Free Animal Health Resources from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University

Look here for free Internet resources providing quality-animal-health-related information.

As always, please remember that your veterinarian is the very best person to consult with questions regarding your animal's health, especially if your animal is ill. If your concern is urgent, please be sure to contact him or her immediately.

Behavior & Training	Guide Sites
Bibliographic Databases	Integrative Medicine (Alternative & Complementary)
Diagnostic Database	Nutrition
Diseases, Conditions & Treatments	Oncology
Drugs & Pharmaceuticals	Toxicology & Poisoning
Finding Veterinarians & Clinics	Zoonoses (human/animal diseases)
Genetics
Hints for searching the Web for more information
Choosing Web Sites CAREFULLY!

NOTE: The following Web sites are listed for your information only and are not endorsed by Cornell University. Finding information on the Internet is not a substitute for good professional veterinary care, experience, and judgment. For help in finding additional information from the published literature, consider using VetAccess, our fee-based library research and document delivery service.

Behavior & Training

Animal Behavior Clinic, Cornell University Hospital for Animals
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/abc/
Provides checklists useful for identifying behavior problems in cats, dogs and horses.

Cat Behavior: What Is This All About?
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9352/behavior.html
Provides links to numerous sites related to cat behavior, many of which are prepared by veterinarians and animal behaviorists.

What Indoor Cats Need
http://www.indoorcat.org/need.php
A "resource checklist" to enrich the lives of indoor cats prepared by The Indoor Cat Initiative, The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine (http://www.nssvet.org/ici/index.php)

Bibliographic Databases
Bibliographic databases lead you to journal articles on specific topics of your interest. Copies of articles that are held by the Veterinary Library can be supplied through our VetAccess service or from other sources, such as your local public library.

PubMed MEDLINE
http://resolver.library.cornell.edu/misc/apw3190
Produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, this extensive database includes over 16 million citations to journal article citations back to the 1950s. The citations have been indexed from over 4,900 human medical, nursing, dentistry, veterinary, and related biomedical journals. It is a major resource that may be helpful to you now or in the future.

- - - Hints for using PubMed: While the PubMed interface is relatively easy to use, we recommend that you go through the training tutorial if you are having difficulty or would like to increase your searching skills. Click "Tutorial " on the left sidebar on the PubMed home page. Simply enter one or more keywords, such as "diabetes therapy dogs" [without quote marks], and click Go. Review the list of citations. Click the authors' name line to see an abstract if it is available. Some examples of possible searches are: diabetes therapy dogs; feline infectious peritonitis diagnosis cats; lameness surgery horses

AGRICOLA
http://agricola.nal.usda.gov
AGRICOLA contains approximately 3 million citations in agriculture and related topics from 1970 to present. It is maintained by the U.S. National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland. Use this database for food production animals, animal husbandry and feeding, as well as other aspects of agriculture.

- - - Hints for using AGRICOLA: Searches can be limited to books and journal articles. Enter the most significant keyword or phrase (more than one word, e.g., west nile virus) in the first "Word or Phrase" box. Add an additional keyword or phrase to the second search box to further narrow the topic.

Diagnostic Databases

Consultant, Cornell's Veterinary Diagnostic Database http://www.vet.cornell.edu/consultant/consult.asp
This database is designed to link over 500 clinical signs and symptoms to nearly 7,000 possible diagnoses or disease conditions. Thus, it can help you find summary information about animal diseases. In addition, it can assist in compiling lists of diseases with certain clinical signs, such as all of the dog diseases that have "diarrhea" as one of the clinical signs. Consultant also contains a selected list of up-to-date journal articles on each diagnosis.

- - -Hints for using Consultant: For a known disease or condition, click "Search by Diagnosis". Then choose the "Species" from the pull-down menu, and enter one or more disease terms. From there, click on your choice of diagnosis to see a brief description of the disease, its clinical signs, species affected, and some recent journal article citations and/or web page links of potential interest. For identifying possible diseases with one or more clinical signs, click "Search by Signs". Then, choose the "Species" from the pull-down menu, and enter the first clinical sign, such as "vomiting". Additional clinical signs can be added before searching the database to obtain a list of diagnoses exhibiting those particular signs.

Copies of the cited articles can be ordered through the Veterinary Library's VetAccess service.

