Educational reference only. Educational reference only. This tool models commonly published label and formulary dosing conventions for a short list of widely-known, wide-margin drugs. It is not a prescription, is not patient-specific, and does not replace clinical judgment. Always verify any dose against the current product label, your clinic’s formulary, and the individual patient’s history before administering anything. This tool does not cover controlled substances, chemotherapy agents, insulin, or other narrow-margin drugs.
Carprofen — published dosing conventions
Commonly published label convention for twice-daily dosing.
Commonly published label convention for once-daily dosing (same total daily amount as the BID convention).
Enter a weight above to calculate the dose in mg.
Source note
Reflects the commonly published label convention for carprofen in dogs. Confirm against the specific product label in use.
Cautions
- NSAID — do not combine with other NSAIDs, corticosteroids, or without an appropriate washout period.
- Use with caution in patients with GI, renal, or hepatic disease, or in dehydrated/hypotensive patients.
- Labeled for dogs — do not extrapolate to cats without explicit veterinary direction.
This calculator does not cover controlled substances, chemotherapy agents, insulin, or other narrow-margin drugs. Verify every dose against the current product label and your own calculations — this tool is not a substitute for professional veterinary judgment.
How This Calculator Works
Each drug in this tool carries one or more commonly published mg/kg dosing conventions — the kind of range seen in general veterinary formularies and client-education material. The calculator multiplies the mg/kg figure by the patient's weight in kilograms to produce a total milligram dose:
Total dose (mg) = mg/kg convention × body weight (kg)
If a weight is entered in pounds, it is converted to kilograms first (1 kg ≈ 2.2 lb) before the calculation runs, so the underlying math is always in kilograms.
Worked Example
A 20 kg dog on the carprofen BID convention (2.2 mg/kg, twice daily):
2.2 mg/kg × 20 kg = 44 mg per dose, given twice daily
The same patient on the once-daily convention (4.4 mg/kg) would work out to 88 mg given once — the same total daily amount split differently. Always confirm which convention matches the specific product label in use.
What This Tool Does Not Cover
This calculator intentionally excludes controlled substances (e.g. opioids, sedatives under scheduling), chemotherapy agents, insulin, and other narrow-margin drugs where a small dosing error carries disproportionate risk. For those drugs, dosing should always be worked out directly from the current product label and confirmed by the attending veterinarian — a general-purpose calculator is not an appropriate reference.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this dosage calculator a substitute for veterinary judgment?
No. It models commonly published label and formulary dosing conventions for a short list of widely-known, wide-margin drugs, and is intended as an educational reference and quick-math check — not a prescription. Every dose should be verified against the current product label and confirmed by the attending veterinarian before administration.
Why does this tool only include a handful of drugs?
The tool deliberately covers only widely-known, OTC-adjacent, wide-margin drugs — carprofen, meloxicam, famotidine, diphenhydramine, and omeprazole. It excludes controlled substances, chemotherapy agents, insulin, and other narrow-margin drugs, where a small dosing error carries much higher risk and a general calculator is not an appropriate reference.
What does "mg/kg" mean and how is the total dose calculated?
mg/kg means milligrams of drug per kilogram of body weight. The total dose in milligrams is calculated as the mg/kg convention multiplied by the patient's weight in kilograms — for example, a 2.2 mg/kg dose for a 20 kg dog works out to 44 mg.
Why does meloxicam show a loading dose and a separate maintenance dose?
Meloxicam is commonly dosed with a higher loading dose on the first day (a commonly published convention of 0.2 mg/kg), followed by a lower once-daily maintenance dose (commonly 0.1 mg/kg) from day two onward. Exact label dosing and species approval vary by country and product, so this should be confirmed locally.
Can this calculator be used for cats?
This tool is built around commonly published canine label conventions. Feline dosing for the same drug can differ substantially — sometimes by several-fold — so it should not be extrapolated from the dog-focused figures shown here.
What should I do if a calculated dose looks unusually high or low?
Re-check the weight entry and units first, since a kg/lb mix-up is one of the most common sources of dosing errors. If the number still looks off, cross-check it against the current product label and formulary rather than relying on any single calculator.
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