Small Animal Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods

A quick guide to appropriately selecting and interpreting laboratory tests, Small Animal Clinical Diagnosis by Laboratory Methods, 5th Edition helps you utilize your in-house lab or your specialty reference lab to efficiently make accurate diagnoses without running a plethora of unnecessary and low-yield tests. It provides answers to commonly asked questions relating to laboratory tests, and solutions to frequently encountered problems in small animal diagnosis. For easy reference, information is provided by clinical presentation and abnormalities, and includes hundreds of tables, boxes, key points, and algorithms. This edition, now in full color, is updated with the latest advances in laboratory testing methods and diagnostic problem solving. Written by noted educators Dr. Michael Willard and Dr. Harold Tvedten, this book may be used as an on-the-spot guide to specific problems or conditions as well as a reference for more detailed research on difficult cases.

• Concise discussions address laboratory approaches to various disorders, possible conclusions from various test results, artifacts and errors in diagnoses, and interpretations leading to various diagnoses.
• Hundreds of tables, boxes, algorithms, and key points offer at-a-glance information including cautions, common pitfalls, and helpful "pearls," and lead to proper differential and clinical diagnostic decision making.
• Note boxes identify key considerations in correlating clinical signs with test data for accurate diagnoses, highlight safety precautions, and offer helpful tips for sample preparation and interpretation.
• Chapters on laboratory diagnostic toxicology and therapeutic drug monitoring help in handling potentially fatal poisonings and other special situations.
• Expert editors and contributors provide clinical knowledge and successful diagnostic problem-solving solutions.
• A practical appendix lists referral laboratories that may be contacted for certain diseases, and reference values with the normal or expected range for coagulation, hematology, and more.

• Updated coverage integrates the newest advances in testing methods and diagnostic problem solving.
• Full-color photos and schematic drawings are placed adjacent to related text, and accurately depict diagnostic features on microscopic slide preparations as well as test procedures and techniques.

"This textbook strikes a good balance between informative text and illustrative diagrams, graphs and photographs, and is relatively easy to read...This layout is one of its main appeals; readers can skip to the section that most interests the and quickly refresh their memory on differentials for the particular clinical sign or elevated blood parameter that is troubling them, the nread through the potential further tests to pursue a diagnosis...Overall, this book has clear potential to be used as handy reference material by the small animal clinician looking for a quick and simple approach to investigating a particular worrying clinical sign or parameter. Veterinary Students considering a career in small animal practice, or who find themselves confused by lenghty explanations in other clinical pathology textbooks, may also find it illuminating and more enjoyable to use."

Vet Record, May 2012

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"The text was obviously crafted with one consistent thought: 'what will the general practice vet be asking here?' The book has wonderful algorithms and 'causes of...' tables that succinctly guide the practitionerthrough problem-based scenarios; they helpfully indicate when something is rare or common in a general practice population...Overall, Willard and Tvedten is a superb quick-to-read book and my new recommendation."

EJCAP, Aug 2012

"The fifth edition is similar in structure to the previous editions but has been updated effectively and despite the stated concerns of the authors that currency is impossible in a profession that is continually advancing, they have come as close as possible to meeting this challenge. The text is logically structured, with chapters based on body systems. Each chapter contains comprehensive lists of appropriate laboratory tests for various clinical presentations...One of the benefits in reading a text such as this is the attention paid to the provision of the context in which the tests are used. The authors have excelled in this and in doing so have provided a readily accessible reference not only for the laboratory tests detailed, but also provided a systematic review of medical conditions and disease in general."

Australian Veterinary Journal, September 2012