Customer Reviews

Clinical Veterinary Advisor: Dogs and Cats, 1e

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a must have for any small animal veterinarian or student. It blows the "5 Minute Consult" out of the water. There is always someone using it our practice, we have just decided to leave it out on our treatment table. It's a very concise but thorough reference for everyday use. It's well organized and easy to read. 95% of the time the information we need is in there. If not, we refer to specific books on Optho, derm etc but you could practice veterinary medicine with just this book! I highly recommend it!

Preface: I loved the first edition and use the website on a daily basis in practice. My only complaint with the website is that the clinical algorithms were scanned in (!) at such low resolution that they're unusable - you have to reference the book itself for many of the larger/more complex algorithms. Unfortunately, Elsevier has a history of royally screwing up their electronic products, but for some reason, I still had hope for this new edition of Cote' - after all, they just need to update the previous edition's website, right? Well, I ran into a bad prognostic indicator early on: Elsevier didn't even set up their own name servers to recognize the very URL that they printed in the book!

To add insult to injury, the website won't be available until March 11th (!!) as told to me by an Elsevier rep. That's not the worst of it - many important chapters are only available online! You want to read the chapter on "discolored urine" or "protein losing nephropathies"? Well, too bad - they're only online. Yet the chapter on "Protothecosis" is in the book?? You would think the least common ailments would be the ones relegated to "website-only" status, but that's not the case. I see discolored urine on a daily basis, and PLNs every few months, but have never diagnosed a Prototheca infection. I don't think I'm alone on that one.

The algorithms suffer the same fate: if you want to see the algorithm for confirming the diagnosis of and treating FIV, or the initial approach to the bleeding patient, or to a smoke inhalation case - well, too bad - all those algorithms are online only. And to reiterate, the website won't be available until March 11th at the earliest! And Elsevier has a history of pushing back release dates multiple times for the same product.

Elsevier keeps buying up more and more scientific & medical publishing companies, with the result being this behemoth that they can't seem to manage properly. The scientific & medical communities have to start pushing back for any hope of Elsevier getting the message. My suggestion: don't buy the new edition until the website has been released! I'll update my review as soon as that happens...
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January 12th update: they finally fixed the DNS issues and put up a "coming soon" webpage. Way to go, Elsevier. :)
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February 19th update: So Elsevier closed the website for the 1st edition before the website for the 2nd edition is even available. Way to go, Elsevier - that's bloody genius.
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February 26th update: You can now register with/log in to the new website, but don't be fooled - most of the content isn't there. March 11th is still the go-date, as far as I know.
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March 12th update: Well, the 11th has come and gone, and guess what - most of the website is still non-functional (try to contain your amazement). God knows when the website will actually be completely functional - all they have is "Coming Soon!!!" on various pages. I asked them why they closed the website for the 1st edition when the website for the second edition is not yet available, and here is their response:

"Online access to a book lasts for the life of that edition until the new one is published. There is generally a 3-4 year period between editions. Once a new edition is released, the previous edition remains online for up to 6 months and it is taken down."

In other words, we're going to brainlessly apply a rule because it's easier than actually thinking about what we're doing. Elsevier, you're my hero.
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March 17th update: from Elsevier: "The editors have stated that they hope to have the website completely functioning by the first week of April." Speaks for itself.
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First week of April update: website still isn't close to completely functional. Inquiries to Elsevier have gone unanswered.
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April 18th: Elsevier rep stated that they have no idea when the website will be complete, gave me the ol' "don't call us we'll call you" bit. Um, that would be fine if you hadn't sold us an incomplete text to go with a vaporware website. Lowered review rating accordingly. Still have no idea why they just don't reopen the 1st edition website, make it free for all until 2nd edition website is done. No brainer.
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April 25th: Website is up! Sort of. About 12% of the chapters still aren't online (note says they'll be available by May 20th), and I'm not sure if they're online-only - I'll have to cross-reference with the text. The search function doesn't work, and the web design (in typical Elsevier fashion) is awful - the index (which is rather lengthy for a book with over 800 chapters) only gets about a third of the screen height, and doesn't scale with changes in window height. Nor does the main text window. Web programming 101, but not for a $9.5 billion dollar company. For the moment, my two star rating stays.
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May 22nd: Search works, but the rest of the chapters are not up yet. There's still a placeholder that states "Up by May 20th". Uh, no. I also took a look at the web programming just for grins (I'm a former electrical engineer), and I see the reason for the lack of scaling mentioned in the previous update: window sizes are *hardcoded*. So it doesn't matter what size monitor (or laptop screen) you have, whether it's in portrait or landscape, whether it's 4:3 or 16:9 - the height of the window that actually contains the book text (and table of contents) will always be the same. I hope you didn't pay too much for that level of service, Elsevier (they outsourced to the India branch of Unica apparently), but something tells me you did.
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June 21st: Would you believe that the chapters labeled "due by May 20th" still aren't complete? Try to contain your incredulity. Just sent off another email to Elsevier - I'm sure they're thrilled to hear from me again. By the way, happy summer solstice to those in the northern hemisphere (see - I'm not a total curmudgeon :P)

I am very impressed with this book - it was recommended to me by colleagues. I find the differential diagnoses lists especially helpful, and the online reference tool is excellent too.
Highly recommended!

