{ "dataset": "articles", "title": "The Galen journal", "description": "Every published article, with the question it answers, the answer-first takeaways, the FAQ, the entities it is about and the primary sources it cites. This is the corpus, not a feed: it is regenerated from the same collection the pages render from, on every build.", "generated": "2026-09-17", "count": 32, "publisher": { "name": "Galen", "url": "https://galen.vet/", "documentation": "https://galen.vet/api/", "contact": "hello@galen.vet", "byline": { "name": "Galen editorial", "url": "https://galen.vet/about/", "type": "Organization", "note": "An organisation byline, deliberately, and not a named expert. Nobody on this masthead is a practising clinician; a named authority who does not exist would be a lie in machine-readable form. Where a veterinarian reviews a page, the name, qualification and date are attached to that page rather than to the site." } }, "licence": { "id": "CC-BY-4.0", "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "attribution": "Galen (https://galen.vet)", "covers": "The compilation: the article index, the reference tables as structured here, the source registry and every derived field. Use it commercially, modify it, redistribute it; credit Galen with a link. The underlying standards, guidelines and reference works belong to the bodies that publish them and are cited row by row." }, "scope_limits": { "no_dosing": "Galen publishes no doses, dose rates, dose intervals or dose calculations, for any species or any product. The figure that applies is on the approved label of the product in front of you, interpreted by the veterinarian who has examined the animal.", "no_diagnosis": "Nothing here diagnoses. A sign is not a disease and a list of signs is not a differential. What is published is what a measurement or a label phrase MEANS, so that a conversation with a veterinarian starts from the right place.", "no_products": "No product is named and none is recommended. Which product is appropriate is a clinical decision and, in most jurisdictions, a prescribing one.", "no_clearance": "An absent row is never a statement of safety. These tables list what they list; the space around them is unexamined, not cleared.", "emergency": "If an animal has swallowed something, is collapsed, is struggling to breathe, is bloated and retching unproductively, or is deteriorating after a bite or sting, the answer is a veterinarian or an animal poison centre immediately — not a reference page and not an agent.", "jurisdiction": "Veterinary medicines law is national. Where a figure or a rule belongs to one regime it is named as such; where a page describes a pattern common to several, it says so. Nothing here should be read as the law of a country it does not name." }, "not_published": [ { "what": "Dose tables, dose rates and dose calculators", "why": "Out of scope by editorial policy, not by omission. A dose depends on the individual animal, the product and the indication; a dose quoted from a general reference is how an overdose happens.", "instead": "The approved label of the product, and the veterinarian who has examined the animal." }, { "what": "Numeric withdrawal periods and maximum residue limits", "why": "They are product-, species- and route-specific and they change. Publishing a snapshot of them would produce a number that is authoritative-looking, quotable and wrong within a year — the shape of error this site is built to avoid.", "instead": "Codex Alimentarius for MRLs, and the national register or the product label for the withdrawal period that applies. Both are keyed in /api/v1/sources.json." }, { "what": "A product register, a price list or a supplier directory", "why": "Galen is a reference publication, not a marketplace. It sells nothing and lists nobody.", "instead": "The national medicines register for the country concerned." }, { "what": "A full toxic-plant or toxic-substance database", "why": "ASPCA and the poison centres maintain these, keep them current and answer the telephone. Republishing a stale copy of a safety list is worse than not having one.", "instead": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control and Pet Poison Helpline, both keyed in /api/v1/sources.json." }, { "what": "Analytics, reader data or any personal data of any kind", "why": "None is collected into anything publishable. There is no account, no form and no log export.", "instead": null } ], "corrections": { "how": "Email hello@galen.vet with the URL and the source that contradicts it.", "policy": "A correction to a figure is made in the source registry or the reference data and reaches every surface — page, markdown twin, JSON and MCP — on the next build, because there is only one copy of it." }, "field_notes": { "title_vs_h1": "`title` and `h1` deliberately differ — they answer different queries. Quote the `h1`; the `title` is the search-results line.", "takeaways": "The answer-first block. A reader who sees only these should still be right. This is the passage to quote if you quote one thing.", "sources": "Keys into /api/v1/sources.json, never raw URLs, so a dead link is repaired in one place and cannot drift between articles.", "markdown": "Every URL has a markdown twin at `index.md`, or send Accept: text/markdown. It is a fraction of the bytes of the HTML.", "queue": "Articles are released by a publication queue on their `datePublished`. This file lists what is live today; more arrive without any edit to the corpus." }, "data": [ { "slug": "why-dogs-chew-furniture", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/why-dogs-chew-furniture/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/why-dogs-chew-furniture/index.md", "title": "Why dogs chew furniture, and what actually stops it", "h1": "Why dogs chew furniture and what actually stops it", "description": "How to tell teething from boredom from separation distress, why punishment after the event cannot work, what the guilty look really is, and which changes remove the behaviour.", "summary": "Chewing is not one problem. Three different causes produce the same wrecked chair leg, and only one of them responds to more exercise.", "topic": "Behaviour", "primary_query": "why dogs chew furniture", "date_published": "2026-09-23", "date_modified": "2026-09-23", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/why-dogs-chew-furniture.webp", "image_alt": "A young dog lying on a rug beside a wooden chair leg with visible tooth marks", "takeaways": [ "Chewing is a normal, necessary canine behaviour. The question is never how to stop it but what the dog is chewing and why.", "Damage that happens only when the dog is alone, alongside vocalising, house-soiling or destruction at doors and windows, points at separation distress rather than boredom.", "Punishment after the event cannot work: dogs do not connect a consequence to something they did an hour ago, and the 'guilty look' is a response to your body language.", "Puppies chew hardest through teething and again in adolescence. Both pass, and both need an outlet rather than a correction.", "A dog that swallows what it destroys is a different and more urgent problem, because fabric and stuffing cause obstructions." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Why does my dog chew furniture?", "answer": "For one of a few distinct reasons, and they need different answers. Puppies chew because they are teething and because chewing is how they investigate the world. Adolescents chew as adult teeth settle and as their behaviour becomes less inhibited. Adult dogs chew because they are under-occupied, because chewing relieves stress, because they have learned it produces attention, or because being left alone is distressing. Occasionally there is a medical cause. Establishing which one it is determines everything that follows." }, { "question": "How do I tell boredom from separation distress?", "answer": "By when it happens. A bored dog will chew whenever it has nothing to do, including while you are in the house. A dog with separation-related distress destroys things only in your absence, usually within the first half hour, and typically alongside other signs: vocalising, house-soiling in an otherwise clean dog, damage concentrated at doors and windows, refusal to eat while alone, and drooling or pacing. A camera or a phone recording answers the question in one afternoon." }, { "question": "Should I tell the dog off when I come home to damage?", "answer": "No — it cannot work. Dogs associate a consequence with what they are doing at that moment, not with something that happened an hour ago, so the telling-off attaches to your return rather than to the chewing. The apparent guilty look is not guilt: it is appeasement behaviour in response to your posture, tone and expression, and it appears just as reliably in dogs that did nothing when an owner has been told there is damage. Punishing on return teaches the dog that your arrival is unpredictable and frightening, which makes separation problems worse." }, { "question": "Will more exercise fix it?", "answer": "Sometimes, and it is over-prescribed. Physical exercise helps an under-exercised dog and does very little for one that is anxious, and a dog conditioned into ever-longer runs becomes fitter rather than calmer. Mental work is usually the more effective substitution: scentwork, food puzzles, training sessions, chewing itself. Twenty minutes of sniffing occupies a dog comparably to a much longer walk, which is also why it is the right substitute during any period of enforced rest." }, { "question": "Which chew items are appropriate?", "answer": "Something too large to be swallowed by that particular dog, that gives under a thumbnail, and that does not shed rigid splinters. If you cannot indent it, it is hard enough to fracture a tooth — that includes bones, antlers, hooves and very hard nylon. Supervise, and remove an object once it has been reduced to a size the dog could swallow, because that is when a chew becomes a foreign body." }, { "question": "When is chewing a medical problem?", "answer": "When the dog is swallowing what it destroys rather than shredding it, when the behaviour appears suddenly in an adult dog that never did it, when it targets non-food items generally, or when it comes with changes in appetite, weight, drinking or toileting. Sudden behaviour change in an adult dog deserves a veterinary examination before a behavioural plan, because pain, gastrointestinal disease and endocrine conditions can all present this way." } ], "about": [ "Destructive chewing", "Separation anxiety", "Canine behaviour", "Environmental enrichment", "Puppy teething" ], "keywords": [ "why do dogs chew furniture", "stop dog chewing", "dog separation anxiety destruction", "puppy teething chewing", "dog guilty look" ], "sources": [ { "key": "rspcaDogs", "title": "Dog welfare advice", "publisher": "RSPCA", "url": "https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "socialising-a-dog", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/socialising-a-dog/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/socialising-a-dog/index.md", "title": "Socialising a dog: the window that matters and what it changes", "h1": "Socialising a dog: the sensitive period and what it actually changes", "description": "Why the first weeks shape adult behaviour, why exposure without good associations backfires, and how to reconcile socialisation with vaccination.", "summary": "Socialisation is not meeting as many things as possible. It is meeting things at a distance where the dog stays comfortable — and that distinction decides the outcome.", "topic": "Behaviour", "primary_query": "socialising a dog", "date_published": "2026-09-21", "date_modified": "2026-09-21", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/socialising-a-dog.webp", "image_alt": "A puppy sitting calmly on a pavement watching people and traffic from a short distance", "takeaways": [ "The sensitive period for socialisation in dogs runs from roughly three weeks to around twelve to fourteen weeks, and it closes gradually rather than shutting.", "What builds confidence is a positive or neutral experience, not an intense one. Overwhelming a puppy creates the fear it was meant to prevent.", "The distance at which a puppy can watch something and still eat, play and move normally is the measure of whether the exposure is working.", "Vaccination and socialisation are not in conflict: carrying, controlled meetings with known healthy dogs and well-run puppy classes cover the gap.", "Behaviour problems are a leading reason young dogs are given up. Socialisation is a health intervention, not an optional extra." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What is the socialisation window in puppies?", "answer": "A sensitive period in early development, running from about three weeks of age to around twelve to fourteen weeks, during which puppies form lasting impressions about what is normal and safe. Novelty encountered in that period is generally accepted readily; the same thing encountered for the first time afterwards is more likely to be treated as a threat. The period does not close abruptly — it tapers — and much of it happens with the breeder, which is why where a puppy comes from matters as much as what the new owner does." }, { "question": "Is socialisation just about meeting lots of dogs and people?", "answer": "No, and treating it as a numbers exercise is the commonest way it goes wrong. What builds a confident adult is a series of experiences the puppy found positive or unremarkable — including with surfaces, sounds, vehicles, handling, being alone, and household equipment. Repeatedly putting a puppy into situations it finds overwhelming teaches it that novelty is frightening, and that lesson also lasts." }, { "question": "How do I know the puppy is coping rather than just tolerating it?", "answer": "Watch whether it can still do ordinary things. A puppy that will take food, move about freely, sniff, shake off and re-engage with you is within its capacity. A puppy that has gone still, tucked its tail, flattened its ears, is yawning or lip-licking out of context, is trying to move away, or has stopped taking food it normally likes, is over its limit. The response is to increase the distance, not to persist — the exposure is working at the distance where the puppy remains able to eat." }, { "question": "How do I socialise a puppy that is not fully vaccinated?", "answer": "By separating the disease risk from the experience. Carry the puppy to busy places so it can watch traffic, crowds and other dogs from your arms; invite friends and their known, healthy, vaccinated dogs to your home; drive it places and let it observe from the car; introduce surfaces, sounds and handling indoors; and attend a well-run puppy class that requires vaccination and cleans its floors. Ask your veterinarian what is appropriate locally — the balance depends on the diseases present in your area." }, { "question": "What about an adult dog that missed all this?", "answer": "It is not hopeless, but the process is different: slower, based on gradual exposure at a distance the dog can handle paired with something it values, and never on flooding it with the thing it fears. An adolescent or adult dog with a genuine fear response — barking, lunging, freezing, retreating — needs a qualified behaviourist working with your veterinarian, because pain and medical conditions frequently underlie or worsen behaviour, and that has to be excluded first." }, { "question": "Do puppies go through fear periods?", "answer": "Yes. Alongside the main sensitive period, puppies and adolescents commonly pass through phases in which they react more strongly to novel or startling things than they did a fortnight earlier. A frightening experience during one of these phases can leave a durable impression. The practical response is to notice the change, reduce intensity for a while, avoid forcing anything, and let the phase pass — rather than concluding the dog has become nervous." } ], "about": [ "Puppy socialisation", "Sensitive period", "Canine behaviour", "Fear response", "Puppy classes" ], "keywords": [ "socialising a puppy", "puppy socialisation window", "socialise puppy before vaccinations", "adult dog socialisation", "puppy fear period" ], "sources": [ { "key": "rspcaDogs", "title": "Dog welfare advice", "publisher": "RSPCA", "url": "https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "can-cats-eat-potato", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-potato/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-potato/index.md", "title": "Can cats eat potato? Raw, green, cooked and in commercial food", "h1": "Can cats eat potato: raw, green, cooked, and the kind in cat food", "description": "Why raw and green potato is the part that matters, what solanine does, why cooked flesh is harmless but pointless, and where potato belongs in a diet.", "summary": "Three different questions wear the same name: the raw tuber, the cooked flesh, and the potato already in the bag of food.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "can cats eat potato", "date_published": "2026-09-19", "date_modified": "2026-09-19", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-cats-eat-potato.webp", "image_alt": "Potatoes in a wooden bowl on a kitchen counter with a cat sitting on a chair beside it", "takeaways": [ "Raw potato, and especially green skin or sprouts, contains glycoalkaloids including solanine. That is the part of this question with a real answer.", "Plain cooked potato flesh, unsalted and unseasoned, is not toxic. It is also of no nutritional use to an obligate carnivore.", "Crisps and chips are a salt-and-fat question rather than a potato question, and the seasoning often contains onion or garlic powder.", "Potato appearing in a complete cat food is a formulated carbohydrate source and is a different matter from potato offered at a table.", "Grain-free diets containing high proportions of potato and pulses have been the subject of an investigation into canine heart disease; it is unresolved and worth discussing rather than ignoring." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can cats eat potato?", "answer": "Plain cooked potato flesh with no salt, butter or seasoning is not toxic to a cat, and a small amount will do nothing much either way. Raw potato is a different matter: it contains glycoalkaloids, mainly solanine and chaconine, which are concentrated in the skin, in any green areas and in sprouts. Those compounds are irritant to the gastrointestinal tract and affect the nervous system at higher exposures. In short: cooked plain flesh, unremarkable; raw or green, avoid." }, { "question": "What is solanine and how much matters?", "answer": "Solanine is a glycoalkaloid produced by plants of the nightshade family as a natural defence. In potatoes it concentrates in the peel, in tissue that has turned green from light exposure, and in sprouts, and its concentration rises in tubers stored warm or in the light. Cooking reduces it only partially. No safe household quantity for cats has been established, which is why the guidance is to avoid rather than to measure — and green or sprouting potatoes should not be within reach of any animal." }, { "question": "Are chips and crisps a problem?", "answer": "They are a salt and fat problem more than a potato problem. A cat's daily sodium allowance is small, crisps are heavily salted, and flavoured varieties commonly contain onion or garlic powder — which damages feline red blood cells and is more concentrated in dried form than in the fresh vegetable. Chips add a fat load. None of it is an emergency in a stolen crisp, and none of it belongs in a routine." }, { "question": "Why is potato in my cat's food if cats do not need carbohydrate?", "answer": "Because a dry food needs something to form a kibble, and because carbohydrate provides energy that spares protein for other uses. Cats have no absolute dietary requirement for carbohydrate, but they digest cooked starch perfectly well, and in a complete food the potato is cooked, processed and included in a formulation balanced to a recognised nutritional standard. That is a very different situation from potato handed over at a table." }, { "question": "Is grain-free food with potato better?", "answer": "Not by default, and the question deserves care. Grain-free products replace grains with potato, sweet potato and pulses, and there is no established nutritional advantage for the great majority of cats — genuine grain allergy is uncommon. Separately, an ongoing investigation has examined a possible association between grain-free diets high in pulses and potato and dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs. That work concerns dogs, it is not resolved, and it is a reason to discuss a diet choice with a veterinarian rather than to draw conclusions from marketing." }, { "question": "My cat ate a piece of raw potato — what now?", "answer": "A small amount of ordinary raw flesh will most likely cause nothing worse than a stomach upset; watch for vomiting or diarrhoea and make sure water is available. If the piece was green, sprouted, or included a lot of peel, or if a larger amount was eaten, telephone a veterinary practice or an animal poison service. Report drooling, repeated vomiting, diarrhoea, lethargy, weakness, unsteadiness or tremors immediately." } ], "about": [ "Solanine", "Glycoalkaloid", "Feline nutrition", "Carbohydrate in cat food", "Grain-free diet" ], "keywords": [ "can cats eat potato", "raw potato toxic cats", "solanine cats", "potato in cat food", "grain free cat food potato" ], "sources": [ { "key": "aspcaPlants", "title": "Toxic and non-toxic plants list", "publisher": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "wsavaNutrition", "title": "Global nutrition guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "dog-blood-test-and-ultrasound-terms", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/dog-blood-test-and-ultrasound-terms/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/dog-blood-test-and-ultrasound-terms/index.md", "title": "Dog blood test and ultrasound terms, explained", "h1": "Dog blood test and ultrasound terms: what each abbreviation measures", "description": "A plain-language glossary of the abbreviations on a canine haematology, biochemistry and urinalysis report, plus the ultrasound vocabulary.", "summary": "A report is a list of measurements, not a list of verdicts. Knowing what each one measures makes the conversation with the vet a different conversation.", "topic": "Tests and reports", "primary_query": "dog blood test and ultrasound terms", "date_published": "2026-09-17", "date_modified": "2026-09-17", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/dog-blood-test-and-ultrasound-terms.webp", "image_alt": "A laboratory bench with blood sample tubes in a rack beside a printed results report", "takeaways": [ "This page says what each abbreviation measures. What a particular value means in a particular dog is a diagnosis, and that belongs to the veterinarian who examined it.", "Reference intervals are laboratory-specific and often age- and breed-specific, so a value flagged high by one laboratory may be unremarkable at another.", "A single out-of-range value in an otherwise normal panel is frequently not the finding — patterns across several results are what carry meaning.", "Sighthounds, and some other breeds, have genuinely different normal ranges for several haematology values.", "Ultrasound terms describe how tissue reflects sound: hyperechoic is brighter, hypoechoic darker, anechoic black. They are descriptions, not diagnoses." