Small Animal Medical Diagnosis

Rating:
Summary: Practical and Easy to Read
Review: A very practical easy to read book. This text uses chapters based on presenting clinical signs to relate to the underlying pathophysiology so that a clinician can approach diagnosis of cases in a logical manner.

Definitely written with students undergoing "problem-based" learning in mind, but could serve as a desk reference for the practicing clinician approaching a difficult case. The book is a bit exhaustive with charts and tables, and doesn't include many illustrations. It is, however, excellent for building lists of differential diagnoses, and includes great chapters on interpretation of haematological, biochemical and ECG findings. Also quite useful is that nearly every chapter is summarised with a "diagnostic plan". One must be warned that this book is not trying to be a factual medicine/disease-based book and doesn't include information on the medical treatment of cases. It is instead more concerned with recognizing clinical signs, and taking a logical approach to come to a definitive diagnosis.

Rating:
Summary: Is it me or the authors?
Review: Lorenz and Cornelius have done an impressive job at explaining the diagnosis of many diseases starting with the more prevalent or important sign in the sick animal. This method is supposed to facilitate the clinical work of inexperienced veterinarians. It does not work well for me, though. I expected a sort of step by step guide (if the patient limps, you do this for these and these reasons; if it doesn't work you then do this for these other reasons; if it still doesn't work you now do this, etc.) but I found a not-too-well-organized discussion of a profusion of possibilities without much prioritation. It is confusing. It may be that the more the authors know the more difficult is to make it easy, or that modern medicine is overwhelming and there is not way to organize it better. But you can always hope!

Rating:
Summary: God's gift to veterinary students
Review: This book is truly the Bible in terms of small animal differential diagnosis. It's one of the few texts written in a problem-based format rather than organized by disease. Highly recommended.