student externship

Prairie Ridge Veterinary Clinic is interested in providing meaningful externships to veterinary students. Living quarters and a stipend of $500.00 per week are provided for all externships. Externs must have professional liability insurance and must be interested or open to the idea of smalltown general practice.

Externs at our practice will be involved in case discussions and diagnostic workups, exam room client communications, practicing clinical and laboratory procedures, assisting in surgery, dentistry, and obstetrics, radiology, wellness care, farm animal calls, and business management. 

Prairie Ridge Veterinary Clinic in Havana, Illinois, a 90% SA, single doctor practice, was founded in 1986 by Dr. Rod Yetter, who is a lifelong resident of Havana and 1983 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. Havana is small town of about 3,500 people located on the Illinois River in central Illinois between Peoria, Springfield and Macomb.  The people who we provide animal care for  are not just our clients, they are our friends. We care about each other.  Remember “The Andy Griffith Show” on tv? You get the idea!

We value the importance of mentorship and fully realize how important it is for a new graduate to have an experience veterinarian and staff to help with the transitioning to practice and to be available to assist with the more challenging cases. Students will be mentoring one on one with Dr. Yetter, who has over 39 years of experience and enjoys teaching students and communicating animal care needs with clients. For those individuals that are interested in eventually running their own business, Dr. Yetter is well versed in the business management aspects of running a practice.

We are looking for a fulltime associate veterinarian with potential for practice ownership, so if this is consistent with your dreams and goals come and do an externship with us! Summer and winter break job opportunities are available also for 1st-3rd year students. We will participate in the Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program.

Our clinic is located just across the river from the Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest wildlife refuges in the United States. Recreational opportunities include hunting, fishing, boating, a community pool, tennis courts, bowling alley, archery range, downtown theater, and our own park district which overseas many of these recreational areas. We have a large and attractive park on the river’s edge which has boat ramps and a camping area.

At Prairie Ridge Veterinary Clinic we provide a high level of quality medicine and service, while maintaining a friendly, small town, personable experience for our clients. We are known for our emphasis on client communication and dedication to client education.

Our small animal services include wellness medicine, internal medicine, after hours emergency service,  blood transfusions, working with dog breeders, routine elective surgery as well as abdominal, ophthalmic, and orthopedic surgery – cruciate repairs, patellar luxations, and external skeletal fixation repair of fractures, dentistry, digital radiology, nutrition counseling, cardiology consulting with the use of our CardioPet EKG service, boarding, and grooming. 

We monitor surgical cases with an ECG and use a pulse oximeter for our more critical patients. We use isoflurane for gas anesthesia. We use a circulating warm water blanket for use during anesthesia and surgery.

We have an in-house lab, using Heska’s CBC and serum chemistry analyzer and various in-house test kits. We do our own urinalyses and in-house cultures and read our own CBC blood smears with our binocular Bausch and Lomb oil immersion microscope. We check IOP’s using our Tonopen for ophthalmology. We have a fetal heart rate monitor to aid in the management of dystocias. We have a cage side oxygen delivery system and IV fluid pumps for our critical patients, as well as a doppler blood pressure unit. 

We provide farm service calls as a small percentage of our practice, mainly on pleasure horses and a few cattle, sheep and goats. Our LA services include wellness medicine, emergency service, health certificates, dystocia, horse colic and injuries.

We use Cornerstone veterinary computer software.

Check us out www.prairieridgeveterinaryclinic.com or on Facebook @PrairieRidgeVetClinic. We are “The Family Doctor for Your Best Friend”. Call 309 543-2091, text 309 696-5036, or email us at prvc@grics.net for further information or questions.