Animal first aid.

Meloxicam is meloxicam whether the carton says Melonex, Metacam or a chemist's own brand. The dangerous variable is not the brand but the strength: how many milligrams of the molecule sit in one tablet or one millilitre. Human meloxicam tablets are 7.5 mg and 15 mg. The veterinary oral suspension for dogs is 1.5 mg per mL, and the injection is usually 5 mg per mL. A 5 kg dog on a correct 0.1 mg per kg dose needs 0.5 mg. One human 7.5 mg tablet is fifteen times that.

The same is true of the antibiotic amoxicillin-clavulanate, which comes as 375 mg and 625 mg human tablets, veterinary 250 mg and 500 mg tablets, and paediatric syrups of several strengths. Reading "give one tablet" without reading which tablet is how overdoses happen.

An example, as it might be written for a 12 kg community dog with tick fever: Doxycycline 100 mg tab, 1/2 tab PO BID x 28 days, with food. Read it as: doxycycline, 100 mg tablets, half a tablet, by mouth, twice a day, for twenty-eight days, given with food. Half of 100 mg is 50 mg, which for 12 kg is about 4.2 mg per kg twice daily, inside the published range of 5 mg per kg twice a day or 10 mg per kg once a day. The arithmetic is checkable, which is the point of writing it out.

The abbreviations are Latin shorthand and every vet in India uses them:

Dose is the amount given at one time. Dosage is the whole plan: dose, route, interval and duration. When a vet says "the dosage is 5 mg per kg BID for 28 days", each of those four parts is a separate instruction, and each one matters.

Section 57 of the Act makes it an offence for anyone else to practise veterinary medicine, and the definition of veterinary medicine is wide: modern scientific veterinary medicine in all its branches, including surgery and obstetrics. Choosing a drug, a dose and a course for an animal is practice. Following a prescription is not.

What a caregiver may properly do, and what this Academy is written to help with:

Community dog vaccination, sterilisation and treatment programmes run under the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 are carried out by or under veterinarians for the same reason: the medicines are safe in trained hands and the animals cannot speak for themselves.

The veterinary NSAIDs a vet in India reaches for are meloxicam Rx (dogs, cats with great care, cattle, buffalo), carprofen and firocoxib (dogs), tolfenamic acid (dogs, cats, cattle), flunixin (cattle, horses) and phenylbutazone (horses). All are given with food, with the animal drinking normally, and never alongside a steroid or a second NSAID. The warning signs of trouble are vomiting, black or tarry stool, refusing food, and drinking or urinating more than before; any of these means the drug stops and the vet is told the same day.

India has removed four NSAIDs from veterinary use because of what they did to vultures, which died of kidney failure after eating carcasses of treated cattle: diclofenac (withdrawn from veterinary use in 2006, with the formal prohibition under Section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act gazetted in 2008), ketoprofen and aceclofenac (notification of 31 July 2023), and nimesulide (gazetted in January 2025). Aceclofenac turns into diclofenac inside a cow. Meloxicam is the vulture-safe alternative and is what the Vulture Recovery Plan recommended in place of diclofenac.

At anti-inflammatory doses (prednisolone around 0.5 to 1 mg per kg a day in dogs) they relieve itch and swelling; at immunosuppressive doses (2 to 4 mg per kg a day) they switch off the immune response, which is intended in immune-mediated anaemia and dangerous in an infection. Predictable effects are thirst, hunger, more urine, panting and a thin coat; longer courses bring muscle loss, a pot belly, skin infections and, in cats, diabetes. Steroids and NSAIDs together ulcerate the gut; this pair is the single most common dangerous combination in animal medicine.

Two Indian specifics. Dexamethasone in the last trimester of a cow or buffalo's pregnancy can bring on calving and abortion. And the "one dexa injection" given to any animal that looks unwell, without a diagnosis, is how a treatable infection is masked until it is untreatable.

