Book for future veterinary student

Autumn_Fairy

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My brother is applying to study veterinary medicine. It's his birthday soon and I want to get him a text book but I'm not sure which one.

The main two I'm looking at are Black's Veterinary Dictionary and Introduction to Veterinary Anatomy & Physiology.

Any thoughts on which (if any) would be most useful. I've seen some other great looking veterinary medicine books on Amazon but some of them are very expensive. I don't want to spend more than £35-£40.

Thanks
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happy_talk

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I have saunders vet dictionary and it's very good. used it several times. I think unless someone can recommend you a book on the uni reading list which is also a book that you would constantly return to (anatomy is a good start- anatomy doesn't change/get updated over the years) then a dictionary is a brilliant idea!
 

MurphysMinder

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Just asked my daughter who is going into 3rd year vet science at Liverpool. She suggests a dictionary is probably best as unis cover different things in first year, so have diff book lists. The best anatomy book is Dyce, Sack and Wensing but think that is quite expensive. He will be able to pick up books second hand when he gets to university.She also suggested Wheaters Functional Histology - its probably not as interesting as a dictionary or anatomy book, but its the one she has used the most as its useful when using microscopes. Hope this helps, tell him good luck with his application!
 

Dressagebabe

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My brother is applying to study veterinary medicine!

Hoorray!! a Male Veterinary student - he will get snapped up when the time comes to apply for a job once qualified!! Well done him for making the grades. Sorry, don't want to sound too excited but its a breath of fresh air when we get Male Vets applying for jobs.
 

Autumn_Fairy

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Really? That's good to know. I would have thought the majority of students would be male - I don't know why I thought that. I guess just because most of the vets at my surgery are male.
 

Dressagebabe

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90% of students are female because they make the grades at school but the lads don't seem to. The Uni's are now going to start looking at practical skills like woodwork etc as its the articulate ones with their hands that make one of the best surgeons. We really struggle to find Male Vets when we advertise, Last month we were advertising and had 52 applications - All girls! Its a very hard profession and alot of the girls don't cope with a simple task of lifting a Labrador onto the operating table or calving a cow at 2 am in the morning. We have one female Vet that is super but some of the others really don't cope and either give up after 6-8yrs or before. We have 1 off with stress and another ill with a back problem so its a breath of fresh air for a male Vet to come along. Sounds sexist but its true. Tell your brother - Good luck!
 

GreedyGuts

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Hmm, quite a sexist and dismissive opinion dressage babe.

In my experience the staff at vet practices prefer the male vets for entirely different reasons!
 

star

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we have 7 female vets and 2 male vets at our practice. we work just as hard as the blokes and i am quite capable of lifting labradors (and a lot more) onto tables. farm animal work is certainly physical, but small animal work really isn't too hard for women to cope with!

anyway, back to original topic. he will be in his element at vet school - there were 20 blokes in my year (2 of them gay) and 160 girls so plenty for the lads to choose from!

I would also echo Saunders vet dictionary as a good book to start with
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Still got mine - prove very handy.
 

ann-jen

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Hmmm - I've been a vet for 15 years now and certainly manage to lift dogs on and off tables
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and have done my fair share of early morning calvings too. I've never found my uterus to be an impediment to either of these challenges before.
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To the OP - it might be crazy money now - but there is a beautiful anatomy book by Popesko that has hand drawn diagrams of all the species at various points of dissection - ie the skeleton, blood vessels, muscles etc and cross sections at different points through the body. It was over your price range when I was a student but you might be able to get a copy second hand or off ebay. I still have my copy - its very helpful when it comes to learning all the different names of muscles, nerves, blood vessels etc and which muscle inserts and attaches where. But its also a work of art and a beautiful and individual book. I would also second Dyce as a good book. IFAW's animal husbandry book would also be useful for his first year.
 

GreedyGuts

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Another suggestion that is not too ridiculously expensive and would be good if he is interested in horses is Derek Knottenbelt's Colour Atlas of Diseases and Disorders of the HOrse - lots of fascinating pictures.

On the basis of Dressage Babe's advice then perhaps you should be wary of Saunder's Vet Dictionary as since it is co-authored by Virginia Stoddert, a female vet, then it is quite possible that a large proportion of the content cannot actually be trusted!
 
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