Textbooks

Shelter Medicine

Shelter Medicine for Veterinarians and Staff (2013) is the second edition of Lila Miller and Stephen Zawistowski’s comprehensive book about shelter medicine. It’s a tremendously helpful text. Every shelter should have a copy.

Field Manual for Small Animal Medicine (2018) edited by Katherine Polak and Ann Therese Kommedal, offers resources for anyone delivering veterinary care outside the traditional hosptial or clinic setting.  Particularly useful for caring for animals in resource-limited environments, such as mobile or MASH-style clinics, outreach programs, or when working in foreign countries.

Infectious Diseases

Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters (2009). “The Yellow Book”, edited by Lila Miller and Kate Hurley, covers principles of disease control and management of important infectious diseases in shelters. This is another essential text, though an updated edition would be welcome.

Shelter Metrics

Every Nose Counts: Using Metrics in Animal Shelters is an extremely welcome addition to the shelter medicine literature. As Alice pointed out, if you don’t know where you’re trying to get to, it doesn’t matter which direction you go in. To save lives and use resources wisely, it’s essential to set goals and measure outcomes. This book, by Drs Janet Scarlett, Michael Greenberg and Tiva Hoshizaki, sets out in readable detail how to do this. The book is clearly presented with beautiful visuals. Highly recommended for all shelters.

Behaviour

New to the small pantheon of shelter medicine textbooks is Animal Behaviour for Shelter Veterinarians and Staff (2015), edited by Emily Weiss, Heather Mohan-Gibbons and Stephen Zawistowski. The book addresses the all-important area of behaviour in the shelter context. There are many areas of behaviour welfare and management that don’t translate easily from privately owned animals to shelter animals, and this book fills that gap.

Forensics

Many shelter veterinarians are regularly involved with veterinary forensics. The most recently published book on the subject is Practical Veterinary Forensics (2016), by David Bailey.  Veterinary Forensics: Animal Cruelty Investigations (2012), edited by Melinda Merck, is a practical reference on applying veterinary forensic findings in animal cruelty cases.

A recent addition to veterinary forensics and cruelty investigatons is a groundbreaking text on mental health issues in animal cruelty, Animal Maltreatment: Forensic Mental Health Issues and Evaluations, by Gary Patronek and others.