Worms. Pyrantel (roundworm, hookworm), praziquantel (tapeworm, including the Echinococcus that causes hydatid disease in people) and fenbendazole (a three-day course; also for Giardia) are the usual dog and cat dewormers OTC in India; combination tablets are dosed by weight band on the label. Puppies are dewormed from two to three weeks of age and every two weeks until weaning, then monthly to six months. Livestock get albendazole, fenbendazole, levamisole, ivermectin, and closantel or triclabendazole for liver fluke in flood-prone districts; the ICAR goat calendar recommends deworming before and after the monsoon and at least fifteen days before vaccinating.

Ticks and fleas. Fipronil spot-ons (dogs and cats), imidacloprid, selamectin, and the newer isoxazoline chews (fluralaner, sarolaner, afoxolaner) Rx, which also treat sarcoptic and demodectic mange in dogs and have made ivermectin injections for mange largely unnecessary. Deltamethrin collars and cattle pour-ons, and amitraz dips, are for dogs and livestock only.

The ones on Indian prescriptions are chlorpheniramine, cetirizine and diphenhydramine by mouth, and pheniramine (widely sold as Avil) by injection, which vets use for acute allergic reactions and sometimes to blunt reactions to antivenom. Sedation is the main side effect; in cats chlorpheniramine can cause excitement instead. Human "cold and flu" tablets that combine an antihistamine with a decongestant (pseudoephedrine, phenylephrine) are dangerous to dogs and cats and must not be used.

Lift the skin over the shoulder blades and let go. In a hydrated animal it snaps back at once; in a dehydrated one it stands or sinks slowly (the "skin tent"). Press a finger on the gum until it whitens and release: colour should return in under two seconds. Gums that are dry and tacky, eyes that look sunken, and a heart racing faster than the ranges in Lesson 7.2 all point the same way.

What a caregiver may do: offer water, or an oral rehydration solution if a vet has advised it, to an animal that is conscious, can swallow and is not vomiting. Small amounts often, never forced by syringe into a mouth that cannot swallow. What belongs to the vet: fluids under the skin (common for a dehydrated dog or cat that is still drinking a little) and fluids into a vein, where the rate is calculated for the animal's weight and a wrong rate drowns a small animal from the inside.

Oxytocin Rx is a Schedule H hormone with real uses in labour and in retained placenta, under a vet. Injected into a cow or buffalo to force milk let-down it causes pain, does not make more milk, damages the reproductive tract, and is an offence: Section 12 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 punishes anyone who performs "phooka" or "doom dev" or any operation, including the injection of any substance, to improve lactation in a way injurious to the animal, and the animal is forfeited to the government. Its retail sale has been repeatedly restricted by the Centre for exactly this reason.

Hormonal contraceptive injections for dogs, usually medroxyprogesterone acetate, stop heat cycles for a season. They also cause pyometra (a pus-filled uterus that kills), mammary tumours and diabetes. Sterilisation, which the Animal Birth Control Rules 2023 make the lawful way to manage community dogs, removes the uterus and the risk with it. There is no safe "injection instead of surgery".

Parvovirus, distemper, kennel cough (mostly viral), ringworm (a fungus) and worms are not cured by an antibiotic. Sometimes a vet still prescribes one alongside a viral disease, as in parvovirus, where bacteria cross the damaged gut wall and the antibiotic prevents sepsis. That is a vet's judgement about a specific risk, not a reason to buy amoxicillin for every vomiting puppy.

Bactericidal drugs (penicillins, cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, metronidazole) kill; bacteriostatic ones (tetracyclines, macrolides, sulfonamides) hold the bacteria still while the immune system finishes them. The distinction matters in an animal whose immune system is not working, and it is one reason the same infection is treated differently in a healthy adult and a starving puppy.

Colistin, a last-resort human antibiotic, is banned in India for food-producing animals, poultry, aquaculture and feed supplements since 19 July 2019. It has no place in a dairy or a poultry shed.

It is not needed for a first, uncomplicated skin or wound infection. It is needed, and is cheaper than another failed course, when an infection comes back, when it has not improved after a proper course, when it is deep (bone, prostate, kidney, an old maggot wound), when the animal is very sick, or when a reserve antibiotic is being considered. The sample must be taken before the first dose, or the result is a list of what the antibiotic did not kill.