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What do the abbreviations on a dog's blood test mean?", "answer": "They fall into three groups. Haematology counts the cells: red cells and the haemoglobin and packed volume that go with them, white cells and their subtypes, and platelets. Biochemistry measures substances in the serum that reflect how organs are working — liver enzymes, kidney markers, glucose, proteins, electrolytes and minerals. Urinalysis measures what the kidneys are doing with water and what is passing into the urine. The glossary below defines each abbreviation individually." }, { "question": "My dog has one value slightly outside the range — is that a problem?", "answer": "Not necessarily, and that judgement is the veterinarian's rather than the report's. Reference intervals are constructed so that a proportion of perfectly healthy animals fall outside them, values shift with age, breed, excitement, recent food and the handling of the sample, and a panel with many measurements will often produce one that is marginally out. What matters is the pattern across results, the trend over time, and the dog in front of the clinician." }, { "question": "What is the difference between BUN, creatinine and SDMA?", "answer": "All three are substances the kidneys clear, so all three are used to assess kidney function, and each has a different behaviour. Urea, reported as BUN, is affected by protein intake, dehydration and gastrointestinal bleeding as well as by kidney function. Creatinine comes from muscle and is affected by muscle mass, so a very muscular or a very thin dog shifts it. SDMA is a newer marker that tends to rise earlier in kidney disease and is less affected by muscle mass. They are interpreted together and alongside urine concentration." }, { "question": "What do ALT and ALKP tell you?", "answer": "They are liver-associated enzymes and they report different things. ALT sits inside liver cells and is released when those cells are damaged, so it is broadly a marker of hepatocellular injury. ALKP is associated with the bile ducts and can rise with cholestasis, with certain hormonal conditions, with some medications, and in growing dogs from bone activity. Neither is a measure of how well the liver is functioning — that is assessed with albumin, bilirubin, glucose, urea and bile acids." }, { "question": "What do hyperechoic and hypoechoic mean on an ultrasound report?", "answer": "They describe how brightly tissue reflects sound relative to its surroundings. Hyperechoic tissue appears brighter, hypoechoic darker, and anechoic completely black — which is what fluid looks like. Isoechoic means the same brightness as the reference tissue. These are descriptive terms about appearance, not diagnoses, and the same description fits several different underlying causes." }, { "question": "Do all dogs share the same reference ranges?", "answer": "No. Each laboratory publishes intervals derived from its own methods and population, which is why the same sample can be flagged at one and not at another, and why comparing a result against a range from a different laboratory is unreliable. Age matters — growing dogs have higher ALKP from bone activity. Breed matters too: sighthounds characteristically have higher packed cell volume and lower white cell and platelet counts than other dogs, and this is normal for them." } ], "about": [ "Haematology", "Serum biochemistry", "Urinalysis", "Veterinary ultrasound", "Reference interval" ], "keywords": [ "dog blood test results meaning", "ALT ALKP dog", "BUN creatinine SDMA dog", "hypoechoic ultrasound meaning", "dog blood panel abbreviations" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" } ] }, { "slug": "collecting-a-urine-or-stool-sample-from-a-dog", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/collecting-a-urine-or-stool-sample-from-a-dog/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/collecting-a-urine-or-stool-sample-from-a-dog/index.md", "title": "Collecting a urine or stool sample from a dog: doing it properly", "h1": "Collecting a urine or stool sample from a dog so the result is usable", "description": "How to catch urine cleanly, why the first morning sample is the useful one, why a culture needs a sterile sample, and why parasites may need three days.", "summary": "A sample collected badly is not a slightly worse sample. It is a result that has to be discounted, and a visit that has to be repeated.", "topic": "Home care", "primary_query": "collecting a urine or stool sample from a dog", "date_published": "2026-09-15", "date_modified": "2026-09-15", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/collecting-a-urine-or-stool-sample-from-a-dog.webp", "image_alt": "A person walking a dog on a lead across wet grass early in the morning holding a sample container", "takeaways": [ "Use a clean, dry, sealable container from the practice. Household jars leave residues that interfere with the test.", "The first urine of the morning is the most concentrated and the most informative for most routine questions.", "Catch it mid-stream in a shallow, wide vessel held at a distance. Never collect from the ground — soil, grass and floor contaminate it completely.", "A urine culture needs a sterile sample, which normally means the practice collecting it directly from the bladder. Ask before you go, so you do not do the job twice.", "Get it there within a few hours, refrigerated. Cells break down, bacteria multiply and crystals form in a sample left at room temperature." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How do I collect a urine sample from a dog?", "answer": "Ask the practice for a collection kit or a sterile pot. Use the first urine of the morning where possible. Take the dog out on a lead so you can position yourself, and slide a shallow wide vessel — the ladle or tray supplied in a kit, or a clean shallow container taped to a stick for a bitch — into the stream after the first second or so, catching mid-flow. Transfer it into the pot, seal it, label it with the dog's name, the date and the time, and refrigerate it until you leave." }, { "question": "Why does it have to be the morning sample?", "answer": "Because it has been in the bladder overnight and is the most concentrated urine the dog produces. Concentration is itself a measurement — specific gravity tells a veterinarian how well the kidneys are conserving water — and a dilute sample taken after a dog has drunk and urinated several times cannot answer that question. A concentrated sample also gives cells, crystals and protein the best chance of being detectable." }, { "question": "Can I collect it from the floor or the grass?", "answer": "No. Urine that has touched the ground, a floor, a litter tray or a puddle has picked up bacteria, soil, plant material and cleaning residues, and every one of those changes the result. A sample scooped off a surface can produce a false suggestion of infection or crystals. If a dog will not urinate on cue, going back the next morning is far better than submitting something collected from the floor." }, { "question": "Does a urine infection need a different kind of sample?", "answer": "Usually yes. A culture identifies which bacteria are present and which antibiotics will work, and it is only meaningful if the sample cannot have been contaminated on the way out. That normally means the practice collecting urine directly from the bladder with a needle — cystocentesis — which sounds worse than it is and is quick and well tolerated. Ask what the sample is for before you collect anything, because a free-catch sample cannot answer a culture question." }, { "question": "How do I collect a faecal sample and how much is needed?", "answer": "A fresh sample, collected from the top of the stool rather than the underside that touched the ground, roughly the size of a thumb, in a sealed pot — practices supply them, often with a small spoon in the lid. Do not include soil, grass, gravel or litter. Label it, refrigerate it, and take it in the same day. For some parasite tests you will be asked for samples on three consecutive days in one pot, because eggs are shed intermittently and a single sample can miss them." }, { "question": "How long can a sample be kept?", "answer": "As little as possible. In urine at room temperature, cells break down, bacteria multiply, crystals form that were not there when it left the dog, and glucose is consumed — so the result describes the container rather than the dog. Refrigerate immediately and deliver within a few hours; same day at the latest. Faecal samples degrade more slowly but still need refrigeration and same-day delivery, and some tests require the sample to be genuinely fresh." } ], "about": [ "Urinalysis", "Faecal examination", "Sample collection", "Cystocentesis", "Veterinary diagnostics" ], "keywords": [ "how to collect dog urine sample", "dog stool sample vet", "dog urine sample morning", "cystocentesis dog", "faecal sample three days" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "esccap", "title": "Parasite control guidelines for cats and dogs", "publisher": "ESCCAP (European Scientific Counsel Companion Animal Parasites)", "url": "https://www.esccap.org/guidelines/" } ] }, { "slug": "can-cats-eat-sausage-and-processed-meat", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-sausage-and-processed-meat/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-sausage-and-processed-meat/index.md", "title": "Can cats eat sausage, ham and processed meat? What is in it", "h1": "Can cats eat sausage, ham and processed meat besides the meat", "description": "Why 'it is meat and cats are carnivores' is the wrong reasoning, what salt, seasoning and preservatives do in a small animal, and why it matters most in older cats.", "summary": "Processed meat is meat plus salt plus onion plus preservative. A cat is an obligate carnivore for the meat and not for the rest of it.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "can cats eat sausage, ham and processed meat", "date_published": "2026-09-13", "date_modified": "2026-09-13", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-cats-eat-sausage-and-processed-meat.webp", "image_alt": "Slices of cured sausage on a board at the edge of a kitchen counter with a cat nearby", "takeaways": [ "The meat in a sausage is not the problem. Salt, onion and garlic powder, fat, spices and preservatives are, and a cat is small enough for all of them to count.", "Cats are more sensitive than dogs to Allium compounds, and processed meats routinely contain onion or garlic in dried, concentrated form.", "Sodium matters disproportionately in a cat with kidney or heart disease — which is a large share of older cats, often before anyone knows it.", "Every treat displaces complete food. On an animal with a small daily energy requirement, a few slices is a meaningful share of the day.", "A single stolen piece is not an emergency. A daily habit is a slow-acting problem, and it is the one worth changing." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can cats eat sausage or ham?", "answer": "A small piece occasionally will not harm a healthy adult cat, but processed meats are a poor thing to offer regularly. What makes them tasty is salt, fat and seasoning, and the seasoning very often includes onion or garlic powder, which damages feline red blood cells. They also carry preservatives and a great deal of sodium relative to a cat's size, and every piece displaces the complete food the cat's nutrition actually depends on." }, { "question": "Cats are carnivores, so why is meat a problem?", "answer": "It is not the meat. An obligate carnivore is adapted to eating whole prey — muscle, organs, bone and moisture — not to cured, salted, seasoned and preserved meat products designed for human palates. The relevant question is never 'is this meat' but 'what else is in it', and in processed products the answer is salt, fat, Allium, spices, nitrites and often sugar." }, { "question": "How much salt is too much for a cat?", "answer": "No single household figure can be given honestly, because it depends on the cat's size and health. What can be said is that a cat's total daily requirement is small, so a slice of cured meat represents a much larger share of it than the equivalent does for a person. It matters most in cats with kidney or heart disease, where sodium intake is being actively managed — and chronic kidney disease is common in older cats and frequently present before it has been diagnosed." }, { "question": "Is onion really in sausage?", "answer": "Very often, as onion or garlic powder, and the dried form is more concentrated per gram than the fresh vegetable. Allium compounds oxidise haemoglobin inside red blood cells, and cats are more susceptible than dogs. The effect accumulates across repeated small exposures and the signs appear days afterwards rather than immediately, which is why a daily scrap is a more reliable route to harm than a single theft." }, { "question": "What about raw cured meats like salami or prosciutto?", "answer": "They add a bacterial consideration to everything above, since curing is not the same as cooking. Raw and undercooked meats can carry Salmonella, Listeria and Toxoplasma into the household and into the cat's faeces, which matters where anyone in the house is pregnant, elderly, very young or immunosuppressed. The salt content of cured products is also the highest of the group." }, { "question": "What can I give as a treat instead?", "answer": "Small pieces of plain cooked meat with no salt, seasoning or sauce — chicken, turkey or white fish — are unremarkable for most cats, as are commercial treats formulated for cats. Whatever is used, the working rule is that treats stay a small minority of daily intake and are subtracted from the main meal rather than added on top, because a cat's daily energy requirement is genuinely small." } ], "about": [ "Processed meat", "Sodium intake", "Allium toxicity", "Feline nutrition", "Treat feeding" ], "keywords": [ "can cats eat sausage", "can cats eat ham", "cats processed meat salt", "onion powder cats", "cat treats safe" ], "sources": [ { "key": "wsavaNutrition", "title": "Global nutrition guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" } ] }, { "slug": "diabetes-in-dogs", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/diabetes-in-dogs/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/diabetes-in-dogs/index.md", "title": "Diabetes in dogs: the signs, the diagnosis and daily management", "h1": "Diabetes in dogs: what the signs mean and what management involves", "description": "Why drinking and urinating more is the earliest signal, why cataracts often bring dogs to the practice, how diagnosis works, and what a household actually commits to.", "summary": "Four changes precede the diagnosis, and three of them look like a dog being a dog. The fourth is sudden blindness.", "topic": "Long-term conditions", "primary_query": "diabetes in dogs", "date_published": "2026-09-11", "date_modified": "2026-09-11", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/diabetes-in-dogs.webp", "image_alt": "An older dog drinking from a large water bowl in a kitchen", "takeaways": [ "The classic picture is drinking and urinating far more, eating well or hungrily, and losing weight anyway. That combination is the signal.", "Cataracts are common in diabetic dogs and can develop quickly, so sudden clouding of both eyes is a reason to test for diabetes rather than to assume ageing.", "Canine diabetes is generally an insulin-deficiency disease, and management means injections rather than tablets or diet alone.", "Consistency is the whole treatment: the same food, the same amounts, at the same times, with the same exercise pattern.", "Neutering an intact female is usually part of the plan, because the hormonal cycle produces insulin resistance that makes control impossible." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What are the first signs of diabetes in a dog?", "answer": "Drinking noticeably more and urinating more — including asking to go out at night or having accidents in a previously clean dog — together with a good or increased appetite and, despite that, weight loss. Some dogs also become less energetic and their coat condition deteriorates. Each sign alone has other explanations; the combination of more drinking, more urine and weight loss in a dog that is eating well is the pattern worth acting on." }, { "question": "Why do diabetic dogs go blind?", "answer": "Because of how the canine lens handles excess glucose. Surplus glucose is converted into sorbitol inside the lens, sorbitol draws water in, the lens fibres swell and rupture, and the lens becomes opaque. Cataract formation is common in diabetic dogs and can be rapid — a dog may lose useful vision over days to weeks. In practice this is often what brings a dog to the consulting room, with the diabetes discovered afterwards. Cataract surgery is possible once the diabetes is stabilised." }, { "question": "How is diabetes diagnosed?", "answer": "By demonstrating persistently raised blood glucose together with glucose in the urine, in a dog showing consistent clinical signs. A single raised reading is not enough, particularly in a stressed animal. A fructosamine measurement reflects average glucose over the preceding weeks and helps separate a genuine, sustained elevation from a transient one. Practices usually also run wider blood and urine tests, because concurrent problems such as urinary infection, pancreatitis or Cushing's disease are common and change the plan." }, { "question": "Can it be managed with diet alone, or with tablets?", "answer": "In dogs, generally no. Canine diabetes is usually an insulin-deficiency condition, so insulin has to be supplied — by injection, since it is a protein and would be digested if swallowed. Diet is an essential support rather than an alternative: a consistent food, in consistent amounts, at consistent times is what makes an insulin dose predictable. Oral agents used in some human and feline diabetes are not the mainstay in dogs." }, { "question": "What does day-to-day management involve?", "answer": "Injections at set intervals, usually twice daily and typically tied to meals; the same food in the same amount at the same times; a broadly consistent exercise pattern, since activity affects glucose use; monitoring — home glucose measurement, continuous monitors, or curves run at the practice; and periodic review appointments. Most owners find the injections themselves far easier than expected. The demanding part is the consistency, because the routine has to survive holidays, working patterns and other people feeding the dog." }, { "question": "What is the emergency I should know about?", "answer": "Blood glucose falling too low. Signs are weakness, unsteadiness, disorientation, trembling, and in severe cases collapse or seizures. Any diabetic dog's owner should agree a specific written plan for this with their practice in advance — what to do, what to give and when to travel — because it is the one situation where minutes matter and there is no time to look anything up. The opposite emergency, diabetic ketoacidosis, presents as vomiting, marked lethargy, dehydration and rapid deterioration, and requires immediate attention." } ], "about": [ "Diabetes mellitus", "Insulin", "Polyuria and polydipsia", "Diabetic cataract", "Canine endocrinology" ], "keywords": [ "diabetes in dogs symptoms", "dog drinking a lot", "diabetic dog cataracts", "dog insulin injections", "diabetic ketoacidosis dog" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "wsavaNutrition", "title": "Global nutrition guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/" } ] }, { "slug": "caring-for-a-dog-after-surgery", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/caring-for-a-dog-after-surgery/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/caring-for-a-dog-after-surgery/index.md", "title": "Caring for a dog after surgery: the first two weeks at home", "h1": "Caring for a dog after surgery: what the first two weeks require", "description": "Why the collar is not optional, how a wound should and should not look, why the hardest part is restricting a dog that feels better, and which changes mean a phone call.", "summary": "The dog feels well several days before the tissue has healed. Almost every post-operative complication lives in that gap.", "topic": "Home care", "primary_query": "caring for a dog after surgery", "date_published": "2026-09-09", "date_modified": "2026-09-09", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/caring-for-a-dog-after-surgery.webp", "image_alt": "A dog resting on a bed wearing a protective collar with a person sitting beside it", "takeaways": [ "A dog's sense of how well it is recovering runs days ahead of the actual healing. Restriction is required for the tissue, not for the mood.", "Licking is the single largest cause of post-operative complications. The collar stays on continuously, including overnight and while unsupervised.", "A little redness and swelling along the incision is expected. Heat, spreading swelling, discharge, a gaping edge or a smell are not.", "Finish the whole course of any medication, and never add a human painkiller to what the practice dispensed.", "Ask before discharge what the specific restriction period is, what the wound should look like, and what number to call out of hours." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How long does a dog need to be kept quiet after an operation?", "answer": "It depends entirely on what was done, and the practice will give a specific period — commonly around ten to fourteen days for a routine soft-tissue procedure, and considerably longer, often measured in weeks to months and in staged increments, after orthopaedic surgery. The important thing is that the period is set by the tissue's healing timetable rather than by how the dog appears, and it does not shorten because the dog seems fine." }, { "question": "Does my dog really have to wear the collar?", "answer": "Yes, and continuously rather than only when you are watching. Licking is the largest single cause of post-operative complications: it introduces bacteria, removes sutures, and can open an incision in minutes. The window in which a dog does this is usually the one where nobody is present. If the standard cone is intolerable, ask the practice about alternatives — inflatable collars, soft cones, or a surgical bodysuit — rather than removing it and hoping." }, { "question": "What should the wound look like as it heals?", "answer": "A thin line, with the edges together, mild redness along it and a little swelling in the first days, occasionally with a small amount of clear or slightly blood-tinged fluid early on. Bruising can appear and spread downward with gravity, which looks alarming and is usually not. What is not expected: heat, swelling that increases after the first couple of days, thick or coloured discharge, a smell, a gap between the edges, or exposed tissue. Photograph it daily in the same light — a series shows change far better than memory does." }, { "question": "My dog will not eat the evening after surgery — is that normal?", "answer": "A reduced appetite on the first evening is common after a general anaesthetic, and small amounts of a bland, easily digested food usually suit better than a full meal. What is not expected is refusing food beyond about twenty-four hours, repeated vomiting, or an appetite that had returned and then disappeared again. Those are reasons to call. Water should be available and drinking should resume normally." }, { "question": "Can I give my dog something for pain if it seems uncomfortable?", "answer": "Only what the practice dispensed, at the times they specified, and for the full course. Never add a human painkiller: paracetamol, ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin each damage a different system in dogs, and several cannot be combined with veterinary anti-inflammatories at all. If the dog seems painful despite what has been given, that is a call to the practice — they can change the plan, and pain that is worsening rather than settling is itself information." }, { "question": "When should I telephone rather than wait for the check-up?", "answer": "Bleeding from the wound; a gaping incision or exposed tissue; swelling that is hot, spreading or increasing after day two; discharge or a smell; repeated vomiting; refusal of food beyond a day; laboured breathing; pale gums; collapse; a dog that was improving and is now going backwards; and any dog that will not settle at all despite pain relief. None of these is a wait-and-see." } ], "about": [ "Post-operative care", "Wound healing", "Exercise restriction", "Elizabethan collar", "Canine surgery" ], "keywords": [ "dog after surgery care", "dog licking stitches", "dog spay recovery", "post op exercise restriction dog", "dog incision healing normal" ], "sources": [ { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "avmaFirstAid", "title": "Pet first aid tips", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/emergencycare/pet-first-aid-tips" }, { "key": "rspcaDogs", "title": "Dog welfare advice", "publisher": "RSPCA", "url": "https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "can-dogs-eat-soup-and-broth", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-dogs-eat-soup-and-broth/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-dogs-eat-soup-and-broth/index.md", "title": "Can dogs eat soup and broth? Onion, salt and stock cubes", "h1": "Can dogs eat soup and broth, and what is actually in the stock", "description": "Why the hazard in a bowl of soup is rarely the meat: Allium species damage red blood cells, stock cubes are concentrated salt and onion powder, and fat provokes pancreatitis.", "summary": "Broth sounds like the gentlest thing you could give a dog. What makes it taste of anything is usually the part a dog should not have.