Diseases, Conditions & Treatments

Canine Epilepsy Resource Center
http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/

Canine Health Foundation (American Kennel Club)
http://www.akcchf.org/
Lists ongoing research projects on canine diseases.

Care for Animals (American Veterinary Medical Assoc.)
http://www.avma.org/care4pets/

Cornell Feline Health Center Client Information Brochures
Provides a series of online brochures describing topics from general cat care to infectious diseases. Also, consider the Cornell Feline Health Center's Dr. Louis J. Camuti Memorial Feline Consultation and Diagnostic Service. 1-800-KITTY DR (1-800-548-8937) It is available Monday & Friday from 9am-12noon and 2-4pm EST. There is a nominal charge for answers to any cat health-related question.

Exotic Pet Vet.Net (Margaret A. Wissman DVM)
http://www.exoticpetvet.net
Provides health information related to birds, reptiles and other exotic pets.

HealthyPet (American Animal Hospital Association)
http://www.healthypet.com/
"AAHA is well known among veterinarians and pet owners for its standards for hospitals and pet health care." Features of this site include: Locate an accredited animal hospital near you, find answers to your pet health questions via their Pet Care Library, or their FAQ link, and browse their recommended reading list.

Merck Veterinary Manual Online
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp
"The single most comprehensive electronic reference for animal care information. Includes over 12,000 indexed topics and over 1200 illustrations. Rapidly search by topic, species, specialty, disease, and keyword.." The 2,305-page printed volume of the 8^th edition (1998) can also be purchased for quick reference.

Pet Education (Doctors Foster & Smith)
http://www.peteducation.com/
This site contains "Informative articles on pet healthcare, written by veterinary experts."

Pet Health Topics
Washington State University. College of Veterinary Medicine
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/ClientED/problems_diagnoses.asp
A variety of topics related to dog and cat health are arranged into 4 major categories-Procedures, Common Problems, Diseases and Miscellaneous Health Care Topics.

PetPlace.Com
http://www.petplace.com
Founded by Dr. Jon Rappaport to provide "an unbiased, authoritative, user-friendly website where pet owners worldwide could go for complete, up-to-date information on all pet issues". It features over 5,000 articles in "libraries" on dogs, cats, fish, small mammals, reptiles, birds and horses.

Veterinary Partner.com
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/
Maintained by veterinarians, this a very useful site loaded with health news and information about behavior, health, diseases, and drugs related to dogs, cats, birds, horses, and other pets.

Vetinfo: A Veterinary Information Service (Michael Richards DVM)
http://www.vetinfo.com/

Johne's Information Center (University of Wisconsin, School of Veterinary Medicine)
http://www.johnes.org/
"Your definitive source for information on Johne's disease"---the infectious disease of cattle, also known as paratuberculosis.

Drugs and Pharmaceuticals

Veterinary Partner.com
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/
In addition to health news and information, this site covers commonly used veterinary drugs and pharmaceuticals.

Finding Veterinarians & Clinics

AltVetWeb: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
http://www.altvetmed.org/
Also provides lists of veterinarians who practice various forms of complementary and alternative medicine therapy.

American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine
http://www.acvim.org/
Click on "Find an AVIM Specialist".

American College of Veterinary Surgeons
http://www.acvs.org/
Click on "Find a surgeon".

VetQuest: The premier veterinary search & referral service
http://www.vin.com/vetquest/index.html
Includes over 25,000 veterinary hospitals and clinics in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Guide to Congenital and Heritable Disorders in Dogs (Association for Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR))
http://www.avar.org/
Search this site using the keywords: "guide dogs congenital disorders" to view a PDF file on the topic.

Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC)
U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/
Provides links to various publications, resources and other useful site related to animal welfare.

NetVet & Electronic Zoo (Ken Boschert DVM, Washington Univ.)
Also, World Wide Web Virtual Library: Veterinary Medicine
http://netvet.wustl.edu/
Lists over 18,000 international Web sites on veterinary & animal topics. There is no quality evaluation.

Veterinary Medicine with Janet Tobiassen Crosby DVM
http://vetmedicine.about.com/health/vetmedicine/mbody.htm
"This site is for both the veterinarian and pet owner.. to ask questions, learn new things about animal health and care, and meet new people."

