Rabbit Medicine and Surgery for Veterinary Nurses

Rabbit Medicine and Surgery for Veterinary Nurses incorporates everything you need to know about caring for rabbits in a highly accessible style. It is the first book devoted to the care of both sick and healthy rabbits from a nursing perspective.

This exciting book contains all of the most crucial information about rabbits, including a brief natural history and chapters on nutrition, behaviour and medical and surgical nursing. It examines key areas in detail and explores emerging concepts.

Recent trends show that rabbits are fast becoming one of the most popular mammalian pets. The role of nursing has also evolved in recent years. Veterinary nurses now have more involvement and responsibility for the care of their patients. This book reflects these new developments in both its approach and contents.

Special features:
• Written by two experts in the field with a wealth of experience of treating rabbits, as well as educating veterinary nurses.
• Includes innovative chapters on rabbit clinics, owner education and evidence-based veterinary medicine.
• Contains a section with rich colour illustrations.

Foreword vii

1 Rabbits – A Natural History 1

2 Anatomy and Physiology 15

3 Husbandry 35

4 Nutrition 53

5 Rabbit Behaviour 67

6 Restraint, Handling, Anaesthesia, Analgesia and Fluid Therapy 77

7 Diagnostic Imaging 103

8 General Concepts of Nursing 123

9 Specific Aspects of Medical and Surgical Nursing 137

10 First Aid and Emergency Procedures 181

11 Rabbit Clinics and Owner Education 193

12 Research and Evidence-Based Medicine 211

Appendix 1 Formulary 219

Appendix 2 Some Common Garden and House Plants Poisonous to Rabbits 223

Appendix 3 Useful Organisations 225

Index 227

Colour plates appear between pages 104 and 105

"This book is well laid out, easy to read and has many well-written tables. . . as rabbits increase in popularity, this book should be a useful addition to nursing and veterinary libraries." (Australian Veterinary Journal, 11 November 2010)

"The text is interesting and relevant. Other books with a similar layout, do not contain the information about the principles of veterinary nursing, such as the descriptions of Roper, Logan and Tierney’s model of nursing, and Orem’s models of veterinary nursing." (The Veterinary Record, December 2009)

Mary Fraser is a trained veterinary surgeon who has worked in general and referral practice and taught veterinary nursing for a number of years at both Further and Higher Education level. She currently works as a lecturer in Veterinary Nursing at Napier University, Edinburgh, UK.

Simon Girling is author of Veterinary Nursing of Exotic Pets and has an impressive amount of published articles, papers and books. He is currently President of the British Zoological Society and runs a referral service in Exotic Species. Rabbit Medicine and Surgery for Veterinary Nurses incorporates everything you need to know about caring for rabbits in a highly accessible style. It is the first book devoted to the care of both sick and healthy rabbits from a nursing perspective.

This exciting book contains all of the most crucial information about rabbits, including a brief natural history and chapters on nutrition, behaviour and medical and surgical nursing. It examines key areas in detail and explores emerging concepts.

Recent trends show that rabbits are fast becoming one of the most popular mammalian pets. The role of nursing has also evolved in recent years. Veterinary nurses now have more involvement and responsibility for the care of their patients. This book reflects these new developments in both its approach and contents.

Special features:
• Written by two experts in the field with a wealth of experience of treating rabbits, as well as educating veterinary nurses.
• Includes innovative chapters on rabbit clinics, owner education and evidence-based veterinary medicine.
• Contains a section with rich colour illustrations.