Employment Information
Practice name
Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital
Last Updated
August 12, 2024
Internship Type
Combined
% of time spent on ambulatory vs in-hospital
10-20% small ruminants and camelids. These are often not hospitalized with occasional surgical procedures such as wound repairs and c-sections.
Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital is currently taking applications for internship positions for the 2025-2026 year. Duration of program is one year starting in June 2025.
Join our team of enthusiastic specialists and ambulatory practitioners in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! We have a 3 intern in order to provide the best mentorship while being mindful of maintaining a good protected time balance. Assistance provided for pet friendly, affordable housing, close to the clinic.
Position is for a rotating internship between hospital and ambulatory work. Mentorship would come from boarded surgeons, internist, and veterinarians that have extensive experience in working closely with interns for case management. The goal of our internship program is to provide knowledge and confidence for our interns to join private practice or a residency program. Interns will be fully competent to address aspects of patient care at an either primary role, or with indirect supervision. A clinician is always available to provide assistance.
Our hospital facility has 24/7 onsite trained technical staff to provide added support allowing interns to focus on patient care, clinical skills, and diagnostics. Case load consists mostly of equine patients with occasional small ruminants and camelids. After hours on call schedule is split among interns with pre-determined weekend time off and protected weekday/weeknight time off. Licensed veterinary technicians split weeknight anesthesia call with interns.
The PVH equine referral hospital is the only facility with multiple boarded specialists in the area. Facility includes two full surgical suites with pillow recovery systems, a standing procedure/surgery room, a reference-quality laboratory, a covered lameness evaluation arena, and several treatment areas. The main barn has stall space for 16 in-patients with an additional 3 climate-controlled ICU stalls and a 4-stall isolation facility. Stalls can be converted into a fully operational NICU with padded foal box. The hospital is well equipped with two SurgiVet anesthesia machines with ventilators, complete anesthesia monitoring equipment, extracorporeal shock wave, digital radiology, digital ultrasound, 600 mA radiology, arthroscopy, laparoscopy, ASIF bone plating instruments, PRP, IRAP, Pro-Stride, and a 0.3 Tesla MRI. Clients also have access to acupuncture, chiropractic and Chinese herbal medicine through our integrative medicine and rehabilitation center. We offer the services of clinical pathology, cardiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, and radiology on a consultation basis with board-certified specialists.
CE stipend provided to all candidates. Veterinarian interns are provided with full benefits, and same discounted prices for their pets as other employees. Paid expenses are also provided to the annual house officers retreat held every November.
Pool of applicants is a rolling application until the right candidates are matched with the program. Please send an updated resume/CV, cover letter and references to bruno.karam@thrivepet.com for application.
Internship Duties: Interns have primary case responsibility under the supervision of a senior clinician for the duration of the internship. The interns perform daily assessment of their cases, complete medical records, present cases in daily rounds, perform diagnostics, administer anesthesia, assist in surgery and medicine procedures and participate in monthly journal club. The interns on ambulatory service are under the direction of our doctors on all cases such as dentals, lameness exams, reproductive work, podiatry, etc. After hours/weekend on call rotation is for referral emergencies and the intern will see all cases alongside a senior clinician. Interns will rotate between primary receiving (with a senior clinician), being on anesthesia/back up call and off call. During the week, the intern is responsible for the care of their hospitalized cases and cases are transferred to doctor on call for the intern’s weekend off. After hours treatments and monitoring are primarily carried out by overnight technicians and hospital staff with support provided by primary clinician.
3
- Equine general practice
- Sports medicine practice
- Equine/LA surgical residency
- Equine/LA medicine residency
- Equine/LA critical care residency/fellowship
- Theriogenology residency
- Imaging residency
- Anesthesia residency
Start date
June 16, 2025
End date
June 30, 2026
Application Deadline
May 31, 2025
Does the practice offer externships?
Yes, please email the practice contact for details
Is an in person visit or externship with the practice required to be considered for an internship?
No, but recommended
Contact Information
Snohomish
[USA] Washington
WASHINGTON
98290
11308 92nd St SE
Practice Mailing Address
11308 92nd St SE - Snohomish - WASHINGTON - [USA] Washington - 98290
Clinical Experience and Responsibilities
Yes
Service rotation description
Interns rotate between hospital and ambulatory duties through out the week.
Hospital interns have primary case responsibility in the hospital and are assigned to clinicians for day time appointments. In the weekends, interns provide emergency care and anesthesia coverage. ICU/Night time interns sees overnight emergencies on the week with anesthesia duties being split among 2 day time interns and 4 LVTs. Daytime interns do not have patient care responsibilities, or primary ER coverage, after hours.
Daytime ambulatory intern is assigned to a clinician during the day for ambulatory appointments. Most of the time a primary clinician and a technician are present to allow interns to focus on learning. Interns are eased into solo daytime appointments as they become more comfortable with their skills. Extensive amount of weeknight time off is designed so that interns can part take on ambulatory coverage if desired.
No
Yes
Yes
No
50-75%
Patient rounds held daily with senior clinicians
Yes
Teaching rounds held
No
Weekly journal clubs held
Yes
M&M or other specialized rounds held
Yes
Intern has opportunity to attend a professional CE meeting
Yes
Intern has opportunity to complete a study or publication
Yes
Intern has access to current medical textbooks
Yes
Intern has access to online journals
Yes
In the past 5 years, how many studies/cases have been published by interns as the primary author from work pursued primarily during their intern year?
