Fowler's Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine: Volume 8

Logically organized by taxonomic groups, this up-to-date text covers the diagnosis and treatment of all zoo animal species and free-ranging wildlife, including amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and fish, unlikely to be seen by private practice veterinarians. Featuring full-color images, the consistent, user-friendly format supplies information on each animal's biology, unique anatomy, special physiology, reproduction, restraint and handling, housing requirements, nutrition and feeding, surgery and anesthesia, diagnostics, therapeutics, and diseases. Global authorship includes multinational contributors who offer expert information on different species from around the world.

Deceased June 2014

"Veterinary care of nontraditional species is a rapidly progressing field and this title is the muchawaited updated version of this zoo and wildlife practitioner's 'bible'. It will also be of increasing relevance to many general practitioners, as British ownership of companion exotic and larger non-domestic animals continues to grow in popularity. This indispensable series has alternated between the classic format of encyclopaediastyle overviews across the taxa, and current therapy volumes discussing relevant developments in the field. This volume falls into the former category and brings together a host of international experts to provide chapters on each major terrestrial vertebrate group. Biology, unique anatomy, special physiology, reproduction, restraint and handling, housing requirements, nutrition and feeding, surgery and anaesthesia, diagnostics, therapeutics and common diseases are all covered. There is also a reduced current therapy-style section at the end, entitled 'General zoo and wildlife topics', giving clinical updates in areas such as the application of minimally invasive surgery and advanced imaging techniques in zoo and wildlife species. This broader selection replaces the 'Diseases common to multiple taxa', found in the fifth volume, which also included a rather brief section on fish. This has been excluded from this latest volume (presumably due to the large amount of text that would have to be dedicated to this subject in order to do it justice). The overall format of the book has been greatly improved. Colour-coded section headers make navigation to the relevant chapter easy after minimal familiarisation with the layout. There is excellent use of tables throughout, giving concise overviews on common diseases, and biological and haematological data. Some chapters contain high-quality colour photographs and diagrams, providing a useful adjunct to points discussed in the text as well as adding interest. Disappointingly, inclusion of these is variable; for example, in the reptile and amphibian sections the anuran and crocodilian chapters are lavishly illustrated, while the lizards and snakes chapters are text heavy. There seems to be a paucity, too, in many of the bird and mammal chapters, which is a shame, especially in comparison with more consistently pictorial exotics texts. Many of the clinical update chapters are well illustrated, particularly those on minimally invasive surgery and ultrasonography. An essential update to the content of this edition concerns emerging diseases of relevance over the past decade; for example, elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus. Although of less clinical importance, updated taxonomy, is especially useful in those groups that have had major reclassifications, such as felids.Links to external online documents ensure that readers have access to the most up-to-date information in changing areas, such as husbandry guidelines or working documents for managing particular diseases, while an increased emphasis on conservation issues better reflects the role of modern z