The Zoo, Exotics, & Wildlife Medicine Club was established within the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences in the Spring Semester of 1996. The goal was to accommodate the rising interest in non-traditional medicine within the veterinary student body. We represent six different aspects of exotic animal medicine including aquatic, avian, reptile, small mammal, wildlife, and zoological medicine. To provide the best information possible to our members, our officers represent the following organizations at conferences and events:
- AAV (Association of Avian Veterinarians)
- AAWV (American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians)
- AAZV (American Association of Zoo Veterinarians)
- AEMV (Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians)
- ARAV (Association of Reptile Amphibian Veterinarians)
- IAAAM (International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine)
About Texas A&M ZEW Club
We have meetings each month, covering topics related to all aspects of non-traditional animal medicine. We try to bring in diverse speakers, ranging from zoo veterinarians to private exotics practitioners.
We host an annual wet lab to provide an opportunity for students to get hands-on experience. Under faculty and practitioner supervision, students are able to learn and practice physical exam techniques, proper techniques in restraining animals and important clinical skills such as drawing blood, placing catheters, crop feeding placement in birds, and sexing techniques in reptiles. The wet lab also allows students the opportunity to sit with our lecturers and lab instructors and ask questions about their various fields and interests.
Field trips give us a chance to get away from school and experience exotic animal medicine first-hand. We have at least one field trip per semester. We organize behind-the-scenes tours rotating through the 17 AZA Accredited institutions within the state.
In order to learn as much as we can, we try to attend as many exotics conferences as possible. Our members regularly attend the AAZV, IAAAM, and ExoticsCon meetings so you can be sure you’ll have someone to go with. Our own wet lab is open to students from other schools as well to provide additional networking opportunities for our members.
We are a fun group of people from many different backgrounds. We are anxious to learn while having fun and we are looking forward to getting you involved!
If you have any questions, or need to get into contact with specific officers, check out the officer contact page.
Our meetings!