Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians & Staff

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2004:

 

 

Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians & Staff

Edited by Lila Miller & Stephen Zawistowski

Blackwell Pub. (2121 State Ave., Ames, IA 50014), 2004. 546

pages, paperback. $74.95.

 

WorldAnimalNet International Directory of Animal Protection Organizations

Edited by Wim DeKok

WorldAnimalNet (19 Chestnut Sq., Boston, MA 02130), 2004. 554

pages, paperback. $29.95.

 

 

Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians & Staff and the

WorldAnimalNet International Directory of Animal Protection

Organizations are references so useful and so essential that, like

the National Animal Control Association Training Guide, they belong

on the most convenient shelf of every animal shelter library--and if

your shelter does not have a library, nail up a shelf and start one

with these three books.

Assembled by American SPCA senior director of animal services

and veterinary advisor Lila Miller and senior vice president and

science advisor Stephen Zawistowski, Shelter Medicine for

Veterinarians & Staff is the closest approach yet to an encyclopedia

of veterinary issues encountered in humane work.

The 37 contributors have a combined total of close to 1,000

years of experience in shelter clinics. Chapters cover all the

familiar humane conference workshop topics, and much else that

rarely gets workshop attention but comes up almost every day here at

ANIMAL PEOPLE, as shelter directors and vets scramble to deal with

unforeseen emergencies by calling here to find out who has urgently

needed information.

Among the more unusual but critical topic headings are " The

Administrative Hurdles of Shelter Medicine, " " Legal Concerns for

Shelters & Shelter Veteterinarians, " " Nutritional Challenges for

Shelter Animals, " " Disease Recognition & Diagnostic Testing, " and

" Veterinary Forensics. "

Is everything covered that needs to be? Probably not, but

even though Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians & Staff was 14 years

in development, it represents a first attempt to cover a

fast-expanding field, at a time when veterinary knowledge is

expanding exponentially. What can be said is that more is covered,

in greater depth, than in any other single volume.

Possibly because no one thought to mention the obvious, no

attention seems to have been given in the extensive sections on vet

care of small mammals, rabbits, birds, and reptiles to the

psychological stresses associated with housing predators and prey in

the same building.

Most shelter staff should nonetheless remember that trying to

keep both Sylvester and Tweety in the same household drove both of

them nuts.

Neither did anyone mention in Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians &

Staff that snakes housed in any facility not specifically designed to

contain them tend to find ways to escape. That can be a heck of a

problem for everyone in a shelter, especially if the snakes are

venomous and are being kept as evidence in a court case.

A great deal could be added to the " Veterinary Forensics "

section about distinguishing wounds inflicted by natural predators of

dogs and cats from wounds resulting from dominance disputes among

dogs and cats. Likewise, more could be said about distinguishing

wounds caused by deliberate sadism from those caused by common

accidents, e.g. when a feral cat sleeps on a warm automobile engine.

Of note, however, is that Shelter Medicine for

Veterinarians & Staff may be the first text of any kind to give

" Veterinary Forensics " any attention at all.

What it includes is excellent. What is missing can be

included in the next edition.

The $74.95 price may cause some shelter directors to pause in

ordering Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians & Staff, and indeed that

is a lot of money compared to the usual price of a 546-page paperback

book. However, it is not a high price as peer-reviewed professional

manuals go, as most professional people who donate to humane work

would probably recognize. If Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians &

Staff appeared on a shelter's wish-list in a newsletter, I think

most shelters would soon get at least one copy.

No one needs to spend $29.95 for the paperback edition of the

WorldAnimalNet International Directory of Animal Protection

Organizations in order to use it, since all of the information it

contains is online at <www.worldanimalnet.org>.

Still, most people can find organizations faster in the

printed edition than by going online, and that can be enormously

advantageous for anyone handling calls from the public.

The 2004 edition is nearly twice the size of the 1999 first

edition, reflecting both the rapid growth of the humane movement,

worldwide, and the diligence of editor Wim DeKok in tracking down

new organizations, wherever they may be, frequently exchanging

information with ANIMAL PEOPLE publisher Kim Bartlett.

There is no more comprehensive guide to who does what,

where. I don't think I have opened any book more often in the past

five years than the first edition, and anticipate that the 2004

edition will get similar use. --Merritt Clifton

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity.]