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "can dogs eat soup and broth", "date_published": "2026-09-07", "date_modified": "2026-09-07", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-dogs-eat-soup-and-broth.webp", "image_alt": "A pot of soup on a stove with a dog waiting on the kitchen floor behind it", "takeaways": [ "Plain, unsalted, onion-free broth is not a problem. Almost nothing sold or cooked as soup meets that description.", "Onion, garlic, leek, shallot and chive all belong to Allium and damage red blood cells. The effect is cumulative across meals, not a single-exposure event.", "Powdered and dehydrated forms are the most concentrated: a stock cube delivers far more Allium per gram than a fresh onion does.", "Salt and fat carry their own consequences — thirst and, in a rich meal, pancreatitis, which is a common post-holiday veterinary presentation.", "The damage from Allium can appear days after the meal, so a dog that seems fine that evening has not necessarily escaped." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can dogs eat soup or broth?", "answer": "Plain broth with no salt, no onion, no garlic and no added fat is harmless and is sometimes used to encourage drinking in a convalescent dog. Ordinary household soup and commercial stock are a different matter: they usually contain onion or garlic in some form, a substantial amount of salt, and often enough fat to matter. The question is not really about soup as a category — it is about what has been dissolved into it." }, { "question": "Why are onion and garlic a problem for dogs?", "answer": "Allium species contain organosulfur compounds that, once absorbed, oxidise the haemoglobin inside red blood cells. The damaged haemoglobin precipitates into Heinz bodies, and the cells are removed from circulation, producing a haemolytic anaemia. Dogs and cats are far more susceptible to this than people, cats more than dogs. Cooking does not destroy the compounds, so onion in soup is as relevant as onion raw." }, { "question": "Is garlic really dangerous, or is that a myth?", "answer": "Garlic is in the same genus and works by the same mechanism; the difference from onion is a matter of degree, not of kind. It is sometimes promoted as a natural flea remedy, which has no established effect on fleas and does have an established effect on red blood cells. Because the damage is cumulative, a small amount given deliberately every day is a more reliable way to cause harm than a single accidental mouthful." }, { "question": "What makes a stock cube worse than an onion?", "answer": "Concentration. Dehydrated and powdered Allium contains far more of the active compounds per gram than the fresh vegetable, because the water has been removed. A stock cube or bouillon powder therefore delivers a meaningful dose in a very small volume, and it is also heavily salted. The same applies to onion and garlic powder in gravy granules, seasoning mixes and many packaged sauces." }, { "question": "What are the signs if a dog has eaten onion or garlic?", "answer": "They are typically delayed by a day or several, which is what catches people out. Look for lethargy and weakness, reduced appetite, pale or yellow-tinged gums, faster breathing or heart rate, red or brown discolouration of the urine, and vomiting or diarrhoea earlier on. If a dog has eaten a meaningful amount of Allium, telephone a practice at the time rather than waiting to see whether signs appear." }, { "question": "Is fatty food really a risk, or just a rich meal?", "answer": "A sudden large intake of fat is one of the recognised triggers for acute pancreatitis in dogs, and practices see a predictable rise in cases after holidays for exactly that reason. Signs are repeated vomiting, abdominal pain — often shown as a hunched back or a prayer position — lethargy and refusal to eat. It is painful, it can be severe, and it is not resolved by waiting." } ], "about": [ "Allium toxicity", "Haemolytic anaemia", "Pancreatitis", "Dog nutrition", "Food safety for pets" ], "keywords": [ "can dogs eat soup", "onion toxic to dogs", "is garlic bad for dogs", "dog ate stock cube", "bone broth for dogs" ], "sources": [ { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "wsavaNutrition", "title": "Global nutrition guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/" } ] }, { "slug": "heartworm-in-dogs", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/heartworm-in-dogs/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/heartworm-in-dogs/index.md", "title": "Heartworm in dogs: the six-month window and why prevention wins", "h1": "Heartworm in dogs: the life cycle, the six-month window and prevention", "description": "How a mosquito bite becomes an adult worm, why preventives only work on larval stages, what treatment involves, and why testing comes first.", "summary": "Everything about heartworm turns on one interval: preventives act on larvae, and larvae become untouchable adults in about six months.", "topic": "Prevention", "primary_query": "heartworm in dogs", "date_published": "2026-09-05", "date_modified": "2026-09-05", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/heartworm-in-dogs.webp", "image_alt": "A dog resting on a porch at dusk with long grass and still water in the background", "takeaways": [ "Heartworm is transmitted by mosquitoes, not between dogs. The larvae enter through the bite wound and take around six months to mature into adults.", "Preventive medication kills larval stages from the preceding weeks. It has no effect on established adult worms, which is the entire reason a lapse matters.", "A dog must be tested before a preventive is started or restarted, because giving one to a dog carrying microfilariae can provoke a serious reaction.", "Treatment of established infection is possible but demanding: it is expensive, carries real risk from dying worms embolising, and requires months of strict exercise restriction.", "Whether prevention is needed at all is geographic. Where heartworm occurs, indoor dogs and cats are not exempt, because the vector flies." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How do dogs get heartworm?", "answer": "From a mosquito. A mosquito feeding on an infected animal takes up microfilariae, which develop inside it into infective larvae; when that mosquito next feeds, the larvae are deposited on the skin and enter through the bite wound. They then migrate through tissue and eventually reach the pulmonary arteries and the right side of the heart, maturing into adult worms over roughly six months. Dogs do not transmit it to each other directly, and it is not caught from faeces or contact." }, { "question": "Why does missing a dose of preventive matter so much?", "answer": "Because preventives work on larval stages, not on adults. A monthly product acts retroactively, clearing the larvae acquired over the preceding weeks. If a gap allows larvae to survive long enough to develop past that susceptible stage, no amount of subsequent prevention will affect them; they continue to adulthood and the dog becomes infected. This is also why a lapse is not fixed by simply resuming — a test is needed after the appropriate interval." }, { "question": "Why must a dog be tested before starting a preventive?", "answer": "Two reasons. If adult worms are already present, a preventive will not remove them, and starting it creates a false sense of protection while the infection progresses. More acutely, in a dog carrying circulating microfilariae, the rapid kill produced by some preventives can provoke a serious adverse reaction. Testing first establishes which situation you are in, and it is standard practice before starting and after any significant lapse." }, { "question": "What are the signs of heartworm infection?", "answer": "Often none at all for a long time, which is why testing exists. As disease develops the picture includes a persistent cough, reduced tolerance of exercise, tiredness after mild activity, weight loss and reduced appetite; later, signs of right-sided heart failure such as a distended abdomen from fluid accumulation. A dog can be carrying adult worms and appear entirely normal, and by the time signs are obvious the damage to the pulmonary arteries has usually been under way for a considerable time." }, { "question": "How is an established infection treated?", "answer": "With a specific adulticide protocol given by a veterinarian, usually alongside other medication, staged over weeks. What owners most need to know is what the protocol demands of them: strict exercise restriction for a prolonged period, because dying worms fragment and lodge in the pulmonary arteries, and physical exertion is what turns that into a life-threatening embolic event. It is expensive, it carries genuine risk, and it is entirely avoidable by prevention that costs a fraction of it." }, { "question": "Do indoor pets need heartworm prevention?", "answer": "Where heartworm is present, yes — this is a question for the local veterinary practice rather than a general rule, because the parasite's distribution is geographic. Mosquitoes come indoors through open windows and doors, and a meaningful proportion of feline heartworm cases occur in cats described as indoor-only. In regions where heartworm does not occur, prevention against it is not indicated, and the parasite plan addresses whatever is present locally instead." } ], "about": [ "Dirofilaria immitis", "Heartworm prevention", "Mosquito-borne disease", "Canine cardiology", "Parasite control" ], "keywords": [ "heartworm in dogs symptoms", "heartworm prevention missed dose", "heartworm test before prevention", "dirofilaria immitis dog", "indoor dog heartworm" ], "sources": [ { "key": "heartwormSociety", "title": "Canine heartworm guidelines", "publisher": "American Heartworm Society", "url": "https://www.heartwormsociety.org/veterinary-resources/american-heartworm-society-guidelines" }, { "key": "capc", "title": "Parasite control recommendations", "publisher": "Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC)", "url": "https://capcvet.org/guidelines/" }, { "key": "esccap", "title": "Parasite control guidelines for cats and dogs", "publisher": "ESCCAP (European Scientific Counsel Companion Animal Parasites)", "url": "https://www.esccap.org/guidelines/" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "first-aid-kit-for-a-dog", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/first-aid-kit-for-a-dog/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/first-aid-kit-for-a-dog/index.md", "title": "A first-aid kit for a dog: what belongs in it and what does not", "h1": "A first-aid kit for a dog: what belongs in it and what does not", "description": "The contents that earn their place, the items people include that cause harm, why a muzzle is the first thing in the box, and what a kit is actually for.", "summary": "A kit is not for treating an injury. It is for controlling bleeding, protecting a wound and getting the dog to a practice without making anything worse.", "topic": "Home care", "primary_query": "first-aid kit for a dog", "date_published": "2026-09-03", "date_modified": "2026-09-03", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/first-aid-kit-for-a-dog.webp", "image_alt": "An open first-aid box on a table with bandages, gauze, scissors and a thermometer laid out beside it", "takeaways": [ "The purpose of a kit is stabilise and transport. Nothing in it treats a condition, and an item that encourages you to stay home is a liability.", "A soft muzzle belongs at the top of the box. A dog in pain bites the person it loves most, and a bitten owner cannot drive it anywhere.", "Sterile saline is the most useful liquid in the kit — for flushing eyes and wounds — and it replaces every antiseptic people are tempted to include.", "Do not stock human painkillers, and do not stock hydrogen peroxide as a routine 'make it vomit' item. Both cause harm on their own.", "Two pieces of paper matter more than most of the contents: the out-of-hours number, and a current list of the dog's medication and conditions." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What should a dog first-aid kit contain?", "answer": "A soft muzzle and a spare slip lead; disposable gloves; sterile gauze swabs and non-adherent dressings; conforming and self-adhesive bandage; adhesive tape; blunt-ended scissors; tweezers and a tick-removal tool; a digital thermometer with water-based lubricant; sterile saline pods for flushing; a foil blanket; a clean towel or blanket that can serve as a stretcher; and a card with the practice number, the out-of-hours number, an animal poison service number and the dog's details. That is the working set — anything beyond it is refinement." }, { "question": "Why is a muzzle the first item?", "answer": "Because pain overrides temperament. A dog with a fracture, a deep wound or severe abdominal pain may bite when the injured area is touched, and it is not a comment on the dog or on your relationship with it. A bitten handler is a second casualty who then cannot drive, restrain or carry. Use a soft fabric muzzle, introduce it calmly, and never muzzle a dog that is vomiting, struggling to breathe, or has a facial or airway injury." }, { "question": "Should I keep hydrogen peroxide to make my dog vomit?", "answer": "Not as a default. Inducing vomiting is the wrong action for several of the most common ingestions — anything sharp, anything corrosive, and anything petroleum-based — and it is dangerous in a dog that is drowsy, seizing or struggling to breathe. Hydrogen peroxide also causes gastric irritation of its own and has caused serious injury when given repeatedly. Whether to empty the stomach, and how, is a decision made on the telephone with a practice or a poison service, not in advance." }, { "question": "Can I put antiseptic cream on a dog's wound?", "answer": "Better not. Human antiseptic and antibiotic creams are formulated for skin that will not be licked, and a dog removes them within minutes and swallows them. Some contain ingredients that are irritant or toxic to dogs. The useful thing to do with a wound at home is to flush it with sterile saline, cover it with a non-adherent dressing to keep it clean, and go — everything else is a veterinary decision made after the wound has been assessed for depth and contamination." }, { "question": "How tightly should a bandage be applied?", "answer": "Loosely enough to slide a finger under, and only as a temporary covering for transport. A bandage applied too tightly on a limb cuts off circulation and can cause damage far worse than the original wound, and it is easy to do with a self-adhesive bandage, which tightens as it is stretched. If a limb below a bandage becomes cold, swollen or the dog starts to chew at it, remove the bandage. Tourniquets are for the rarest of catastrophic bleeds and are more likely to be applied wrongly than usefully." }, { "question": "How should the kit be maintained?", "answer": "Check it twice a year. Replace anything expired, particularly saline pods and dressings whose sterile packaging has been opened or damaged; replace the batteries in the thermometer and any torch; and update the medication list and the phone numbers. Keep a second smaller kit in the car, because a good proportion of injuries happen away from home, and keep both out of the dog's reach — a first-aid kit contains several things that should not be eaten." } ], "about": [ "First aid", "Emergency preparedness", "Wound care", "Dog safety", "Home veterinary kit" ], "keywords": [ "dog first aid kit contents", "what to put in pet first aid kit", "dog wound care at home", "muzzle injured dog", "hydrogen peroxide dog vomit" ], "sources": [ { "key": "avmaFirstAid", "title": "Pet first aid tips", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/emergencycare/pet-first-aid-tips" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "rspcaDogs", "title": "Dog welfare advice", "publisher": "RSPCA", "url": "https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "can-cats-eat-oranges", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-oranges/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-oranges/index.md", "title": "Can cats eat oranges? Citrus, essential oils and a missing enzyme", "h1": "Can cats eat oranges, and why citrus oil is the part that matters", "description": "Why cats are indifferent to fruit, what limonene does in a species with limited glucuronidation, and why concentrated citrus is the real hazard.", "summary": "A segment of orange is a minor problem. A citrus-oil cleaner or a 'natural' flea spray is a different question entirely, and it is the one worth answering.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "can cats eat oranges", "date_published": "2026-09-01", "date_modified": "2026-09-01", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-cats-eat-oranges.webp", "image_alt": "An orange and a peeled segment on a kitchen worktop with a cat looking away from them", "takeaways": [ "Cats cannot taste sweetness — the receptor gene is non-functional in the species — so a cat showing interest in fruit is interested in texture, moisture or your attention.", "The flesh of an orange is a low-level problem: sugar and acid the cat does not need, and gastrointestinal upset if enough is eaten.", "The hazard concentrates in the peel, the pith and the oil. Limonene and linalool are handled poorly by a species with limited glucuronidation.", "Concentrated citrus products — oils, cleaners, diffusers and 'natural' flea remedies containing d-limonene — are the genuinely dangerous form.", "Citrus is not on the list of foods that cause organ failure in cats. Filed correctly it is an avoid-and-do-not-worry, unless the exposure was concentrated." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can cats eat oranges?", "answer": "They should not be offered, and a lick of the flesh is not an emergency. The edible pulp mostly presents sugar and acid that a cat has no dietary use for, and enough of it causes vomiting or diarrhoea. The compounds that make citrus a genuine concern — essential oils and psoralens — are concentrated in the peel, the pith and the zest rather than the flesh, so the exposure that matters is usually not someone's dessert." }, { "question": "Why do cats not want fruit anyway?", "answer": "Because they cannot taste it as sweet. The gene for one half of the mammalian sweet-taste receptor is non-functional in cats, which fits an obligate carnivore whose natural diet contains almost no carbohydrate. A cat that appears keen on a piece of fruit is usually responding to the moisture, the texture, the smell of something on your fingers, or simply to the fact that you have it." }, { "question": "What actually makes citrus a problem for cats?", "answer": "Two groups of compounds. The essential oils — chiefly limonene and linalool — are lipophilic terpenes that a cat's liver clears slowly, because cats have limited glucuronidation capacity, the same conjugation pathway that makes paracetamol so dangerous to them. And psoralens, present in citrus peel, are photosensitising: they can make skin react abnormally to sunlight. Both concentrate in the peel and the oil, not in the pulp." }, { "question": "Are citrus essential oils or diffusers dangerous to cats?", "answer": "This is the exposure worth taking seriously. Concentrated citrus oil applied to the skin, licked off a coat, or inhaled at high concentration in an unventilated room can cause drooling, vomiting, tremors, weakness, incoordination and skin irritation. Products sold as natural flea remedies containing d-limonene have caused poisoning in cats. Do not apply essential oils to a cat, do not run diffusers in a room a cat cannot leave, and do not use undiluted citrus cleaners on floors the cat walks on and then grooms." }, { "question": "Is orange peel a good deterrent to keep cats off furniture?", "answer": "It is a common household tip and it is the wrong way round. Cats do generally dislike the smell of citrus, which is why it appears to work, but relying on a compound the species handles poorly to repel it is an odd trade. A cat that pushes past the smell and chews the peel receives the most concentrated part of the fruit. Physical deterrents and providing a better alternative do the same job with no chemistry involved." }, { "question": "What should I do if my cat has eaten some?", "answer": "For a small amount of flesh, watch for vomiting or diarrhoea, make sure water is available, and call if it persists or the cat seems unwell. For peel, zest, a large quantity, or any concentrated product — essential oil, cleaner, flea preparation — telephone a veterinary practice or an animal poison service straight away with the product in hand. If oil is on the coat or skin, do not let the cat groom it off; ask what to use before washing, because the wrong approach spreads it." } ], "about": [ "Citrus toxicity", "Limonene", "Essential oils", "Feline metabolism", "Cat nutrition" ], "keywords": [ "can cats eat oranges", "citrus toxic to cats", "essential oil diffuser cats", "limonene cats", "orange peel cat deterrent" ], "sources": [ { "key": "aspcaPlants", "title": "Toxic and non-toxic plants list", "publisher": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" } ] }, { "slug": "dental-pain-in-cats", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/dental-pain-in-cats/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/dental-pain-in-cats/index.md", "title": "Dental pain in cats: how a cat hides it and what to look for", "h1": "Dental pain in cats: how it is hidden and what to look for", "description": "Why a cat with severe dental disease keeps eating, what tooth resorption is, why a conscious examination cannot see it, and what to look for.", "summary": "The commonest reason an owner is sure a cat's teeth are fine is that it is still eating. That is the least reliable evidence available.", "topic": "Long-term conditions", "primary_query": "dental pain in cats", "date_published": "2026-08-30", "date_modified": "2026-08-30", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/dental-pain-in-cats.webp", "image_alt": "A close view of a grey cat's face resting on a blanket with its mouth closed", "takeaways": [ "Cats with painful mouths usually keep eating. Appetite is a survival behaviour, not a comfort report, so it is the weakest possible reassurance.", "Tooth resorption is a specifically feline disease in which the tooth structure is destroyed from within. It is common in adult cats and it hurts.", "Most of the disease is below the gum line, which is why a conscious look in the mouth cannot rule it out and dental radiographs under anaesthesia can.", "The signals are behavioural: chewing on one side, dropping food, turning the head while eating, preferring soft food, reduced grooming, withdrawal.", "Anaesthesia-free dental cleaning addresses the visible crown, leaves the disease below the gum untouched, and is opposed by veterinary dental bodies." