Question

You diagnose a cow with milk fever (periparturient hypocalcemia). In Plumb's Veterinary Drug Formulary, the average recommended dosage for calcium gluconate injection is 200 mg/kg slowly to effect. Calcium gluconate comes as a 23% solution. If the formula weight is 430.4 and the formula for this salt is Ca++(C12H22O14)--
how many milliequivalents (meq) of calcium would you be giving to a cow weighing 448 kilograms if you gave the full dosage?

Please show work so i can understand how to do this

Answer 1

1 kg of body weight requires 200 mg of drug for full dose.

So 448 kg of body weight will require = 448 200 = 89600 mg of drug for full dose

Since calcium gluconate comes as a 23% solution,

Amount of calcium gluconate in the injection = 0.23 89600 = 20608 mg

milliequivalents of Calcium Gluconate = mass/formula weight = 20608/430.4 = 47.88 meq

1 milliequivalent of calcium gluconate contains 1 milliequivalent of Ca²⁺

So, 47.88 milliequivalents of calcium gluconate will contain 47.88 milliequivalents of Ca²⁺

Hence 47.88 meq of calcium would be given to a cow weighing 448 kilograms if you gave the full dosage.