Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon by Nick Trout
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Book Reviews of Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon
Book Review: Animal Lovers Will Love this Book
Summary: 5 Stars
At first I found the jump-around style of storytelling distracting. I kept wanting it to read like the James Herriot books -- a chapter for this case, a new chapter for that case. Once I understood that the whole book was going to be back and forth, I was good with it and enjoyed the reading immensely. Of course, the back and forth style fits this book since it is one day of following Trout in the hospital. There isn't a definitive chapter between all patients, especially in surgery, what with post-op check-ups and all. And so the narrative is juggled in the same manner that Trout juggles between multiple cases at once.
This was a delightful read. I loved to learn some of the updated methods and options for treatments in the animal world. Medicine is worlds beyond what Herriot practiced in his day! Trout has wonderful insight into the ways of both animals and their humans. Anyone who understands the bond between a person and his pet will enjoy this book.
Book Review: Book not as good as jacket cover
Summary: 3 Stars
I enjoyed some of the stories, but speed-read a lot of the book, as it either was not news to me or more than I cared to know about veterinary science.Book Review: The Pleasure And Pain Of Mending Our Four-Legged Friends
Summary: 5 Stars
This book makes me wish I had become a vet.
In "Tell Me Where It Hurts" Dr. Nick Trout explores the ups and downs of the life of a top tier veterinary surgeon. He compresses a lifetime of poignant, frequently funny, and sometimes heart rending experiences into a single exhausting day. I had thought about being a vet when I was young, and this book is closer than any other I have read to summarizing what the journey to skilled professional veterinarian is really like.
The book opens and closes with the story of "Sage", a German Shepard with a potentially life threatening stomach disorder. It is the perfect case to explain the uncertainties of the world of veterinary medicine, and ultimately serves to explain the trials and joys of the job. Along the way there are many detours, including sections on methods of veterinary training in different countries, the emotional tolls of the job, the changing demographics of the profession, and the increase in exotic animals in common practice. I was especially amused by the diversion into the world of "ferret legging" on p. 201. "Ferret legging is a centuries-old English sport in which the contestant stuffs a pair of ill-tempered ferrets down his pants." Several restrictions apply, including a total ban on undergarments of any sort. The winner is the person who can keep the ferrets in their pants the longest. The current record holder is a 72 year old Welsh coal miner named Reg Mellor who has kept two ferrets in his pants for the unbelievable time of five hours and twenty-six minutes. Humorous diversions such as this break the tension of the life-or-death decisions that the majority of the book deals with, and are a welcome relief after some of the more nail-biting sections.
My only critique of the book would be the rather enormous over-weighting of canine cases in the book, although I don't know if that is representative of Dr. Trout's practice, or if he simply prefers dogs to cats. Any animal lover should love and appreciate this book in its entirety, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Book Review: Not "All Creatures Great and Small" but pretty good.
Summary: 3 Stars
Tell Me Where it Hurts is a good, short book that follows a day in the life of a veterinarian in a large small-animal practice.
The stories are a mixture of delight and heartbreak -- just like real life. Dr. Trout does a terrific job of describing the animals, their medical conditions, and I love that he refers to their owners as "their parents".
It probably isn't fair to compare it with "All Creatures Great and Small" that was a truly fantastic book.
Book Review: Way too much fuss made over pets.
Summary: 1 Stars
Yet another book about elevating pets to the levels of people. In fact, Trout seems to think a dog would make the best spouse. He also thinks its endearing for owners to be pathologically obsessed with their animals. He "respects" their delusions and will do all kinds of over-the-top surgeries on the pets to placate the owner's beliefs that their animal is their child or substitute mother or whatever. Trout calls pet owners pet "parents". He's one of the idiots that keeps this pet elevatation fad going.
The only good thing I can say about this book is that Nick Trout is a talented writer and surgeon. Too bad he chose to write about pets and too bad he chose to be a vet instead of a medical doctor. His writing and surgical skills are being wasted on lower species beasts.