Best animal husbandry books according to redditors

If you read the book The Pack Goat, it will detail how many breeds of goat simply are not suitable for the task. You can put packs and leads on a Nubian or Boer goat but will seldom get it to do anything resembling what you want. I know, I raised them.

Basically any breed with floppy ears is completely content to say "fuck you and your plans" all day long, while nibbling on your jeans and shoelaces.

This is one of my research specialties (I study reproduction of endangered species). For some animals it is actually pretty easy (lions spring to mind). For the ones that don't breed, it can be any of a thousand problems. Sometimes the problem is actually a very precise, easily-fixable issue if you can figure out what it is, but figuring-out-what-it-is is the difficult part. There's a whole area of zoo biology that is focused specifically on identifying "causes of reproductive failure", as it's called, in particular species. Common problems group into these categories:

1. Animals "stuck" in nonbreeding condition. So, most animals do not breed year-round the way humans do; rather, they usually have a breeding season and a non-breeding season. (even most tropical animals.) They will only enter "breeding condition" if they get the appropriate cues. The cues typically trigger the hypothalamus to increase GnRH, the major reproductive hormone that gets the whole reproductive system rolling. The necessary cues can range from highly predictable ones like daylength, to less predictable weather- and food-related ones like temperature, rainfall, and presence of appropriate food. Sometimes there are surprisingly precise environmental requirements (must be able to dig den in loose earth; must have nestbox; must have appropriate grass with which to make nest; etc) , and often there are necessary social cues like availability of suitable partners, partner must perform appropriate mating behaviors, etc. Examples: temperate-zone animals often won't breed they're in the wrong photoperiod; zebra finches will often only breed if they perceive rain; female ducks are far more likely to ovulate if they have a choice of mate (i.e. at least 2 male ducks available) than if they are presented with only 1 mate; red crossbills will breed any time of year but only when they can get conifer seeds; etc.

2. Behavioral problems. Even if #1 is fine and the eggs and sperm are being made, animals can be behaviorally incompatible (e.g. they just don't like each other). Or they can be behaviorally "inept" for lack of a better term, if they were not raised among their own species and never had the opportunity to learn the mechanics of sex. (example, captive-raised male bears and elephants trying to mount the wrong end of the female.) Another example I've seen, an ex-pet female bear who was perfectly fertile but who had been raised in a tiny box and had never interacted with other bears, and who was too frightened to let a (friendly) male bear approach (sorry for the anecdote; this pair is discussed more in the sun bear paper cited below. What was interesting was the male's response; sun bears crouch down lower to exhibit submission, and when this particular female exhibited signs of nervousness, the male responded by flattening himself completely to the ground, like a pancake. She eventually did calm down, and eventually they did breed.) Another example, there is a strange phenomenon in elephants in which, if a female does not have sex before a certain age, she will typically never give birth after that even if she later is introduced to a behaviorally compatible bull elephant and even if both animals are healthy and fertile.

3. Stress. Even if #1 and #2 are fine, if you stress an animal too much, stress hormones can powerfully inhibit reproductive hormones. (especially cortisol/corticosterone, which can completely shut down GnRH and all associated hormones) See here for a newly published example in Malayan sun bears; females housed in female-female pairs seem to stress each other, and as a result they do not cycle. (this paper also has a strong hint of #1 in that the females are far more likely to cycle in the first place if a male is present in the same facility)

4. Infertility. Even if all the above are fine, you can still get poor reproduction due to outright infertility - low sperm count, deformed sperm, low conception rate, etc. This is often a consequence of limited genetic variation in the small populations that are often found in zoos. This phenomenon is called inbreeding depression.

5. Young die due to poor environment. This one is pretty obvious, but you can get cases where the young (or eggs) suffer high mortality because of some flaw in the captive environment - wrong nest material available and nest falls apart, wrong diet for young animals, den gets too cold, a disease (e.g. a hantavirus that preferentially kills young elephant calves has cropped up in several N American zoos), etc

sources: big text of general info; cues needed for reproduction, also covers most of the bird examples above; then this review, also this inbreeding depression review, and also the entire journal Zoo Biology, which usually has several papers on this topic in every issue. More details on specific cases: elephants, crossbills

From my understanding, the MMIs are kind of a weird format, and unfortunately you don't have the opportunity to talk about yourself / why you want to be a vet / what you bring to the table etc etc. Your resume and letter of intent should speak for themselves in that respect.

From my understanding, the MMIs are basically a series of scenarios (the format is based on med school interviews). Reading up on recent vet journals is a great place to start, and you'll probably want to read up on CVMA position statements as well - both are a great way to find out what the big issues are.

I'd also recommend spending some time learning about veterinary ethics. There's a whole format for making ethical decisions... you need to identify all the stakeholders, all the possible solutions, who would benefit/be harmed by each outcome, and how you would come to your decision. This book would be great to have a look through, if you can get your hands on it.

Good luck on your interview!

I applied from outside as well, so I recommend you start the application process now since you need your courses approved as an outside applicant and their turn around time is horrendous, it took me almost a year of back and forth e-mails since the person on the other end would take over a month to reply.
You have a chance, it worth a shot I got in with mid-80's, I know people who got in with low 80's, but we also had the MCAT at the time. We'll see in fall what the average was for the first class without the MCAT. The best way to improve your chances is to get your grades up(sorry it sucks). Get lots of varied experience, it doesn't even have to be vet related necessarily, do stuff that puts you in a leadership role. The interview was the best part for me, some people found it very stressful, so I recommend practicing(ask people to interview you or friends of friends you don't well works because it will make you uncomfortable, ask you career services at your university to help, they probably have a prep program geared toward Med-students, but it will help) , I recommend getting hold of this book the scenarios in here are good for understanding how to build you argument when taking the interview, you don't have to agree with what he says.

I'll keep an eye on this account for the next week if you have any questions.

The PDQ is great. We also have this in our tech office
https://www.amazon.com/Veterinary-Technicians-Daily-Reference-Guide/dp/0813812046

Talk to your vet, they might want to adjust the dosage or try a different medication. It might also just be a temporary thing, it almost always takes a while (4 to 6 weeks) for the positive effects from SSRIs to start showing up.

Some SSRI / Prozac info that might be interesting / helpful:

An article by the ASPCA, Behavioral Medications for Dogs says:

>>SSRIs are rarely effective the first day, and in fact can increase anxiety in some dogs before they begin to have therapeutic effects. Because SSRIs create changes in the brain, they must be taken for at least six weeks before they produce therapeutic results. Any decisions regarding the success of the treatment should be postponed until the dog has been on the medicine at least four months.

And Dr. Overall (a veterinary behaviorist) says in Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats:

>>Treat for as long as it takes to begin to assess effects: ... 3 to 5 weeks minimum for SSRIs and more specific TCAs

>>Plus 2. Treat until “well” with either no signs associated with diagnosis or some low, consistent level of
signs: minimum of another 1 to 2 months

>>Plus 3. Treat for the amount of time it took to attain the level in (2) so that reliability of assessment is
reasonably assured: minimum of another 1 to 2 months

>>Total: Treat for a minimum of 4 to 6 months

Mosby's has two review books that I found very helpful.

The disc in this one: http://www.amazon.com/Review-Questions-Answers-Veterinary-Technicians/dp/0323068014/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1405533557&sr=8-3&keywords=vtne

and this one: http://www.amazon.com/Mosbys-Comprehensive-Review-Veterinary-Technicians/dp/0323052142/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1405533557&sr=8-4&keywords=vtne

Those the two I utilized the most, and from what I understand- the actual test itself is based off the information given in these.

This book saved my butt in clinics.


Small Animal Medical Differential Diagnosis: A Book of Lists https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416032681/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_iWx0Db8P0KAR5

This too broad, I guess start with any cattle disease text book, but I doubt you'd understand a lick of it if you dont know the basics. Also be careful where you get information from. Articles are usually not a good source. Youd better stick with peer reviewed journals or textbooks.


If you're looking for a specific disease treatment, I'd recommend contacting your local veterinarian.

https://www.acvim.org/Publications

https://www.amazon.com/Veterinary-Medicine-textbook-diseases-Radostits/dp/0702027774

2 very expensive books:

Canine and Feline Behavior and Training: A Complete Guide to Understanding our Two Best Friends

Manual of Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Dogs and Cats

Brief reviews of some other cat behavior books:

http://www.infopet.co.uk/pages/2023.html

If you are preparing for an interview to get into veterinary school, might I suggest Introduction to Veterinary Ethics by Rollin? Its a nice approach, and at the very least will help you organize your answers in a logical way. I particularly like how he breaks it down every ethical question into five key areas: what are my duties/responsibilities as a veterinarian to myself, my profession, the patient, the client, and society? By examining each ethical question in from these five perspectives you can be assured that you have probably explored the issue from every angle. My final recommendation would be to chose a final path. By all means explore the options, discuss pros and cons, but at the end say what you would do. They don't want to to be wishy-washy and then avoid coming to any final solution.

If you have additional questions regarding interviews they might be better answered on the sub r/veterinaryschool - although it can be rather quiet there.

Correct. If I buy a specialist book I expect to pay $130+. Most I ever paid was about $200. (In the old days we used to just photocopy them.)

