Dictionary of veterinary terms
Vet-speak deciphered for the non-veterinarian
by Jennifer Coates, DVM

This is one of those additions to your library that will prove to be extremely handy every now and again. Apart from providing the answer to that very frequently asked question: "What did the vet mean by that?", the book also provides very handy information regarding acronyms and abbreviations, and a table of the normal physiologic parameters of various domesticated animal species such as average life expectancy, body temperature and heart and respiration rates.

There is also a table of normal ­reproductive parameters including age at sexual ­maturity, time in heat, oestrus cycle ­duration and pregnancy length. Not a horse book per se, but very handy nevertheless. Its only drawback is that it is ­focused ­primarily on the North ­American reader. The book is published by ­Alpine Publications, ­Crawford, ­Colorado.

The winner of our May 2008 book give-away is B Painter from Onderstepoort. Congratulations!

Your copy of Margrit Coates’s Connecting with horses is on its way, courtesy of Random House SA.