Customer Reviews

Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry

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Kevin Wright and Brent Whitaker's Amphibian Medicine And Captive Husbandry is a comprehensive, in-depth, scholarly reference manual designed to introduce and assist veterinary practitioners in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in captive amphibians. However, it also serves as an invaluable, core addition to the library of any herpetologist, breeder or pet owner of an amphibian, for it extensively covers numerous details of the care, feeding, and reproduction of captive amphibians, as well as disease diagnosis, basic clinical techniques for treatment. The many diseases discussed include sicknesses that are infectious, metabolic, nutritional, neoplastic, and idiopathic. 243 color pictures, 317 black and white pictures, and 54 tables greatly enhance the meticulous and highly precise text of this exhaustively complete reference. An invaluable title for veterinarians and/or owners of amphibians.

Hello, I am Dr. Kevin Wright, co-editor of Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry. Given the global decline of amphibian populations noted at the end of the 20th century, Dr. Whitaker and I designed Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry to introduce the diagnosis and treatment of disease in amphibians to a wide range of audiences. Although our primary intent was to provide a practical but thorough text for the veterinary clinician, we believe this book will be an essential part of any biologist's library; the topics covered range from amphibian captive husbandry and propagation to the diagnosis of disease in amphibians by the application of basic clinicopathologic techniques. Topics are arranged by etiology. The pathology section is highly detailed and provides the only overview of amphibian pathology published.

Recognizing that the understanding of veterinary medicine is facilitated by illustrations, Amphibian Medicine and Captive Husbandry includes 243 color pictures, 317 black and white figures, and 54 tables.

We highly recommend this book to any individual, institution or organization that works with captive or wild amphibians: veterinary clinicians, comparative pathologists, veterinary students, herpetologists, herpetoculturists, zoos, aquariums, biomedical research facilities, and libraries.

ABOUT THE EDITORS:

Kevin M. Wright, DVM, is currently President of Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital in Mesa, Arizona. (For more hospital information, please see www.azeah.com) He was awarded Exotic DVM of the year in 2008. He is the former Director of Conservation, Science, and Sanctuary at the Phoenix Zoo. A resident in zoological medicine at the Philadelphia Zoo from 1990-1992, he subsequently served as Curator and Veterinarian of Amphibians and Reptiles from 1993-1999 and is an adjunct professor of Clinical Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. He is a past president of the Association of Reptilian and Amphibian Veterinarians and a past session chair for the reptile and amphibian lectures at the North American Veterinary Conference. He has published over 120 articles on amphibians and reptiles and has lectured extensively on herpetological medicine at major national and international veterinary conferences.

Brent R. Whitaker, MS, DVM, is Director of Animal Health at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Dr. Whitaker has intensively studied diseases of neotropical amphibians throughout his professional life. He is much sought after as a speaker on amphibian medicine and aquatic medicine in general. He has published extensively on fish, reptile and marine mammal topics in addition to his publications devoted to amphibians.

Drs. Wright and Whitaker are 1988 graduates of the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine.

A must book for any enthusiasts or veterinarian. It is the first serious book on amphibians medicine. It also covers some interesting chapters on captive care and rearing.

I have several exotic amphibians I took in as rescues, but my vet specializes in household mammals and reptiles. This reference book has been helpful to us, working as a team, on recognizing the things that go wrong. It is often more helpful to research illnesses (once diagnosed) on the internet to see if there are more recent discoveries in treatment, however - amphibian medicine really being in its infancy as a science.

This book gives a solid, evidence based, grounding in amphibian medicine, supplemented with the experience of some exceptional exotic and zoo animal practitioners. I recommend this book highly to anyone considering working with these amazing animals.

This text is an excellent resource for zoo animal vets or small animal vets that are presented with amphibians. The book is very factual in nature, but the authors also offer their own clinical experience. Because their is a dearth of veterinary information on the treatment of amphibians, this is a welcome addition to the veterinary literature

I bought this book when I had a sick newt on my hands and wanted to get some deeper insights as to what may be wrong. Even the vets I took my pet to were mostly unable to help much, so I tried to take matters into my own hands, at least this way when I went to the vet, I'd be able to bring some ideas and understandings to the table. Let me add that I am a science teacher, so I am no dummy with respect to scientific understanding, but my background is NOT in biology, which is what's essential in the understanding of this book. Also, the book is not meant for "lay people", such as myself, but rather veterinary or medical students. Now I see why. The book was very expensive, which I didn't mind if it had helped, and very difficult to underdstand. The book had very little information with respect to newts in general and rather focused on other amphibians such as frogs. There were very few pictures or chapters/paragraphs even devoted to newts. I wish there had been a copy of the book in a library for me to check out beforehand, as I would not have purchased the book if I did. I'm sure for a vet student the book is probably wonderful, but for someone with no biology background trying to search for some specific answers, it fell way short.