As a relief vet, I can't always count on a practice having all the references I need, and I can't carry an entire library with me. Clinical Vet Advisor packs lots of info into a single volume. I use this book every day. My only complaint is that the support website (a major selling point for the book)has not been working well. Content is very slow to load. Also, the text promises that client information handouts are available in Spanish as well as English, but for several weeks the Spanish handouts have been offline. The webmaster says they are working on the problem, but a webpage content problem that continues for several weeks generally means nothing is being done.

Edit: As of 2/08 the website problems have been resolved and the Spanish language handouts can be printed. This is a big deal when practicing in Southern California.

I had the first edition of this invaluable book, and used the website extensively. They shut down the website for the first edition, I suppose when the new edition was available. Thinking that the solution was to buy the 2nd edition, I did so. However, the website is not fully functional at all. I contacted Elsevier to express my dissatisfaction, and was told that this was due to a mix up and the website should be fully up by the first week in April. No such luck. The one star review is due to this--if you are going to have an online search-able format for your book, and you are going to disable previous editions, you had better make sure the new edition is fully functional FIRST. This is a HUGE inconvenience. Otherwise, this book would get a 5 star review, as it is a fantastic resource and there is very little that I was dissatisfied with in the first edition.

UPDATE: I was so upset about this monumental FAIL that I complained to the Better Business Bureau. Elsevier's response was that they agreed with my complaint, although could do nothing about the fact that the website was not up and running on time. They did offer a partial refund, which I did find fair.

UPDATE 7/3/11--The website is STILL not fully up and running. For many chapters, here is what you will see: 92 of the 800 chapters in Diseases and Disorders are in final construction and are due to be posted by May 20, 2011. Please note, I am posting this on 7/3 and they are stating the chapters will be available 5/20!!

This is an outstanding reference for a general veterinary practice. The client handouts, available in english and spanish, are clearly written and very valuable tools in client education. The book is well organized and the CD so easy to search. I think both new grads and "seasoned" practitioners will find this helpful in everyday practice. It is absolutely worth the already reasonable price.

The book is a great resource. I am just very disappointed that the website is not up yet. I'm a veterinary student and was looking forward to having a resource like this that I could easily pull up online, since lugging the book around with me is not really feasible (it's heavy!). Many of the chapters are online only as well. Otherwise, I would have given this 4 stars, at least.

Update: I have been more and more frustrated with the things that they chose to be online only content, especially since the online section hasn't even gone up yet! Very important things didn't make it in to the book. For example, in the differentials section PU/PD and Icterus are online only!

Update: 4/9/11 - They still have not put most of the material up online, though they had said it would happen by mid-March. Lowered 1 star.

I bought this book to help write SOAPs during fourth year of vet school but will treasure it for a long time. When I brought it with me to my outside clinical experience and used it with real cases it not only provided fast and easily accessed insight, it had great and easy to use instructions right in the text. The veterinarians at the clinic bought a copy for themselves before I left. It doesn't go into detail like a medicine book, but it provides a concise source of information that helps you know where to look and helps to remind you what else you should be considering.

For instance, under treatment for ventricular tachycardia it doesn't just say to start a lidocaine CRI, it actually says how much lidocaine to add to what size bag of fluids to make the desired concentration and how fast to give it to achieve the administration rate recommended. This is very helpful at 3am.

The only thing I would change is the differential lists. While some of these lists are provided in the book, most are only available online, which is very inconvenient when you don't always have ready access to a computer that is online.

As a new small animal vet, this is my number one "go to" book for just about everything. Diagnostics, differentials, techniques, treatments, clin path, formulary, etc. I really wish I had found this book while in vet school as it would have been a great help. This book, for me, has more useful information than the 5min Vet Consult and contains a much wider variety of information. You don't even have to have a diagnosis as you can look things up by symptom (i.e. coughing, ocular discharge, abdominal pain). I do find it a bit frustrating that some of the content is only available online, but I guess making the book thicker with the additional content wouldn't really be practical.

This is the best reference book for general practice. It has nearly everything you will need at hand quickly....similar to the 5 Minute Consult, it also includes a section on how to perform certain hospital procedures (with photos), a section with algorithms and another section that describes many laboratory tests and how to perform them correctly. If there is one book you should have in clinical practice, this is it.