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Story contact: Rachel Becker, CVMMarCom@missouri.edu
Photos by Karen Clifford
Few veterinary training programs offer advanced clinical experience across companion animal, equine and food animal medicine within a single internship.
On June 26, Sam Hoover, DVM, will become the first graduate of the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine’s mixed animal rotating internship, bringing together experiences across multiple species in a single year of training.
“It’s a unicorn program,” she said. “I don’t know of any other opportunity that allows you to gain this much experience across species and practice settings in that timeframe.”
The internship is supported through a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA)-funded initiative led by Alisa Hutchison, DVM, MPH, Pamela Adkins, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVIM, and Kile Townsend, DVM, MS. Its goal is to prepare veterinarians for careers that require flexibility across species and practice environments, particularly in rural communities where veterinarians are often asked to care for both companion and farm animals.
“In many rural Missouri areas and other rural areas nationwide, there are mixed animal veterinary ‘deserts’ where many pets and production animals cannot easily get access to care,” Hutchison said. “At Mizzou, we’re trying to try to bridge that gap by offering an opportunity for an additional year of focused practice and mentorship.”
Building confidence across species
Mizzou’s program combines rotations in small animal medicine and surgery, equine medicine, ambulatory large animal practice and community-based veterinary clinics.
For Hoover, that variety is one of the program’s greatest strengths.
“I loved being able to tailor the experience to areas where I wanted more exposure,” Hoover said. “If there was a particular area I wanted to learn more about, the program helped create opportunities to gain that experience.”
The program’s broad training model meant no two rotations looked quite the same. Throughout the year, Hoover cared for patients at the Veterinary Health Center, traveled to farms and rural communities through ambulatory practice and worked alongside veterinarians in community-based clinics.
The experience gave her a firsthand look at how veterinary medicine can vary from one setting to the next.
“At a university hospital, access to advanced diagnostics and treatment is often readily available,” she said. “But in practice, veterinary medicine requires balancing those options with real-world factors, including an owner’s goals, financial considerations, local resources and the needs of the patient.”
That lesson came into focus during an elective rotation, when Hoover helped care for a cat with a serious liver condition whose owners could not pursue referral care.
“One of the primary goals of my internship is to enhance the ability to provide high-quality, spectrum-of-care medicine,” she said. “The ‘best’ medicine isn’t always about pursuing the most advanced option; it’s about understanding the full range of available options and helping clients choose the approach that best fits their circumstances.”
“Whether an animal is meant for production or companionship, each one plays an important role in its owner's life,” Hoover said.
Serving animals, families and communities
Hoover said one of the most valuable takeaways from the program was gaining a deeper understanding of what mixed animal practice looks like across different communities and settings.
“It’s given me exposure to all the areas I wanted to grow in,” she said. “Whether I was helping a producer whose livelihood depended on the health of their herd, managing a complex referral case, or providing routine preventive care, I was constantly reminded that veterinary medicine is also about supporting families, businesses and communities,” Hoover said.
After her internship, Hoover plans to work at a mixed animal general practice that serves rural communities.
“Dr. Hoover represents exactly what we hope this internship will accomplish,” Hutchison said. “Rural communities need veterinarians who are comfortable working across species, adapting to different settings and meeting clients where they are. We’re excited to see her take those skills into practice and make a difference for the animals and people she serves.”