Hi G. Cindy,
I would really appreciate it if you could place a
book on the wish list for me. It is called:
The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health : The
Complete Pet Health Resource for Your Dog, Cat,
Horse or other Pets
by Merck Publishing and Merial
ISBN-13: 9780911910995
Pub. Date: October 2007
Synopsis:
The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health delivers
animal health expertise in everyday language that
all pet owners can understand. This in-depth new
resource,
authored by over 200 veterinary experts, covers the
full spectrum of today's pets, from dogs, cats and
horses to birds, reptiles, fish and other exotic
pets. No other book provides as much health
information on as many types of animals. The one
resource for a lifetime of pets.
I think this book needs to be done in-house as it
has some graphs and/or diagrams. This is the reason
I am not scanning it. Here is a cute article from
the New York Times regarding this book. Thanks!
Maithe
maithe007@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Pet Ferret Hit by an Arrow? Here's a Book for You
By
ERICA GOODE
Published: December 18, 2007
Does your gerbil seem depressed?
Is its coat rough, its appetite flagging, its
posture hunched?
Does its exercise wheel stand sadly silent?
If so, it might be suffering from Tyzzer's disease,
a bacterial infection commonly seen in gerbils,
especially when stressed.
Then again, the little rodent might just have a bad
case of
pinworms.
Not knowing which diagnosis applies - or more
likely, never having heard of either ailment - is
often frustrating for pet owners, who are unsure how
serious
their animal's illness is or what to do about it.
The new Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: Home
Edition (Merck & Company, $22.95), an exhaustive
guide to the illnesses and care of many of the
species
that humans, sensibly or not, have turned to for
companionship, aims to help out.
Merck's manual for humans has long been a resource
for doctors, a bible for worried mothers and a draw
for hypochondriacs, who can spend hours matching
their symptoms to the diseases it describes.
In the 1,345 pages of the pet version, readers can
find, among other things, the anatomy of a turtle;
six signs of hyperparathyroidism in a dog; a list
of 27 houseplants poisonous to pets; a description
of lockjaw (an infection that leads baby birds to
starve to death); instructions for what to do if
your
pet is shot with an arrow (don't pull it out); seven
causes of liver injuries in horses; the necessary
components of a pet travel kit; 161 diseases that
can be passed to humans from animals; and yes, a
proper diagnosis for a sick gerbil.
Those new to pet ownership will discover basic
information about choosing pets and how to provide
them with a good home. In some cases, they may
decide
to forgo the pleasure: a sugar glider, for example,
while extremely cute, spends its nights barking and
chirping and, the book notes, requires at least
two hours of human contact per day, lest it develop
behavioral problems - like cannibalism.
The bulk of the manual, a popular translation of the
handbook for veterinarians published by Merck since
1955, is devoted to the three most common household
animals: dogs, cats and horses. But the guide also
includes chapters on birds and so-called exotic
pets, like fish, reptiles, amphibians, chinchillas,
ferrets, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, rats,
rabbits, prairie dogs, pot-bellied pigs and sugar
gliders, as well as sections on emergency care,
poisoning,
cancer
and other subjects.
The sheer number of creatures found between the
book's covers is likely to distinguish it from other
pet health guides, most of which focus on a single
species or even a single breed. And the manual,
written by 200 veterinarians, is likely to find an
eager readership in an animal-crazed nation, where
68.7
million households include at least one pet and
$24.5 billion a year is spent on veterinary care,
according to a survey released this month by the
American
Veterinary Medical Association.
"We felt there was a need for a comprehensive book,"
said Dr. Scott Line, the manual's associate editor
and an animal behaviorist at Merial, a veterinary
drug company co-owned by Merck and Sanofi-Aventis.
"People have multiple pets," Dr. Line said. "Eighty
or 85 percent of horse owners also own a dog; half
of dog owners have a cat. If you have one book that
covers all different species it will make it easier
for people."
Still, like The Merck Manual for human health, the
pet version often sacrifices depth for breadth. It
describes hundreds of diseases, some that readers
will find familiar, like
diabetes
and
epilepsy,
and many others they are unlikely to recognize, like
guttural pouch mycosis (which affects horses) and
proliferative enteropathy (recently weaned rabbits).
"My feeling is there was a little bit of information
on everything and not a lot of information on any
one thing," said Dr. Susan Hackner, head of the
department
of critical care and emergency medicine at the
Animal Medical Center in New York. "It's like other
Merck manuals in that it addresses very briefly and
concisely a very comprehensive list of diseases. I
think that it's more of a coffee-table book."
Dr. Hackner noted that some things in the manual
were very helpful - for example, the basics of
emergency care and the list of household poisons
(especially
when read before an animal ingests one). There are
specific instructions for nursing a sick bird, a
discussion of when to euthanize a desperately ill
pet
and useful descriptions of a variety of medical
tests and treatments.
Dr. Hackner praised the glossary and the dozens of
graphics in the book, singling out a schematic
drawing of a cat's kidney that she said was "really
interesting."
But she added that equal space in the manual seemed
to be given to very common illnesses - for instance,
immune mediated hemolytic
anemia,
which she said was common in dogs and that the
hospital sees a few times a week in summer - and to
disorders like hepatozoonosis, a parasitic disease
affecting
dogs and cats, which the hospital sees rarely, if at
all.
Some readers may find missing from the guide any
mention of commonly used alternative medical
treatments, like acupuncture. And those who own
exotic animals
will almost certainly be better served buying a book
dedicated wholly to their species.
These lapses, however, are unlikely to deter most
pet owners, who can be as obsessive about their
animal's health as they are about their own. And it
can't
hurt to know that that strong musty smell is coming
from your unneutered ferret, that a chunk of avocado
could kill your cockatiel and that you should
never, ever pick up a gerbil by its tail.