VetGate: The UK's gateway to high quality Internet resources in Animal Health.
http://vetgate.ac.uk/
Although based in England, this site provides useful links to information around the world. It can be searched by keyword or browsed by category.

Integrative Medicine

AltVetWeb: Complementary and Alternative Medicine
http://www.altvetmed.org/
Contains information about alternative and complementary therapies. Also provides lists of veterinarians who practice various forms of integrative medicine.

Whole Pet Vet: A Guide to Holistically Treating Your Pets (Donna Kelleher, DVM)
http://www.wholepetvet.com/
Provides information about acupuncture, gold bead therapy, chiropractic, diet & nutrition and herbal medicine. Also, includes information about choosing a convertional vs. holistic veterinarian.

Ohio University Veterinary Hospital. Nutrition Support Service
http://vet.osu.edu/nssvet

PetDIETS.com
http://www.petdiets.com/
"A premier site for pet nutrition advice and homemade diets from veterinary nutritionists."

Caring for Pets with Cancer (Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists - Kevin A. Hahn DVM)
http://www.gcvs.com/oncology/pwc/index.htm

Merck Veterinary Manual Online
http://www.merckvetmanual.com
Information about diagnosis and treatment of various types and locations of cancer (neoplasms, neoplasia) in different species is interspersed throughout this manual. Check the index for details.

OncoLink: Vet - University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center http://www.oncolink.com/types/section.cfm?c=22&s=69
"Edited by Lili Duda, VMD, a radiation oncologist at the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the OncoLink Vet section is designed as a resource for pet owners who have an animal diagnosed with cancer or are concerned about that possibility." Information is provided on some of the most common types of cancer in dogs and cats. Information can be emailed or printed.

Toxicology & Poisoning

Cornell University Poisonous Plants Home Page
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/index.html

National Animal Poison Control Center
http://www.napcc.aspca.org/

Plants and Your Cat (Cat Fanciers Assoc.)
http://www.cfainc.org/articles/plants.html

Plants Toxic to Animals (Univ. of Illinois) http://www.library.uiuc.edu/vex/vetdocs/toxic.htm

Indiana Plants Poisonous to Livestock and Pets (Purdue University) http://www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/bytox1.htm
Lists plants alphabetically, by toxicity rating, by species, and by botanical type along with a picture index.

Zoonoses (Diseases transmitted between humans and animals)

MEDLINEplus Health Information: Pets and Pet Health
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/petsandpethealth.html

Healthy Pets Healthy People
http://www.cdc.gov/healthpets/
The National Center for Infectious Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides useful information about important diseases people can get from animals with lists by disease and animal species.

Merck Veterinary Manual Online
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/220100.htm&word=zoonoses
Has an extensive table of diseases that affect both humans and animals around the world.

Zoonotic Diseases
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), University of California, Santa Barbara
http://research.ucsb.edu/connect/acc/policy.html Provides guidelines for preventing disease transmission in animal facilities, with lists of diseases created by Dr. Michael S. Rand, which can be useful to the general public as well.

Hints For Searching For More Information

Try this to find additional animal health-related web resources:
1. Begin with one or more known, reliable sites and follow appropriate links on those pages.
2. Next try a guide site (e.g., http://netvet.wustl.edu) to begin or jump-start a search.
3. Then use a general search engine, e.g. www.google.com/ or others.
Be selective in entering terms and follow hints for effective use.

The most reliable and authoritative sites are generally from:
1. Academic institutions and universities
2. Government agencies
3. Professional organizations and associations

Choosing Web Sites Carefully!

The information on the Internet or World Wide Web is not necessarily accurate, correct, complete, or reliable. This issue is especially critical for both animal and human health information.

Site Ownership
Who is the site's owner or producer? Do you recognize the name? Are they reputable?

Currency
How often is the site updated or revised?

Audience
Who are the primary users or target audience?

Perspective
Is there a bias or unbalanced orientation? Is the goal to educate, sell products, or promote an opinion?

Content
Is the content informative, timely, well balanced, documented (e.g., sources of information are given), and accurate?

Authorship of Content
Are the authors' credentials known (e.g., DVM)?

Overall Quality
Are there any obvious or known errors, faults, or inconsistencies?

Style
Is the site user-friendly and attractive? Is it easy to follow? Is there a built-in "search" feature?