The World Health Organization ranks fluoroquinolones, third-generation cephalosporins, macrolides, colistin and glycopeptides as critically important for human medicine. When a vet chooses amoxicillin over enrofloxacin for a wound, that ranking is why.

Typical Indian dairy antibiotics are oxytetracycline, penicillin-streptomycin, enrofloxacin, ceftriaxone, and intramammary tubes for mastitis (a syringe of antibiotic pushed into the teat canal after the teat end is cleaned). Each carries a milk withdrawal, usually two to five days after the last dose, and a longer meat withdrawal. The label is specific to the product; a vet writes the discard date on the treatment record.

Use: clean running water first, in quantity; then povidone-iodine diluted to the colour of weak tea, or chlorhexidine at a wound-safe dilution. Both are cheap and available at every chemist. A clean, damp dressing and a trip to the vet complete the first aid. Antibiotic ointments have a small place on superficial scrapes and none on deep or maggot wounds, where they trap what needs to drain.

Never use: undiluted spirit or hydrogen peroxide in a deep wound (they kill the tissue that has to heal), phenyl or Dettol on a cat (phenolic disinfectants are toxic to cats), kerosene or petrol on maggots (they burn), turmeric, neem paste, ghee, coffee powder or tobacco (they seal in bacteria, hide the wound from the vet, and, in bite wounds, the national rabies guidelines specifically warn against applying irritants such as soil, chillies, oil, lime, herbs, chalk and betel leaves, and turmeric belongs on the same list: they damage tissue and give a false sense of treatment).

Live attenuated (modified live) vaccines contain a weakened germ that multiplies a little; they give strong, long immunity from fewer doses but are avoided in pregnant and in very sick animals. Killed (inactivated) vaccines cannot multiply, so they carry an adjuvant to provoke the immune system and need a primary course of two doses and regular boosters. Rabies vaccines for animals in India are killed vaccines.

The reason a puppy needs three or four doses is its mother. Antibodies in the first milk (colostrum) protect a puppy for weeks, and while they last they also neutralise a vaccine before the puppy's own immune system can respond. The level and the fade-out date differ from litter to litter and from puppy to puppy, so a series given every two to four weeks until sixteen weeks of age or later is the only way to be sure one dose lands after the maternal antibodies have gone. A single early dose gives no reliable protection at all.

Core vaccines protect against diseases that every animal of that species should be protected from because they are severe, widespread and often fatal. Non-core vaccines are given on the basis of local risk. In India rabies is core for dogs and cats because the disease is endemic.

A titre test for CDV, CAV and CPV from twenty weeks of age can confirm the series worked; a positive result means the dog needs no core booster for three years. Rabies protection is not confirmed by a routine test in practice, which is why records matter so much when a vaccinated dog bites someone.

The World Health Organization's figure is that vaccinating about 70 per cent of the dogs in an area, repeated yearly, interrupts transmission. India has committed to eliminating dog-mediated human rabies by 2030 under a national action plan, and mass dog vaccination is the mechanism. Under the Rules a dog that has been through the programme is ear-notched and returned; the notch is the visible record.

What a caregiver does that no programme can do alone:

Under NADCP every vaccinated animal carries a twelve-digit ear tag and its record sits on the national livestock portal. Keep the tag legible; it is the animal's vaccination card.

The calendar adds two rules that apply to every species: deworm at least fifteen days before vaccinating, so the immune system is not busy with worms, and dip or spray for ticks before and after winter. Screening breeding animals for brucellosis, which passes to people, is the other habit worth keeping alongside it.

For distemper, adenovirus and parvovirus, a serology (titre) test from twenty weeks of age shows whether a puppy responded; WSAVA supports it as an alternative to an extra dose. For rabies, the practical proof is the record, which is why the national guidelines treat a bite from a "vaccinated" dog without documentation as a bite from an unvaccinated one.

The standard is written on every vial: one millilitre of reconstituted serum neutralises 0.6 mg of cobra venom, 0.45 mg of krait venom, 0.6 mg of Russell's viper venom and 0.45 mg of saw-scaled viper venom. A vial holds 10 mL. It is made in the public and private sector, among others by the Central Research Institute at Kasauli, Haffkine, Bharat Serums, VINS and Premium Serums, and it is the same product whether the patient is a child or a bullock.

