Dog Metacam calculator
A 10 kg dog prescribed Metacam (meloxicam) at 0.1 mg/kg needs 1 mg per dose. Enter the scale weight and the rate your veterinarian wrote to get a repeatable milligram total for the clinic chart or home sheet. Free in your browser.
- Free
- Runs in your browser
- No sign-up
- Your data stays on your device
Run — free
Worked example
- Weight
- 10
- Dose per kg
- 0.1
- Dose mg
- 1 mg
- Weight (kg)
- 10
- Weight unit
- Kg
- Dose mg per kg
- 0.1
Metacam is the trade name of meloxicam, a veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug prescribed for dogs to relieve pain and inflammation from osteoarthritis and from soft-tissue or orthopaedic procedures. Once a veterinarian has written a milligrams-per-kilogram rate, clinics, pharmacies, kennels, and owners still need a repeatable milligram total from the scale weight. This calculator multiplies body weight in kilograms by the prescribed dosage rate in milligrams per kilogram and returns a single deterministic dose in milligrams.
How the Metacam milligram dose is calculated
The official oral Metacam (meloxicam) labelling for dogs is written as milligrams of active ingredient per kilogram of body weight, not as a fixed tablet size that ignores frame. A common first-day loading rate on published canine labels is two tenths of a milligram per kilogram, and a common once-daily maintenance rate is one tenth of a milligram per kilogram, but those figures are educational context only: this capability never invents a rate.
A ten-kilogram dog at one tenth of a milligram per kilogram therefore yields one milligram; a twenty-five-kilogram dog at two tenths of a milligram per kilogram yields five milligrams. The result is the milligram amount of meloxicam, not a millilitre volume of the 1.5 mg/mL oral suspension and not a scored-tablet count: convert milligrams to volume or to tablets using the product label after you have the milligram total. Do not treat a typical published band as a prescription.
Puppies under six months, dogs with renal, hepatic, or gastrointestinal disease, and animals already receiving another NSAID or a corticosteroid need a veterinarian, not a larger spreadsheet. Re-weigh on a calibrated scale, use the rate written on the script, and stop the course if the animal vomits, has black stool, or becomes lethargic.
What you can do with it
Convert a written mg/kg script at the clinic desk
Weigh the dog, enter the veterinarian’s milligrams-per-kilogram rate, and store the returned milligrams next to the chart so every nurse uses the same total.
Kennel and post-operative home sheets
Generate a milligram total from today’s weight and the discharge rate so boarding staff and owners do not re-derive the multiply in a private spreadsheet.
FAQ
What is a typical Metacam dose per kilogram for a dog?
Published canine oral labels commonly use 0.2 mg/kg on the first day and 0.1 mg/kg once daily after that. This tool only multiplies the rate you supply; it does not choose a regimen.
What happens if weight is zero or negative?
Weight must be a finite number strictly greater than zero.
Is the dog Metacam calculator a prescription, and what does it cost?
No. It is arithmetic from a rate your veterinarian already wrote. The browser tool is free.
How many millilitres of Metacam oral suspension does my dog need?
This calculator gives the dose in milligrams, not millilitres. Once you have the milligram total, convert it to a volume using the concentration on the product label, such as the 1.5 mg/mL oral suspension.
When should I stop giving Metacam and call the vet?
Stop the course and contact your veterinarian if your dog vomits, has black stool or becomes lethargic. Puppies under six months and dogs with kidney, liver or gut disease need a veterinarian's plan first.
Related tools
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, by email and from Telegram — and soon from our app too.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/bio/dog-metacam \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"weight":10,"dose_per_kg":0.1}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/bio/dog-metacam", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"weight": 10,
"dose_per_kg": 0.1
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/bio/dog-metacam",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"weight": 10,
"dose_per_kg": 0.1
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/bio/dog-metacam", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"weight":10,"dose_per_kg":0.1}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"weight":10,"dose_per_kg":0.1}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/bio/dog-metacam", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"weight": 10,
"dose_per_kg": 0.1
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "bio.dog_metacam",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |
Technical notes
A zero, negative, or non-finite weight fails with invalid_input and is not billed. This is arithmetic from a prescribed rate, not a diagnosis and not a substitute for a licensed veterinarian.
How the Metacam milligram dose is calculated
You supply the prescribed dose_per_kg and the scale weight; the engine converts pounds to kilograms with the international avoirdupois factor 0.45359237 when weight_unit is lb, then multiplies. The identity is dose_mg equals weight_kg times dose_mg_per_kg.
Input contract, response fields, and validation errors
POST a JSON body with a required positive weight and a required positive dose_per_kg. weight is a finite number greater than zero in the unit given by optional weight_unit, which defaults to kilogram and also accepts pound plus the usual aliases kilogram, kilograms, lb, lbs, pound, and pounds. dose_per_kg is the prescribed milligrams of meloxicam per kilogram of body mass; aliases such as dose_mg_per_kg, dosage, dosage_rate, mg_per_kg, and rate are accepted so forms and scripts do not need a single field name. Each numeric field may arrive as a JSON number or as a numeric string. After conversion, weight must fall between two tenths of a kilogram and two hundred kilograms so a unit typo cannot explode the product, and dose_per_kg must stay at or below five milligrams per kilogram so a missing decimal point is rejected instead of becoming a fifty-fold overdose. Missing weight, a zero, a negative, NaN, or a non-numeric string fails with invalid_input naming the field and stating that it must be a positive number. The same rule applies to dose_per_kg. Those failures are not billed. On success the body echoes weight, weight_kg, weight_unit, and dose_mg_per_kg, and returns dose_mg as the primary figure together with unit mg and a formula string. Example: ten kilograms at one tenth of a milligram per kilogram uses dose_mg equal to one. Convert pounds before or during the call; do not send a pound reading as if it were kilograms. Successful API calls use prepaid KIT balance at the published $0.002 base price per item.
Where a dog Metacam calculator earns its keep
Clinic dispensaries and veterinary nurses need a repeatable milligram total when the script already states 0.1 mg/kg or 0.2 mg/kg and the only unknown is today’s scale weight. Kennel software, post-operative home-care sheets, and shelter medical records can call the same parse module from a form or from a batch job without standing up a full pharmacy suite. Do not treat the milligram figure as a crash course of NSAID therapy: Metacam is contraindicated in dehydrated, hypovolaemic, or hypotensive dogs, in animals with gastrointestinal ulceration, and in combination with other NSAIDs or corticosteroids. Re-weigh before each course, use the rate the veterinarian wrote, and pair the number with the concentration on the bottle if you need millilitres. Compounding pharmacies and hospital pharmacies can post the same pair of numbers from an intake form and store dose_mg next to the lot, so two staff members never multiply by hand and disagree by a tenth of a milligram. Cats use a different labelled product and a different rate; this endpoint is for dogs only. This endpoint does not read a label, does not adjust for renal clearance, and does not replace a veterinarian. It answers one search intent honestly: given a positive canine weight and a prescribed milligrams-per-kilogram Metacam rate, what is the dose in milligrams.
Integration use cases
Pharmacy and compounding double-check
Multiply the prescribed Metacam rate by body weight before drawing the 1.5 mg/mL oral suspension or scoring a tablet, and keep the deterministic dose_mg in the lot record.
Technical questions
How do I calculate a dog Metacam (meloxicam) dose?
Send a positive body weight and the prescribed dose_per_kg in milligrams per kilogram. The API returns dose_mg as weight in kilograms multiplied by that rate.
Which units should I use for weight and dose_per_kg?
Use kilograms for weight (or set weight_unit to lb) and milligrams of meloxicam per kilogram for dose_per_kg. Pounds convert with the exact 0.45359237 kilogram factor.