When I first received this book I was surprised by the heavy weight in comparison to the actual size. This is mainly because it is printed on high quality paper with excellent color photographs. Wildlife Medicine & Rehabilitation is geared toward wildlife, exotic, and zoo veterinarians and highly experience veterinary technicians or wildlife rehabilitators. The arrangement is simple in that it is only comprised of photos of cases with questions in regard to the photo provided. Each case begins with a photo and a sentence or two about the history of the animal followed by multiple questions regarding the photo such as: “What species is this?”, “What would be a differential diagnosis?”, “How would you treat this?” among many others. The following pages include the answers and other pertinent information regarding that case and occasionally follow up pictures of histopathology, cytology, or gross necropsy with an explanation.
The book in general tends to deal with more foreign species although some North American species are covered. I could not fully appreciate the formatting as the cases were not grouped together by species, making it more challenging to locate species-related questions quickly if needed for use as a reference tool. There is also an editor’s erratum printed and stuck on the front inside cover which may bring down the quality of the text to some, to no fault of the authors.
As mentioned above, Wildlife Medicine & Rehabilitation is definitely geared toward the wildlife, exotic, and zoo veterinarian and highly experienced rehabilitator or technician; I would not necessarily say this is the best book in a teaching situation, but is really one for review or certification as a wildlife specialist.
Publisher: CRC Press/Taylor Francis, 2011
208 pages, paper back
ISBN: 978-1-84076-146-7