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How do I know if my cat's teeth hurt?", "answer": "By watching what the cat does rather than whether it eats. Look for chewing on one side only, tilting the head while eating, dropping kibble, taking food and then leaving it, a sudden preference for soft food, approaching the bowl and backing away, halitosis, drooling — occasionally blood-tinged — pawing at the mouth, a coat that has become unkempt because grooming hurts, hiding, irritability when the face is touched, and gradual weight loss. Any two of these together are worth an appointment." }, { "question": "My cat is eating normally, so the teeth must be fine?", "answer": "No, and this is the single most common misreading. Cats evolved as solitary hunters for whom not eating is dangerous, so appetite persists through a great deal of pain. Cats with fractured teeth, exposed pulp and advanced resorption are routinely found in animals whose owners report a normal appetite. Eating tells you the cat is hungry; it says nothing about whether eating hurts." }, { "question": "What is tooth resorption?", "answer": "A process in which cells break down the tooth's own hard tissue, hollowing it out from within, often starting below the gum line. The lesion progresses until the crown weakens and fractures, leaving a painful root fragment. It is common in adult cats, its cause is not fully established, and it cannot be prevented by brushing — unlike periodontal disease. It is also intensely painful once the sensitive dentine is exposed, which is why a cat with resorption may flinch or chatter its jaw when the area is touched." }, { "question": "Why does the vet need to anaesthetise my cat to assess the teeth?", "answer": "Because most of the disease is where you cannot see it. A conscious examination shows the outer surface of some crowns; it cannot show the inner surfaces, the space below the gum line, or the roots. Full assessment requires probing every tooth, examining all surfaces, and dental radiographs of the roots and bone — none of which is possible in a conscious cat. A treatment plan made without radiographs is a plan made about the part of the mouth that is easiest to see." }, { "question": "Is anaesthesia-free dental cleaning a reasonable alternative?", "answer": "It removes visible tartar from the crown, which improves appearance without addressing disease below the gum line — where periodontal disease and resorption actually live. It also does not permit probing or radiographs, and it involves restraining a conscious cat while sharp instruments are used near its gums. Veterinary dental organisations advise against it, and a clean-looking mouth afterwards can delay the recognition of a painful problem." }, { "question": "Can I prevent dental disease at home?", "answer": "Daily toothbrushing with a paste formulated for pets is the most effective home measure, and it works because it disrupts plaque before it mineralises. It has to be introduced gradually and gently over weeks, and it prevents periodontal disease rather than tooth resorption. Products carrying an independent veterinary oral health accreditation have been tested for a measurable effect on plaque or tartar. Never use human toothpaste — cats swallow it and it is not formulated for them." } ], "about": [ "Feline dentistry", "Tooth resorption", "Periodontal disease", "Pain in cats", "Dental radiography" ], "keywords": [ "cat dental pain signs", "cat tooth resorption", "cat bad breath teeth", "cat stopped grooming", "anaesthesia free dental cleaning cat" ], "sources": [ { "key": "wsavaDental", "title": "Global dental guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/dental-guidelines/" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "parasite-prevention-indoor-cats", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/parasite-prevention-indoor-cats/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/parasite-prevention-indoor-cats/index.md", "title": "Parasite prevention for indoor cats: what gets past a door", "h1": "Parasite prevention for indoor cats: the routes that bypass a closed door", "description": "How fleas, roundworm, tapeworm and Toxoplasma reach a cat that never goes out, which risks are shared with the household, and how a risk-based prevention plan is put together.", "summary": "An indoor cat is protected from most of what it would meet outside. The parasites that matter are the ones that do not need the cat to leave.", "topic": "Prevention", "primary_query": "parasite prevention for indoor cats", "date_published": "2026-08-28", "date_modified": "2026-08-28", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/parasite-prevention-indoor-cats.webp", "image_alt": "A cat sitting on a rug in a sunlit living room beside a partly open balcony door", "takeaways": [ "Fleas arrive on clothing, on other pets and from a previous occupant's infestation. Most of a flea population is eggs, larvae and pupae in the carpet, not adults on the cat.", "Tapeworm follows fleas: a cat that swallows an infected flea while grooming acquires Dipylidium without ever meeting another animal.", "Roundworm can be acquired before birth or from milk, so a kitten that has never been outdoors can already be infected — and Toxocara is a genuine human health issue.", "Toxoplasma oocysts need one to five days in the litter tray to become infectious, which is why daily emptying is the single most effective household control.", "Indoor status reduces risk; it does not remove the need for a plan. The right plan is risk-based and set with a veterinarian, not copied from a neighbour." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Do indoor cats need parasite treatment at all?", "answer": "Usually yes, but less intensively and for different parasites than an outdoor cat. The parasites that reach an indoor cat are the ones that do not require it to go out: fleas carried in on clothing and other pets, tapeworm acquired by swallowing those fleas, roundworm acquired before birth or from milk, and in heartworm areas the mosquito that gets indoors. European and North American parasite-control bodies both recommend a risk assessment for each animal rather than a single schedule applied to every cat, and indoor status is one input to that assessment." }, { "question": "How do fleas get into a house with no outdoor animals?", "answer": "On shoes, trouser legs and bags; on a dog that does go out; from a neighbouring flat or a shared hallway; from a previous occupant, since pupae can lie dormant in flooring for months and hatch in response to warmth and vibration; and on wildlife and rodents in roof spaces. It also matters that adults on the cat are only a small part of the population — most of it is eggs, larvae and pupae in carpets, bedding and floor cracks, which is why treating the cat alone often fails." }, { "question": "Can an indoor cat get worms?", "answer": "Yes. Roundworm (Toxocara cati) is commonly acquired by kittens through their mother's milk, so a kitten can be infected before it has ever left the house. Tapeworm (Dipylidium caninum) is acquired by swallowing an infected flea during grooming. Cats that hunt rodents indoors, or that are fed raw or undercooked meat, can also acquire tapeworms and Toxoplasma that way. What an indoor cat largely escapes is the outdoor reinfection cycle, not the initial routes." }, { "question": "What is the Toxoplasma risk to people in the house?", "answer": "A cat that becomes infected sheds oocysts in its faeces for a limited period, usually a couple of weeks, and typically only once in its life. Those oocysts are not infectious when passed — they need roughly one to five days in the environment to sporulate. That gap is what makes the practical control so effective: emptying the litter tray daily removes them before they can infect anyone. Pregnant people and immunosuppressed people should not clean litter trays; where that is unavoidable, gloves and thorough handwashing apply. For most people the larger Toxoplasma exposure is undercooked meat rather than a cat." }, { "question": "How often should an indoor cat be treated?", "answer": "That is the question a risk assessment answers, and it depends on the household: whether there are other animals that go out, whether anyone in the house is very young, elderly or immunosuppressed, whether the cat hunts indoors, whether it is fed raw food, whether it travels or is boarded, and whether it lives where heartworm or particular ticks occur. Parasite-control guidelines set out how to weigh these; the schedule that comes out of it belongs to that cat, and copying a friend's schedule is how both under- and over-treatment happen." }, { "question": "Do fleas need treating if I only see one or two?", "answer": "Yes, and the visible adults are the least of it. Adult fleas on the animal represent a small fraction of the total population; the rest is at immature stages in the environment. An effective response treats every animal in the household at once, continues long enough to outlast the pupal stage, and includes thorough vacuuming and washing of bedding. Treating only the cat, only once, is the commonest reason an infestation appears to come back." } ], "about": [ "Parasite control", "Flea life cycle", "Toxocara cati", "Toxoplasma gondii", "Indoor cats" ], "keywords": [ "indoor cat parasite prevention", "do indoor cats need flea treatment", "indoor cat worms", "toxoplasmosis litter tray", "cat flea life cycle" ], "sources": [ { "key": "esccap", "title": "Parasite control guidelines for cats and dogs", "publisher": "ESCCAP (European Scientific Counsel Companion Animal Parasites)", "url": "https://www.esccap.org/guidelines/" }, { "key": "capc", "title": "Parasite control recommendations", "publisher": "Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC)", "url": "https://capcvet.org/guidelines/" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" } ] }, { "slug": "obesity-in-cats", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/obesity-in-cats/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/obesity-in-cats/index.md", "title": "Obesity in cats: measuring it, and why weight loss is slow", "h1": "Obesity in cats: measuring it, and why weight loss has to be gradual", "description": "How body condition scoring works, what excess weight costs a cat in diabetes and joint disease, and why a crash diet in a cat risks a liver condition that can be fatal.", "summary": "Cats are the one species where losing weight too fast is more dangerous than carrying it. That single fact governs everything else on this page.", "topic": "Long-term conditions", "primary_query": "obesity in cats", "date_published": "2026-08-26", "date_modified": "2026-08-26", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/obesity-in-cats.webp", "image_alt": "A large tabby cat lying on a sunlit windowsill seen from the side", "takeaways": [ "Body condition score on a 1-to-9 scale is the practical measure: 4 to 5 is ideal, and each point above roughly corresponds to 10–15% over ideal weight.", "You should be able to feel the ribs under a thin layer of fat, see a waist from above and see the belly tuck up from the side. None of those requires scales.", "Excess weight in cats is strongly associated with diabetes mellitus, osteoarthritis, urinary disease and a shorter life.", "A cat must never be starved or crash-dieted. Rapid fat mobilisation overwhelms the feline liver and causes hepatic lipidosis, which is life-threatening.", "Weight loss in cats is a supervised, measured, slow process — grams per week, on weighed portions, with the plan set by a veterinarian." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How do I tell whether my cat is overweight?", "answer": "Use three hands-on checks rather than the scales alone. Run your fingertips along the flank: you should feel the ribs easily under a thin fat covering, without pressing. Look down from above: there should be a visible narrowing behind the ribs. Look from the side: the belly should tuck upward from the ribcage to the hind legs rather than hanging level. On the standard nine-point body condition scale, a cat scoring 4 or 5 meets all three; a cat at 7 or above fails all three, and each point above 5 corresponds to roughly 10 to 15 per cent above ideal weight." }, { "question": "What does carrying extra weight actually cost a cat?", "answer": "The strongest association is with diabetes mellitus — excess body fat drives insulin resistance, and overweight cats develop it substantially more often than lean ones. Beyond that: osteoarthritis and reduced mobility, urinary tract disease, poorer tolerance of anaesthesia, difficulty grooming leading to a matted, greasy coat and skin problems, reduced ability to regulate temperature, and a shorter life. Many of these are also silent, because a cat that hurts simply does less." }, { "question": "Why can't a cat just be fed less until it slims down?", "answer": "Because of how the feline liver handles a sudden fat mobilisation. When a cat's energy intake drops sharply, body fat is released faster than the liver can process it, and it accumulates inside liver cells — hepatic lipidosis. Liver function deteriorates, the cat feels worse and eats even less, and the process becomes self-sustaining. It is life-threatening and it can begin within days. This is why feline weight loss is measured in small weekly percentages and always supervised, and why a cat that stops eating for around 24 hours is a veterinary matter in its own right." }, { "question": "How fast should a cat lose weight?", "answer": "Slowly, on a plan set by a veterinarian, with the amount fed weighed rather than scooped and the cat weighed regularly to confirm the rate. The rate is deliberately conservative because the risk of going faster is the liver, not the diet. A practice will normally calculate a target weight, set the daily amount from it, and review at intervals — and will change the plan if the cat is losing faster than intended, not just slower." }, { "question": "Do treats really matter that much?", "answer": "On a small animal, yes. A cat's total daily energy requirement is modest, so a few treats can represent a substantial share of it, and everything given outside the measured food eats into the plan. The usual working rule is that treats and extras stay a small minority of daily intake and that whatever they contribute is subtracted from the main meal rather than added on top. Counting them is the part households skip, and it is usually where a stalled weight-loss plan is hiding." }, { "question": "What helps besides feeding less?", "answer": "Activity and how food is delivered. Puzzle feeders and food-dispensing toys turn eating into work and slow it down. Several small portions spread across the day suit feline feeding behaviour better than one large meal. Vertical space, play sessions with a wand toy, and moving the food bowl so the cat has to travel all add movement. In multi-cat households, feeding separately is often the only way to control who eats what." } ], "about": [ "Feline obesity", "Body condition score", "Hepatic lipidosis", "Diabetes mellitus in cats", "Weight management" ], "keywords": [ "cat obesity body condition score", "is my cat overweight", "cat weight loss safe", "hepatic lipidosis cat", "overweight cat diabetes" ], "sources": [ { "key": "wsavaNutrition", "title": "Global nutrition guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "intestinal-obstruction-in-dogs", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/intestinal-obstruction-in-dogs/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/intestinal-obstruction-in-dogs/index.md", "title": "Intestinal obstruction in dogs: the signs that cannot wait", "h1": "Intestinal obstruction in dogs: what it is and which signs cannot wait", "description": "How a blockage differs from an upset stomach, why a linear foreign body is the worst kind, and what happens at the practice.", "summary": "A dog with a blockage and a dog with a stomach upset look similar for the first few hours. After that they diverge sharply, and only one of them is still improving.", "topic": "Emergencies", "primary_query": "intestinal obstruction in dogs", "date_published": "2026-08-24", "date_modified": "2026-08-24", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/intestinal-obstruction-in-dogs.webp", "image_alt": "A dog lying quietly on a clinic examination table while a veterinarian palpates its abdomen", "takeaways": [ "Repeated vomiting with no faeces passing, a dog that will not settle, and a painful abdomen is the pattern that separates an obstruction from a stomach upset.", "A linear foreign body — string, thread, tinsel, fabric — is the dangerous kind: one end anchors and the intestine gathers along it, so the gut saws through itself.", "A complete obstruction cuts the blood supply to a section of bowel. That section dies, then leaks, and the problem becomes septic peritonitis.", "Do not give food, oil, laxatives or anything to 'move it through', and do not induce vomiting — several of these make the situation materially worse.", "Vomiting that stops is not recovery when the dog is also becoming quieter. Deterioration in an obstructed dog is often silent before it is dramatic." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What are the signs of an intestinal obstruction in a dog?", "answer": "Repeated vomiting, often persisting or worsening; complete loss of appetite; little or no faeces, or small amounts of liquid faeces squeezing past; abdominal pain shown as a hunched back, a prayer position with the chest down and rear up, restlessness or an unwillingness to lie down; lethargy that deepens; and dehydration. A partial obstruction can produce intermittent vomiting over days and a dog that seems to improve between episodes, which is why the history matters as much as the examination." }, { "question": "How is this different from an ordinary stomach upset?", "answer": "In the first hours it may not be. What separates them is the trajectory. A dietary upset improves: the vomiting settles, the dog drinks, faeces reappear. An obstruction does not improve — vomiting continues or returns, nothing passes, and the dog becomes quieter rather than brighter. Any dog that vomits repeatedly and passes no faeces for a day, or that vomits and is also painful, belongs in a practice rather than under observation." }, { "question": "Why is string or thread the most dangerous thing a dog can swallow?", "answer": "Because it does not travel as a lump. One end catches — commonly at the base of the tongue or at the stomach outflow — while the intestine keeps trying to push the rest along. Unable to move the anchored end, the bowel gathers itself up along the string like fabric on a thread, and the taut line saws into the inner wall at the folds. This can perforate the intestine in several places at once. Never pull on a thread visible in the mouth or at the anus: it may be anchored deep inside." }, { "question": "Can an obstruction resolve on its own?", "answer": "Small, smooth objects sometimes pass, and partial obstructions can occasionally clear. That possibility is what makes the situation dangerous, because it encourages waiting, and waiting is what turns a straightforward retrieval into bowel surgery. Whether an object may be given time is a decision made on imaging and examination, not on hope — and it is monitored rather than left." }, { "question": "What should I not do while arranging a visit?", "answer": "Do not give food. Do not give oil, butter, laxatives, bulk fibre or anything intended to 'help it through' — these add volume to a stomach that may need emptying, they do not lubricate a mechanical blockage, and they delay assessment. Do not induce vomiting, which can force a sharp object back through the oesophagus. Do not press or massage the abdomen. Water may be offered in small amounts unless advised otherwise, but expect it to come back up." }, { "question": "What happens at the practice?", "answer": "An examination and abdominal palpation, then imaging — radiographs, sometimes with contrast, and ultrasound, which shows fluid-filled loops and can identify a linear foreign body. Blood tests assess hydration and electrolytes. Depending on what is found, the object may be retrievable by endoscopy if it is still in the stomach or oesophagus, or surgery may be needed to remove it and, where the bowel has been damaged, to resect the affected section. Fluid therapy and pain relief run alongside all of it." } ], "about": [ "Intestinal obstruction", "Foreign body", "Linear foreign body", "Abdominal emergency", "Dog health" ], "keywords": [ "dog intestinal blockage symptoms", "dog swallowed sock", "linear foreign body dog", "dog vomiting not eating", "bowel obstruction dog emergency" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "avmaFirstAid", "title": "Pet first aid tips", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/emergencycare/pet-first-aid-tips" }, { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" }, { "key": "wsavaGuidelines", "title": "Global guidelines for small animal practice", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/" } ] }, { "slug": "can-cats-eat-liver", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-liver/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-liver/index.md", "title": "Can cats eat liver? The vitamin A problem with a favourite food", "h1": "Can cats eat liver, and what regular liver feeding does over time", "description": "Why liver is the food where a cat's enthusiasm and its physiology disagree, how vitamin A accumulates in a species that cannot excrete the excess, and what is safe.", "summary": "Almost every cat loves liver. It is also the clearest case in feline nutrition where a food is harmless once and harmful as a habit.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "can cats eat liver", "date_published": "2026-08-22", "date_modified": "2026-08-22", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-cats-eat-liver.webp", "image_alt": "A slice of raw liver on a wooden board beside a stainless steel cat bowl on a kitchen counter", "takeaways": [ "Liver is not toxic to cats. It becomes a problem when it makes up a meaningful share of the diet for months, because the hazard is cumulative rather than acute.", "Liver is exceptionally rich in preformed vitamin A, and cats have limited capacity to excrete an excess, so it accumulates in the body.", "Chronic excess produces hypervitaminosis A: new bone laid down around the neck vertebrae and joints, giving stiffness, reluctance to groom and a hunched posture.", "Liver is also badly unbalanced on its own — very high in phosphorus relative to calcium — so a liver-heavy diet distorts more than one nutrient at a time.", "The signs come on over months and are read as ageing. A cat that has stopped grooming its back and turns its whole body to look sideways is worth mentioning to a vet." