Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon [Paperback]

Nick Trout (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 2009

It’s 2:47 a.m. when Dr. Nick Trout takes the phone call that starts another hectic day at the Angell Animal Medical Center. Sage, a ten-year old German shepherd, will die without emergency surgery for a serious stomach condition. Over the next twenty-four hours Dr. Trout fights for Sage’s life, battles disease in the operating room, unravels tricky diagnoses, reassures frantic pet parents, and reflects on the humor, heartache, and inspiration in his life as an animal surgeon. And he wants to take you along for the ride.…

From the front lines of modern medicine, Tell Me Where It Hurts is a fascinating insider portrait of a veterinarian, his furry patients, and the blend of old-fashioned instincts and cutting-edge technology that defines pet care in the twenty-first century. For anyone who’s ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at your veterinarian’s office, Tell Me Where It Hurts offers a vicarious journey through twenty-four intimate, eye-opening, heartrending hours at the premier Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston.

You’ll learn about the amazing progress of modern animal medicine, where organ transplants, joint replacements, and state-of-the-art cancer treatments have become more and more common. With these technological advances come controversies and complexities that Dr. Trout thoughtfully explores, such as how long (and at what cost) treatments should be given, how the Internet has changed pet care, and the rise in cosmetic surgery.

You’ll also be inspired by the heartwarming stories of struggle and survival filling these pages. With a wry and winning tone, Dr. Trout offers up hilarious and delightful anecdotes about cuddly (or not-so-cuddly) pets and their variously zany, desperate, and demanding owners. In total, Tell Me Where It Hurts offers a fascinating portrait of the comedy and drama, complexities and rewards involved with loving and healing animals.

Part ER, part Dog Whisperer, and part House, this heartfelt and candid book shows that while the technology has changed since James Herriot’s day, the humanity and compassion remains unchanged. If you’ve ever had a pet or special place in your heart for furry friends, Dr. Trout’s irresistible book is for you.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is the perfect gift for anyone considering becoming a veterinarian. Trout, a staff surgeon at Boston's Angell Animal Medical Center, has exactly the traits that any pet owner would wish to find in a vet: he's smart, sensitive, experienced, empathic and has an excellent sense of humor. He also happens to be an excellent writer, and his personality suffuses the many stories sifted from recollections of thousands of animal encounters during his 25 years of practice and compressed in this account into one day. Trout shows how the daily life of a veterinarian requires the ability to be a social worker, a psychologist, a grief counselor, mentor, carpenter, plumber, cosmetologist, athletic coach, magician, grim reaper, and occasionally, guardian angel. And in some of the more heart rending stories, such as that of an older widowed man dealing with the potential loss of his shepherd companion, Sage, Trout shows his sensitivity to the fact that in each case, The rewards and strength of the bonds with the animals in their lives proved irresistible, irrepressible, and more than worth the risk. (Mar. 11)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Far from the rustic environs of James Herriot’s Yorkshire Dales comes an equally heartwarming, yet high-tech, memoir of a veterinarian. Trout is a staff surgeon at a large veterinary practice in Boston and writes with equal facility of the clinical side of animal surgery and the emotional side of the human bond with animals. Couching his stories as a 24-hour “day in the life of,” the author has squeezed his reminiscences into a single day to capture “the pace, the rush, and the intensity of all that is new in twenty-first-century veterinary medicine.” As he moves from the 2:00 a.m. emergency surgery on a dog with a twisted bowel to an outwardly male boxer with an undescended testicle and an infected uterus, or euthanizes an old Labrador retriever, Trout looks back on earlier cases, muses on such subjects as the ethics of euthanasia and the costs of modern veterinary procedures, and wonders at the different ways the love shared between owner and animal is expressed. This is an addictively readable chronicle of what it means to be a veterinarian today. --Nancy Bent --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; Reprint edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767926447
• ISBN-13: 978-0767926447
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #447,749 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Trout graduated from veterinary school at the University of Cambridge in 1989. He is a Diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Surgeons and is a staff surgeon at the prestigious Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston. He is the author of two books, the New York Times bestseller Tell Me Where It Hurts and Love is the Best Medicine and has been a contributing columnist for The Bark and Prevention magazines . His new book, Ever By My Side, will be published by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, in February 2011. Nick's writing has been translated into a dozen languages and his books sell in more than thirty different countries around the world. He considers himself a runner (though his marathon days are behind him), an avid reader and a passionate advocate for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, two daughters and their two dogs, Meg, their yellow Labrador, and Sophie, their Jack Russell terrier. Visit Nick Trout online at www.facebook.com/drnicktrout

