Wild Patients and their Unusual Doctors

RHINO was reviewed in the August 24, 2008 Sunday editon of the Hickory Record: 

The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes is a great title for this fun and entertaining collection of short stories about wild animals and their unwanted dealings with humans. Drs. Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima, both veterinarians, have compiled these engaging anecdotes from some of their favorite wild- and zoo-animal veterinarians. And, yes, one such anecdote does include a rhinoceros with glue-on shoes.

Also included in the book are misadventures encountered while attempting to secure whale sharks from the Taiwanese government for the Georgia Aquarium and a visit from an American veterinarian to China in an attempt save one of China's most beloved pandas. The North Carolina Zoo's own beloved chimp "Hondo" makes an amusing appearance as well. The plight of the dolphins moved to a hotel swimming pool after Hurricane Katrina is reported in detail by one of the veterinarians responsible for ultimately moving them on to a safer locale.

Even while dealing with technical procedures, the authors manage to keep the terminology in easy-to-read layman's terms. This, along with the short-story format, lends the book to easy summer reading; it can be picked up and read for short periods at a time. The center of the book contains 16 pages of photographs of the animal patients discussed in the various chapters. North Carolina is well represented in the concise biographies of veterinarian authors that follow each story. Many of the professionals completed their post-doctoral training at N. C. State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and several worked at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro.

Rhino review on Charleston.net

Reviewer Allison Nugent, a copy editor for The Post and Courier, Sunday, August 17, 2008

A giraffe in need of a leg brace, two weedy sea dragons that can't stay submerged, a pet goldfish with a tumor, an anorexic eel and a rhino with glue-on shoes.

Veterinarians Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima gather together a wide range of tales from vets around the world in "The Rhino With Glue-on Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients."

Though not all the stories have a happy ending, you will be entranced by the lengths these doctors go to for patients that might repay their efforts with a flying pile of pooh, a knockdown shove or a soaking.

You will be in awe of a few of the stories, as some of the procedures performed in them are among the most groundbreaking in animal medicine, some leading to breakthroughs in treating humans.

This amazing collection of stories will make you wish you had fulfilled your childhood dream of being a vet.

Here's one by Melissa at runningwithbooks.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Continuing with the nonfiction animal books, I just finished The Rhino With Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and Their Patients edited by Lucy H. Spelman and Ted Y. Mashima. The book is a compilation of fascinating stories of zoo and wildlife vets who go to great lengths to diagnose and treat the animals in their care. Often, the vets are working in uncharted territory and really have to be creative in coming up with a solution to treat a sick animal.

How is a 1000 pound whale shark transported from Taiwan to Atlanta? What special precautions are taken when repairing a hernia in a polar bear? And what do you do when a dung beetle has an infestation of mites? A stint in a decompression chamber for a sea dragon, a leg brace for a giraffe and special shoes for a rhinoceros are just a few of the unconventional treatments described in this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, mainly because I was just amazed at what can be done for these animals, and how dedicated the vets are to helping them. A lot of times it seems that the animals get better care than humans would!

While I was reading this, I was thinking of a patron who recently asked me if we had any adult books about veterinarians that her teenage daughter (who wants to be a vet) could read. This would have been the perfect book for her, or for any young adult considering a career as a vet. Each story is short (5-10 pages), easy to read, and quite enlightening. And for animal lovers, it's a must read.

Baraza Blog review of RHINO

Posted by Christine on July 31, 2008

An eel walks into a bar… Debugging a bug… Health care for dragons… Although these may sound like lead-ins for some silly animal jokes, they are actually just some of the topics described in Lucy Spelman, DVM, and Ted Mashima’s, DVM new book, ‘The Rhino with the Glue-On Shoes.’ ‘Rhino,’ captures the stories of 29 wildlife vets and their remarkable, and sometimes strange patients.

Whether you have a genuine interest in veterinary medicine, or just wild and exotic animals in general, this is an absolute must read. The stories are funny, poignant, miraculous, and yes, on occasion, also sad. But no other book I know of does a better job of making both humans and animals come to life as does this small volume of vignettes.

By the end of the book one is not only left with the hope that a sequel is already in the making, but with a renewed passion for the four-legged, two legged, and yes, even no-legged neighbors we share this planet with.

Now, where does one get shoes for a rhino?

Dave Wood reviews books for ECM Publications in Wisconsin

Dave posted this review of Rhino, which subsequently appeared in online in the Hometown SourceNew Richmand News on July 29, 2008.

Here’s the ultimate book for animal lovers: “The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes, edited by Lucy Spelman and Ted Mashima (Delacorte, $22). Spelman and Mashima are high-powered veterinarians who have cobbled together an olio of stories about animals in trouble who have been treated by talented medical people. Read about a root canal performed on a three thousand pound hippo, spinal surgery on a kangaroo, a moray eel diagnosed with anorexia. This fascinating book is punctuated with a series of color photos of animals printed on glossy paper.