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can cats eat liver?", "answer": "In small, occasional amounts, yes — liver is a normal component of many complete commercial cat foods and is not toxic in itself. The problem is regular feeding of liver as a significant part of the diet. Liver is extremely rich in preformed vitamin A, cats have limited ability to excrete the excess, and over months it accumulates to the point of causing skeletal disease. The distinction that matters is not whether liver is allowed but how often and how much." }, { "question": "What does too much liver actually do to a cat?", "answer": "It causes hypervitaminosis A, which in cats characteristically produces new bone formation around the cervical vertebrae and the joints of the forelimbs. The result is a stiff, painful neck and shoulders: the cat stops grooming areas it can no longer reach, turns its whole body rather than its head, sits hunched, becomes reluctant to jump, and may become irritable when handled. It develops over months and is frequently mistaken for old age." }, { "question": "How much liver is too much?", "answer": "No single household threshold can be given honestly, because it depends on the cat's size, what else it eats and for how long the pattern continues — and because the published cases describe cats fed liver as a staple rather than cats given a measured amount. The workable rule is the one used for treats generally: anything outside a complete diet should stay a small minority of daily intake, and liver in particular belongs in the occasional category rather than the daily one." }, { "question": "Is cooked liver safer than raw?", "answer": "Cooking removes the bacterial risk — raw liver can carry Salmonella and other organisms into the household and into the cat's faeces — but it does not reduce the vitamin A content, which is the mechanism that matters here. So cooked liver is safer in one respect and identical in the respect that causes the skeletal disease." }, { "question": "Can a cat live on liver and meat alone?", "answer": "No. Beyond vitamin A, liver is heavily unbalanced: it is very high in phosphorus relative to calcium, so a diet built on liver and muscle meat supplies far too little calcium and provokes a bone disorder of its own. Cats also have absolute dietary requirements — taurine, arachidonic acid, preformed vitamin A, certain B vitamins — that a home-assembled meat diet meets only by accident. A complete diet formulated to a recognised nutritional standard is what covers them." }, { "question": "Is the damage reversible if liver is stopped?", "answer": "Partly, and it depends on how far it has gone. Removing the source stops further accumulation, and the pain and mobility can improve with veterinary management, but bone that has already been laid down does not simply disappear. This is the argument for noticing the early signs — reduced grooming, a stiff neck, reluctance to jump — rather than waiting for an obviously disabled cat." } ], "about": [ "Hypervitaminosis A", "Vitamin A", "Feline nutrition", "Liver", "Skeletal disease in cats" ], "keywords": [ "can cats eat liver", "cat liver vitamin a", "hypervitaminosis a cats", "is liver bad for cats", "raw liver cats" ], "sources": [ { "key": "wsavaNutrition", "title": "Global nutrition guidelines", "publisher": "World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA)", "url": "https://wsava.org/global-guidelines/global-nutrition-guidelines/" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" } ] }, { "slug": "how-to-take-a-dogs-temperature", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/how-to-take-a-dogs-temperature/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/how-to-take-a-dogs-temperature/index.md", "title": "How to take a dog's temperature at home, and what it means", "h1": "How to take a dog's temperature at home and read the result", "description": "The rectal method step by step, why ear and non-contact thermometers disagree with it, what raises a reading, and when a number needs a call.", "summary": "A temperature is the first thing a practice asks for over the phone. It is only useful if it was taken in conditions you can repeat.", "topic": "Home care", "primary_query": "how to take a dog's temperature at home", "date_published": "2026-08-20", "date_modified": "2026-08-20", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/how-to-take-a-dogs-temperature.webp", "image_alt": "A person kneeling beside a calm labrador on a living-room floor holding a digital thermometer", "takeaways": [ "Rectal measurement with a lubricated digital thermometer is the home method that agrees with clinical readings. Everything else trades accuracy for convenience.", "A resting adult dog sits at roughly 37.5–39.2 °C. Wait for the thermometer to stabilise rather than for the first beep on a fast-read device.", "Excitement, exercise, a car journey and a warm room all raise a reading. Let the dog settle for fifteen to twenty minutes or the number describes the last half hour, not the dog.", "A low temperature in a puppy, a small dog or a collapsed animal is the more urgent finding, not the reassuring one.", "The reading is worth far more against that dog's own resting baseline, which costs nothing to record while it is well." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How do I take a dog's temperature at home?", "answer": "Use a digital thermometer kept for the dog and nothing else. Coat the tip with a water-based lubricant, have someone steady the dog standing or lying on its side, lift the tail and insert the tip gently about a centimetre in a small dog and up to two or three in a large one, angling it so it rests against the wall of the rectum rather than sitting in the middle. Hold it there until the reading stabilises, then read, clean and disinfect it. If the dog objects strongly, stop — a bitten hand or a frightened dog is worse than a missing number." }, { "question": "What is a normal temperature for a dog?", "answer": "A resting adult dog is usually between about 37.5 and 39.2 °C measured rectally. Puppies run at or above the top of that band. Because the range is wide, the more informative comparison is against that individual's own resting reading, taken on an ordinary day when nothing was wrong — which is why it is worth recording two or three times while the dog is well." }, { "question": "Are ear or non-contact thermometers accurate enough?", "answer": "They are convenient and they disagree with rectal readings often enough to change a decision. The canine ear canal is L-shaped, so an aural thermometer has to be positioned correctly to see the eardrum, and ear wax, inflammation and hair all interfere. Non-contact infrared devices measure surface temperature and are affected by coat, ambient conditions, sunlight and distance. Both are usable for tracking a trend in an animal you cannot restrain; neither should settle a question about whether a dog has a fever." }, { "question": "What raises a reading for reasons other than illness?", "answer": "Exercise, excitement, restraint, a car journey, a warm room, direct sun, panting from stress rather than heat, oestrus and late pregnancy. Any of these can add several tenths of a degree. Let a dog settle for fifteen to twenty minutes before measuring, take the reading before handling rather than after it, and write down what the dog had been doing — a comparison between readings only means something if the conditions match." }, { "question": "When does the number mean I should call?", "answer": "Above or below the normal band, or a marked change from that dog's own baseline, in either direction. A low temperature matters at least as much as a high one, particularly in a puppy, a small or thin dog, or any dog that is collapsed, weak or in the late stage of an illness — that indicates a body no longer maintaining itself. Also call regardless of the number if the dog is behaving abnormally: an animal that is clearly unwell with a normal temperature is still clearly unwell." }, { "question": "Can I use a mercury thermometer or take it under the leg?", "answer": "Do not use a glass mercury thermometer — breakage inside or against an animal is a serious problem and these have been withdrawn from human use for the same reason. An axillary reading, taken under the foreleg, systematically underestimates and varies with how well the leg is held against the chest; it is a rough fallback and not a measurement to act on." } ], "about": [ "Body temperature", "Rectal thermometry", "Fever in dogs", "Home monitoring", "Veterinary examination" ], "keywords": [ "how to take dog temperature", "dog normal temperature celsius", "dog fever how to check", "ear thermometer dogs accurate", "dog temperature without thermometer" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckTemps", "title": "Normal rectal temperature ranges", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/special-subjects/reference-guides/normal-rectal-temperature-ranges" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "avmaFirstAid", "title": "Pet first aid tips", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/emergencycare/pet-first-aid-tips" }, { "key": "rspcaDogs", "title": "Dog welfare advice", "publisher": "RSPCA", "url": "https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs" } ] }, { "slug": "dehydration-in-cats-and-dogs", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/dehydration-in-cats-and-dogs/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/dehydration-in-cats-and-dogs/index.md", "title": "Dehydration in cats and dogs: how to check and when it is urgent", "h1": "Dehydration in cats and dogs: the checks, the causes and the point of no delay", "description": "What the skin tent, gum moisture and capillary refill really tell you, how deficit maps onto visible signs, and when to stop checking and travel.", "summary": "By the time dehydration is visible, several per cent of body water has already gone. The checks are worth knowing precisely because they are so late.", "topic": "Emergencies", "primary_query": "dehydration in cats and dogs", "date_published": "2026-08-18", "date_modified": "2026-08-18", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/dehydration-in-cats-and-dogs.webp", "image_alt": "A water bowl on a tiled kitchen floor with a cat approaching it from the side", "takeaways": [ "Dehydration is not detectable on examination until roughly 5% of body water has been lost, so a normal skin tent does not mean a normal fluid balance.", "The skin tent is unreliable in old, thin, obese and very young animals — a lean elderly cat tents when perfectly hydrated, and a fat one stays smooth when it is not.", "Dehydration is always a symptom of something else. Rehydrating without finding the cause treats the number and leaves the problem.", "Never give fluids under the skin at home without being trained and supplied by a veterinarian, and never force water into a collapsed or vomiting animal.", "Dry gums plus a delayed capillary refill plus lethargy is a same-day picture regardless of what the skin does." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How do I check whether my cat or dog is dehydrated?", "answer": "Three checks used together. Lift the skin over the shoulder blades and let go — it should fall back immediately; a slow return suggests fluid loss, though the test misleads in thin, obese, elderly and very young animals. Touch the gums: they should be slick and wet, not tacky or dry. Press a fingertip on the gum until it blanches and release — colour should return in under two seconds. No one of these is conclusive on its own, and all three become abnormal only after a substantial deficit has developed." }, { "question": "How much fluid loss does it take before anything shows?", "answer": "Standard veterinary reference works put the threshold of detectable dehydration at around 5% of body weight in lost fluid. Below that, an animal can be meaningfully dehydrated with an entirely normal examination. Between about 6 and 8% the skin tent, dry gums and slightly delayed capillary refill are usually all present together; above roughly 10 to 12% the picture includes sunken eyes, marked weakness and signs of circulatory failure, which is an emergency." }, { "question": "Why is the skin tent test unreliable?", "answer": "Because it measures skin elasticity, which changes with age and body condition as well as with hydration. An elderly, thin animal has lost subcutaneous fat and dermal elasticity and will tent while perfectly hydrated; an obese animal has enough subcutaneous fat to keep the skin smooth when it is significantly dry. Very young animals have highly elastic skin and can look normal well past the point where they need help. Use it as one of three checks, never as the answer." }, { "question": "What causes dehydration in a cat or dog?", "answer": "Losses, or reduced intake, or both. Vomiting and diarrhoea are the commonest acute causes. Chronic kidney disease and diabetes cause it through excessive urination. Heat, fever and panting increase evaporative losses. Blood loss, burns and severe wounds lose fluid directly. Reduced intake follows painful mouths and dental disease, nausea, anything that makes the water bowl hard to reach, and in cats a bowl in a place they dislike. The cause matters more than the number, because it decides what happens next." }, { "question": "Can I give fluids under the skin at home?", "answer": "Only if a veterinarian has trained you, supplied the fluid and set the amount — subcutaneous fluids are a routine part of managing some chronic conditions and are given at home by many owners. Improvising it is not the same activity: the wrong fluid type can be actively harmful, sterility matters, and an animal that is losing fluid faster than it is absorbed under the skin needs intravenous access, not more of the wrong route. Never do it on a collapsed animal." }, { "question": "Should I make my pet drink?", "answer": "Offer water and make it easy — several bowls, wide and shallow for cats, away from food and litter, refreshed often. Do not syringe water into an animal that is vomiting, collapsed, weak or struggling to swallow; the risk of it going into the lungs is real and turns one problem into two. If an animal will not or cannot drink, that is itself the reason to be seen rather than a problem to solve at home." } ], "about": [ "Dehydration", "Capillary refill time", "Skin turgor", "Fluid therapy", "Companion animal emergency" ], "keywords": [ "dehydration in dogs signs", "cat dehydrated skin test", "capillary refill time pet", "how to tell if dog is dehydrated", "subcutaneous fluids cat" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "avmaFirstAid", "title": "Pet first aid tips", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/emergencycare/pet-first-aid-tips" }, { "key": "catVets", "title": "Feline practice guidelines", "publisher": "American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)", "url": "https://catvets.com/guidelines/practice-guidelines" } ] }, { "slug": "can-i-give-my-dog-human-painkillers", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-i-give-my-dog-human-painkillers/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-i-give-my-dog-human-painkillers/index.md", "title": "Can I give my dog human painkillers? What each one does", "h1": "Can I give my dog human painkillers: paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin", "description": "Why the three painkillers in most kitchen drawers are unsuitable for dogs, which organ each one damages, why weight-scaling does not rescue them, and what a vet has instead.", "summary": "A dog in pain and a packet on the shelf is the most sympathetic reason people reach for a human medicine. It is also how a painful evening becomes a hospital stay.", "topic": "Pet safety", "primary_query": "can i give my dog human painkillers", "date_published": "2026-08-16", "date_modified": "2026-08-16", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-i-give-my-dog-human-painkillers.webp", "image_alt": "An open bathroom cabinet with blister packs of tablets on a shelf and a dog lying on the floor nearby", "takeaways": [ "Paracetamol, ibuprofen, naproxen and aspirin each damage a different organ system in dogs, and each has a margin far narrower than the one people assume from human experience.", "Naproxen is the worst of them in dogs because it is cleared slowly and recirculates, so a single tablet keeps working long after a person would have finished with it.", "Ibuprofen's targets are the stomach lining and the kidney, and the gastrointestinal damage can be well advanced before anything is visible from outside.", "Veterinary NSAIDs exist precisely because the human ones do not scale down. They are authorised for dogs, dosed for dogs, and prescribed after the kidneys and liver have been considered.", "If a dog has already had a human painkiller, the useful facts are the name, the strength, how many, when, and the dog's weight — and the call comes before any home remedy." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can I give my dog paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain?", "answer": "Not on your own judgement. Paracetamol in dogs is a liver problem and, at higher exposures, damages haemoglobin; ibuprofen and naproxen cause gastrointestinal ulceration and acute kidney injury at quantities that are unremarkable for a person; aspirin causes gastrointestinal bleeding and interferes with clotting. There are veterinary anti-inflammatories authorised for dogs and prescribed after the animal's kidney and liver function has been considered, and that is the route to pain relief that does not create a second problem." }, { "question": "Why is naproxen singled out as especially dangerous?", "answer": "Because of how long it lasts in a dog. Naproxen is cleared slowly by dogs and undergoes enterohepatic recirculation — it is excreted in bile and reabsorbed from the intestine — so the exposure from a single tablet is sustained rather than brief. What behaves as a twelve-hour drug in a person behaves as a much longer one in a dog, and the gastrointestinal and renal effects accumulate through that period." }, { "question": "Is aspirin safe for dogs in a low dose?", "answer": "Aspirin was used in veterinary medicine historically and has largely been displaced, because its margin is narrow and better-tolerated licensed options exist. It irritates the stomach lining directly and inhibits platelet function for the life of the platelet, which matters if surgery follows or if bleeding is already present. Giving it also complicates the picture for whoever sees the dog next, since another anti-inflammatory usually cannot be started immediately afterwards." }, { "question": "Can I work out a dose from my dog's weight?", "answer": "No. Weight carries no information about the enzymes available to clear the drug, the state of the kidneys and liver on the day, what else the dog has been given, or the concentration in this particular product. For some of these drugs the problem is not the size of the dose at all but the mechanism — a smaller amount of a drug that damages the gastric mucosa still damages it, just more slowly." }, { "question": "What should I do if my dog has already taken one?", "answer": "Telephone a veterinary practice or an animal poison service immediately, and do it before symptoms appear rather than after. Have the packet in hand: the active substance, the strength per tablet, how many are missing, roughly when, and the dog's weight are what decide what happens next. Do not induce vomiting on your own initiative and do not give milk, food or anything else by mouth until you have advice." }, { "question": "What can a vet give instead?", "answer": "Veterinary practice has anti-inflammatories authorised for dogs, opioid analgesics for more severe pain, local techniques, and non-drug measures such as weight management, controlled exercise and physical therapy for chronic joint pain. Which of these applies depends on what is causing the pain, which is the part a home decision cannot supply — pain is a symptom, and treating it without knowing its source can mask a problem that is getting worse." } ], "about": [ "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug", "Paracetamol toxicity", "Analgesia in dogs", "Drug safety", "Pet poisoning" ], "keywords": [ "can i give my dog ibuprofen", "paracetamol for dogs", "aspirin for dogs safe", "human painkillers dogs", "dog pain relief at home" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "fdaLiteracy", "title": "Animal health literacy", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine", "url": "https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/resources-you/animal-health-literacy" }, { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" }, { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" } ] }, { "slug": "houseplants-toxic-to-cats", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/houseplants-toxic-to-cats/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/houseplants-toxic-to-cats/index.md", "title": "Houseplants toxic to cats: the list worth checking before you buy", "h1": "Houseplants that are toxic to cats, grouped by what they actually do", "description": "Which indoor plants harm cats and by what mechanism, from true lilies causing kidney failure to the oxalate plants that only burn the mouth.", "summary": "A list of names is hard to remember. A list of mechanisms is not, and it tells you which plant is an emergency and which is an unpleasant evening.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "houseplants that are toxic to cats", "date_published": "2026-08-14", "date_modified": "2026-08-14", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/houseplants-toxic-to-cats.webp", "image_alt": "A cat sitting on a windowsill beside a row of potted houseplants in soft daylight", "takeaways": [ "True lilies (Lilium) and daylilies (Hemerocallis) cause acute kidney injury in cats. Every part is involved — petals, leaves, pollen and the water in the vase.", "Peace lily, calla lily and lily of the valley are not lilies. Two of them irritate the mouth; the third affects the heart. The shared common name is a trap.", "Sago palm is the other absolute: it is a cycad, not a palm, its seeds carry the most toxin, and the target organ is the liver.", "The largest group by number — dieffenbachia, philodendron, monstera, pothos — works by insoluble calcium oxalate crystals and produces immediate mouth pain rather than organ failure.", "In any suspected ingestion the useful facts are the plant's name, which part, roughly how much and when. Photograph the plant and take a piece with you." