Customer Reviews

Animal ER: Extraordinary Stories of Hope and Healing from one of the world's leading veterinary hospitals

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

AS A VET. TECH IN AN ANIMAL ICU( WORKING WITH ONE OF THE DR.S IN THIS BOOK) I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT THE SCENARIOS REPRESENTED HERE ARE REAL AND ACCURATE. I COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN UNTIL I WAS FINISHED. IT WAS REFRESHING TO SEE MY CAREER CHOICE DESCRIBED AS MORE THAN A "GLORIFIED DOG SITTER" MY FELLOW TECHS AND MYSELF ENJOYED THIS BOOK GREATLY

This is a funny, touching, poignant, hilarious, wonderful trove of stories from a veterinary emergency room. Vicki Croke has a fantastically warm and inviting tone, and she tells stories that will make any animal lover laugh and cry.

When my sister lost her beloved Great Dane, I mourned for her too. I'm a cat person, and this big black incredibly sweet baby was the first dog I ever loved. When I visited my sister last year and she showed me this book, explaining that the author had been there in the Tufts Vet ER with her when Azaria was brought in, I was amazed. I continued to be amazed as I saw my sister's very special love for my doggy-niece through the eyes of a total stranger. It would have been very easy to dismiss how painful losing a pet can be, very easy to miss the ties of love between a pet and her owner. My sister loved her dog, quirks and fears and vet bills and all. I loved her too. Thanks, Vicki. Your gentle presentation of their story is the finest tribute Zari could have had.

If you like watching Animal Planet, and especially if you like watching Emergency Vet or Wildlife Rescue, you will like this book. But be warned, it is very emotive. When an owl flies free after being critically injured, you want to jump up and dance. When a dog everyone thought would die goes happily home with his mistress, you will want to sing. When a bull very deftly proves he has not had enough anaesthetic, you will laugh. But when a beloved animal is too ill or in too much pain to be helped, and the staff have to gently put it down, you will cry and cry and cry.

I couldn't put it down, but I sniffled through the whole thing.

From an anorexic snake to a myopic kangaroo to a bloated akita, from the tricky diagnoses to the hopeless cases, this captivating paperback tells of the perilous situations that have occurred at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. Is it really right to spend all this time and effort on animals when some people lack food, shelter, and proper medical care? The veterinarians who unveil their heart-warming and emotional stories in this 194-page book, Animal ER, by Vicki Croke (copyright-1999) show us that the world is meant to be shared by animals and humans.
Each chapter of this brilliant book displays and describes a different animal/pet and its unique problem. Biology plays a major part in this book because it's about the science of studying and curing living things. It exposes the drama of life in the emergency ward of a veterinary hospital, which is a biology-related occupation. The first chapter summarizes the atmosphere of the Intensive Care Unit at Tufts; it's sad and yet successful too. The next eleven chapters of Animal ER present various animals and their life-threatening problems. Some require complex surgical procedures, while others are solved by unexpected and simple means. The last chapter returns to the Intensive Care Unit and reveals what the animals teach the veterinarians. The main idea expressed at the closing of the book touched my soul as tears rose to the surface like a newly found spring. Vicki Croke wrote that the animals who are cared for seem to teach simple lessons about life. "Animals continue to surprise me with their patience, their level of tolerance, and their strength," Nishi says, "but most of all, with their ability to forgive" (194).
I would strongly recommend this brilliant book to my friends or those people who are thinking of going into the veterinary field of study. Since I've never had a pet, I cannot relate to the owners of these sick animals; however, I can see this book as a slice of a veterinarian's life. It captures the essence of the Intensive Care Unit during first examinations, x-rays, surgery, and post-operative care. It is clear to see, as they treat animals, that Nishi Dhupa, Dr. Mark Pokras, Dr. John Berg, and other staff members at Tufts have the "healing touch". So even though some people don't have their primary needs met like food, shelter, and clothing, animals have a right to our care and concern.

Brilliant and beautiful, Animal ER is a pet owner's dream. Vicki Croke is a splendid writer who in these stories shows herself to be as sensitive as she is bright. She's not a man, and she's not a veterinarian, but she's becoming another James Herriot. The stories she tells in Animal ER leave her readers wanting many, many more.

Between the real stories and her easy command of the science and the conflicts of the veterinary world, author Vicki Croke once again gives us a book that is exciting, readable, and moving. On a smaller scope than her excellent "The Modern Ark," but still provocative and moving, I would recommend this highly to animal lovers anywhere.

I'm very happily working in a pet profession, I just adore the vet & pet shows on animal planet (from popped out eyeballs, to beloved sick iguanas) , and I am a big sap for animal stories and moving stories of any kind. I guess I expected this to be more stories (happy and sad, but moving), maybe even like chicken-soup style but longer? I was very disappointed. The stories were often short (sometimes 1/2 a sentence) and few between. Lots of vet perspectives on life, and personal vet perspectives on the profession, and worldly views of everything. I was really bored. I kept reading hoping for the next story to come, but I ended up reading skipping more than 1/2 the book because after a while I just couldn't read the quotes from the vets & techs anymore, and the lists of things they teach the other techs, and their years of schooling and personal experiences (educational & interests - not animal stories) was redundant and boring for me. The medical descriptions were not detailed enough to be educational orinteresting, and were too detailed that they distracted from the emotionality of just telling a story. I still have 20 pages to go before I finish, and I can't even remember the last story I was actually moved by (it was somewhere in the first 30 pages. The book is organized by "topic", but it doesn't seem to really have any flow (it went from dogs & cats to much less interesting stories of wildlife & exotics - which are usually very interesting, but they left out all the emotions other than "we eventually had to put it asleep, that was really hard". A few times they didn't even list the end of the story, or what decision the owner made for treatment - I really hate that (what happened to the kangaroos eyen cancer???)!

I'd really like to give this book 2 or 3 stars at least, because they really tried. They talked to may vets, and plopped in tons of quotes and lists of things they "learned" (quoted) from them. But I just feel so disappointed (more every time I try to finish it) that I can't. I've been a lot more moved by the cat behavior books I purchased at the same time - more stories, more details on personal emotions, trial and error, and results, and much more follow up to the stories.

I have to say I did like it when they listed the estimated prices for things. Although they did this infrequently, just for expensive procedures that may be ineffective. Sorry - I might recommend this book for the current used rate of under $2 if the shipping wasn't $4.99, but I can't justify $12.00 + shipping.

This book is great! The author strikes just the right balance between sad and happy outcomes. She gives you a great peek into the amazing stories that happen every day in a busy animal emergency room. I laughed and cried and couldn't put the book down. I read this book aloud to my eleven year old son who also loved it.

This is a delightful book for anyone interested in a behind the scenes look at what happens in emergency veterinary medicine. Heartwarming, too!