This small pocket reference guide was recently sent to me to preview as a future 2009 offering from Mosby-Elsevier. The booklet is designed for use during the busy practice day by veterinary technicians in a variety of situations from the clinical laboratory to the surgical suite and everywhere in between. The book is tab-divided into ten categories which include pharmacological math, animal care, procedures, dentistry, surgery and anesthetic nursing, urinalysis, hematology and serology, parasitology, microbiology and cytology and normal values. There are a multitude of charts, tables and lists covering such things as medical abbreviations, vaccination schedules, electrocardiograph readings and catheter size guides to name a few plus all pictures are in vivid photographic color.
Of all the categories, my favorite chapters are parasitology and surgical/anesthetic nursing. The parasitology chapter has step-by-step instructions given for how to perform all of the most common screening procedures for suspected parasites in feces, skin with ease of identification. The surgical and anesthetic nursing section is well written with a chapter that walks the technician through such surgical and anesthetic procedures as performing routine machine checks and calibrations and calculation of oxygen flow rates for patients. Also the index is very concise and well organized for quick reference.
After reading this book from cover to cover, I came away with the distinct impression that this book would be useful as a daily reference to veterinary technician students as well as for those practicing their craft in clinical medicine. At my institution, our students spend three and a half years with us before going to a semester long rotation at the University of Georgia, School of Veterinary Medicine. I truly feel that this little pocket guide needs to be given to them during the initial veterinary orientation class and travel through the entire program in the pocket of their scrubs as well as going with them worn and threadbare to the University experience to help with the day-to-day decisions that they are faced with. I wholeheartedly give this book a 5-star rating.
Publisher: Elsevier-Mosby (2009).
ISBN: 978-0-323-05575-8.