This book’s stated objective is to provide a reference to anesthesia techniques for dogs, cats, and exotics, and to do so in a way that is straightforward for the veterinary professional. The authors intend to give criteria for creating balanced anesthesia and analgesia, based on their personal preferences and experiences, using research where applicable.
The book is divided into 8 chapters. The first dozen pages describe the anesthetic process by splitting it into 5 steps, starting with the pre-anesthetic assessment and ending with the recovery and post-operative phase. The next chapter provides a brief overview of anesthetic equipment and monitoring. The third chapter offers the reader a comprehensive 60-page table of anesthetic drugs and fluids. The book’s middle chapters make recommendations on anesthetic protocols for routine and critical procedures, and for patients with specific diseases. The following chapter on anesthetic complications is formatted according to consequences, causes, and treatment. A later chapter delves into protocols for exotics. The concluding chapter gives the reader step-by-step illustrated techniques of local analgesia. The 9 short appendices cover topics ranging from acute pain scales to epidural calculations.
The book is written clearly and is easy to understand, so it is appropriate for novice and experienced veterinarians and technicians. Color photographs, diagrams, and technique tables with numbered steps make the book user-friendly, and give the reader confidence to successfully carry out procedures. One strength of the book is its third chapter, a detailed outline of the most commonly used drugs and fluids organized in an alphabetized table. The table lists drug qualities such as dosage, duration, characteristics, and complications. Unfortunately, this strong point is weakened by the table missing 30-odd page numbers, which lessens its ease of use. The authors cite interesting new research early in the book, such as using alfaxalone. Disappointingly, later on they fail to incorporate alfaxalone into protocols, without stating a specific reason for the omission.
The book is not a detailed overview of all things anesthesia; rather, it is a guide of specific techniques. If the reader is looking for complete information on topics such as anesthetic equipment, they will need to refer elsewhere. Overall, the authors meet their objective of providing an accessible guide to small animal anesthesia techniques. I would recommend this inexpensive book to veterinarians and technicians alike.