Acknowledgments

It is important to recognize that I would not have the time to devote to the study of ear disease and to the preparation of a book manuscript if it were not for the support of my family, my staff at the Animal Hospital of Montgomery, and the clients who have the confidence in my abilities to allow me to treat their beloved companions.

But I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the warm reception and construc­tive feedback that I have received as encouragement from my veterinarian colleagues all over the world. The letters and phone calls I receive thanking me for providing a book that helps them understand the mechanisms of ear disease and the logical approach to ear treatments have helped motivate me to write the second edition. Part of the reason for this second edition is that, through colleague comments and ques­tions, I found that there is a thirst for new, useful information that needs to be quenched.

I would also like to again thank Ron Buck and Rodney Glass from MedRx, Inc. who have supported me since 1996. Their commitment to veterinary continuing education allows me to do 25 ear disease lectures and wet labs each year for veteri­narians and technicians all over the United States and elsewhere. Their foresight in adapting their video otoscopic equipment to the needs of our profession makes it possible for me to show pictures of diseases of the ear in this book.

I have come to realize that writing the manuscript is the easy part of writing a book. Actually putting it all together into a meaningful end product is the hard part; from the language editing to the page layout, printing, marketing, and distribution, many people whom I do not even know had a part. So a big “thanks” to all of the people at Elsevier who worked as a team to get it into the final form.

The basic anatomical components of the dog and cat ear are as follows:

• Auricle, or pinna

• Auditory canal, or external auditory meatus

• Middle ear

• Internal ear