ASK A VET™
Veterinary Hospital Patient Chart
Daily cage sheet with automatic dose calculations, fluid therapy rates and a 24 hour treatment grid: vitals and care tasks on top, medications and IV fluids below, every due time highlighted so nothing gets missed. Designed by Dr Duncan Houston.
Patient details
Safety and nursing flags
Fluid therapy calculator
Medications and treatments: 24 hour chart
CRI / syringe driver calculator
NGT feeding (nasogastric tube)
Nebulisation (solution made up with 0.9% saline)
Oxygen therapy
How to use this hospital chart
Fill in the patient details first: the body weight (kg or lb) drives every calculation on the page. Set the safety flags, and anything the team must not miss (DNR, infectious, cytotoxic, seizure watch, NPO, aggressive) becomes a bold alert chip at the top of the printed sheet. Plan the fluids, add each medication with its dose and frequency, add monitoring tasks such as temperature or pain score, then print the A4 landscape treatment sheet or copy the plain-text summary into your practice management software. Cells cycle from due to given with one click, and monitoring cells accept typed values.
RER and maintenance fluid reference table
Resting energy requirement uses RER = 70 × body weight (kg)0.75 kcal/day, the standard exponential formula for both dogs and cats. Maintenance fluid rates use 132 × kg0.75 ml/day for dogs and 80 × kg0.75 ml/day for cats. Hospitalised patients are usually started at 1 × RER, divided into several small meals.
| Weight (kg) | Weight (lb) | RER (kcal/day) | Dog maintenance (ml/hr) | Cat maintenance (ml/hr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.205 | 70 | 5.5 | 3.333 |
| 2 | 4.409 | 117.7 | 9.25 | 5.606 |
| 3 | 6.614 | 159.6 | 12.54 | 7.598 |
| 4 | 8.818 | 198 | 15.56 | 9.428 |
| 5 | 11.02 | 234.1 | 18.39 | 11.15 |
| 7.5 | 16.53 | 317.2 | 24.93 | 15.11 |
| 10 | 22.05 | 393.6 | 30.93 | 18.74 |
| 15 | 33.07 | 533.5 | 41.92 | 25.41 |
| 20 | 44.09 | 662 | 52.02 | 31.52 |
| 25 | 55.12 | 782.6 | 61.49 | 37.27 |
| 30 | 66.14 | 897.3 | 70.5 | 42.73 |
| 35 | 77.16 | 1,007 | 79.14 | 47.97 |
| 40 | 88.18 | 1,113 | 87.48 | 53.02 |
| 50 | 110.2 | 1,316 | 103.4 | 62.68 |
| 60 | 132.3 | 1,509 | 118.6 | 71.86 |
Potassium supplementation in IV fluids
Potassium chloride is added to the bag using a serum-potassium sliding scale, but the number that keeps patients safe is the infusion rate: potassium must not exceed 0.5 mmol/kg/hr. The calculator above computes the actual delivery from your bag concentration, pump rate and body weight, and blocks nothing but warns loudly. Common sliding scale (per litre of fluids):
| Serum potassium (mmol/L) | KCl added to fluids (mmol/L) |
|---|---|
| > 3.5 | 20 |
| 3.0 to 3.5 | 30 |
| 2.5 to 2.9 | 40 |
| 2.0 to 2.4 | 60 |
| < 2.0 | 80 |
Chart abbreviations
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| SID / BID / TID / QID | Once, twice, three times, four times daily (q24h, q12h, q8h, q6h) |
| q4h, q6h, q8h | Every 4, 6 or 8 hours |
| PRN | Pro re nata: give only if needed |
| CRI | Constant rate infusion (continuous) |
| NPO | Nil per os: nothing by mouth |
| NGT | Nasogastric tube (feeding or suction) |
| INH / Neb | Inhaled / nebulised medication |
| HFNO | High-flow nasal oxygen (dosed in L/kg/min) |
| CPR / DNR | Attempt resuscitation / do not resuscitate |
| RER / MER | Resting / maintenance energy requirement (kcal/day) |
| IV / IM / SC / PO / OTM | Intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous, by mouth, oral transmucosal |
Frequently asked questions
Multiply the dose rate (mg/kg) by the body weight (kg) for the total dose in mg, then divide by the concentration (mg/ml) for the volume. 10 mg/kg in a 20 kg dog at 50 mg/ml is 200 mg = 4 ml. The chart shows this working on every row and recalculates if the weight changes.
RER = 70 × body weight (kg)0.75 kcal/day. A 20 kg dog is about 662 kcal/day; a 4 kg cat about 198 kcal/day. Hospitalised patients usually start at 1 × RER split into several small meals.
KCl is dosed into the bag on a sliding scale (commonly 20 to 80 mmol/L), but it must never be infused faster than 0.5 mmol/kg/hr. The calculator checks your delivery rate against that ceiling and warns if it is exceeded.
The drug has eligible times every 8 hours, but each dose is given only if the patient needs it. On this chart PRN doses appear as dashed cells so they read differently from mandatory scheduled doses.
Yes. Toggle the weight unit to lb and the value converts in place. All doses, fluid rates and RER are still calculated correctly in kilograms underneath.
Divide the calculated dose in mg by the tablet strength: 100 mg from 200 mg tablets is 1/2 a tablet. Tablets split practically into quarters, so this chart rounds to the nearest quarter, shows the actual mg delivered, warns when rounding moves the dose more than 10%, and tells you to use a smaller strength or liquid when the answer is under 1/4 of a tablet.
Either as a CRI in ml/hr marked every hour on the sheet, or as bolus feeds of a set volume every 2 to 8 hours, with NGT suction volumes recorded in the monitoring cells when the tube is also used for decompression.
Yes. It prints as an A4 landscape sheet for one 24 hour day, with vitals and care tasks in the top section and medications and IV fluids below. Due times print as boxes for initials, safety alerts print across the top, five blank "Other" lines at the bottom let the vet handwrite any medication added after printing, and "Start next day" generates tomorrow's sheet in one click, so the chart on the cage is always current and nothing is missed.
Record the rate and the delivery method: nasal prongs, cannula, ET tube, mask, flow-by, cage, hood or incubator in L/min, or high-flow nasal oxygen in L/kg/min (typically 1 to 2). This chart computes the total flow from the patient's weight for high-flow, records a target FiO2 for cages, and marks oxygen on every hour since it runs continuously.
The mixture (e.g. gentamicin + saline), the total volume made up with 0.9% saline, the run time in minutes and the interval are all recorded, and each scheduled neb is highlighted on the grid. Inhaled medications chart with the INH route.
References and further reading: DiBartola SP, Fluid, Electrolyte and Acid-Base Disorders in Small Animal Practice; WSAVA Global Nutrition Guidelines (RER and feeding); Silverstein DC, Hopper K, Small Animal Critical Care Medicine; Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook (drug concentrations and dose rates).
Part of the ASK A VET™ veterinary tool suite. See also the anaesthetic and sedation drug calculator and the veterinary herbal medicine calculator.
For veterinary professional use only. This chart is a calculation and organisation aid. Always confirm drug choice, dose, concentration, route, frequency and compatibility against the product label and current formulary before administration. Doses recalculate automatically if the body weight is changed. Check the working shown for every calculated dose.