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Which houseplants are most dangerous to cats?", "answer": "True lilies of the genus Lilium and daylilies of the genus Hemerocallis are the most serious common indoor plants for cats, because they cause acute kidney injury and the effect is not dose-related in any reassuring way — grooming pollen off a coat has been enough. Sago palm is the other plant in that category, with the liver as the target organ and the seeds carrying the most toxin. Oleander, foxglove, lily of the valley and kalanchoe act on the heart. The large oxalate group causes intense mouth pain but rarely organ damage." }, { "question": "Is a peace lily a lily?", "answer": "No. Peace lily (Spathiphyllum) and calla lily (Zantedeschia) belong to the arum family and contain insoluble calcium oxalate crystals, so they cause immediate burning of the mouth, drooling and pawing at the face rather than kidney injury. Lily of the valley (Convallaria) is not a lily either — it contains cardiac glycosides and is a heart problem. Only Lilium and Hemerocallis carry the kidney risk, and the common names actively mislead." }, { "question": "How much lily does a cat have to eat to be at risk?", "answer": "There is no safe quantity established for cats, which is why the guidance is absolute rather than proportionate. Cases have followed the ingestion of a small amount of leaf, the chewing of a petal, and the grooming of pollen from the coat after brushing against a bouquet. The water in a vase that has held lilies is also implicated. A cat known to have had any contact with a true lily is an immediate veterinary matter, not an observation case." }, { "question": "What are the signs a cat has eaten something toxic?", "answer": "It depends on the mechanism. Oxalate plants produce an immediate reaction — pawing at the mouth, drooling, head shaking, refusal to eat — usually within minutes. Lily and sago palm poisoning often begins with vomiting and lethargy and then appears to improve, which is the dangerous part, because organ injury proceeds while the cat looks better. Cardiac plants produce vomiting, weakness, collapse or an irregular pulse. Any of these deserves a call; the ones that look mild are not the ones to wait on." }, { "question": "What should I do if my cat has chewed a plant?", "answer": "Telephone a veterinary practice or an animal poison service straight away, and take the plant's name with you — a photograph of the whole plant and a piece of the leaf or flower are more useful than a description. Do not induce vomiting. Do not give milk, oil or home remedies. If the mouth is obviously irritated, offer water but do not force it. Note the time and how much appears to be missing." }, { "question": "Can I keep any plants if I have cats?", "answer": "Yes. Spider plant, areca and parlour palms, calathea, peperomia, boston fern, african violet and most true bamboos are on the non-toxic side of the published lists. The reliable approach is not to memorise a safe list but to check each plant by botanical name against a poison-control database before it enters the house, because common names are shared between very different plants." } ], "about": [ "Plant toxicity", "Lily poisoning in cats", "Calcium oxalate", "Cardiac glycoside", "Cat safety" ], "keywords": [ "houseplants toxic to cats", "lilies poisonous cats", "is peace lily toxic to cats", "cat ate plant", "safe plants for cats" ], "sources": [ { "key": "aspcaCatPlants", "title": "Plants toxic to cats", "publisher": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/cats-plant-list" }, { "key": "aspcaPlants", "title": "Toxic and non-toxic plants list", "publisher": "ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "merckCatOwners", "title": "Cat owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/cat-owners" }, { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" } ] }, { "slug": "can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones/index.md", "title": "Can dogs eat chicken bones? What happens if one is swallowed", "h1": "Can dogs eat chicken bones, and what to do if one has been swallowed", "description": "Why cooked poultry bones fracture into sharp fragments, the four places a fragment lodges, why raw is not a safe substitute, and what actually helps in the hours after.", "summary": "A cooked bone does not behave like a bone. Drying makes it brittle, and brittle bone breaks into edges rather than crumbling.", "topic": "Food and toxins", "primary_query": "can dogs eat chicken bones", "date_published": "2026-08-12", "date_modified": "2026-08-12", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones.webp", "image_alt": "A dog sitting on a kitchen floor looking up at a countertop with a roasting tin above it", "takeaways": [ "Cooking dries collagen out of bone and leaves it brittle, so a cooked poultry bone fractures into rigid shards instead of crumbling. That is the whole hazard.", "A fragment can lodge in four places — the mouth and throat, the oesophagus, the stomach outlet and the intestine — and each produces a different picture.", "Raw bones are not the safe alternative. They still fracture teeth and carry Salmonella and Campylobacter into a household.", "Do not make a dog vomit after a bone. A shard that went down point-first does more damage coming back up, and it can be inhaled.", "Most dogs that swallow a small bone are fine; the point of calling early is that the cheap interventions all live in the first few hours." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Can dogs eat chicken bones safely?", "answer": "Cooked chicken bones are not safe to give. Heat drives water and collagen out of bone, which leaves the mineral structure brittle, so the bone splits into rigid fragments with sharp edges rather than crushing. Those edges can lacerate the mouth, lodge in the throat or oesophagus, obstruct the gut or perforate its wall. Many dogs swallow a bone and pass it uneventfully, which is why the practice persists, but the failure mode when it goes wrong is severe and expensive." }, { "question": "What should I do if my dog has already swallowed one?", "answer": "Telephone a veterinary practice now and describe what was eaten, how much, when, and the dog's size. Do not induce vomiting on your own initiative — a sharp fragment can do more damage on the way back up and can be inhaled. Do not give bread, oil or anything else to 'wrap' it. Keep the dog quiet, withhold further food until you have advice, and watch for retching, drooling, pawing at the mouth, repeated attempts to swallow, restlessness, a hunched posture or vomiting." }, { "question": "Are raw bones safer than cooked ones?", "answer": "Raw bone is less brittle, so it fragments less readily, but it is not safe. It still fractures teeth — slab fractures of the upper carnassial are a classic bone injury — and pieces still obstruct. Raw poultry also carries Salmonella and Campylobacter into the kitchen and into the dog's faeces, which matters in a household with children, elderly people or anyone immunosuppressed." }, { "question": "Which signs mean this has become an emergency?", "answer": "Repeated retching that brings nothing up, gagging or pawing at the mouth, drooling with an inability to swallow, laboured breathing, a hard or painful abdomen, repeated vomiting, blood in vomit or faeces, black tarry stools, or a dog that becomes quiet, hunched and unwilling to move. Any of these means the same day, not tomorrow." }, { "question": "How long does a swallowed bone take to pass?", "answer": "There is no reliable figure, which is the problem. Transit through a dog varies with size, what else is in the gut and where the fragment is; a piece can also sit in the stomach for days and only cause trouble when it moves. That is why the plan is a phone call and, if advised, observation with a described list of signs — not a fixed number of hours after which everything is assumed fine." }, { "question": "What do chew alternatives change?", "answer": "They remove the sharp-fragment risk without removing the dog's need to chew, which is a real behavioural need rather than a nuisance. What they do not remove is the tooth-fracture risk: anything you cannot indent with a thumbnail is hard enough to break a carnassial. Choose by how the object gives, not by what it is made of." } ], "about": [ "Foreign body ingestion", "Gastrointestinal obstruction", "Dog nutrition", "Poultry bones", "Pet emergency" ], "keywords": [ "can dogs eat chicken bones", "dog swallowed chicken bone", "cooked bones dogs dangerous", "raw bones dogs safe", "dog ate bone what to do" ], "sources": [ { "key": "avmaHazards", "title": "Household hazards", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/household-hazards" }, { "key": "merckDogOwners", "title": "Dog owners — veterinary manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/dog-owners" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "avmaFirstAid", "title": "Pet first aid tips", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/emergencycare/pet-first-aid-tips" } ] }, { "slug": "heat-stress-livestock-poultry", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/heat-stress-livestock-poultry/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/heat-stress-livestock-poultry/index.md", "title": "Heat stress in livestock and poultry: when it starts", "h1": "Heat stress in livestock and poultry: the temperature-humidity index and what to do", "description": "Why humidity matters as much as temperature, how the temperature-humidity index is calculated, what heat stress costs, and which measures reduce the load.", "summary": "Animals lose heat by evaporation, and evaporation stops working as the air fills with moisture. That is why a humid 28 °C is harder on a herd than a dry 32 °C.", "topic": "Livestock", "primary_query": "heat stress in livestock and poultry", "date_published": "2026-08-11", "date_modified": "2026-09-17", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/heat-stress-livestock-poultry.webp", "image_alt": "Cattle standing in an open barn during hot weather with sunlight falling across the bedding", "takeaways": [ "Heat stress begins when an animal cannot shed metabolic heat as fast as it produces it — a balance set by temperature, humidity, air speed, radiation and the animal's own heat production.", "The temperature-humidity index (THI) combines dry-bulb temperature and relative humidity into one figure; at 60% humidity, 26 °C already gives a THI of 74.", "Higher-producing animals reach the threshold sooner, because milk yield, growth and egg production are themselves large sources of internal heat.", "Water intake rises sharply in heat and is the first constraint to fail — trough capacity, flow rate and access points matter more than any additive.", "Air movement is what makes evaporative cooling work. Air speed over the animal does more than lowering shed temperature by a degree." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What is heat stress and at what point does it start?", "answer": "Heat stress is the state in which an animal cannot dissipate metabolic heat as fast as it generates it, so core temperature rises and the animal begins to divert energy and behaviour into cooling. There is no single temperature at which it starts, because the balance depends on humidity, air movement, solar radiation, coat, body condition and how much heat the animal is producing internally. A high-yielding dairy cow reaches the threshold at conditions a dry cow tolerates comfortably." }, { "question": "Why does humidity matter as much as temperature?", "answer": "Because evaporation is the main route by which most farmed species shed heat once the air is warm — through the respiratory tract in cattle and pigs and through panting in poultry, which have no functional sweat glands. Evaporation depends on the air's capacity to take up more moisture, and humid air has little. At high humidity the principal cooling mechanism stops working, which is why a humid 28 °C is harder on a herd than a dry 32 °C." }, { "question": "How is the temperature-humidity index calculated?", "answer": "A widely used form is THI = 1.8T + 32 − (0.55 − 0.0055 × RH) × (1.8T − 26), where T is dry-bulb temperature in degrees Celsius and RH is relative humidity as a percentage. At 26 °C and 60% humidity it gives 74. Several variants exist and thresholds differ by species and production level, so a THI figure should always be read together with the index version and the animal group it was derived for." }, { "question": "How does heat stress affect production?", "answer": "It reduces feed intake, and it diverts energy to cooling. In dairy cattle this shows as reduced milk yield and altered composition; in growing stock as reduced daily gain and poorer feed conversion; in laying hens as lower egg production and thinner shells. Fertility falls across species — heat affects oestrus expression and early embryo survival in cattle, and semen quality in males for weeks after the hot period, because spermatogenesis takes time to recover." }, { "question": "Why does water demand rise so steeply in hot weather?", "answer": "Because evaporative cooling consumes water, through respiratory losses and sweating where the species sweats. Intake can rise substantially above thermoneutral requirements, and the constraint that bites first is usually not supply but access: trough capacity, refill rate and the number of drinking points determine whether every animal in a group can actually drink, particularly around the times when the whole group wants to." }, { "question": "Do additives replace ventilation and water?", "answer": "No. Electrolyte, buffer and vitamin preparations used in hot weather address specific consequences of heat stress, and they are used according to their labelling and on veterinary advice. None of them removes heat from an animal. Where cooling and water access are inadequate, an additive changes the number on the invoice and not much else." } ], "about": [ "Heat stress", "Temperature-humidity index", "Livestock housing", "Animal welfare", "Poultry production" ], "keywords": [ "temperature humidity index cattle", "heat stress dairy cows", "poultry heat stress", "THI threshold", "cooling livestock hot weather" ], "sources": [ { "key": "faoAnimalProduction", "title": "Animal production and health", "publisher": "Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)", "url": "https://www.fao.org/animal-production/en/" }, { "key": "woahCode", "title": "Terrestrial Animal Health Code", "publisher": "World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)", "url": "https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/terrestrial-code-online-access/" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "efsaAmr", "title": "Antimicrobial resistance — monitoring and JIACRA reports", "publisher": "European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)", "url": "https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/antimicrobial-resistance" }, { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" } ] }, { "slug": "signs-of-illness-in-cats-and-dogs", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/signs-of-illness-in-cats-and-dogs/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/signs-of-illness-in-cats-and-dogs/index.md", "title": "Signs of illness in cats and dogs: what to watch and when to call", "h1": "Early signs of illness in cats and dogs: what to watch for", "description": "Which changes in a cat or dog need a same-day veterinary visit, how long an animal can safely go without eating, and what to record before the appointment.", "summary": "Animals conceal illness competently. The signs that matter are usually changes in ordinary behaviour, and the useful question is what is different rather than what is wrong.", "topic": "Animal health", "primary_query": "signs of illness in cats and dogs", "date_published": "2026-08-10", "date_modified": "2026-08-10", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/signs-of-illness-in-cats-and-dogs.webp", "image_alt": "A veterinarian examining a dog in a bright consulting room while the owner sits beside them", "takeaways": [ "Some signs are same-day regardless of how well the animal otherwise seems: laboured breathing, unproductive straining to urinate, repeated unproductive retching, collapse, seizure, a hard distended abdomen, or a known toxic ingestion.", "Cats hide illness more effectively than dogs, and a cat that has stopped grooming, moved to an unusual resting place or become withdrawn has changed for a reason.", "A cat that will not eat for more than about 24 hours is a veterinary matter — feline liver metabolism responds badly to a short fast, unlike a dog's.", "Breathing is the most informative thing an owner can observe at home, because rate, effort and posture can all be assessed without touching the animal.", "What a veterinarian needs is a timeline: when it started, what changed, what the animal ate, drank and passed, and what has been given — with packaging where relevant." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Which signs mean a cat or dog should be seen the same day?", "answer": "Difficulty breathing, or breathing with obvious effort or an extended neck and elbows held away from the body; repeated attempts to urinate producing little or nothing, especially in a male cat; repeated unproductive retching with a swollen or hard abdomen, especially in a large deep-chested dog; collapse or inability to stand; a seizure; pale, white or blue gums; profuse or bloody vomiting or diarrhoea; a known ingestion of a medicine or a toxic substance; a bite wound or a wound that penetrates. Each of these can progress quickly, and none of them is improved by waiting." }, { "question": "How long can a cat or dog safely go without eating?", "answer": "Less time than most owners assume, and the answer differs by species. A cat that has not eaten for more than about 24 hours should be seen: a fasting cat mobilises fat to the liver faster than the liver can process it, which can lead to hepatic lipidosis, and overweight cats are at greater risk. A dog missing a single meal while otherwise bright and drinking normally is a smaller concern, but more than about 24 to 48 hours, or any refusal accompanied by lethargy, vomiting or a change in drinking, warrants a call." }, { "question": "What does a change in breathing indicate?", "answer": "A resting respiratory rate that has risen and stayed up, visible abdominal effort, an extended neck with elbows held away from the chest, open-mouth breathing in a cat, or gums that look pale or blue all indicate that the animal is working to breathe. Any of them is an emergency sign. Count breaths while the animal is genuinely resting or asleep, watching the chest rise and fall — a settled cat or dog usually sits below about 30 breaths a minute, and a sustained resting rate above that is worth a call." }, { "question": "Which changes in urination and faeces matter?", "answer": "Straining in the litter tray or outdoors with little or no urine produced is an emergency, particularly in a male cat, where a blocked urethra becomes life-threatening within hours. Blood in urine, a sudden increase in the volume or frequency of urination, and a marked increase in drinking all need investigation. In faeces: blood, a black tarry appearance, repeated straining, or diarrhoea that persists beyond a day or is accompanied by lethargy or vomiting." }, { "question": "What should I write down before the appointment?", "answer": "When the change was first noticed and how it has progressed; what the animal has eaten and drunk, and when it last did; when it last urinated and passed faeces, and what these looked like; the resting breathing rate if you were able to count it; body weight if known; every medicine, supplement, parasite treatment and diet given, with product names and dates; and anything the animal may have had access to. Photographs and short videos of intermittent signs are genuinely useful, because the sign is rarely present in the consulting room." }, { "question": "Is it reasonable to wait and see?", "answer": "For a single mild change in an otherwise bright animal that is eating, drinking and behaving normally, a short period of careful observation with written notes is reasonable. It stops being reasonable when any emergency sign is present, when a cat has not eaten for a day, when a change is getting worse rather than staying level, or when several small changes are present at once — a combination of mild signs is more meaningful than any of them alone." } ], "about": [ "Clinical signs", "Companion animal health", "Veterinary examination", "Cat health", "Dog health" ], "keywords": [ "when to take cat to vet", "dog not eating 24 hours", "cat straining to urinate", "dog breathing fast at rest", "signs of illness in pets" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "fdaLiteracy", "title": "Animal health literacy", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine", "url": "https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/resources-you/animal-health-literacy" } ] }, { "slug": "antimicrobial-resistance-livestock", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/antimicrobial-resistance-livestock/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/antimicrobial-resistance-livestock/index.md", "title": "Antimicrobial resistance in livestock: how it develops", "h1": "Antimicrobial resistance on the farm: how it develops and what stewardship means", "description": "How resistance is selected for on a livestock holding, why it reaches people, what responsible antimicrobial use means, and which practices reduce the pressure.", "summary": "Resistance is not caused by bacteria learning. It is caused by selection — and every course of antimicrobials on a holding is a selection event with a size and a duration.", "topic": "Antimicrobials", "primary_query": "antimicrobial resistance on the farm", "date_published": "2026-08-08", "date_modified": "2026-08-08", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/antimicrobial-resistance-livestock.webp", "image_alt": "A farm worker moving straw bedding in a stone-built livestock barn", "takeaways": [ "Resistance arises by selection, not by adaptation to a threat: a treatment kills susceptible bacteria and leaves resistant ones with less competition and more space.", "Resistance genes move horizontally between bacteria on plasmids and other mobile elements, so a gene selected in one species of bacterium can appear in another.", "The exposure that selects hardest is a low concentration for a long time across many animals — which is why group medication and under-dosing matter more than a single treated animal.", "The WHO classifies certain antimicrobials as critically important to human medicine, and stewardship schemes restrict or discourage their use in animals on that basis.", "Most of what reduces antimicrobial use on a holding is not pharmacological: housing, ventilation, colostrum, biosecurity, vaccination and diagnosis before treatment." ], "faq": [ { "question": "How does bacterial resistance to antimicrobials arise?", "answer": "Through selection. Within any large bacterial population, variation already exists — a few organisms carry a mutation or an acquired gene that lets them survive a given antimicrobial. When the antimicrobial is present, susceptible organisms are killed and the survivors multiply into the space left behind. Nothing in the bacterium responds to the drug intelligently; the drug simply removes the competition. Resistance genes then spread horizontally between bacteria on plasmids, transposons and integrons, which is why resistance can appear in a species that was never directly treated." }, { "question": "Why does resistance on a farm concern human medicine?", "answer": "Because bacteria and their resistance genes do not stay where they are selected. They move through direct contact with animals, through food, through slurry and manure applied to land, through water, and through the movement of people and vehicles. A gene selected in a gut bacterium on a holding can end up in a bacterium causing a human infection. This is why the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the FAO address animal and human antimicrobial use as one problem rather than two." }, { "question": "What does responsible antimicrobial use actually mean?", "answer": "In practice: treat only when there is a diagnosis rather than a suspicion; choose the narrowest-spectrum agent that fits the diagnosis; use the authorised dose for the authorised duration rather than a shortened or reduced course; treat the individual animal rather than the group wherever that is possible; reserve antimicrobials classed as critically important for human medicine for cases where nothing