THE ANIMAL DOCTOR'S ANSWER BOOK

Veterinarian, author, and animal-protectionist Fox has compiled a potpourri of almost 1,000 brief questions and answers culled mostly from his syndicated newspaper column (""Ask Your Animal Doctor""). In the book's first haft--the health and care section--we learn everything from how to treat an obese mouse, or a cat with halitosis, to caring for a gerbil whose teeth are overgrown, or a dog with disc problems. Making up the book's other half are psychology and behavior questions: how to handle dogs jealous of newborns, how to care for animals who mutilate themselves (like birds who pull out their feathers), how to deal with aggressive pets. From this forest of q & a's you might be able to piece together basic pet care information, and you very well might chance upon a solution to your pet's unusual quirk or emotional disorder (like agoraphobia, in dogs). But this is by no means an in-depth pet care book (there's also a lot of overlap), and certainly not handy for emergencies. A better reference tool would be Fox's own How to Be Your Pet's Best Friend (1981).