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! What a book!, March 18, 2008

By 

Baxtermom - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon (Hardcover)

This book was amazing...I started reading it, standing in Barnes and Nobel with a cup of coffee....I couldn't put it down and ended up buying it before the store closed....I laughed, I cried, but mostly some of the tales of profound love between humans and animals, gave me chills. Although there are many good animal books out there, this one was exceptional. It was incredibly well-written. If this author ever decides to become an award-winning novelist, he could do that...and perhaps he will, with this book! He captures the humor, pathos and all in-between of the human-animal bond. And, I might add, I usually avoid these books, because I hate the part where the pet dies etc. etc. but really, although there are sad passages in this, as would be expected in a vet hospital story, the main ingredient is the total celebration, awesome really, of the bond and great love between humans and their pets. Although there were many, one story that captured me was the man who loved his dog so much, that when the dog died the inevitable death of old age, the man took a photo of the dog, cut it out and wore it on a chain around his neck for a whole year, to keep the flame of love alive for his beloved dog. There are unforgettable characters in this book, human and animal.....and the writing is truly excellent. Wow, what a book!

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empathetic and fascinating, March 21, 2008

By 

Julie Neal (Sanibel Island, Fla.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon (Hardcover)

Dr. Nick Trout is the vet you wish you had, calling your pet "sweetheart" and working with skill and compassion to keep your animal friend happy and healthy. He understands the intense depth of feeling that people can have for their pets. In Tell Me Where It Hurts, Trout tells fascinating stories from his quarter century of being an animal surgeon. The empathy he has for both animals and people spills from every page.

I'm a sucker for books about animals, especially from a veterinary point of view. I grew up devouring James Herriot's wonderful books (All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, The Lord God Made Them All and Every Living Thing).

Tell Me Where It Hurts is just as well-written and addictive as these classics. I forgot I was reading a book and felt immersed in the life of this caring doctor and the noble, funny animals he treats.

Along the way, Trout describes the amazing progress made in the past couple of decades in veterinary science. Procedures that used to be only for humans -- organ transplants, joint-replacements, chemotherapy, MRIs -- are now available options for animals. The costs can be incredible, and pet owners sometimes have hard choices on whether to proceed or not. Dr. Trout says he is ultimately always asked the same question: "And if she were your dog? What would you do?"

In the book Dr. Trout condenses his 25 years of veterinary practice into a single very busy day, which starts at 2:47 a.m. with an emergency wake-up call. A 10-year-old German Shepherd with a life-threatening stomach problem requires emergency surgery. Even with a stomach about to burst, the old dog wags her tail when they meet. The book ends late at night, at 10:02 p.m., with this same old dog.

What a journey in between.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part Memoir; Part Critique of Veterinary Science and Completely Enjoyable, March 30, 2008

By 

Frederick S. Goethel "wildcatcreekbooks" (Central Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing, and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon (Hardcover)

I grew up in the Boston area and actually remember my parents using Angell Hospital for a dog we owned that had been hit by a car. That was back in the mid 1960s and it was the place to go then, and apparently it is still the place to go if you need care that exceeds that of a local veterinarian.

Dr. Trout takes the reader on not only a tour of the hospital, by way of rounds and consultations, but also a tour of the owners of the pets involved and the feelings generated by pet lovers for their pets. During his examination he places, front and center, many of the issues in the industry today. How much are you willing to pay, how much are you able to pay, and what is really best for the animal? All three are distinct and separate questions that Trout feels people in the veterinary profession have to be aware of. And these are only three of the many he poses.

Dr. Trout exemplifies the type of surgeon you would want working to save your pets life and comes across as caring and involved. The book is emotional and I was laughing one moment and crying the next. I could and did sympathize with owners as well as with the pets and with the doctors involved. Whatever else this book does, it will make you think about a lot of things that need to be thought about. And it will entertain you along the way.