Reference Book Recommendations

All,

I'm a little old-fashioned and still enjoy having real-live, genuine books around. Iam looking for recommendations for a "level up" reference book. I already have Raising Goats Naturally and Storey's Guide. I'm ready for something that goes a little deeper. I also love pretty pictures in my books.

I'm considering Foreyt's Veterinary Parasitology. Anyone have experience with this one, or have another to recommend?

Thanks in advance!

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  • Here you go: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/432c/a008b3b515f6a7f9255ae2a512668...



    Rachel Payne said:

    Do you have a link to this study, or the name/journal I could find it under? 

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

     there is a published research study that found no difference in goats who did and did not use them.

  • Do you have a link to this study, or the name/journal I could find it under? 

    Deborah Niemann-Boehle said:

     there is a published research study that found no difference in goats who did and did not use them.

  • Awesome! Glad to hear it looks good to you!

  • I just received my "solstice gift" -- Diseases of the Goat! I can't wait for the company to be gone, and take a load off and read!

    (Deborah, don't worry about the pics not being "pretty." Clear and well-lit, so I can see what's being discussed, is what I really want, and on first glance, it looks like this book delivers! Lots of good-looking content too, though, which is the most important part!)

  • Thank you very much for your input! I'll look into those books soon.

  • Unless Amazon is not showing me the latest version, that book was published in 2001, and there was almost no parasite research done on goats at that point. They really only started getting a good body of research in the last ten years. I would not purchase a book more than about 5 years old. Plus that book is "veterinary parasitology," so I doubt there is more than a few pages devoted to goats. I'd bet you could find more parasite information on goats at https://www.wormx.info/

    I have Goat Medicine, which is more than 800 pages and has just about everything you ever wanted to know about anything related to goats. It was published in 2009 though, so I'm hoping they come out with a new one soon. I haven't found a ton of info that makes me cringe. I think you need to be careful when it says, "some people use ..." and not take that as a big endorsement of a particular practice, such as giving a goat kerosene. (Sorry I forgot what that was for, but I'd never do that for anything!) They did list several other better options for treatment, so it shocked me that they even included that one without a disclaimer that it was an outdated idea. But this is a really good reference book.

    Speaking of new, I just got the 2016 edition of Diseases of the Goat (fourth edition). It's great, but the one shortcoming is that the author is in Britain. He realizes that many of his readers are in North America though, so he does include geographic-specific info on things. Goats, however, are pretty similar from one country to another. I haven't looked up a ton of info in this one yet, so it might be even better than the original one when it comes to providing any additional info for the US and Canada. Keep in mind that I liked the first one enough to buy the revised edition. 

    You can "look inside the book" for these on Amazon to get a better idea if it's written in a language that's comfortable for you. I've had a few people tell me that these were too complicated. I also would not recommend reading these books cover to cover, or it could freak you out and make you worry about every little thing with your goats. They're great for looking things up. They do have pictures, but they're not usually pretty. In fact, you need to have a fairly strong stomach for some of them.

    If you want to learn more about nutrition, I recommend Nutrient Requirements for Small Ruminants, although it was published in 2007, so hoping they update that one also. But there is also a lot of great info in here. It's the book that's usually referenced when anyone writes about nutrient requirements in goats.

    Gianaclis Caldwell recently published Holistic Goat Care, which I have on my shelf but haven't read entirely yet. I'm going to be reviewing it on my blog. I've flipped through it, however, and I was disappointed that she recommends Molly's Herbals when she herself does not even use them, and there is a published research study that found no difference in goats who did and did not use them. There are lots of pictures, but also not pretty.

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