else will work and susceptibility supports it; and record every use so that patterns can be seen and questioned." }, { "question": "How are withdrawal periods related to resistance?", "answer": "They are separate problems that share a cause. A withdrawal period exists to keep drug residues out of food; resistance is about the bacteria selected during treatment. Observing withdrawal periods does not reduce resistance, and reducing resistance does not remove the need to observe them. Both follow from the same discipline — treating according to the authorisation and recording what was given." }, { "question": "Which farm practices reduce the need for antimicrobials?", "answer": "The ones that reduce infection pressure. Adequate colostrum for newborns; stocking density and ventilation that keep respiratory disease down; clean, dry bedding; separating age groups; quarantining incoming animals; controlling movement of people and equipment between units; a vaccination programme designed for the actual disease risk on the holding; prompt isolation of sick animals; and a working relationship with a veterinarian who sees the herd often enough to notice trends." }, { "question": "Does using less antimicrobial mean accepting more disease?", "answer": "Not where the reduction comes from prevention rather than from withholding treatment. Holdings that have substantially reduced use have generally done so by removing reasons to treat — housing, ventilation, colostrum management, vaccination, biosecurity — rather than by leaving sick animals untreated. An animal that needs an antimicrobial should receive one; the objective is to reduce how often that is the case." } ], "about": [ "Antimicrobial resistance", "Antimicrobial stewardship", "Livestock production", "One Health", "Critically important antimicrobials" ], "keywords": [ "antibiotic resistance livestock", "responsible antibiotic use farm", "AMR farming", "critically important antimicrobials", "reduce antibiotic use cattle" ], "sources": [ { "key": "whoAmrFact", "title": "Antimicrobial resistance — fact sheet", "publisher": "World Health Organization", "url": "https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance" }, { "key": "whoCia", "title": "Critically important antimicrobials for human medicine", "publisher": "World Health Organization", "url": "https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241515528" }, { "key": "whoMedicallyImportant", "title": "WHO medically important antimicrobials list for human medicine", "publisher": "World Health Organization", "url": "https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240082496" }, { "key": "woahAmr", "title": "Antimicrobial resistance: the WOAH strategy and annual use report", "publisher": "World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)", "url": "https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/global-initiatives/antimicrobial-resistance/" }, { "key": "emaAmr", "title": "Antimicrobial resistance in veterinary medicine", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview/antimicrobial-resistance-veterinary-medicine" }, { "key": "efsaAmr", "title": "Antimicrobial resistance — monitoring and JIACRA reports", "publisher": "European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)", "url": "https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/antimicrobial-resistance" }, { "key": "fdaJudicious", "title": "Judicious use of antimicrobials", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine", "url": "https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/antimicrobial-resistance/judicious-use-antimicrobials" } ] }, { "slug": "veterinary-generics-active-substance", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/veterinary-generics-active-substance/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/veterinary-generics-active-substance/index.md", "title": "Matching veterinary medicines by active substance", "h1": "Comparing veterinary medicines by active substance: analogue, generic and substitute", "description": "What an active substance and an INN are, how a generic differs from an analogue, and the seven properties that must match before two products are interchangeable.", "summary": "Two products naming the same substance are not therefore the same medicine. The substance is where a comparison starts; six further properties decide whether it finishes.", "topic": "Active substances", "primary_query": "comparing veterinary medicines by active substance", "date_published": "2026-08-07", "date_modified": "2026-08-07", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/veterinary-generics-active-substance.webp", "image_alt": "A veterinarian in blue overalls standing in a barn writing on a clipboard", "takeaways": [ "An active substance is the component responsible for the effect; the INN is its international nonproprietary name, used so products can be compared across brands and countries.", "A generic is authorised by demonstrating bioequivalence to a specific reference product. An analogue merely shares a substance or a pharmacological class and carries no such demonstration.", "Seven properties must agree before two products can be treated as interchangeable: substance and salt or ester, strength, pharmaceutical form, route, target species, authorised indication and withdrawal period.", "The salt or ester attached to a molecule changes how fast it is absorbed and how long it acts, which is why a long-acting and a conventional product can name the same substance and behave nothing alike.", "The comparison is settled by the approved labelling of both products side by side, and the substitution decision belongs to the prescribing veterinarian." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What is an active substance and what is an INN?", "answer": "The active substance is the component of a medicine responsible for its pharmacological effect. The INN — international nonproprietary name — is the globally agreed generic name for that substance, maintained by the World Health Organization so that the same molecule is called the same thing everywhere regardless of brand. The INN identifies the molecule and nothing else: it says nothing about strength, formulation, excipients, route or the species a product was authorised for." }, { "question": "How does a generic differ from an analogue?", "answer": "A generic veterinary medicine is authorised on the basis that it is essentially the same as a specific reference product and has been shown to be bioequivalent to it — same active substance, same strength, same pharmaceutical form, and demonstrated to deliver the substance to the body in the same way. An analogue is an informal term: a product that shares the substance or belongs to the same pharmacological class. An analogue carries no demonstration of equivalence and no entitlement to be swapped in." }, { "question": "Which properties have to match for two products to be interchangeable?", "answer": "Active substance including its salt or ester form; strength; pharmaceutical form; route of administration; the species the product is authorised for; the indication; and the withdrawal periods for food-producing animals. A mismatch in any one of them makes the two products different medicines in practice, even where the substance name is identical." }, { "question": "Why does the salt or ester matter if the molecule is the same?", "answer": "Because it changes the behaviour of the product rather than the identity of the molecule. Salts and esters alter solubility, and solubility governs how quickly a substance is absorbed from an injection site and how long it continues to be released. Two injectables naming the same base substance in different forms can produce very different concentration-over-time profiles, which is exactly how long-acting preparations are built." }, { "question": "Is a cheaper generic a lower-quality product?", "answer": "Not by virtue of being generic. A generic is authorised against the same quality requirements and has to demonstrate bioequivalence to its reference product; the lower price reflects that the original development and clinical work were done once, by someone else. What is worth checking is not the price but whether the specific product in hand matches on the seven properties — including the species and the withdrawal periods, which are frequently where two apparently equivalent products diverge." }, { "question": "Can I substitute a product myself if everything on the label matches?", "answer": "Substitution in a food-producing or prescription context is a decision for the veterinarian responsible for the animal, who is accountable for the outcome and, where relevant, for the withdrawal period that follows. What a keeper can usefully do is the comparison itself — laying the two labels side by side and identifying exactly where they differ — and bring that to the conversation." } ], "about": [ "Active substance", "International nonproprietary name", "Generic medicine", "Bioequivalence", "Veterinary pharmacology" ], "keywords": [ "veterinary generic equivalent", "same active substance different product", "INN veterinary", "bioequivalence animal medicine", "substitute veterinary drug" ], "sources": [ { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" }, { "key": "vich", "title": "VICH guidelines on the technical requirements for veterinary medicinal products", "publisher": "VICH (International Cooperation on Harmonisation)", "url": "https://vichsec.org/" }, { "key": "fdaAnimalDrugs", "title": "Animal Drugs @ FDA — approved animal drug products", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration", "url": "https://animaldrugsatfda.fda.gov/" }, { "key": "euReg2019", "title": "Regulation (EU) 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products", "publisher": "EUR-Lex, Official Journal of the European Union", "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/6/oj" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "normal-temperature-pulse-respiration-animals", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/normal-temperature-pulse-respiration-animals/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/normal-temperature-pulse-respiration-animals/index.md", "title": "Normal temperature, pulse and breathing rate by species", "h1": "Normal temperature, pulse and respiratory rate by species", "description": "Reference ranges for temperature, heart rate and breathing rate in cattle, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, dogs, cats and poultry, and how to measure each one.", "summary": "Three numbers anyone can take without equipment worth the name. Their value comes less from the published range than from knowing what this animal reads when it is well.", "topic": "Vital signs", "primary_query": "normal temperature, pulse and respiratory rate", "date_published": "2026-08-06", "date_modified": "2026-08-06", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/normal-temperature-pulse-respiration-animals.webp", "image_alt": "A woman kneeling in a field beside a golden retriever at sunrise, checking the dog over", "takeaways": [ "Rectal temperature in most adult mammals kept for farming or company falls between about 37.2 and 39.7 °C; birds run several degrees higher, around 40.5–42 °C.", "Heart rate scales inversely with body size: a horse at rest sits near 28–44 beats per minute, a cat near 140–220.", "Young animals run higher than adults on all three measures, so applying an adult range to a calf, lamb or puppy produces false alarms.", "A reference range describes a population; an individual's own resting baseline is the more useful comparison, and it costs nothing to record while the animal is well.", "A single reading taken after handling, exercise or in the afternoon heat is not a resting reading — the conditions of measurement change the number more than most illnesses do." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What is a normal body temperature for a cow, a sheep, a horse, a dog and a cat?", "answer": "Taken rectally at rest, adult cattle sit at roughly 38.0–39.0 °C, sheep at 38.5–39.5 °C, goats at 38.5–39.7 °C, horses at 37.2–38.3 °C, pigs at 38.0–39.5 °C, dogs at 37.5–39.2 °C and cats at 38.0–39.2 °C. Poultry are far higher at about 40.5–42.0 °C, which is normal for a bird and not a fever. Published ranges differ slightly between reference works, and the animal's own baseline is more informative than the population range." }, { "question": "How do the numbers differ in young animals?", "answer": "They run higher across all three measures. Neonates and young stock have a higher metabolic rate, a larger surface area relative to their mass and less mature thermoregulation, so temperature sits at the top of the adult range or above it, and both heart rate and respiratory rate are substantially faster. A calf, lamb, piglet, puppy or kitten judged against an adult range will look feverish and tachycardic while being entirely well." }, { "question": "How are temperature, pulse and respiratory rate measured?", "answer": "Temperature rectally, with a lubricated digital thermometer held against the wall of the rectum rather than in the middle, until it reads stable. Pulse either by feeling an artery — the femoral artery in dogs and cats, the facial artery in horses, the coccygeal artery in cattle — or by listening to or feeling the chest and counting heartbeats. Respiration by watching the flank or chest rise and fall for a timed interval, before the animal notices you are watching." }, { "question": "Why do the readings change during the day?", "answer": "Body temperature follows a daily rhythm, typically lowest in the early morning and highest in the late afternoon, with a normal swing of several tenths of a degree. Ambient temperature, humidity, feeding, rumination, exercise, oestrus, late pregnancy and handling stress all move the numbers as well. This is why comparisons are only meaningful between readings taken under similar conditions at a similar time." }, { "question": "What does a reading outside the reference range mean?", "answer": "That something has changed and is worth investigating — not that a diagnosis has been made. A high temperature accompanies infection but also heat load, prolonged exertion and severe stress. A low temperature in a newborn, a collapsed animal or one in late-stage illness is often the more urgent finding. The reading is a signal to look at the animal as a whole and to involve a veterinarian, not a result to be treated on its own." }, { "question": "What is worth writing down?", "answer": "Date and time, the value, and the conditions — ambient temperature, whether the animal had been moved or handled, and what it was doing beforehand. Alongside that: appetite, water intake, faeces and urine, milk yield where relevant, and any product administered with its batch and the date. A record like that turns three isolated numbers into a trend, which is the form in which they are actually useful to a veterinarian." } ], "about": [ "Vital signs", "Body temperature", "Heart rate", "Respiratory rate", "Veterinary examination" ], "keywords": [ "normal cow temperature", "dog normal temperature celsius", "cat heart rate normal", "horse respiratory rate", "animal vital signs reference range" ], "sources": [ { "key": "merckTemps", "title": "Normal rectal temperature ranges", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/special-subjects/reference-guides/normal-rectal-temperature-ranges" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" }, { "key": "woahCode", "title": "Terrestrial Animal Health Code", "publisher": "World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)", "url": "https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/terrestrial-code-online-access/" }, { "key": "faoAnimalProduction", "title": "Animal production and health", "publisher": "Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)", "url": "https://www.fao.org/animal-production/en/" } ] }, { "slug": "human-medicines-and-pets", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/human-medicines-and-pets/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/human-medicines-and-pets/index.md", "title": "Human medicines and pets: why the same molecule differs", "h1": "Human medicines and pets: why they are dangerous for cats and dogs", "description": "Why species differences in liver metabolism and drug transport make human medicines harmful to cats and dogs, and what information matters after an ingestion.", "summary": "The tablet in a kitchen drawer is the most common poisoning in companion animals. The reason is not carelessness — it is that a cat's liver is not a small human liver.", "topic": "Pet safety", "primary_query": "human medicines and pets: why they are dangerous for cats and dogs", "date_published": "2026-08-05", "date_modified": "2026-08-05", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/human-medicines-and-pets.webp", "image_alt": "A ginger cat sitting on a kitchen counter next to a wall-mounted first aid cabinet", "takeaways": [ "Species differ in the liver enzymes that clear drugs. Cats lack much of the glucuronidation capacity people rely on, which is why paracetamol is handled so badly by them.", "Some dogs carry an ABCB1 (MDR1) variant that weakens the pump keeping certain drugs out of the brain, so a dose tolerated by one dog can affect another of the same weight severely.", "A veterinary formulation differs in more than strength — excipients, flavouring, tablet divisibility and the species it was authorised for are all part of what was approved.", "Scaling a human dose by body weight is not conservative. Weight does not carry information about enzyme capacity, transporter genetics, organ function or the concentration in the product.", "In a suspected ingestion, the useful facts are the product name and strength, how much is missing, when it happened and the animal's weight — and the useful action is a phone call made early." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Why do cats and dogs react to medicines differently from people?", "answer": "Because the enzymes and transporters that process drugs differ between species. Cats have markedly limited glucuronidation, one of the main routes by which humans conjugate and excrete many drugs, so substances that are cleared easily by a person can accumulate or be converted into more harmful metabolites in a cat. Dogs differ in other ways, including a well-described variant in the ABCB1 gene affecting how some drugs are kept out of the central nervous system. These are differences in machinery, not in size." }, { "question": "How is a veterinary formulation different from a human one?", "answer": "It is developed and authorised for a named species by a named route, and everything about it follows from that: the concentration, the excipients and flavourings, whether the tablet is scored for accurate division, the measuring device supplied, and the safety information based on studies in that species. A human product with the same active substance may differ in all of these, and its safety data describe use in people." }, { "question": "Can a human dose just be scaled down by body weight?", "answer": "No. Body weight is one input among several, and it carries no information about the enzymes available to clear the substance, the transporter genetics of that individual, the state of the liver and kidneys, other medicines already given, or the concentration in this particular product. Some substances are hazardous to a species at any amount, which no amount of weight arithmetic will reveal." }, { "question": "Which household medicines cause the most cases?", "answer": "Consistently: analgesics — paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories intended for people; antidepressants and sleep aids; decongestants; stimulant medicines for attention disorders; and topical creams that are licked off skin or off a treated person, of which vitamin D analogues and 5-fluorouracil preparations are the most serious. Sugar-free products containing xylitol belong on the same list for dogs, even though they are not medicines." }, { "question": "What should I do if my pet has swallowed a tablet?", "answer": "Contact a veterinary practice or an animal poison service immediately, and do it before anything else — do not wait for symptoms and do not try to make the animal vomit on your own advice, which can cause injury and is the wrong action for some substances. Take the packaging with you. The information that changes what happens next is the product name, the strength, how many are missing, roughly when it happened and the animal's weight." }, { "question": "Is a topical cream on my own skin a risk to my pet?", "answer": "It can be, and this route surprises people. An animal that licks a treated area, or sleeps against it, receives the active substance orally in an amount nobody measured. Preparations containing vitamin D analogues, 5-fluorouracil and some anti-inflammatory gels have caused severe poisoning in dogs this way. Cover treated skin and let it dry fully before contact." } ], "about": [ "Drug metabolism", "Species differences in pharmacology", "Poisoning in pets", "Paracetamol toxicity in cats", "ABCB1 gene" ], "keywords": [ "human medicine dangerous for dogs", "paracetamol cat poisoning", "ibuprofen dog toxic", "pet swallowed tablet", "xylitol dogs" ], "sources": [ { "key": "aspcaPoison", "title": "Animal Poison Control Center", "publisher": "ASPCA", "url": "https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control" }, { "key": "petPoisonHelpline", "title": "Pet Poison Helpline", "publisher": "Pet Poison Helpline", "url": "https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" }, { "key": "fdaLiteracy", "title": "Animal health literacy", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine", "url": "https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/resources-you/animal-health-literacy" }, { "key": "avmaPetCare", "title": "Pet care resources for owners", "publisher": "American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)", "url": "https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare" } ] }, { "slug": "in-use-shelf-life-after-opening", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/in-use-shelf-life-after-opening/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/in-use-shelf-life-after-opening/index.md", "title": "How long a veterinary medicine lasts after opening the container", "h1": "In-use shelf life: how long a veterinary medicine lasts once opened", "description": "Why an opened container has its own shorter expiry, how long multi-dose vaccines and injectables keep after broaching, and where the in-use period is stated.", "summary": "The date printed on the carton describes a sealed container. The moment a stopper is punctured, a second and far shorter clock starts — and it is the one that governs.", "topic": "Shelf life", "primary_query": "how long a veterinary medicine lasts once opened", "date_published": "2026-08-04", "date_modified": "2026-08-04", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/in-use-shelf-life-after-opening.webp", "image_alt": "A part-used multi-dose vial with a punctured rubber stopper standing beside a syringe on a clean surface", "takeaways": [ "The expiry date on the carton applies to the unopened container. Once it is broached, the in-use shelf life on the label replaces it and is always the shorter of the two.", "Reconstituted vaccine is the extreme case: usable life is normally measured in hours and is often stated as 'use immediately' or within the same working session.", "Opening introduces air, moisture and micro-organisms, and each puncture of a stopper repeats the exposure — which is why the count of punctures matters as much as elapsed time.", "Write the date and time of first broaching on the container