Our 2025 & 2026  externship schedules are open and quickly filling up! If you’re looking for an externship for your 3^rd and 4^th year (1^st and 2^nd year students are eligible as well) that provides a lot of hands-on primary care experience in small animal, exotic and wildlife medicine then an externship at Arbor View Animal Hospital is your place to go.  

Our externship is unique in that we allow our externs to have a lot of hands-on experience and customize your externship towards areas you want to further your skill set.  Arbor Views client base is also unique, as we see not only dogs and cats but a large number of exotic pets and wildlife patients.  In fact, more than 38% of our clients are exotic pets and all of our doctors are passionate about treating these non-traditional species.  

Dr. Herbert also has a wildlife rehabilitation license, which allows us to treat and rehabilitate local injured wildlife at Arbor View Animal Hospital.  Depending on the year, we have between 300-500 wildlife cases brought to our clinic.  We also have a working relationship with a local wildlife rehabilitation center, which works with us when medical care is needed for their wildlife cases and we provide medical care for their education ambassador raptors and mammals.  As we mentioned before, all of our doctors are very passionate about exotic/wildlife medicine. 

Students who come to our hospital for an externship can expect:

• At our externship you will get hands-on experience working with exotic pets, including in depth husbandry discussions, handling skills, learning the appropriate tools and medications to work with exotic pets and wildlife, and potentially hands-on surgical and treatment skills. The amount of hands-on learning when dealing with exotic patients is based on the patient species, clinical signs, if they’re stable and overseeing veterinarians comfort level with an externs skill set. 

• A customized externship based on what you want to focus on and your school requirements.  Dr. Herbert will reach out to you prior to your externship to go over your goals, what are your strengths and your weakness’, and what do you want to gain from this externship. She will then create an externship experience catered toward the information you provided her.

• Our externs are responsible for our wildlife cases and manage these cases from start to finish.  Externs will triage incoming wildlife and develop treatment plans, run diagnostics, interpret these diagnostics and follow these cases as if they were the overseeing veterinarian. Our wildlife caseload does vary throughout the year and tends to be heaviest in the spring, summer and early fall for those interested in wildlife medicine.  These wildlife cases are as hands-on as you can get because as the extern these are your cases to manage with the help of our veterinarians and staff.  Externs are not required to know how to work with wildlife species and our dedicated staff will assist in restraint and diagnostic testing when needed.  Our veterinarians also oversee these cases to ensure our externs learn as much as they can and uphold good quality medicine.

• We know we have talked a lot of about our exotic client base but we do have plenty of opportunities for individuals interested in canine and feline medicine. Our focus at Arbor View is to still give you as much hands-on experience as we can treating dogs and cats.  Our veterinarians will guide you in diagnosing, interpreting and implementing treatment plans for the dogs and cats we see.  They will also teach you valuable client communication skills because after all every pet that comes in is attached to an owner and without their approval, we can’t help their pets. 

• Finally, our externships are typically 2-6 weeks long (dependent on what other externs have selected), we only have one extern at a time, the externship does include a stipend, and free on-site housing is available.

Arbor View Animal Hospital is privately owned and located in NW Indiana.  

Arbor View is a multi doctor practice, appointment based and we are open 5.5 days a week, which does give your externship flexibility in arranging what hours you will spend at the clinic. 

We are accredited with the American Animal Hospital Association, and it is our goal to provide high quality evidenced based medicine.  To list a few of our bells and whistles, we have a CT, fluoroscopy, digital radiographs, endoscopy, ultrasound, dental radiographs, full in-house Idexx lab, Abaxis VetScan, and all the special equipment needed to appropriately see exotic pets.  

When not at the clinic our location allows you to have a break and enjoy some recreational activities our area has to offer, such as visiting Chicago, the Indiana Dunes, Lake Michigan, hiking, fine dining, and more.  Vet school can be stressful and we want you to know there are great avenues to take a mental health break in our area when you’re not at the clinic.

Check out our externship page to get answers to FAQ's https://arborviewah.com/avah-externship/

• Currently, enrolled in a veterinary school
• Students are required to have student liability insurance

About Arbor View Animal Hospital

Arbor View Animal Hospital in Valparaiso, IN, is a privately owned progressive companion animal hospital. Conveniently located just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Windy City (less than 45 min from Chicago) in beautiful Northwest Indiana. Arbor View Animal Hospital is a multi doctor practice and we have a solid mentorship program for new grads. We are AAHA accredited and it is our goal to provide high quality evidenced based medicine. We operate by appointment only and focus on developing lasting relationships with our clients and their pets. We treat a wide range of animals including canine, feline, avian, exotic, reptile, small pocket pets, aquatic/fish, other exotic/non-traditional pets and wildlife patients. We are known for our fun work environment, consistent high quality patient care and taking care of our employees. Arbor View is open for appointments 5.5 days a week and we refer after hour emergencies to outside local ER clinics.

Connections working at Arbor View Animal Hospital