Blackwell’s Five Minute Veterinary Consult is well known throughout the veterinary community. This clinical companion which addresses dermatology expands on the Five Minute Veterinary Consult: Canine and Feline.
The second edition of this book is an entirely new compilation. While it includes some of the information found in Five Minute Veterinary Consult: Canine and Feline it also contains new information that allows it to stand alone as a small animal dermatology text.
As expected with any Five Minute Consult, the discussion of each disease process includes pathophysiology, signalment, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment. There are several chapters dedicated to how to obtain samples (including skin scrapings, hair plucks, swabs, smears, and aspirations) as well as reading those samples. There are multiple pictures throughout the text which will allow the practitioner to visualize how each disease process may present and what can be expected when a sample is visualized under a microscope.
This text is divided into several sections which cover allergies and hypersensitivity, dermatoses (endocrine, infectious, neoplasia, cutaneous, and paraneoplastic) and a variety of disorders (immunologic, autoimmune, and parasitic). It also includes a chapter which covers exotic dermatology and discusses rabbits, ferrets, Guinea pigs, mice and rats, the hedgehog, and hamsters. Another aspect of this text which makes it stand out is the appendices section that includes a list covering breed dispositions, a drug formulary, and client education handouts.
There is a companion CD that includes an additional 22 client handouts which have information on the more common dermatologic diseases including: contact dermatitis, scabies, otitis, mold allergies, and Demodex. The handouts also include information on shampoo therapy, elimination diet trial, and blood-work.
This book will be a valuable edition to any library and could easily become the go to text when diagnosing and treating dermatologic diseases. It will be one that is reached for again and again by veterinary technicians and veterinarians alike as well as students seeking to learn more about veterinary dermatology.
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (2011)
Soft cover 749 pages (with companion CD)
ISBN-10: 9780813815961/ISBN-13: 978-0-8138-1596-1