Pre-Vet

Safari4u’s Pre-Vet Programme is designed to give exposure to different aspects of veterinary work in South Africa. It is aimed mainly for students who are aiming to apply to Vet School and 1st year Veterinary Students, or anyone interested in animals, conservation or the veterinary field, the opportunity to work with animals in an African veterinary setting.

The programme consists of three main components – Small Animal Practice, Large Animal Practice, and Wildlife and Game Capture.
  • Small Animal Practice is divided into two components, Clinic and Community Outreach.

Clinic Work – observation of professional veterinarians in a commercial clinic. This is predominantly with people’s pets. This has been expanded in 2017 to include the Wild Coast Community Vet Clinic in which free health care will be provided for the lower socio-economic community’s animals of Chintsa and its surrounding areas. Currently our charity work is carried out with the support of Wild Coast Vet with funds purely from donations and melds into our community outreach for small animals.

Community Outreach – conducted in rural areas, this aspect is one of the most important as South Africa has a large split in terms of socio-economics and as such many people cannot afford to help their animals when it comes to their health. Safari4u visits townships regularly to assist in anti-parasite treatment (dipping and dosing), wound care, community education on handling and treatment of pets and animals, and follow up treatments as needed.

Lectures covered in Small Animal Practice include
  • General Disease in Domestic animals
  • Handling of Domestic animals
  • Safety and Use of Veterinary Equipment and over the counter medications
  • Wound Care
  • Large Animal Practice involves the livestock and large animal aspect of veterinary work with animals. It includes working on commercial farms and in rural outreach areas. Animals such as cattle (beef and dairy), goats, sheep, pigs and horses are covered and activities including dosing for end- and ecto- parasites, artificial insemination, and pregnancy testing. It also includes issues such as abattoirs and disease control. Most of the work is done under the supervision of the farmer but if veterinarians are needed, they are either the farmer’s personal veterinarian or provided by the programme.

Community Outreach – Conducted in rural impoverished areas in the Eastern Cape Here we offer primary health care to animals who have little to no access to veterinary care. We visit areas such as the Transkei Wild Coast and Hogsback areas.

Lectures covered in Large Animal Practice include:
  • Herd Management and Health
  • General Diseases in Different Animals
  • Handling and Safety when dealing with Large animals
  • Safety And Use of Veterinary Equipment and Medications
  • Wildlife and Game Capture consists of opportunities such as game captures, game counts, darting with anti-parasitic drugs, wildlife identification, wildlife treatment and captive animal care. During game captures immobilization, sedation and transport of African Wildlife is covered and are controlled by a veterinarian. It also brings forth issues such as conservation, captive animals, hunting and the Five Freedoms.
Lectures Covered in Wildlife:
  • 5 freedoms of animals
  • Species Identification and Behaviour
  • Immobilization and Transportation of African Wildlife and Ethics around this
  • Exotic Pet health and care

This project runs from Monday the 17th of  January 2022 through to 19th December 2022, you can join on any Monday!

Contact us now for rates!

Your price includes:

  • Welcome Pack
  • Safari4u Game Capture Manual
  • T-shirt
  • All meals (ex. snacks, soft drinks, etc)
  • All accommodation and bedding
  • Transport to organised programme activities

The fee also acts as the main source of funding for our Non-Profit Company – Wild Coast Community Vet Clinic. This funding provides the supplies and medications necessary to treat the animals of the greater Chintsa area.