International Veterinary Experience Scholarship Cycle 1 Winner

My International Veterinary Experience: Costa Rica

Rachel LeMont, KSU CVM c/o 2024

As a veterinary student working towards a career in zoological medicine and conservation, I knew that I would need to get creative in gaining experience with a wide variety of species throughout my education. Most veterinary schools do not include exotics in their core curriculums (I mean, there really isn’t any room to squeeze it in there anyway), most zoo’s don’t take first year students as externs, and nothing beats seeing animals in their native habitats along with all of the struggles they face in those environments. These are the things that led me to apply to the internship program at Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Rescate is a non-profit foundation dedicated to conserving Costa Rica’s wildlife, and they accomplish this by rehabilitating wildlife (the area I was able to help the most with), breeding endangered species, preserving habitat, and providing lifetime care.

 

When I arrived, I didn’t really know what to expect. Would I just be standing back and observing? I didn’t have any experience with sloths, monkeys, or macaws… But I learned very quickly that Dr. Isabel expected us to jump right in. With our first patient, an adult two-toed sloth who had gotten caught in a barbed wire fence, I was already helping restrain and administering IM injections. That same day, I assisted in bandaging a tree porcupine, wound cleaning for two howler monkeys, and drawing blood from several parakeets for pre-release. I was thrilled to be getting so hands on right away, and I continued to gain amazing hands on experience with several species over the next three weeks. Not only did I assist in handling sloths, monkeys, several species of birds (parakeets, macaws, toucans, etc), porcupines, turtles, and more – I was also able to practice my blood drawing and injection skills (IM, SQ, IV, and intra-cardiac) for all of these species, learn about their diets by preparing food for them, learn new necropsy techniques, and see first-hand why the majority of these species came into the rescue center.

 

The skills that I gained during this internship are skills that I will use for the rest of my career. Before coming to Costa Rica, I did not even feel comfortable catching or holding a small songbird - by the end of the internship, I could restrain a bird in one hand and draw its blood with the other hand, no problem. Before this internship, I had no idea that non-insulated electric fences were such a huge problem in Costa Rica – and now I have seen the devastating effects that this can have on the local animals, and how important it is to educate the community on how they can help keep Costa Rica’s wildlife safe. None of this would have been possible without the IVEC scholarship. All veterinary student’s know that the financial burden of veterinary school is huge, and it is one of the biggest stresses in my life. The IVEC scholarship allowed me to gain this essential experience in my career without the added burden of another vet school cost. Thank you so much.