Product Description
Wondering what to feed your fish or how to poultice your pony? This book contains detailed information on feeding, housing, breeding, and detecting and treating ailments for nine different species. Color photos throughout help identify health concerns like feather loss, cat flu, and skin allergies. Diseases are alphabetized by breed for easy reference. ... Read more

Product Description
The only comprehensive book in this price category currently available on this increasingly popular subject, Designer Dogs features a special section on the top ten most popular designer dogs--including Labradoodles and Puggles. ... Read more

Product Description
The classic bestseller—expanded and updated

The guide dog lovers have relied on for more than twenty-seven years, this handbook has been extensively revised to include the latest information on everything from canine healthcare to nutrition to holistic treatments. Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook, Fourth Edition, is the definitive guide for every dog owner. It puts vital information at your fingertips, with:

• An index of signs and symptoms to help you find information fast

• Clearly written, step-by-step directions for handling common canine ailments and problems

• A chapter on emergencies that explains what to do immediately for shock, broken bones, burns, dehydration, heat stroke, poisoning, insect stings and bites, wounds, and more

• Hundreds of photos and drawings that illustrate what to look for and what to do to provide the best care for your dog

• A glossary of terms

With this guide, you'll know when to rush your pet to the vet and when you can begin treatment at home. You'll communicate more effectively with your vet. You'll have the latest information on every aspect of your dog's medical care when you need it. This is the hands-on reference you'll trust again and again.Amazon.com Review
Open the front cover and the first two pages you see containthe Index of Signs and Symptoms, from Abdomen (painful, swollen,distended, and tucked up) to Weight loss, Wheezing, and Whining(continual). There's a comprehensive index in back, of course, runningthe gamut from Abortion to Zinc-Responsive Dermatosis, which is allvery useful, but when your pooch is in pain, it's great to be able toturn, with the minimum of folderol, to the page that says to relax,it's nothing a bit of extra grooming won't fix, or alternatively tohightail it over to the vet hospital. It's a wonderful reference forany dog owner, with chapters on emergencies (such as burns,dehydration, and poisoning), as well as worms, infectious diseases,skin care, and canine eyes, ears, and nose. There are chapters on thedigestive, respiratory, and circulatory systems, the nervous,musculoskeletal, and urinary systems, plus dog sex, whelping, puppypediatrics, geriatrics, and chapters on cancers and medications. Inshort, it covers every health dimension a dog owner might want to knowmore about, identifies the possible causes, helps you determine theseverity of the condition, and indicates what treatments or actions totake to best insure your dog's good health.--Stephanie Gold ... Read more

Customer Reviews (104)

A must have for any dog owner/lover!
We have the 2000 edition, my god it is fantastic! I would carry it around with me all day if it would fit in my purse! Its that valuable. It gives home remedies to problems which can save you one expensive vet visit, and is very informative.

Good info.
Good information, but would of liked more pictures.It does have many pictures but, I had a different book before Hurricane Rita that I liked better.

Best Dog Medical Care Book I Own For Last 26 Years
I have the First Edition, Eighth Printing from 1984, and still, in 2010 it is THE best dog care book in my library. The reason is that it has practical detailed information to figure out your dog's medical problem, with home remedies where useful, and full treatment explanations, including naming medicines a vet would use that has helped me to understand if my dog's condition is something I can treat myself, or if there is a temporary step I can take to help my dog until I can get him to the vet. I came here now to see if there was an updated version of it and add that to my library. The problem the other dog care books I have purchased over the years is that they are vague and do not give dosing information, and so are not practical. Obviously many of the medications named in this book require a vet prescription and necessitate taking your dog to a vet, but it is great to be able to read about the full care a specific medical problem would take, sometimes getting a lesson in what I may be doing wrong that can be aggravating my dog's condition. Many times I have been able to help my dogs on my own, or know exactly when to take them to the vet because of this book, and it has been an invaluable reference with every new dog I have on helping to figure out the various health problems that crop of when you own a pet.

A must!
I am a passionate dog owner. Being such, I consider the dogs of my family and friends to be family friends as well.

This is the ultimate gift I give every new doggy mommy and daddy out there.Nothing is more appropriate than a handbook with good and solid advice on how to help care for a new "child"From emergency treatment that can help save the life of a dog to knowledge that can help augment the treatment of various ailments, I have never found another text with quite the range of useful and helpful knowledge of this one.

This is a terrific and must have book for all that love their four footed children!

Suggestions for the next edition
First, this is a great book, really. It could use a few changes to make it stellar, though.

1) references. It would be good to be provided with further references for topics that it doesn't touch on in detail.

2) explanations. The book will tell you things such as not to induce vomiting if petroleum products are ingested, but it will not tell you why that is the case.

3) color photographs. This is VERY important. The photos are black and white, and not high resolution. This makes it difficult sometimes to compare your animal's ailment with those in the book.

Aside from these issues, it is a very helpful book. I learned that my dog has cheilitis and am treating it according to the book's directions. Although, upon further reading on the internet, I found that this condition could also involve yeast so the method they suggested may not work. This also should have been mentioned. However, you should always do more homework after you've made your diagnosis.

Kudos to the authors for providing pet owners with a book of substance. All dog owners should own this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Expert guidance on training and caring for canine friends.

How can you get your dog to behaveóand give him the best quality healthcare available? This indispensable guide by three experts provides the answers. More than that, its visually appealing format makes it a reference guide and coffee table book all in one! It features:

• The latest information on health and nutrition
• Savvy strategies for grooming, exercise, and obedience
• Expert housetraining tips
• Hundreds of color photographs and detailed black-and-white illustrations

Customer Reviews (1)

A gem for any dog owner!
I had never seen this book and bought it blind on marketplace and all I can say is WOW!I wish I would have bought it sooner!!

It contains 12 chapters
~The wolfs descent
~The healthy dog
~Feeding and nutrition
~Canine structure
~Life support systmes
~The respiratoty systam
~The dogs world
~The skin
~The next generation
~The question of inheritance
~The Canine athlete
~Alternative approaches

Each chapter is very detailed with many drawings and photos of a healthy dog and problems that can arise.This book has a good section on first aid and a supply list for your kit and advice on what to do at home on while in route to the vet.Detailed instructions on bandaging variuos parts of the body and the easiest way to give medicines (liquid, pill, topical)

Chapter on how to elvuate your dogs food and what each part of the digestive system does.Also, what each ingredent in food does for your dog at diffent stages in his life (puppy, adult, senior).

Skeletal chapter very detailed showing normal bones and also problems in the bones and muscles.Detailed on many diesases that plague the bones with the appropate treatment listed.

Has a chapter devoted to the senses of the dogs and how problems in each sense affect the dog. Also covers behavioral problems in this chapter with ways to correct each problem.

Breeding chapter discusses pros and cons of breeding, spaying and neutering, natural breeding, artifical inseminaltion (verysmall section), ways to confirm pregnancy, whelping and complications.

Genetics chapter is a little more complicated, but has diagrams to help.Also has a chart of genetic defects in the dog and the mode of inheritance and age of onset.

Exercise chapter is a good outline for anyone with a sporting dog.(I have chi's so I didn't get much use from this one)

The book ends with alternative approaches showing different ways to deal with common problems.I have no idea if these work, but several vets wrote this book, so I assume it's pretty safe to say that they can't hurt, however in any medical emergency the only thing to do is rush to the vet, these are just suggestions which readers may find helpful for supportive therpy for non-life threatening problems.

Overall I rate this book very highly in my canine library.True, it is not the Mereck Vet Handbook, but for the average owner it is a great book with many photos and clear cut info.




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