From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2007-04-19 18:38:04 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Carafate and ulcers
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
To know how much medication is present you
must know the MG amount of medicine. That
is the WEIGHT of medicine. The weight of the
medicine tells how much medication a ferret is
getting
Unless you are dealing with a medication that
comes in only one concentration giving only the
volume (ml or cc) does NOT tell how much
medication is present.
This is so incredibly important to understand that
it is even in the FHL rules. BTW, *** many thanks ***
to both of you for putting the zero before the decimal
point. When people don't do that if they are talking
about amounts below zero then the decimal point is
often not seen. For example, if a person writes .7
then a reader who is reading fast or who has poor
eyes might see 7 instead of 0.7.
If the medicine that Liz is giving is only half as
concentrated as the medicine that xxxxxxx is giving
then even though they are giving different volumes
they could be giving a very similar amount of the
medication itself in the Carafate Suspension.
Very many medicines used for ferrets are
compounded by special pharmacists due to ferrets'
small size. That's why there is even a list of ferret
friendly compounding pharmacies in the Files
section of the FHL. Compounded medications can
come a huge range of concentrations.
Think of if you wanted to make a dish with cooked
and pureed beans. Let's say you wanted it really
thin as just a flavor and texture addition to a broth.
Well, you'd add just a little on the bean puree so the
broth would have a low concentration of the beans.
What if you still wanted a soup but you wanted to
emphasize the beans and have the soup thick. Well,
you would add more bean puree so there would
be a higher concentration of of beans in the bowl of
soup -- same volume but more beans (more weight
of beans). What if you instead used your puree with
a little each lemon zest, garlic, lemon juice, cumin,
salt, a bit of tahini, etc. and just a smidgen of water,
and made a hummus bi tahini which is almost all bean
puree and thick? Okay, then the level of beans (the
concentration) would be highest of all three. The same
size bowl (volume) would have a great deal more beans
(weight of beans) in it than either of the soups did.
So you see, you can talk about one volume but the level
of the important ingredient can differ.
Examples of volume are ml, cc (one cc equals one ml, BTW),
liter, quart, gallon, teaspoon.
Examples of weight are mg, gram, kilogram, ounce,
pound, ton.
So, let's say pretend that a person has a medication that is
available in these concentrations:
1 mg/ml
2 mg/ml
3 mg/ml
and
3 mg/ 2 ml
If a person is giving 0.2 ml of each of these here is how
much medication is being given.
1 mg X 0.2ml = 0.2 mg
_____
1 ml
but
2 mg X 0.2 ml = 0.4 mg
_____
1 ml
which is twice as much medication in the same
volume as the first concentration.
3 mg X 0.2 ml = 0.6 mg
-----
1 ml
which is three times as much medication in the
same volume as the first concentration.
Just to make the math clear let's look at the
3mg/2ml concentration
3 mg X 0.2 ml 0.6 mg 0.3 mg
_____ = ------ = ------
2 ml 2 ml ml
Got it?
Just as each bowl of the bean dishes you prepared has
different amounts of beans in them, so, too, does
each of those concentrations have different amounts of
medications in them, so giving 0.2 of each of those means
entirely different amounts of medication from the others.
The ONLY TIME that giving only the ml or cc
measurement ALONE says how much medication is being
given is when there is only one concentration.
IF BOTH OF YOU ARE GIVING THE CURRENT REGULAR
CARAFATE SUSPENSION THAT ANY PHARMACIES SELL
THEN CURRENTLY THERE IS ONLY ONE CONCENTRATION:
http://www.drugs.com/pro/carafate.html
BEGIN QUOTE
CARAFATE Suspension for oral administration contains 1 g of sucralfate per 10 mL.
CARAFATE Suspension also contains: colloidal silicon dioxide NF, FD&C Red #40, flavor,
glycerin USP, methylcellulose USP, methylparaben NF, microcrystalline cellulose NF,
purified water USP, simethicone USP, and sorbitol solution USP. Therapeutic category:
antiulcer.
END QUOTE
BUT IF EITHER OR BOTH OF YOU ARE GIVING A
COMPOUNDED MED THEN YOU COULD BE DISCUSSING VERY
DIFFERENT CONCENTRATIONS.
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, "Liz" <tvliz24@...> wrote:
>
> Our normal dosage at the shelter for Carafate is 0.5ml 10-20 minutes
> before feeding.
>
> Liz
> ...in the Company of Ferrets, Inc.
>
>
> > Is 0.2 CC really going to coat her stomach/throat well in there? I
> > know that sounds stupid but I'm not medically trained at all in that
> > area.
> >
> > xxxxxxx
>
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