Open Education: Veterinary Medicine
A "getting started" guide overviewing open, editable, and lower-cost textbooks and open teaching & learning resources for faculty, students, and librarians.
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Veterinary Medicine
On this page you will find free online (mostly not openly licensed) resources for Veterinary Medicine.
Discipline-specific pages are not intended to be exhaustive, but to showcase content that may be of interest to faculty considering adopting open educational resources for use in their classes.
For more information about U.S. copyright and Creative Commons including CC license descriptions, please see the Creative Commons tab.
Becoming a Veterinarian
- An Audio-visual Guide to Client Communication[Free but not openly licensed] Just as suturing is an essential skill for the surgeon, communication is an essential skill for all veterinarians. These short videos capture 19 communication skills that can be effectively interwoven throughout the consultation, and incorporate good and bad points of practice. (Videos will be added to the resource until all 19 are available). As such, they are ideal training materials for young vets and vets new to practicing in the UK and US. They are also a great refresher for established vets who may want to brush up on skills that can round out their communication style.
The videos have been produced in partnership with the US-China Center for Animal Health at Kansas State University. Ryane Englar, DVM, DABVP (Canine and Feline Practice) presents each episode.
Interactive Resources
- Using VR in the VetMed LibraryLinks to downloadable VR sourcefiles and additional information about the VR animals.
- University Libraries' at VT Virtual Reality ProjectsOpen source canine and bovine virtual reality (VR) experiences. Includes links to downloadable files in GitHub.
- Real 3d Anatomy (dog bone set)Web accessible interactive dog skeleton and organs. No open license (Requires Adobe Flash player. Credits: http://www.real3danatomy.com/credits.html Affiliated with the Centre for Comparative and Clinical Anatomy at the University of Bristol.
General Resources
- Merck Manual - Veterinary ManualFind information on animal health topics, written for the veterinary professional. (Free online. Does not have an open license.)
- WikiVetWikiVet is a worldwide collaborative project to develop a comprehensive online peer reviewed veterinary knowledge database. The aim is to cover the entire undergraduate curriculum. WikiVet contains a selection of learning resources like flashcards, videos, quizzes and other types of computer based learning resources.Most but not all of the content in WikiVet requires registration. Registration is free, and ensures editing and use by people related to the veterinary profession only. (CC BY NC ND)
Open Textbooks (openly licensed)
- Veterinary Preventive Medicine(CC BY NC) Goals of preventive medicine are to protect, promote, and maintain health and well-being and to prevent disease, disability, and death. Veterinary preventive medicine is an important component of veterinary training not only to ensure animal health but also to help veterinary students learn necessary information and skills for participation in global animal and human health challenges and disease prevention.
- Anatomy and Physiology of AnimalsAudience is Veterinary nurses. This book describes the structure of the animal body and the way in which it works. Animals encountered in normal veterinary practice are used as examples where possible. (CC BY NC SA)
- Animals & Ethics 101: Thinking Critically about Animal RightsThis book provides an overview of the current debates about the nature and extent of our moral obligations to animals. Which, if any, uses of animals are morally wrong, which are morally permissible (i.e., not wrong) and why? What, if any, moral obligations do we, individually and as a society (and a global community), have towards animals and why? How should animals be treated? Why? (CC BY SA)
- Veterinary HistologyVeterinary Histology is a microscopic anatomy textbook focused on domestic species, including the dog, cat, cattle, horses, swine, and camelids. This digital textbook provides comprehensive, system-specific text as well as high-resolution, annotated images along with chapter-specific glossary of terms and learning objectives. (CC BY NC)
- The Lymphatic System of the DogAn English translation of a 1918 work by German veterinary anatomist Dr. Hermann Baum, The Lymphatic System of the Dog details a comprehensive investigation of the anatomy and drainage patterns of the canine lymphatic system.
Freely Available Textbooks
- Veterinary EpidemiologyVeterinary Epidemiology / by Martin, Meek and Willeberg provides an introductory, yet comprehensive, source of information on epidemiology for veterinary students, researchers, and practitioners. There has not been a textbook that presents analytic epidemiology as a science, basic to veterinary medicine's efforts in health management (herd health) as well as in clinical medicine. [Originally published by Iowa State University Press in 1987. Rights reverted to the authors who authorized digitization by the University Libraries at Virginia Tech and release under a CC BY NC ND license with additional permission granted up front for translation and format changes.] Direct link: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/72274
- InTech Open Access books on Veterinary Medicine600+ freely available online books from InTech.
- 40+ veterinary textbooks (University of Georgia)The University of Georgia offers 40+ veterinary textbooks in Apple iBook format through iTunes/ iStore. Freely downloadable but not openly licensed.
Additional Sources
- Veterinary Tech resources from SkillsCommonsCertificate and associate's-level programs of study, presentations, and syllabi for Veterinary Tech Associates Degree level content.
Course materials: Demonstration Videos, Interactive Simulations etc.
- The Normal Canine Video SeriesThis series of four videos (licensed CC BY 4.0) are intended for first-year students of veterinary medicine and include the following canine exams:
- Head and neck canine exam
- Thoracic canine exam
- Abdominal canine exam
- Urogenital rectal canine exam
Transcripts for each video are available. - Video Resources for Veterinary Neuroanatomy and Clinical Neurology, 4th edition(c) (not under an open license)
The video clips on this web site are a component of the fourth edition of Veterinary Neuroanatomy and Clinical Neurology by Alexander de Lahunta, Eric Glass and Marc Kent.
Anatomy, Dissection and Necropsy
- Dr. John M. King's Necropsy Show and TellHosted by the College of Veterinary Medine, Cornell University. (Free online. Images do not have an open license.)
- Roone's Guide to the Dissection of the Horse(c) Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine
- Online Veterinary Anatomy MuseumThe Online Veterinary Anatomy Museum (OVAM) project was funded by JISC as part of the Content Programme 2011-2013. It aims to provide access to veterinary anatomical resources in the form of a virtual museum. CC BY NC ND.
Diagnostic support systems
- CONSULTANT: A Diagnostic Support System for Veterinary MedicineCONSULTANT is a diagnostic support system used to suggest possible diagnoses or causes for clinical signs and to provide a brief synopsis of the diagnosis/cause including: 1) a general description, 2) species affected, 3) the signs associated with it, and 4) a list of recent literature references. CONSULTANT is supported by a database consisting of hundreds of signs, thousands of diagnoses/causes, and tens of thousands of literature references. The database is regularly updated with new information by its author: Dr. Maurice E. White, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University.
- BestBETs for VetsSupports veterinary clinicians in making evidence-based decisions. A BET is a simple review of the current best evidence available to answer very common and specific clinical questions. (c) University of Nottingham