What it does not cover: the king cobra, the hump-nosed pit viper of the Western Ghats and other pit vipers, sea snakes, and other regional species. Venom also varies by region within a species, which is why a Russell's viper bite in one State can respond less well than in another. When the snake is known not to be one of the four, antivenom is a risk without a benefit.

A large viper can inject the same quantity into a 4 kg puppy as into a 60 kg man, and the puppy, with less blood to dilute it, needs at least as much antivenom. The vet judges the starting dose from the species of snake, the speed of the signs and the bedside clotting test, gives it slowly into a vein, and repeats it if bleeding, swelling or weakness keep advancing. There is no correct dose per kilogram of dog, which is why "one vial for a small animal" is not a rule.

Because the serum comes from horses, a minority of patients react to it, from hives to full anaphylaxis, and serum sickness can follow a week later. The vet has adrenaline drawn up before the drip starts; a skin test does not predict who will react. Reaction is a reason for the vet to be ready, not a reason to withhold antivenom from an envenomed animal.

The freeze-dried form keeps for five years in a cool, dark place and is reconstituted with 10 mL of the diluent supplied; the liquid form keeps for two years at 2 °C to 8 °C and must never freeze. Both are protected from light and heat, which rules out the rescue-vehicle glovebox. Reconstituted serum is used at once.

The particular danger for horses and cattle is a swollen muzzle that closes the nostrils. Horses breathe only through the nose; a vet may need to place a tube to keep the airway open. Treatment is the same antivenom into a vein, fluids, and management of the bleeding and the tissue damage that follows a viper bite.

After a serious bite, rabies immunoglobulin infiltrated into the wound neutralises virus on day zero, while the vaccine given the same day takes about a fortnight to raise the person's own antibodies to the protective level of 0.5 IU per mL. The immunoglobulin covers the gap. Given too late, or in too large a dose, it can blunt the vaccine's response, which is why the national guidelines fix its window and its maximum.

Sources of borrowed antibody: horses (equine rabies immunoglobulin, antivenom, tetanus antitoxin), pooled human plasma (human rabies immunoglobulin), laboratory-made monoclonal antibodies, and the mother, through colostrum.

Step one, wound washing. Soap or detergent and running water for ten to fifteen minutes, then an antiseptic such as povidone-iodine or alcohol. This alone removes much of the virus. Do not touch the wound with bare hands, do not apply soil, chillies, oil, lime, herbs, chalk or betel leaves (the guidelines' own list), nor turmeric or salt, and do not get it stitched if that can be avoided; if it must be sutured, the immunoglobulin goes in first and the stitches wait a few hours.

Step two, the category. Category I (touching, licks on intact skin) needs no prophylaxis. Category II (nibbling of bare skin, minor scratches without bleeding) needs the vaccine. Category III (any bite that breaks the skin, scratches that bleed, licks on broken skin or on the eyes, nose or mouth, and any bite from a wild animal) needs the vaccine and rabies immunoglobulin.

Step three, the immunoglobulin (Category III, once, on day 0, no later than day 7 of the vaccine course). Equine RIG at 40 IU per kg (Indian ERIG is 300 IU per mL, maximum 3000 IU), or human RIG at 20 IU per kg, or a rabies monoclonal antibody, Rabishield (approved 2016, 3.33 IU per kg) or TwinRab (approved 2019, 40 IU per kg). As much as possible is infiltrated into and around every wound; the rest goes deep into muscle away from the vaccine site. Never in the same syringe or the same limb as the vaccine.

Step four, the vaccine. Either the intramuscular Essen schedule, one dose in the deltoid (thigh in small children, never the buttock) on days 0, 3, 7, 14 and 28, or the intradermal schedule, 0.1 mL at two sites on days 0, 3, 7 and 28, at an anti-rabies clinic that uses it. Someone previously fully vaccinated needs only two doses, on days 0 and 3, and no immunoglobulin. Tetanus toxoid and, if the wound warrants it, an antibiotic are added.

