Bovine Surgery and lameness, 2nd ed.

I bought a copy of the 1st edition of this text when I was an undergraduate veterinary student. The purchase was based primarily upon the book’s preface that states “This book aims to give the nuts and bolts of practical bovine surgery and lameness.” I wanted a book to supplement what I felt was a deficiency in my undergraduate curriculum to prepare me for what I hoped would be a career in food animal practice. We had received almost no practical tuition in food animal surgery and only a couple of lectures on lameness. In contrast, my student placements during my vacation time had shown me that food animal practitioners (particularly dairy practitioners) spent a lot of time dealing with lameness and that surgery in one form or another was performed on almost a daily basis. This book seemed ideal. Unfortunately, I was disappointed; my biggest complaint was that the book wasn’t what it claimed to be. It was a good general surgery text but if you wanted to look something up quickly to immediately prepare for a surgery it was not that helpful. In particular, it was lacking in illustrations, which made visualizing the surgical techniques and landmarks difficult. Consequently, the book was placed on my bookshelf and has remained there ever since. I was very interested to see the new edition of this book. There are 2 new authors and the cover indicates that there are new illustrations to “aid instruction”. The book has kept the same basic format as its predecessor. In particular it is written in a clear note form which emphasizes key points and makes the text very accessible. The text is extensively cross- referenced by section and page number, which prevents repetition and is easy to use. A quick flick through the book demonstrates that there are a great many more illustrations than the 1st edition, but they are all line drawings and schematics. There are no photographs, which is disappointing given the current ease of digital image manipulation. I appreciate that the authors are probably trying to ensure that the book is affordable, but a small number of photographs would have been very beneficial especially in the lameness sections (see below). The 1st chapter starts with some basic surgical principles. The section on local anaesthetic blocks is particularly good and well illustrated, although there is limited information on methods of restraint to accompany the anesthesia techniques. The authors mention a number of drugs which would be used in an extra-label manner in Canada, unfortunately no mention is made of using the Canadian office of Global FARAD to estimate appropriate withdrawal interval following such use. The next section covers the head and neck. There has been some considerable improvement in this section especially the number of illustrations which allow the text to be understood on its 1st reading. The section on dehorning techniques is very good, some illustrations would have assisted in the section on enucleation. The section on abdominal surgery is also much improved with more illustrations and much better specific information on the details of the specific surgeries. The sections on abomasal surgery and umbilical surgery are especially good. After reading these 1st sections it immediately struck me that the book is now much more practical for daily use and more closely meets the original intention of the 1st edition. The next sections focus on female urogenital surgery, teat surgery, and male urogenital surgery. In each chapter the same theme continues of more illustrations and a very practical text. Routine surgeries are particularly well described. My main disappointment with the book was the lameness section. I appreciate that as I deal with cattle lameness on a daily basis, I bring my own biases, but I expected more from a book with “lameness” in the title. The section has been expanded from the previous edition but it really suffers from a lack of illustrations. I believe that diagnosis of lameness depends primarily on pattern recognition. If you know what the condition looks like you can make the diagnosis. The descriptions in the text are very good, but a color photograph of the lesions would be incredibly helpful. There is also no information on how to approach a lame cow in order to determine the diagnosis, and the section on foot trimming is very short and really does not offer enough information to deal with most cattle lameness. In contrast, the surgeries of the foot are well described. In conclusion, the 2nd edition of this book has made some major improvements on the 1st edition. In particular, the book is now much more accessible. I also found that in coming back to the book after so many years that the book was actually more useful than I remembered it to be. It is a good general cattle surgery text for anyone with an interest in cattle practice. I believe that this book would be a good choice for a student or a recent graduate who wishes to either review cattle surgery as a whole, or needs a reference text for those unusual or “first time cases.”

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