The Complete Cat Health Manual

Two practicing veterinarians wrote "The Complete Cat Health Manual," and typically it is the guide I turn to after one of our cats has been diagnosed by our vet. Once I know the name of a disease or condition, this book will give me a good summary of the `how and why,' and an indication as to treatment. Each condition, e.g. `Trauma to the Cornea', is described by subsections labeled: "What are the Symptoms?;" "What are the Risks?;" and "What is the Treatment?"The manual itself is organized into chapters, each of which describes a different part of the feline anatomy and what can go wrong with it. Parasites and infectious feline diseases get their own separate chapters.The book's black and white drawings are excellent. I had no idea a cat's kneecaps were located on its hind legs, until I looked at the drawing in Chapter 8, "Bones, Joints, Muscles, Ligaments and Tendons (The Musculoskeletal System)." The drawings of parasitic life cycles are also very clear and interesting.There are also several short appendices on subjects such as "Normal Physiological Data for the Feline." Maybe I look up words differently than everyone else who speaks English, but it leads me to mention omissions in both the Glossary and the Index. For instance, one of my cats developed a limp and I tried to look up `tendon' and `limping' which were in neither section. I later discovered `tendon' in the index under `Musculoskeletal system'---not the first word that came to mind when I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my cat.Which leads me to `limping.' I recommend that another brief chapter (even a table) be included in this manual's next edition: a summary of symptoms and what illness or cause could be indicated by the symptom. "The Cornell Book of Cats" has a good chapter on "Clinical Signs of Disease" that includes just such a table (okay, so it didn't have `limping' either, but it did contain `lameness'. And its index included `tendons' and `lameness.')Use "The Cornell Book of Cats" for possible diagnoses before you take your cat to the vet. Read "The Complete Cat Health Manual" for a clear description of your cat's problem, after you come home from the clinic.Note also that the Cornell book is more detailed as to treatment in the case of relatively rare diseases. For instance, this manual specifies that there is no treatment for idiopathic hepatic lipidosis (IHL), but the Cornell book states that up to sixty percent of cats suffering from IHL can be saved with the application of nutritional fluids through a stomach tube.