians do not want to perform.  The interns will gain a great deal of hands-on experience and should be very competent at the end of the internship in performing equine surgical, medical, and reproductive skills.  In the past, we have had outstanding placement to academic residency programs and associate positions around the country.  Please contact us for a list of previous interns. https://pioneerequine.com