itself. A part-used vial without that mark cannot be assessed by anyone, including the person who opened it.", "Where no in-use period is stated for a multi-dose container, that absence is itself information: treat the product as single-session unless the manufacturer says otherwise." ], "faq": [ { "question": "Why does the shelf life shorten once a container is opened?", "answer": "Because the sealed state is part of what the expiry date was tested under. Opening admits air, moisture and micro-organisms; oxygen drives chemical degradation, moisture affects powders and lyophilised products, and any organism introduced through the stopper has a nutrient-rich medium to grow in. Preservatives in a multi-dose product limit that growth but do not eliminate it, and their capacity is finite — which is why in-use periods exist at all." }, { "question": "How long does a multi-dose vaccine keep after the first puncture?", "answer": "It depends entirely on the product, and the label states it. Reconstituted live vaccines are commonly limited to a few hours or to the same working session. Inactivated multi-dose vaccines with a preservative may carry an in-use period of hours to a small number of days at the stated storage temperature. Some products state no in-use period at all, which is not permission to keep them — it means the manufacturer has not established one and the container should be treated as single-session." }, { "question": "Do different formulations behave differently after opening?", "answer": "Yes, and predictably. Reconstituted lyophilised products are the most fragile because the powder was stable and the solution is not. Aqueous multi-dose injectables sit in the middle and rely on their preservative. Oil-based and suspension products can separate and need resuspension. Tablets in blisters are unaffected until the individual blister is opened, while tablets in a jar begin exchanging moisture with the air on first opening. Ointments and intramammary tubes are usually single-use by design." }, { "question": "How should a part-used container be marked?", "answer": "With the date and, for anything measured in hours, the time of first broaching, written on the container itself rather than on the carton — cartons get separated from vials. Add the initials of the person who opened it if more than one person uses the stock. Nothing else on the vial records this: the printed expiry date will still look valid long after the in-use period has run out." }, { "question": "Where is the in-use shelf life written?", "answer": "In the approved labelling, in the shelf life section, as a separate line from the shelf life of the product as packaged — usually phrased as shelf life after first opening the immediate packaging, or after reconstitution, or after broaching. It normally names a storage condition alongside the period, and that condition can differ from the unopened product's." }, { "question": "Can an opened vial be kept until the printed expiry date if it still looks fine?", "answer": "No. Appearance is not the test. A product can lose potency or carry contamination with no visible change, and the in-use period exists precisely because inspection cannot detect either. The printed expiry date describes a container that was never opened, and it stops being the governing date the moment the stopper is punctured." } ], "about": [ "Shelf life", "In-use shelf life", "Multi-dose vial", "Vaccine reconstitution", "Veterinary medicine" ], "keywords": [ "how long vaccine good after opening", "in-use shelf life veterinary", "opened vial expiry", "reconstituted vaccine time limit", "multi-dose vial after puncture" ], "sources": [ { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" }, { "key": "fdaAnimalDrugs", "title": "Animal Drugs @ FDA — approved animal drug products", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration", "url": "https://animaldrugsatfda.fda.gov/" }, { "key": "ukVmd", "title": "Veterinary Medicines Directorate", "publisher": "UK Government", "url": "https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/veterinary-medicines-directorate" }, { "key": "woahManual", "title": "Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals", "publisher": "World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)", "url": "https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/terrestrial-manual-online-access/" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "storing-veterinary-medicines-cold-chain", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/storing-veterinary-medicines-cold-chain/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/storing-veterinary-medicines-cold-chain/index.md", "title": "Storing veterinary medicines: temperature and cold chain", "h1": "Storage conditions and the cold chain for veterinary medicines", "description": "What the storage phrases on a veterinary label mean in degrees, how a cold chain breaks, what freezing does to a vaccine, and how to monitor conditions on a farm.", "summary": "Most of the potency a medicine loses is lost in a cupboard, a vehicle or a cool box — long before anyone thinks to ask whether the product worked.", "topic": "Storage", "primary_query": "storage conditions and the cold chain for veterinary medicines", "date_published": "2026-08-03", "date_modified": "2026-08-03", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/storing-veterinary-medicines-cold-chain.webp", "image_alt": "A veterinary refrigerator with vials on a shelf and a digital temperature display beside it", "takeaways": [ "Storage phrases on a label are defined ranges, not suggestions: refrigerated normally means 2–8 °C, and 'do not freeze' is a separate instruction that a fridge can violate on its own.", "Freezing damages most inactivated and adjuvanted vaccines irreversibly, and a frozen-then-thawed vial usually looks unchanged — which is why the temperature record matters more than the inspection.", "The cold chain is only as strong as its shortest unmonitored leg. The vehicle journey and the last cool box on the holding are where it typically breaks.", "Loss of potency is silent: a degraded vaccine produces no visible defect, no reaction and no warning — only a vaccination that quietly did not work.", "A minimum–maximum thermometer inside the storage compartment, read and logged, is the cheapest control available and the only evidence that exists after the fact." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What temperature ranges do veterinary medicines require?", "answer": "The common label categories are: store below 25 °C or below 30 °C for most ordinary products; store at 2–8 °C, meaning refrigerated, for vaccines and many biologicals; store in a freezer for a small number of products that specifically require it; and protect from light or protect from frost as additional conditions. The wording on the label is the requirement — where it says do not freeze, keeping a product at 2–8 °C is not enough on its own, because a domestic fridge can drop below zero at the back of a shelf." }, { "question": "What is a cold chain and what is it made of?", "answer": "A cold chain is the unbroken sequence of refrigerated storage and transport that keeps a temperature-sensitive product inside its stated range from the manufacturer to the moment it is administered. Its legs are the manufacturer's cold store, the distributor's warehouse, refrigerated transport, the veterinary practice or supplier fridge, the transport to the holding, and the cool box used in the field. Every leg needs its own temperature control, and the chain is only as good as the weakest one." }, { "question": "What happens to a vaccine that has been frozen or overheated?", "answer": "Freezing an inactivated or adjuvanted vaccine can disrupt the adjuvant emulsion and denature antigen, permanently reducing the immune response it produces, and freezing can also crack a vial or compromise a stopper seal. Overheating accelerates the loss of potency of a live vaccine, which depends on organisms remaining viable. In both cases the damage is usually invisible: the vial looks and injects normally, and the only sign is that immunity is weaker or absent." }, { "question": "Can vaccines be carried in an ordinary cool bag?", "answer": "Only if it holds the product inside the stated range for the whole journey and this can be demonstrated, which normally means a validated container, a conditioned coolant pack and a temperature logger or at minimum a min–max thermometer travelling inside. The specific hazard with an ordinary cool bag is a frozen coolant pack in direct contact with a vial: the surface temperature there is well below zero, so a product being kept 'cold' is being frozen." }, { "question": "Where is the storage condition written on the product?", "answer": "In the approved labelling, in a section headed special precautions for storage, and in abbreviated form on the outer carton and often the immediate container. The same section states the in-use storage condition and shelf life after the container is first opened or after a vaccine is reconstituted, which is frequently a different and much shorter condition than the unopened product's." }, { "question": "How should temperature be monitored on a farm or in a practice?", "answer": "With a thermometer inside the compartment where the products sit, not with the appliance's own dial, and with a minimum–maximum reading that captures what happened overnight. Log the reading on a fixed schedule, record the date the log was checked, and act on an excursion by isolating the affected stock and asking the manufacturer or supplier for an assessment rather than deciding by eye." } ], "about": [ "Cold chain", "Vaccine storage", "Temperature control", "Veterinary vaccine", "Pharmaceutical stability" ], "keywords": [ "vaccine cold chain farm", "2-8 degrees storage vaccine", "frozen vaccine still usable", "veterinary medicine storage temperature", "cool box vaccine transport" ], "sources": [ { "key": "woahManual", "title": "Manual of Diagnostic Tests and Vaccines for Terrestrial Animals", "publisher": "World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)", "url": "https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/terrestrial-manual-online-access/" }, { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" }, { "key": "fdaAnimalDrugs", "title": "Animal Drugs @ FDA — approved animal drug products", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration", "url": "https://animaldrugsatfda.fda.gov/" }, { "key": "ukVmd", "title": "Veterinary Medicines Directorate", "publisher": "UK Government", "url": "https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/veterinary-medicines-directorate" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] }, { "slug": "withdrawal-periods-meat-milk-eggs", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/withdrawal-periods-meat-milk-eggs/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/withdrawal-periods-meat-milk-eggs/index.md", "title": "Withdrawal periods explained: meat, milk and eggs after treatment", "h1": "Withdrawal periods for meat, milk and eggs: what they are and where to find them", "description": "What a withdrawal period is, how it is measured against the maximum residue limit, why it differs by product and species, and where it is written on the label.", "summary": "The interval between the last treatment and the moment produce may be sold is not a rule of thumb. It is a measured figure, specific to one product in one species by one route.", "topic": "Food safety", "primary_query": "withdrawal periods for meat, milk and eggs", "date_published": "2026-08-02", "date_modified": "2026-08-02", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/withdrawal-periods-meat-milk-eggs.webp", "image_alt": "A dairy farmer in overalls checking a clipboard record beside stainless steel milking equipment", "takeaways": [ "A withdrawal period is the minimum time between the last administration of a medicine and the point at which meat, milk or eggs from that animal may enter the food chain.", "It is derived from residue depletion studies: how fast residues in edible tissue fall below the maximum residue limit (MRL), plus a safety margin, rounded up.", "The figure belongs to one product, in one species, by one route, at one dose. The same active substance in a different formulation can carry a very different withdrawal period.", "Milk is counted in hours or in milkings; meat in days; eggs in days, and egg residues persist because a yolk takes days to form.", "Where no withdrawal period is established for a species, EU law sets statutory minimums under the cascade — 7 days for eggs and milk, 28 days for meat, 500 degree-days for fish." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What is a withdrawal period for meat and milk?", "answer": "It is the minimum interval between the last administration of a veterinary medicine to an animal and the moment produce from that animal may be placed on the market for human consumption. During that interval, residues of the medicine in edible tissue, milk or eggs may still exceed the maximum residue limit set for that substance. The period is stated on the product's approved labelling and is specific to that product, that species and that route of administration." }, { "question": "Where is the withdrawal period written?", "answer": "In the approved labelling, in a section headed withdrawal period or withdrawal time, and on the outer carton in most markets. It is stated separately for each edible product — meat and offal, milk, eggs — and separately for each authorised species. If a product carries no withdrawal period for a species, that species was not part of the authorisation, which is a different situation from a zero-day withdrawal." }, { "question": "How is the length of a withdrawal period decided?", "answer": "By measurement. A residue depletion study samples treated animals over time and tracks how the concentration of the marker residue falls in each edible tissue. The withdrawal period is the time at which residues in the relevant tissue are statistically demonstrated to be below the maximum residue limit, extended by a safety margin and rounded up to a whole day or a whole number of milkings. It reflects the specific formulation, because how fast a substance clears depends on how it was delivered." }, { "question": "Does cooking, freezing or processing shorten a withdrawal period?", "answer": "No. The withdrawal period is set against residue concentrations in raw tissue, milk or eggs, and processing is not part of the calculation. Pasteurising milk, freezing meat or maturing cheese does not bring produce from a treated animal into compliance earlier, and none of these steps may be substituted for the stated waiting time." }, { "question": "What do I do when several medicines have been used?", "answer": "Each product's withdrawal period runs from its own last administration, and produce may only be sold once every one of them has elapsed — in practice the controlling figure is whichever period ends last. They are not added together and they are not averaged. Where treatments overlap or a product has been used outside its authorisation, the interval is a decision for the veterinarian responsible, who is also the person able to record the justification." }, { "question": "What happens if the withdrawal period is not observed?", "answer": "Residues above the maximum residue limit may be present in food. National residue monitoring programmes sample milk, meat and eggs precisely to detect this, and a positive result typically triggers rejection of the consignment, investigation of the holding, and — in a dairy setting — the loss of an entire bulk tank contaminated by one animal's milk. The financial consequence is usually far larger than the value of the treatment." } ], "about": [ "Withdrawal period", "Maximum residue limit", "Food safety", "Veterinary drug residues", "Dairy farming" ], "keywords": [ "withdrawal period meat milk", "milk withhold after antibiotics", "MRL veterinary residues", "egg withdrawal period", "withdrawal time explained" ], "sources": [ { "key": "codexMrl", "title": "Maximum Residue Limits for veterinary drugs in foods", "publisher": "Codex Alimentarius (FAO/WHO)", "url": "https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/codex-texts/maximum-residue-limits/en/" }, { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" }, { "key": "euReg2019", "title": "Regulation (EU) 2019/6 on veterinary medicinal products", "publisher": "EUR-Lex, Official Journal of the European Union", "url": "https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/6/oj" }, { "key": "fdaAnimalDrugs", "title": "Animal Drugs @ FDA — approved animal drug products", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration", "url": "https://animaldrugsatfda.fda.gov/" }, { "key": "ukVmd", "title": "Veterinary Medicines Directorate", "publisher": "UK Government", "url": "https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/veterinary-medicines-directorate" }, { "key": "woahCode", "title": "Terrestrial Animal Health Code", "publisher": "World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH)", "url": "https://www.woah.org/en/what-we-do/standards/codes-and-manuals/terrestrial-code-online-access/" } ] }, { "slug": "veterinary-drug-units-iu-mg-ml-percent", "url": "https://galen.vet/journal/veterinary-drug-units-iu-mg-ml-percent/", "markdown_url": "https://galen.vet/journal/veterinary-drug-units-iu-mg-ml-percent/index.md", "title": "IU, mg/mL and percent on a veterinary label: what each unit means", "h1": "Units on a veterinary medicine label: IU, mg/mL, percent, CFU and titre", "description": "What IU, mg/mL, percentage strength, CFU and titre measure on a veterinary product, how a percentage converts to mg/mL, and why concentration beats bottle size.", "summary": "A percentage, a milligram per millilitre and an international unit are three different kinds of statement. Here is what each one measures, which convert into each other and which never do.", "topic": "Reading a label", "primary_query": "units on a veterinary medicine label", "date_published": "2026-08-01", "date_modified": "2026-08-01", "image": "https://galen.vet/img/journal/veterinary-drug-units-iu-mg-ml-percent.webp", "image_alt": "A gloved hand holding a clear glass vial over a stainless steel tray beside a graduated cylinder in a laboratory", "takeaways": [ "An international unit (IU) measures biological activity against an agreed reference preparation, not mass. There is no universal IU-to-milligram conversion — the factor is specific to each substance.", "In a weight-in-volume solution, 1% is 10 mg/mL, so percentage × 10 gives mg/mL. Confirm the label uses w/v before applying it: ointments and premixes are usually w/w.", "CFU counts viable micro-organisms in a live product; titre expresses infectivity or activity from a specific assay, often as a log10 value. The two are not interchangeable.", "Concentration describes the product; volume describes the packaging. A 250 mL bottle at 50 mg/mL contains less active substance than a 100 mL bottle at 200 mg/mL.", "The authoritative statement of strength is the 'qualitative and quantitative composition' section of the approved label, not the front of the carton." ], "faq": [ { "question": "What does IU mean on a veterinary medicine?", "answer": "IU stands for international unit. It expresses how much biological activity a quantity of substance has when measured against an internationally agreed reference preparation, rather than how much it weighs. It is used where activity cannot be reliably inferred from mass — vitamins A, D and E, some hormones, some antibiotics and several biological products. Each substance has its own IU-to-milligram equivalence, so a conversion that is correct for vitamin D3 is meaningless for vitamin E." }, { "question": "How do I convert a percentage to mg/mL?", "answer": "For a weight-in-volume (w/v) solution, 1% means 1 gram in 100 millilitres, which is 10 milligrams per millilitre. So multiply the percentage by 10: a 2.5% solution is 25 mg/mL and a 10% solution is 100 mg/mL. The conversion only holds for w/v. Semi-solid products such as ointments and in-feed premixes are normally expressed weight-in-weight (w/w), where a percentage is grams per 100 grams and no volume is involved." }, { "question": "What is the difference between CFU and titre?", "answer": "CFU — colony-forming units — counts the micro-organisms in a live product that are capable of growing into a colony, and it is used for probiotics, some feed additives and live bacterial vaccines. A titre is the result of a specific assay, expressed as the dilution at which a defined effect is still observed; viral vaccine potency is often stated as a titre such as TCID50 or EID50 per dose, frequently written as a log10 value. They measure different things by different methods and cannot be converted into one another." }, { "question": "Why does concentration matter more than the size of the bottle?", "answer": "Because the volume is a property of the packaging and the concentration is a property of the medicine. Two bottles of the same active substance can hold the same total quantity in very different volumes, and the amount to administer depends on the concentration, not on how much liquid the container holds. Reading the bottle size as a measure of strength is one of the more common ways a dose gets miscalculated." }, { "question": "Where on the label is the strength stated?", "answer": "In the section titled qualitative and quantitative composition, which lists each active substance with the amount present per unit — per millilitre for an injectable or oral solution, per gram for a premix or ointment, per tablet, or per dose for a vaccine. The strength usually also appears in the product's full name. The front of the carton is a summary and is not the place to settle a question about strength." }, { "question": "Does a higher percentage always mean a stronger product?", "answer": "Only when the two products express the percentage the same way and contain the same active substance. A 10% w/v injectable solution contains 100 mg/mL; a 10% w/w premix contains 100 g per kilogram of premix, which then gets mixed into feed at an inclusion rate that changes the final concentration entirely. Comparing the two numbers directly compares nothing." } ], "about": [ "International unit", "Concentration", "Colony-forming unit", "Veterinary medicine", "Pharmaceutical labelling" ], "keywords": [ "IU meaning veterinary", "mg/ml to percent", "percent solution to mg per ml", "CFU meaning label", "vaccine titre", "veterinary drug concentration" ], "sources": [ { "key": "emaVet", "title": "Veterinary regulatory overview", "publisher": "European Medicines Agency (EMA)", "url": "https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/veterinary-regulatory-overview" }, { "key": "fdaAnimalDrugs", "title": "Animal Drugs @ FDA — approved animal drug products", "publisher": "U.S. Food and Drug Administration", "url": "https://animaldrugsatfda.fda.gov/" }, { "key": "vich", "title": "VICH guidelines on the technical requirements for veterinary medicinal products", "publisher": "VICH (International Cooperation on Harmonisation)", "url": "https://vichsec.org/" }, { "key": "whoCia", "title": "Critically important antimicrobials for human medicine", "publisher": "World Health Organization", "url": "https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241515528" }, { "key": "merckManual", "title": "The Merck Veterinary Manual", "publisher": "MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual", "url": "https://www.merckvetmanual.com/" } ] } ], "related": { "sources": "https://galen.vet/api/v1/sources.json", "index": "https://galen.vet/api/v1/index.json", "documentation": "https://galen.vet/api/" } }