1
Equipment the intern has exposure to within the practice
- Arthroscopy
- Laparoscopy
- Fracture repair sets
- Gastroscopy
- Endoscopy
- Stat CBC analyzer
- Stat whole blood chemistry analyzer
- Blood gas analysis
- On site diagnostic lab
- MRI
- Digital radiography
- Ultrasound linear probe
- Ultrasound macroconvex probe
- Ultrasound microconvex probe
- Ultrasound endorectal probe
- ECG
- ETCO2 monitoring
- Shockwave
- Stall side orthobiologics
- Stem cell capability/utilization
- Embryo Transfer
- Advanced podiatry/therapeutic farriery
- Power dentistry
Any additional information the practice would like to share on their internship program:
Interns have allocated time to attend annual house officer’s symposium in Austin. This is generally held in November of each year.
Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital has an Integrative Medicine Department with the presence of two Equine practitioners.
Practice works closely with other specialists providing interns with further learning opportunities in ophthalmology, cardiology, dermatology, and dentistry.
Close association with large rehab and training facility in Redmond, WA that provides diagnostics such as nuclear scintigraphy.
Caseload
Total number annual cases
5000
Total number ambulatory cases
3500
Total number in-house cases
1500
Avg number of after hour emergencies per week in the busiest time of year
5-10
Avg number of after hour emergencies per week in the least busy time of year
Less than 5
Significant seasonality to the caseload
Yes
Seasonality description
Practice caseload has a reasonable volume of performance horses that are either out of state, or not as active, during the off season (winter months).
Foaling season generally picks up around mid February to June, with some outliers.
Summer months tend to be busier due to show season and racing season.
Species other than equids
Yes
Percentages of non-equids by species
10-20% small ruminants and camelids. These are often not hospitalized with occasional surgical procedures such as wound repairs and c-sections.
Number of specialty certified clinicians
Number of clinicians in direct support of program
8
Diplomats of the following specialties (including their European Equivalents)
ACVIM – American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine - 1
ACVS – American College of Veterinary Surgery - 2
Other personnel of note (outside specialists, farriers, dentists, etc)
One of our clinicians is also a farrier/podiatrist
Additional certifications/area of expertise represented in the practice
Acupuncture certification, Chiropractic certification, Certified journeyman farrier (CJF)
Technician present on ambulatory calls
N/A
Overnight technical staff (if hospital present)
Yes
Other details about technician support of intern doctors
Each doctor has an available technician for the vast majority of appointments. Ambulatory technicians are assigned to their respective clinicians. Four LVTs have expensive anesthesia training. Technicians are responsible for treatments, including afterhours.
Compensation
Annual Salary
$51-55k
Additional opportunity for emergency compensation
Yes
90% ER fees on solo ambulatory calls
Opportunities for additional income (production bonuses, working horse shows, etc).
Yes
On site veterinarian at local shows. Local fair veterinarian work.
Benefits
Benefits offered
Yes
Value of total annual compensation
$55,000.00
Housing offered
No
Housing Type
Other
Housing Amount
$
Paid time off (PTO) offered
Yes
# of PTO days
5
PTO stipulations
40 hours
Health insurance offered
Yes for employee plus dependents
Amount of health insurance premium intern is responsible for
Variable with selected plan
Dental insurance offered
Yes
Life insurance offered
Yes
Short-term disability insurance offered
Yes
Long-term disability insurance offered
No
Liability insurance offered
Yes
CE stipend offered
Yes
License/DEA fees reimbursed / stipend offered
Yes
State license required
Yes
USDA license required
No
DEA license required
Yes
Association fees reimbursed / stipend offered
Yes
Student loan payments reimbursed / stipend offered
No
401K program offered
Yes
Employer matching offered
Yes
25% up to 4% of their eligible pay.
Clothing / logo wear stipend offered
Yes
Phone or phone stipend offered
No
Maternity / paternity leave offered
Yes
Discounted pet care and / or a pet medications policy offered
Yes
Practice vehicle or mileage reimbursement offered
Yes
Other benefits offered
Long term disability and life insurance are offered separate with different tiers. These also go through a third party.
HSA, Lyra, Bright Horizons, Carrot, and access to student loan education and refinancing options.
Contract
Non-compete clause required
No
Non-US residents may apply
Yes
Method internship offers are made
Position is discussed and a verbal offer extended. This is followed by an employment agreement and signed contract.
Earliest date of internship offer made in the last 3 years
July 25th
Latest date of internship offer made in the last 3 years
March
Average time provided to internship candidates to consider an offer
21 days
Outcomes Assessment
How long has the practice offered internships?
Decades
Avg number of interns who completed the program per year for the past 5 years
2
Number of interns that haven’t completed the program over the past 5 years, with explanation
One intern did not complete due to personal reasons including distance from family, personal pet injury, and fear of anticipated work load.
Number of interns from this program who applied for a residency in the past 5 years
2
Number of interns from this program who entered a residency position directly out of the internship in the past 5 years
Number of interns from this program who accepted a second or specialty internship in the past 5 years
1
Number of interns from this program who accepted a residency position in the past 5 years
1
Number of interns retained by the practice as associates in the past 5 years
2
Of the interns that started the program in the past 5 years, how many are still in equine practice (and/or in an advanced training program targeted at specialty equine practice)?
70-99%
Number of former interns currently employed by the practice
2
Are current or former interns from the practice available for reference?
Yes, email the practice contact for details.