There are some lovely exceptions. There's the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine (waterproof plastic softcover; gotta love it), which I think is cheap due to the fact that they sell so many, and the [Merck Veterinary Manual](http://www.amazon.com/Merck-Veterinary-Manual-Cynthia-Kahn/dp/0911910506/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249130771&sr=8-1 (hardcover), which is subsidised by, er, Merck.

this book is an excellent reference. the drug protocols are a little outdated, but the photos and diagrams of all the parasites, eggs and their life cycles are spot on. it's great to keep a copy near your lab area to flip through if you're ever not sure about something.

https://www.amazon.com/Veterinary-Parasitology-Reference-William-Foreyt/dp/0813824192

Living with Sheep: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Flock by Geoff Hansen and Chuck Wooster.

I don't have sheep myself, but I once spoke with a bit too much passion about them. This is probably the most useful one in my exhaustive collection of sheep-related books that I've gotten for my birthdays.

Here

https://www.amazon.com/Veterinary-Medicine-Illustrated-Robert-Dunlop/dp/0801632099

Ah, yes. "The experts don't know what they're talking about, so trust me instead" argument.

All of your supposed takedowns of the veterinary community are easily refuted, but I'm not having this argument to convince you-- I'm having it for others who might be following this thread.

I'm fairly certain at this point everyone can see where you're coming from, so I feel pretty satisfied with where we are.

> I explained to you why your interpretation of L mech wolf study is wrong.

No, you didn't? And it's not relevant anyway, as this isn't very important in terms of the body of research that we currently rely on in veterinary behavior science.

For those not familiar, by the way, "balanced trainers" is this redneck idea that if you don't hit your dog sometimes, you're spoiling them. They would, of course, disagree with this exact phrasing, but it pretty well captures the mindset.

And for those following, as I mentioned earlier, it's pretty easy to find where expert consensus lies, as well as to see a broad range of citations supporting modern expert opinion. The citations are listed in 2 columns in small print, alphabetically; from "Olney" to "Song" covers 5 full pages. The person above me latched onto something he read somewhere and I have no idea why he's blown it out of proportion as if it matters. We don't study wolves to understand dogs, and why he insists some wolf study done in the 60's is the key to this argument is baffling to me. You can go to the google preview if you'd like to see it for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Clinical-Behavioral-Medicine-Dogs/dp/0323008909

But at this point you basically have two options: listen to the person who believes if the modern church would only listen to Jordan Peterson then less people would be leaving Christianity (that's an actual comment from his recent history) who has bought into every myth about animal health he can find, or look at the overwhelming amount of research and consensus informing expert opinion.

By the way, again to those following: no veterinarian is an expert in all of the things my opponent claims we try to be experts in. It would in fact be illegal for a veterinarian to claim they are. That's why we have veterinary specialists in dentistry, behavior, nutrition, surgery, internal medicine, and other fields. Your family vet is a general practitioner. I'm not asking you to trust me because I'm a veterinarian, I'm asking you to trust the community of veterinary behavior specialists because they're veterinary behavior specislists.

I think the Exotic Animal Formulary would be exactly what you need. It's not too expensive and it focuses just on drugs.


Yeah, rabbits are really, really tough and very different from dogs and cats. Have you tried just asking something like "how many rabbits do you see?" or "How much experience do you have with rabbits?"
I would hope that most vets would be completely honest. Do you also have any practices that just specialize in exotic animals nearby? A practice that sees even 50% exotics will have more experienced vets than your typical dog/cat place.

I don't know what treatment you would use for the URI, but when/if you need to deal with the coccidiosis what you want is a drug called ponazuril. If his immune system is compromised it may cause the parasites to flare up, and the sulfa drug antibiotics that are commonly used do very little to kill parasites. Get a postage scale and weigh him daily until he recovers. Panacur(fenbendazole) does NOTHING for coccidia in reptiles. (It should kill the rods though.) I lost two baby beardies to ignorant vets and the wrong medication before I did my own research - The Ponazuril brought appetite back in three days. Down side is it needs a prescription, so you have to talk a vet into writing it. I found the dosage in http://www.amazon.com/Exotic-Animal-Formulary-3rd-Edition/dp/0721601804 which I unfortunately no longer have a copy of.

Also, another trick I learned is using the pointy q tips you get in the beauty supply section to open their mouth. You poke the tips in at the very front of their beak/nose where there aren't any teeth, and pry open gently. He'll open his mouth, and you just let him gnaw on the qtip while you squirt medicine onto his tongue. He'll spit the qtip out on his own.

I've sadly had many experiences with vets that don't know how to treat reptiles before. The worst are vets that think they know what they're doing but are really just guessing to save face. Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands and learn how to take care of your babies yourself. I hope your little guy feels better.

I just purchased both of these to supplement my normal A&P textbook. Maybe they could help you too! :)

Large Animal

Small Animal

How the Cows Turned Mad and The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat both helped me develop my love of science and mysteries and the craziness that is our world.