Book Reviews

This is a completely new textbook in small animal veterinary medicine. It has been designed to provide information largely based on illustrative material and as such provides a beautiful and refreshing read on a range of small animal medical diseases.

The book consists of 14 chapters written by world-renowned authors primarily from the USA but also by European and Australian authors. The chapters in part use a systems-based approach covering, for example, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and urinary disorders. Additionally, chapters are present which focus on medicine subspecialty areas such as infectious diseases. There are no specific feline chapters, but feline diseases are covered well in the relevant system-based or subspeciality chapters. Each chapter begins with a useful introduction which may, for example, include an overview of possible historical and clinical findings associated with a particular body system. Somechapters include a comprehensive guide to diagnostic techniques for particular disorders. For example, techniques for bone marrow sampling and cross-matching are explained in the section on anaemia. Specific diseases and problems are then discussed using headings such as definition/overview, aetiology, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, differential diagnosis, diagnosis and management. The length of these written sections varies according to the importance and prevalence of the disease being discussed but in all cases an emphasis of clarity is apparent. Management sections often describe treatments without specifically stating dose rates but I do not feel that this is a problem since this text is not designed to be a comprehensive reference text for small animal medicine. The text is beautifully illustrated throughout with 1052 colour photographs, radiographs and diagrams making up a large amount of this book. The quality of the images is excellent and each has a clearly labelled legendexplaining the illustration. The use of coloured tables to list, for example, causes of disease, investigative procedures or vaccination guidelines also add to the clarity of the information presented. One disappointment is the lack of cross-referencing in the text. When disorders are discussed in more than one section of the book it would be useful to have cross-referencing to aid the reader in accessing all relevant information and illustrations.

This book does not provide a definitive text on small animal medicine but provides an excellent learning aid for anyone interested in medicine. As intended by the authors, this book will complement other small animal medicine textbooks that lack illustrative material. I was also impressed with the degree of coverage of feline medicine topics. I feel that it provides a fun and practical way of learning small animal medicine and will be of particular interest to veterinary students and practitioners, and those revising for examinations in small animal medicine.