CONTACTS

Natalia Henao-Guerrero, Department Head
Courtney Snead, Director of Department Operations
Megan Perry, Administrative Assistant
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APPOINTMENTS
To schedule/reschedule your pet's appointment, please call the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at 540-231-4621.
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Small Animal Clinical Sciences
215 Duck Pond Drive
VA-MD Vet Med (0442)
Blacksburg, VA 24061

About the department

VA-MD Vet Med's Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences provides an academic, departmental base for faculty members whose training, teaching, research, and service efforts are in the following disciplines:

  • ABVP
  • Anesthesiology
  • Cardiology
  • Community practice
  • Dermatology
  • Emergency and Critical Care
  • Neurology
  • Oncology
  • Ophthalmology
  • Radiology
  • Shelter medicine and surgery
  • Small animal internal medicine
  • Small animal surgery
  • Theriogenology
Small Animal Clinical Sciences roster→

How we contribute

Faculty in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences contribute to all three missions of the college: teaching, research, and service.

Faculty members within the department are involved in teaching through all four years of VA-MD Vet Med's professional curriculum, as well as post-DVM training of interns, residents, and graduate students.

Teaching in the professional program includes participation in didactic teaching through the first three (preclinical) years of the curriculum, as well as extensive involvement in clinical teaching in the fourth year of the curriculum through clerkships offered in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) and off-site. Advanced clinical teaching is directed at interns and residents/graduate students, partially through clinical activities in the VTH and partially through graduate courses, advising, and mentoring.

Clinical responsibility in the VTH includes both instruction and service efforts through delivery of routine patient care, emergency medical services, and referral and consultative activities. Faculty service efforts also include participation in continuing education/outreach programs locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally; in discipline-oriented national organizations; and in VTH, department, college, and university governance activities.

Creative scholarship within the department encompasses a wide spectrum of clinical, basic, and applied endeavors that include the generation, application, and dissemination of knowledge utilizing departmental, collegiate, university, and external funding sources.

Small animal residency and internship programs

Internships are designed to provide one year of intense, post-DVM, clinical training in small animal medicine and surgery.

Residencies are designed to provide three to four years of advanced, in-depth training in specific disciplines in preparation for certification examination by appropriate specialty boards within the veterinary profession. Most residents will enroll in the Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences Program and complete a graduate degree (M.S. or Ph.D.).

The Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences has a single, generic residency program description that sets forth a basic program description. Supplemental to the generic document, each discipline provides a specific program description unique to that discipline.

Interns and residents in the department participate twice yearly in a departmental Intern/Resident Seminar Program (PDF) designed to provide experience and instruction in the preparation and delivery of scientific material to a peer audience. Residents are further encouraged to make presentations at various seminars and scientific meetings, both internally and externally.

To learn more about the matching process, visit the Veterinary Internship and Residency Matching Program, sponsored by the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians.