# Galen

> An independent reference journal on veterinary medicines. It explains how veterinary
> products are labelled, measured, stored and classified. It contains no
> dosing guidance, no diagnosis and no product recommendations — those belong to the
> veterinarian who has examined the animal.

## Before you quote anything here

Galen publishes no doses, does not diagnose, names no products and recommends none. An
absent row is never a statement of safety. If an animal has swallowed something or is
deteriorating, the answer is a veterinarian or an animal poison centre immediately, not a
reference page. The full policy, including an explicit list of what is out of scope and
where to go instead, is at https://galen.vet/api/v1/galen.json.

Every page has a markdown twin: append `index.md` to any URL, or send
`Accept: text/markdown`.

## Journal

- [Units on a veterinary medicine label: IU, mg/mL, percent, CFU and titre](https://galen.vet/journal/veterinary-drug-units-iu-mg-ml-percent/): 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.
- [Withdrawal periods for meat, milk and eggs: what they are and where to find them](https://galen.vet/journal/withdrawal-periods-meat-milk-eggs/): 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.
- [Storage conditions and the cold chain for veterinary medicines](https://galen.vet/journal/storing-veterinary-medicines-cold-chain/): 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.
- [In-use shelf life: how long a veterinary medicine lasts once opened](https://galen.vet/journal/in-use-shelf-life-after-opening/): 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.
- [Human medicines and pets: why they are dangerous for cats and dogs](https://galen.vet/journal/human-medicines-and-pets/): 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.
- [Normal temperature, pulse and respiratory rate by species](https://galen.vet/journal/normal-temperature-pulse-respiration-animals/): 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.
- [Comparing veterinary medicines by active substance: analogue, generic and substitute](https://galen.vet/journal/veterinary-generics-active-substance/): 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.
- [Antimicrobial resistance on the farm: how it develops and what stewardship means](https://galen.vet/journal/antimicrobial-resistance-livestock/): 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.
- [Early signs of illness in cats and dogs: what to watch for](https://galen.vet/journal/signs-of-illness-in-cats-and-dogs/): 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.
- [Heat stress in livestock and poultry: the temperature-humidity index and what to do](https://galen.vet/journal/heat-stress-livestock-poultry/): 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.
- [Can dogs eat chicken bones, and what to do if one has been swallowed](https://galen.vet/journal/can-dogs-eat-chicken-bones/): A cooked bone does not behave like a bone. Drying makes it brittle, and brittle bone breaks into edges rather than crumbling.
- [Houseplants that are toxic to cats, grouped by what they actually do](https://galen.vet/journal/houseplants-toxic-to-cats/): 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.
- [Can I give my dog human painkillers: paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin](https://galen.vet/journal/can-i-give-my-dog-human-painkillers/): 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.
- [Dehydration in cats and dogs: the checks, the causes and the point of no delay](https://galen.vet/journal/dehydration-in-cats-and-dogs/): 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.
- [How to take a dog's temperature at home and read the result](https://galen.vet/journal/how-to-take-a-dogs-temperature/): 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.
- [Can cats eat liver, and what regular liver feeding does over time](https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-liver/): 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.
- [Intestinal obstruction in dogs: what it is and which signs cannot wait](https://galen.vet/journal/intestinal-obstruction-in-dogs/): 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.
- [Obesity in cats: measuring it, and why weight loss has to be gradual](https://galen.vet/journal/obesity-in-cats/): 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.
- [Parasite prevention for indoor cats: the routes that bypass a closed door](https://galen.vet/journal/parasite-prevention-indoor-cats/): 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.
- [Dental pain in cats: how it is hidden and what to look for](https://galen.vet/journal/dental-pain-in-cats/): 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.
- [Can cats eat oranges, and why citrus oil is the part that matters](https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-oranges/): 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.
- [A first-aid kit for a dog: what belongs in it and what does not](https://galen.vet/journal/first-aid-kit-for-a-dog/): 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.
- [Heartworm in dogs: the life cycle, the six-month window and prevention](https://galen.vet/journal/heartworm-in-dogs/): Everything about heartworm turns on one interval: preventives act on larvae, and larvae become untouchable adults in about six months.
- [Can dogs eat soup and broth, and what is actually in the stock](https://galen.vet/journal/can-dogs-eat-soup-and-broth/): 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.
- [Caring for a dog after surgery: what the first two weeks require](https://galen.vet/journal/caring-for-a-dog-after-surgery/): The dog feels well several days before the tissue has healed. Almost every post-operative complication lives in that gap.
- [Diabetes in dogs: what the signs mean and what management involves](https://galen.vet/journal/diabetes-in-dogs/): Four changes precede the diagnosis, and three of them look like a dog being a dog. The fourth is sudden blindness.
- [Can cats eat sausage, ham and processed meat besides the meat](https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-sausage-and-processed-meat/): 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.
- [Collecting a urine or stool sample from a dog so the result is usable](https://galen.vet/journal/collecting-a-urine-or-stool-sample-from-a-dog/): 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.
- [Dog blood test and ultrasound terms: what each abbreviation measures](https://galen.vet/journal/dog-blood-test-and-ultrasound-terms/): 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.
- [Can cats eat potato: raw, green, cooked, and the kind in cat food](https://galen.vet/journal/can-cats-eat-potato/): Three different questions wear the same name: the raw tuber, the cooked flesh, and the potato already in the bag of food.
- [Socialising a dog: the sensitive period and what it actually changes](https://galen.vet/journal/socialising-a-dog/): 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.
- [Why dogs chew furniture and what actually stops it](https://galen.vet/journal/why-dogs-chew-furniture/): Chewing is not one problem. Three different causes produce the same wrecked chair leg, and only one of them responds to more exercise.

## About

- [Who writes this, and how](https://galen.vet/about/): the publisher, the sources, what is
  deliberately absent from the site, and how to send a correction.
- [Galen open data](https://galen.vet/api/): the machine surface documented for humans — what each
  field means, which values are patterns rather than figures, and what the data does not
  contain.

## Open data — keyless, CORS-open, CC BY 4.0

- [Entry point](https://galen.vet/api/v1/index.json): every dataset with its row count.
- [OpenAPI 3.1](https://galen.vet/api/v1/openapi.json)
- [Articles](https://galen.vet/api/v1/articles.json): the corpus, with takeaways, FAQ and source keys.
- [Sources](https://galen.vet/api/v1/sources.json): the primary-source registry and who cites what.
- [Vital signs](https://galen.vet/api/v1/vital-signs.json): resting reference ranges, eight species.
- [Labelling](https://galen.vet/api/v1/labelling.json): strength units, storage, in-use shelf life, withdrawal.
- [Hazards](https://galen.vet/api/v1/hazards.json): household medicine groups and plant identities.
- [Heat stress](https://galen.vet/api/v1/heat-stress.json): the temperature-humidity index and its grid.
- [What Galen publishes](https://galen.vet/api/v1/galen.json): the editorial policy as data.
- [Build status](https://galen.vet/api/v1/status.json)
- Full text of the reference layer in one file: https://galen.vet/llms-full.txt
- MCP (JSON-RPC 2.0, POST): https://galen.vet/mcp — A2A: https://galen.vet/a2a — auth: https://galen.vet/auth.md