Abstract
Canine and feline respiratory medicine is a large and complex subject area which can be daunting to tackle for both veterinary students and practitioners alike. A clear understanding of respiratory medicine is essential for the small animal practitioner to allow rapid diagnosis and treatment of what are often life-threatening conditions. Veterinarians with a feline interest are aware of the importance of a carefully planned approach to the assessment of cats with respiratory disease due to the risks of stress-induced respiratory decompensation. This book is useful for anyone wanting a rapid reference text on canine and feline respiratory medicine or for students studying the subject for the first time.
Chapter one deals with the localisation of respiratory disease. This chapter emphasises the importance of the detection and interpretation of clinical signs to enable localisation of disease within the respiratory tract. The importance of this information for the formulation of differential diagnosis lists, plans for appropriate diagnostic testing and empiric treatment are highlighted. The chapter includes concise discussions of differential diagnoses for each clinical sign.
Chapter two discusses respiratory diagnostics. This chapter provides practical descriptions of how to perform various diagnostic procedures for investigation of respiratory diseases, their indications and potential complications. Chapter three deals with respiratory therapeutics and provides practical discussions of drug use and supportive care for respiratory tract disease.
Chapters four through eight cover individual respiratory diseases divided by localisation into nasal disorders, diseases of airways, parenchymal disease, pleural and mediastinal disease and vascular disorders. Each disease chapter is then subdivided by aetiology.
The book does have a slight canine bias, however, care is taken to highlight specific feline idiosyncrasies and feline specific respiratory diseases are well covered. The book also has a slight North American bias with world distributions of infectious respiratory diseases only lightly touched upon. Despite this the book is an excellent rapid reference for both students and general practitioners worldwide.
The book is very concise and summarises a large subject into a reader friendly format. There are many mainly good quality images throughout the text including diagrams, radiographs, cytology and bronchoscopy images. The author's aim was to produce an accessible, easy-to-read and logical textbook for both veterinary students and general practitioners and this has been achieved.