My favorite veterinary textbooks

I’ll start off and say that there are so many amazing textbooks that I’ve used and will continue to use during the rest of my veterinary schooling and throughout my career as a doctor. These are my top 4 choices that I reach for most often, but there are so many more that I use as well for different topics.

Physiology of Domestic Animals (Duke’s)

I love the graphics in this book and the way they explain complex physiology is fantastic! It is organized by body system as well which is super helpful for organizational learning. Even as a physiology book, they incorporate some anatomy, pathology and clinical applications to enhance your understanding in ways that are clear and understandable even for a first year student!

Guide to the Dissection of the Dog (Evans)

This is always the book I have on hand when in anatomy lab. I am very much a visual learner so these graphics are fantastic and the chapters are easily understandable. The way they describe the location of different muscles, nerves, etc is extremely helpful when translating that to a real animal and being able to find that muscle on your own.

Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Ettinger)

I should probably build a pedestal for this textbook in all seriousness. This book has two volumes and both are equally amazing and valuable. They start off with basics of medicine and how to build a differential list, as well as looking for abnormalities in physical exams.

Then they delve into every aspect of internal medicine, giving you the pathophysiology of a condition, clinical findings, diagnosis and treatment protocols for an extensive list of diseases. My favorite part of this book are the differential flow charts for different clinical findings that can help you formulate your thinking of how a disease manifests.

Pathologic Basis of Veterinary Disease (Zachary/McGavin)

This is one of the biggest textbooks I have seen, but so amazing! I recommend reading the general pathology chapter before classes begin because it gives you a fantastic overview of pathology and the basic mechanisms behind disease that you will apply to countless specific diseases later on.

Large Animal Internal Medicine (Smith)

The go-to amazing guide to the world of internal medicine for large animals! Whenever I’m working with horses, cows, sheep, goats, etc this book is fantastic! They do an amazing job breaking down complex disease processes in order to really understand and recognize clinical signs in large animals!

Again, this is just 5 books out of so many amazing resources, but I think these are the ones I would say have had the biggest impact in my learning, and with textbooks being so expensive, these are the books that have proved their value to me pretty much on a daily basis and I don’t know where I would be without them.