So you know the Merck Manual, the trusty reference on health for docs and patients? As of this week, there’s a Merck Manual about pets.

The book (full name: The Merck/Merial Manual For Pet Health) is 1,345 pages long, so rather than plow through the whole thing, we cheated a little — we got on the phone with Cynthia Kahn, the editor, and Scott Line, a vet who was co-editor on the book. The factoids came fast and thick. (Merial, by the way, is the Merck/Sanofi-Aventis joint venture in animal health.)