This past summer I went on a two-week adventure “down under” to volunteer at the Walkabout Wildlife Park in Calga Springs outside Sydney, Australia. I studied zoology, wildlife care, and zoo veterinary medicine with koalas, kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies, and all kinds of other Australian wildlife. We also went to Sydney for a day trip to a nearby beach town, explored aboriginal sites in the bush, and went behind the scenes at Targona Zoo. Some of the activities we did at the Wildlife Park included assisting in treatment rounds with Australian wildlife, performing health checks kangaroos and koalas, examining pythons and echidnas, learning to handle and assess possums and bandicoots, creating enrichments for everyone from dingos to cockatoos, and performing veterinary labs such as marsupial necropsies.
After I got back from Australia, I worked at my local small animal veterinary clinic as a Veterinary Assistant. I got to do anal gland expressions, ear flushes, injections, fluid therapy, blood draws, and so much more! I especially enjoyed assisting the veterinarians’ surgeries consisting of eye enucleations, mass removals, dentals, amputations, spays, and neuters! Working with all of these various species this summer made me really excited to become a veterinarian one day!