Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine

Rating:
Summary: disappointingly limited by format
Review: Numbers 3 and 4 of this series were updates of specific topics, much like the "current veterinary therapy" series. This, like Editions 1 and 2, attempts to cover all of zoo medicine in one volume. As this is a rapidly expanding body of knowledge, it is no longer really possible to fit into a single volume. There are very brief overviews of each species without enough depth present- this is not due to the authors, but the format. Especially disappointing is the apparent limitation on the number of references for each section. Providing references on where to look for further information would have made this book much more useful. Hopefully future editions will either show a return to the topic oriented format of 3 and 4, be a multi-volume set containing enough information to be useful, or at least contain sufficient references to be useful as a good bibliography.

Rating:
Summary: similar to 1st edition
Review: This text is basically a new, up-to-date version of the 1st edition of Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine (which is out of print and difficult to come by). For that reason I think it is wonderful.
I do think the editor's review is slightly misleading because there is very little information regarding specific diagnoses and their treatments. Instead there are lists of diseases which different species are prone to getting and formulary charts for the different species. If you want detailed information about a specific disease, diagnostics, and various treatment options, this book is not ideal.
What this book is great for: species biology, husbandry, basic zoo medicine...

Rating:
Summary: The most disappointing book in the series...
Review: When this book first came out, I thought it would be great. I was very disappointed by the brevity and superficial coverage of the chapters. This book, in order to be a truly comprehensive reference, should have been three times as big. This is the first time that a new edition is actually less useful than an older edition (Fowler 2 is a lot better!). The quality of chapters is very variable, with some being excellent and some flat out atrocious. (The crocodilian chapter is the best example of a "lacking" chapter). There are also a lot of typos (different spelling for some drug names) and inaccurate doses, which is disappointing. There are a lot of tables that are neither user-friendly nor clinically useful. However, this is one place to start with reference material to zoo animal species. It is not as nice as Fowler #2, but certainly more up to date and easier to acquire. It just has a "draft form" feel to it in content and editing. The book seems to be printed in a cheap quality paper that rips way too easily.