May spring placement

Duties & Activities

An example morning routine for vet students would look like this: Feed the horses hay and a cereal mix and fill up their water. Feed the chickens and refresh their water. Open all the awnings on the enclosures (winter only). Clean individual cages, feed and medicate the cats in the care centre (our onsite hospital) as per their individual dietary and medication plans. You will be expected to document changes in health, behaviour or appearance, if they have eaten, used their litter box etc for this information to be passed along to our vet. The number of cats fluctuates daily but we generally have somewhere between 6-10 patients. Clean litter boxes, change soiled bedding, tidy up the enclosure, sweep and mop the floor, refresh water and dry food for our other cats. Administer medications orally to approximately six cats either in liquid or tablet form. Feed and water the dogs and administer medication to one of the dogs. Clean up in their enclosure. Doing laundry of soiled cat bedding if necessary. An example evening routine for vet students would look like this: Feed the horses hay and a cereal mix. Closing the awnings on all enclosures (cold nights only). Mixing wet food and feeding the special needs cats and kittens. Feeding and medicating cats in the Care Centre. Restock litter, water, tin food and dry food ready for the morning crew. Fill up any empty water bottles. Take down and put away any dry laundry. Lock up for the night. Additional tasks that are done on an adhoc basis: Assisting with feeding the offsite colonies in the area. Accompany a volunteer on external vet visits (we use a few different vets in the area for specialist care when required). Assisting with responding to calls from the public reporting a sick or injured cat and getting emergency vet care when necessary. Grooming the cats, claw trimming, ear cleaning, socialisation of kittens and juniors. Taking delivery of food and supplies and putting those away. Help tidy or organise storage rooms and laundry. Taking photos and videos for social media. Take part in TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) activities that are scheduled. Shelter Vet and Blood Bank We have a vet, Dr Joana, who comes to the shelter every second Wednesday. We would welcome you to shadow and assist her in whatever work she is doing which is normally vaccinations, testing, sterilisations and anything else that crops up that needs medical attention. Once we have your dates confirmed we will try and change the schedule to ensure you receive as many opportunities as possible to shadow her. For example we send the females offsite for sterilisations so we would plan this for your stay so you can assist Dr Joana in surgery. We also work with Dr Marta from the animal blood bank (Banco de Sange Animal). They visit us every month to draw blood from around 17 cats each time. We can also try and influence when they visit us to coincide with your visit.

Schedule

Five days per week 8:30-13:30 plus two of those days 17:00-18:30. Ad hoc vet work with visiting vets could be outside of these hours.

Species

• Cat250 animals
• Dog3 animals
• Horse3 animals
• Poultry (Chicken)8 animals

Logistics

• Accommodation Provided
• Free — Our shelter is located near Porches, 10 minutes from the famous Algarve coast and beaches. Our nearest airport is Faro which is 45 minutes away. We have a two bedroom farm house onsite at the shelter which has two rooms, each with a double bed that we keep specifically for work placement students. If you would like to come with another student, which we encourage you to do, and you are not comfortable sharing a double bed, we can arrange a roll away bed and we also have a sleeper couch in the living room. Sometimes we rent the other room in the house out to another person who has been vetted by us. The living room and kitchen is a shared space not only with another house resident, but also with 1-2 volunteers who make coffee for the volunteers in the morning. The bathroom will be shared with anyone else living in the house at that time. 4-5 cats have access to the common spaces in the house and 2 live in one of the bedrooms. There is no charge for accommodation but you need to pay for your own flights, Faro is the closest airport which is 45 minutes away by car. Public transport from the airport is by bus and takes about 1.5 - 2 hours or an Uber or Bolt takes 45 minutes and costs around 40-50 Euros. Our closest long distance bus station is Lagoa which is 5 minutes away from the shelter. You will need to cover the cost of your food during your stay. We can take you to a supermarket when you arrive as there is not a supermarket within walking distance. There is a kitchen with an oven and stove top available in the house for your use. You will also have access to a washing machine. The shelter is not located in a town but is in a rural area and is not within close walking distance of a town. We can arrange for you to borrow a bicycle, grab a ride with a volunteer or there is a local bus that goes to surrounding towns and beaches. Uber and taxis are also available and are cheap compared to the UK. Portugal is a very safe country with a very low crime rate. We will give you keys to the house and to the front gate which we keep locked.

Application Details

Requirements

• Pre-vet Accepted
• Minimum Year

Nearest Medical Facility

Additional Information

We have several openings during the year and we welcome students for a minimum of one week, we are grateful for the support and we love being part of your development. Please get in touch if you have specific dates you would like to visit us as we will do our best to make it work. We currently work with RVC in the UK and with Vet Student students from Germany through the Erasmus program.