Disclaimer

Educational tools, not veterinary advice

Everything on Paw Charts is for general education. It is not veterinary advice, it is not a diagnosis, and it is not a treatment plan. No page here creates a veterinarian-client-patient relationship, and no calculator on this site is a substitute for a veterinarian examining your animal.

The site is written by a Certified Veterinary Technician. A veterinary technician is not a veterinarian. We do not diagnose, prescribe, or direct treatment, and nothing here should be read as though we do.

Always confirm with your veterinarian before acting on anything you read here — particularly anything to do with your pet's diet, weight, or something they've eaten.

What our calculators actually are

Arithmetic. Applied to numbers you typed in.

Our formulas come from named veterinary sources and we list every one of them, with dates, on how we calculate. We think our maths is better sourced than anything else in this niche. That still leaves real limits, and you should know them:

• Every result depends on what you entered. A wrong weight gives a wrong answer, confidently.
• