(Part 2) Top products from r/Veterinary

As an aside to others' suggestions, a book that helped to get me thinking about the various ethical issues you may face as a veterinarian was "Veterinary Ethics: Animal Welfare, Client Relations, Competition and Collegiality".

It's a slightly older book, but many of the cases it details are still relevant today and will be for you too. That being said, I do remember that the conclusions drawn from two or three of the 100 or so cases were being outdated or unfairly colored by the author. However, they were easy to spot and to avoid.

Disclaimer aside, the book helped me conceptualize ethical dilemmas I hadn't considered in pre-vet, (even with experience in clinics), and was very helpful for my interviews. If you interview at a school that poses ethical questions to you, this could be an asset. The ethical scenarios the book provides are accessible, short, and also entertaining at times!

That was in people. Not cats. As trinklest mentioned, you have to tread lightly. Pets are not little people and react very very differently to medications. While some medications can work similarly in humans and animals, a great many do not even if we are talking about the same target organs. You don't hear of using serum therapy in people for eye ulcers, but that is a wonderful and frequently used treatment in pets. You can use Gentamicin ophthalmic drops in infants for conjunctivitis, but in rodents has to be used sparingly or it causes systemic effects and in some species can't be used at all. Pain management is one of the most commonly messed up things in pets when human doctors attempt to home medicate. The number of dogs and cats brought to the vet in liver or kidney failure because their well meaning MD owner dosed them with either over the counter or prescription pain meds like an infant would astound you.

Many of the studies in medications, unless specifically noted as being veterinary or animal based, cannot be correlated to pets. Please do not insult another Doctor with a snottly link to a human study that may mean bupkiss to their field. Remember Veterinarians are doctors too. They just deal with all the other species other than humans. AND have to keep all those other species physiological and anatomical differences straight.

If you really want to be less than a thorn in your vet's side, get a copy of Plumbs (http://www.amazon.com/Plumbs-Veterinary-Drug-Handbook-Pocket/dp/0470959657/ref=la_B000AP9VOQ_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411351762&sr=1-1) along with the book recommended.

I would recommend 5 minute veterinary consult, good reference for quickly looking stuff up: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813807638/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687522&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0683082574&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1HM72AGXEWSHZGTPVPMH

Also, I would recommend Plumbs veterinary drug handbook, its a must have for dosages on most drugs:
http://www.amazon.com/Plumbs-Veterinary-Handbook-Donald-Plumb/dp/111891192X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417648156&sr=1-1&keywords=plumbs+veterinary+drug+handbook

I just purchased both of these to supplement my normal A&P textbook. Maybe they could help you too! :)

Large Animal

Small Animal

If they are a little older (past the do not approach unknown dog age) this body language cart is kid friendly.

Coming from the shelter side of medicine I wish more kids knew about spaying and neutering. This book is fun for younger kids and the visit to the vet/surgery is explained to some extent to make it less scary.

This too broad, I guess start with any cattle disease text book, but I doubt you'd understand a lick of it if you dont know the basics. Also be careful where you get information from. Articles are usually not a good source. Youd better stick with peer reviewed journals or textbooks.


If you're looking for a specific disease treatment, I'd recommend contacting your local veterinarian.

https://www.acvim.org/Publications

https://www.amazon.com/Veterinary-Medicine-textbook-diseases-Radostits/dp/0702027774

I agree that you should have your cat evaluated by a veterinarian, but to answer your question there are different gold standard books for each discipline. If I were only able to read one veterinary medicine book again I would probably choose Ettinger's Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine which is often considered the gold standard for medicine.

https://www.amazon.com/Textbook-Veterinary-Internal-Medicine-Consult/dp/032331211X/



To name some of the others for small animals (in my opinion)

Dermatology - Muller & Kirk

Infectious Disease - Greene or Sykes

Ophthalmology - Gelatt

Critical Care - Hopper/Silverstein

Oncology - Withrow

Pharmacology - Plumb's

Radiology - Thrall

Surgery - Tobias or Fossum

Orthopedics - Brinker / Piermattei

Nelson and Couto for IM questions http://www.amazon.com/Small-Animal-Internal-Medicine-5e/dp/0323086829

Fossum for surgery. http://www.amazon.com/Small-Animal-Surgery-Theresa-Fossum/dp/0323100791/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415243914&sr=1-1&keywords=fossum+surgery

That's plenty to get started.

https://www.amazon.com/Veterinary-Medicine-Illustrated-Robert-Dunlop/dp/0801632099