SM an Intern Medicine

This book is very nice...very very informative and with lots of information for small animal medicine.

I used this book while studying for the NAVLE and I felt it was a good concise review. I am keeping it for review of topics while I am on internship. It is very good at reviewing the important stuff and not going into alot of fluff. The content is divided by system and that is nice. Then for each system, the first part is background info (like general anatomy and physiology you need to know about that system) and then the second part is the specific diseases of that system.

The appearance of this book is rather uninspiring and with its emphasis on National Boards and Clinical Competency Tests it may seem irrelevant for students in the UK. However there are a few clues on the cover which hint at something very useful contained within; e.g. quick, accessible, reference. There are two main parts to the book. The first provides a source of approaches to over 38 different presenting signs in order to assist in diagnosis. Each of these chapters is clearly set out with definitions, causes, clinical findings, diagnostic approaches to help you eliminate and select from lists of differential diagnoses. It is a great provider of easily understood tables of differential lists and possible tests to distinguish between the diseases. The second part works through the main conditions of each organ system and the diagnosis and treatments for each disease. This is done in somewhat more detail than the first part but there are still sufficient diagrams and tables to make the essential information readily available. Throughout the book there are sections of questions to help you revise the previous topics. Although you may not believe that such a large topic can be anything but superficially covered in a book of this size, there is an amazing amount of information here. It's a bit like Mary Poppins' magic carpetbag, it is hard to believe how much is contained within these pages. The authors have been concise not brief. No space is wasted with in depth discussions of pathophysiology or various treatment regimes but relevant preclinical information is covered. OK so you couldn't use it for writing an essay or as a sole provider of information for internal medicine but to help prompt your memory during revision and as a speedy reference this book is far superior to any of the completely comprehensive texts. Don't forget you should never judge a book by its cover.

I am familiar with most comprehensive books on Small Animal Internal Medicine but I did not know the National Veterinary Medical Series (intended as a preparation for the National Board Examination). This book is an excellent compendium of all you should know on the subject but does not spoon-feed you what yo should know before hand (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, semiology, etc.). If you are willing to brush-up these areas on your own, this book is excellent: it gives you all he information you need to diagnose and treat most internal diseases of dogs and cats in the shortest space. Read slowly, thought, it is packed with information and every line counts! At $ 35, is a GREAT deal!