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A UNIQUE AND EXCLUSIVE SURGICAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR VETERINARIANS

NEUTERING SURGERY ACADEMY

Develop your confidence and competence levels in echocardiography with this practical tutored course.

5 days of 100% practical surgery

Outstanding supporting environment with dedicated tutors and staff members

High standard practice with IV access, multimodal pain relief and gas anaesthesia

BRINGING CONFIDENCE TO ROUTINE SURGERY

Veterinarians often struggle to achieve surgical competence and this undermines their confidence in their skills.

Why We Struggle

Lack of Opportunities In many countries, due to the structure of clinical practice, you don’t even have the opportunity to practise surgery.

Lack of Support When you don’t have adequate support, you don’t feel good about practising new surgeries on your patients completely alone.

Not Enough Cases Even when you do have the ability and knowledge to perform surgery, sometimes cases are not frequent enough for you to feel like you are keeping your skills up to date.

The “No Experience Cycle”

In a busy practice, it is common for surgeries to be completed by the most experienced vets, as this is the most time efficient, with best outcomes. This starts a cycle where inexperienced vets do not have the chance to improve.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Around You

We provide a supportive and relaxed learning environoment.

With You

You will have experienced tutors available to guide you.

For You

You are responsible for each procedure from start to finish.

I now not only feel confident with my spays but also efficiently opening up the abdomen and performing proper surveys which will be invaluable for other abdominal surgeries. ~ Simone Cuttler

MORE THAN JUST A TRAINING COURSE

We provide THREE levels for vets with different surgical experience, struggles and needs. They also take place in different locations. In any location, you will be able to perform surgery with the standards and conditions you would expect to find in UK private clinical practice.

Level 1

Level 1 focuses on principles of soft tissue surgery and abdominal surgery, allowing practice in felines. It takes place in Portugal. It's suitable for final year vet students, new graduates and vets that don't have any surgical exposure or many hours of surgery time.

Level 2

Level 2 focuses on feline and canine surgery (male and female) and takes place in Spain. It's suitable for vets returning from a long career break or changing career paths and those who already have basic abdominal surgery skills and need a confidence boost with their neutering techniques.

Level 3

Level 3 focuses on bitch spays and takes place in Romania. The goal is to learn high-volume spay techniques, safely reduce incision size and surgical time. This course provides back-to-back surgeries and is suitable for experienced vets or those returning from a short career break to "get back in the game".

Support

From a bit of reassurance to gowning up and digging in to help, our tutors are always there for when you need them. They will give you advice or put down a fire!

Experience

You will be the only surgeon doing surgery on your patient. You will perform surgery from start to finish under guidance from your tutor.

Standards

Despite the different environments, you will always find fully operational and equipped theatre rooms with top conditions, as you find in UK private practice.

Community

Our tutors will be there to give you support during and outside of the course. Enjoy time off with them and your colleagues and experience the country culture.

LIMITED VACANCIES

Next Courses

We accept veterinary graduates as well as final year veterinary students in our courses, depending on the level.

Level 1

From 24th to 28th February 2025

Suggested arrival on the 23th and departure on the 1st of February.

FULL

Level 2

From 10th to 15th March 2025 Suggested arrival on the 9th and departure on the 16th of March. FULL

Level 3

From 2nd to 6th June 2025 Suggested arrival on the 1st and departure on the 7th of June. VACANCIES AVAILABLE

TRAVEL, STAY AND MEALS

The different levels take place in different locations. For level 1 and 2 in Portugal, we provide you with a private bedroom and bathroom at the local guesthouse. For level 2 in Spain, we book a hotel room at a local Hotel. For level 3 in Romania, the course takes place in Piteasca, on the East side of Bucharest, and we organise your transport from the airport to the training center. Your accommodation is on site, where you have your own bedroom and usually your own private bathroom. The accommodation cost is already included in the course fees. We will also provide all meals from Monday to Saturday morning and accommodate preferences and intolerances. These meals are also included in the course fees.

Join Us

How to Book a Course

Each course has a limited vacancies depending on the level and location. Level 1 - up to 4 vets Level 2 - maximum of 6 vets Level 3 - maximum of 5 vets

Course Fees are the following:

Level 1: £2000 + VAT

Level 2: £3000 + VAT

Level 3: £3000 + VAT

These fees include accommodation and meals. We can convert the fees into other currencies.

Pre-Registration Fill out the pre-registration form below to let us know what type of Academy you are interested in joining.

Q&A session and vacancy confirmation Once you pre-register, we want to talk to you in a Q&A session. On this session we will try to udnerstand what level is most suitable for your skills and what you're looking for in a course, and we will then look at suitable dates for you.

