# Converting mg to ml for medication dosing



## raqathta (Sep 16, 2015)

I'm very confused. I want to give Jimmy some Ibuprofen, because I think he may be in pain, and the vet is closed until Tuesday. I bought some liquid children's Ibuprofen, but now all the dose recommendations I find online are in mg, which is for solids, not liquids. I think I found a page with a rough guide--for a rat that weighs 500g, the recommended dose is 7.5mg, converting to 0.19 ml.

Jimmy weighs 406g. I figure it would be safe to give him 0.1 ml. But would that be enough to help his pain? It's all very confusing. I don't understand why all the rat med guides give doses in mg; every medicine I've ever gotten for my rats was liquid and dosed in ml/cc. Any help out there?


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## desdisques (Apr 16, 2018)

Check the bottle of medication. See if it says how many MGs per MLs are in the medication. That will help you determine how much liquid to give. I don't know anything about dosing the medication because I'm new to rats, but I do work at a vet and we dose a lot of medications like that. Very rough example...If a medication is 10 MGs per ML and I want to give 30 MGs each time I medicate, I would give 3 MLs. I hope this helps.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

There's a bunch of math involved. The amount of medicine is dependent on your rat's weight and then the concentration of medicine within the liquid/pill/powder. 

Dose = Weight X #mg

Ratguide.com recommends a dose of 10-30 mg per kg every 4 hours. Since we're self-prescribing without the aid of a veterinarian, let's stay on the low side (10 mg/kg) just to be safe. 10 mg/kg means we want to give 10 milligrams of medicine for every kilogram of weight. Our dose will be Jimmy's weight (measured in kilograms because that's what the mg/kg formula calls for) times the number of mg of medicine that we want. Dose = .406kg X 10mg. 

This formula gives us a dose of 4.06 mg of ibuprofen.

Now we have to figure out how many milliliters of the liquid equals out to give us 4.06 mgs. I just looked up liquid children's Motrin and it says there's 100 mg of ibuprofen in each 5 ml of liquid. This means that there's 20 mg in each 1 ml of liquid. If we only want 4.06 mgs, this equals out to .203 ml of liquid children's Motrin (20mg/1ml = 4.06mg/.203ml)

Using the lesser dosage you found online (7.5 mg/kg), the formula would look like this; .406 kg X 7.5 mg = 3.05 mg. (20mg/1ml = 3.05mg/?ml) = .15 ml of liquid children's Motrin.

Now, after all that, you can find dosage calculators online so you don't have to do any math.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Once you have a dosage calculator the hardest part is figuring out the recommended dosage to use in your calculations. With infant ibuprofen (200 mg/5 ml or 40 mg/ml) we usually recommend 20 mg/kg, as this can help from a minor sprain to post-op relief.In Jimmy's case at 406 grams his dose would be 0.2 ml every 4-6 hours. Why do you think he is/was in pain?


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## raqathta (Sep 16, 2015)

His breathing is labored. I took him to the vet last Wednesday and have both Trimeth sulfa suspension and Meloxicam. The vet thought the labored breathing might be a sign of pain. But tonight his lungs are clicking and he is wheezing sometimes. I want to get him Baytril, but the vet is closed. I have amoxycillin in the house, but have no idea, once again, of dose. I have to hope he makes it to Monday ... :-(


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

I'm sorry I missed this. How is your boy now? Were you able to get the baytril? Unfortunately both amoxi and TMZ are ineffective on myco so baytril is the best single antibiotic although a combo is much much better If you ever need help ASAP just PM me and remind me of your post.


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