The dog. A dog or cat that can be observed is watched for ten days. If it stays healthy the course may be shortened by the doctor; if it sickens or dies, the course is completed and the animal's head is sent for testing through the veterinary authority. Prophylaxis is never delayed while waiting to see.

Horses and donkeys are by far the most susceptible domestic animals; cattle, sheep and goats less so; dogs and cats are relatively resistant and rarely need it. The classic cases are a nail in a hoof, a castration or docking done with a dirty blade, a foaling or a deep puncture. The vet gives antitoxin and the first dose of toxoid at the same visit in different sites, then the toxoid course continues (Lesson 4.7). The signs of tetanus itself, stiffness, a locked jaw, a raised tail and the third eyelid flicking across the eye at a noise, appear days to weeks after the wound, and by then treatment is long and often fails.

The rule of thumb for a calf is colostrum within the first two hours, and about ten per cent of its body weight over the first day: roughly three to four litres for a 35 kg crossbred calf, in several feeds. By twenty-four hours the gut has closed and antibodies drunk after that are digested as protein, not absorbed. A calf that missed its colostrum is the calf that dies of scours or pneumonia at three weeks. Kids and lambs are the same in miniature; the ICAR goat calendar credits colostrum with protecting kids for their first three months.

Puppies and kittens absorb antibody for their first two to three days. Orphans who missed it are the ones a vet may put on plasma or a hyperimmune serum, and who need their vaccine series started on time. Cow's milk is not a substitute for any of them; a species-appropriate replacer or, for a puppy, a puppy milk replacer, is.

The theory is sound, borrowed antibody against a virus in a puppy that has none, and the products are used by many vets in the first 48 hours of parvovirus. Controlled evidence of benefit is limited, and a puppy that gets serum and no drip still dies of dehydration. The honest position is that they may help early, alongside intensive supportive care, and that the money is better spent on the vaccine series that would have prevented the illness.

Maternal antibody falls by half roughly every week to ten days, but the starting level depends on the mother's own immunity and how much colostrum the animal drank. So in one litter a puppy may be open to vaccination at eight weeks and its sibling not until fourteen. The series every two to four weeks until sixteen weeks or older, and the extra dose at twenty-six weeks, exist to catch every puppy on the far side of its own fade-out. It is not over-vaccination; it is the only honest answer to an unknown date.

Ranges adapted from the Merck Veterinary Manual reference tables (Dukes' Physiology). A value outside the range is a reason to call; a value that is changing fast is a reason to move.

The signs are a limb held at an angle or dangling, a bone visible or felt under the skin, swelling and severe pain on touch. Cover an open fracture with a clean damp cloth; do not push bone back or wash the wound with anything but saline. Only if the vet is hours away and the break is clearly below the elbow or knee should a padded splint (a rolled newspaper or cardboard, bandaged loosely, joint above and joint below) be considered, and only if the animal tolerates it without struggling.

The signs are frantic panting, thick drool, brick-red gums, staggering, vomiting or diarrhoea, and collapse; a rectal temperature above 40.5 °C confirms it. The dogs that die are the ones left in cars, chained in the sun, walked at noon, and the flat-faced breeds that cannot pant well; among livestock it is animals in transport and in tin sheds.

Two things that can never be measured: less than a quarter of a tablet, and less than a tenth of a millilitre in an ordinary syringe. If the arithmetic produces one of these, the strength is wrong for the animal, and the answer is a lower-strength tablet or a liquid, not a knife and a guess.

Sources: Plumb's Veterinary Drug Handbook and the Merck Veterinary Manual, checked September 2026. Indian veterinary product labels may give slightly different figures; the label on the pack and the vet's prescription prevail.

The rule that follows: a dose you know for one species is not a dose you know for another, and a prescription written for one animal is not a prescription for its neighbour of a different species and size.

Then listen, and do what the vet says on the way, including the things that feel like doing nothing: keeping the animal flat, warm, quiet and unfed.

A vet who is asked good questions gives better care. That is the whole purpose of the ten modules above.