Invitation letter Once you decide if you want to join a course and check if the dates suit you, we will send you an invitation letter with all the details in writing so you can join the course.

Deposit and registration Next, we will raise an invoice for the deposit in order to confirm your booking. As soon as the deposit is paid, we will start processing your accommodation and online access to the theoretical review course we provide.

PREVIOUS COURSES

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Three Good Reasons to Join

The Neutering Surgery Academy offers you a unique and unforgettable experience that you will not be able to repeat anywhere else.

40h of CPD

40 hours of certified CPD with a proficiency diploma at the end.

Support and quality

Expert tutors available for you and high standard working conditions.

Supporting neutering

Contributing to mass neutering for population control and charity support for rehoming.

Book a Course

Request a Q&A Session

Thank you so much for the great course and the great time, Luis and Judy are awesome. This was an excellent experience and an outstanding course!! I have learned so much and I found the course one of the best courses I have attended. I feel so much more comfortable with surgery after only a week, definitely an invaluable experience for my future.

Clara Garcia

The course was great, I learnt so much from Luis and Judy-they were excellent teachers. I have gone from worrying about spays to now being comfortable in what I am doing and can’t thank them enough. It was a fun and enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to all.

Mia Kalyvides

This course exceeded any expectation that I had. I imagined that the first two days we would be confined to a chair and a desk as our mentors would theoretically talk about different techniques/anaesthetics procedures used in bitch spay. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We arrived at Scooby on Monday and as soon as the brilliant staff brought the first dogs we were doing bitch spays.

Stefana Trufin

Want to hear more?

Visit our testimonials page to see what the many delegates that have joined the course have to say about it.

Frequently asked question

Here are a few answers to our most common questions

I'm a veterinary student, can I join?

Yes, the level 1 course is suitable for veterinary graduates and final year veterinary students who want to develop their surgical skills.

I have never done a spay, can I join?

Absolutely! It's not unsual for us to have vets that have been working for several years but have never had the opportunity to develop their surgical skills. The level 1 and level 2 may be suitable for you in this case.

Where does it take place?

The Academy runs in 3 different locations depending on the level: in Spain, the course takes place in the rescue centre Scooby, in Medina del Campo. In Portugal, the course takes place in our partner training centre in Vila Franca de Xira, just outside of Lisbon. In Romania, the course takes place in the Center of Hope training center in Piteasca, outside of Bucharest.

How many surgeries can I do?

We don't want you to focus on the number of surgeries only (and we have methods to help you with this), but we have never had any surgeon perform less than 8 surgeries during any of the courses, regardless of the level. You can do more surgeries in Romania, as this location focuses on back-to-back surgeries.

What sort of help will I have?

There are one, two or even more experienced tutors available to help you in any way that you need help - from showing you how to do it step-by-step to gowning up and holding things for you.

What am I expected to do during the course?

During this course, you may be grouped in pairs with another vet of similar experience and you may take turns between being the surgeon and the anesthetist (Portugal and Spain). That means you will be performing surgery, but you will also be placing IV catheters, inducing anaesthesia, intubating patients, monitoring anaesthesia and more. However, in Romania you will only be doing surgery, so you won't be dealing with animals that are "awake" and you won't need to monitor any anesthetics, giving you more surgical time.

What are the course fees?

The fee for the 5-day course includes accommodation and meals and is the following, according to the level:

Level 1: £2000 + VAT
Level 2: £3000 + VAT
Level 3: £3000 + VAT

This value can be paid in two installments.

What accommodation is available?

We will organise accommodation for you at the Hotel Reina Isabel, in Medina del Campo, if you go to Spain. If you go to Portugal, we sort this out with the guesthouse O Maioral. In Romania, accommodation is in a private bedroom on site. The cost of the accommodation is already included in the course fees.

Are meals included?

Yes, we will offer you breakfast, lunch and dinner from Monday to Friday. We will also accommodate your preferences and limitations.

What about travel?

We will help you organise your travel and provide you with information to comply with COVID-19 travel restrictions. However, you will have to make travel arrangements to arrive to Madrid (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal) or Bucharest (Romania).

What do I need to bring?

We only ask that you bring scrubs to wear during the course and also your own stethoscope if you want. And we advise you bring comfy shoes! ;)

How do I know what's the best level for me?

When you book a Q&A session, we will ask you some questions to assess your experience level and advise you on the most suitable level for you. However, in general we advise the following:

Level 1 if you have limited surgical experience, particularly with laparotomy (opening and closing the abdomen)
Level 2 if you already do surgery but feel uncomfortable with neutering (ie you can do it but don't feel happy on your own)
Level 3 if you already do surgery but are struggling with specific steps, want a refresher to become faster and re-build muscle memory or simply want to improve your technique

Still have questions?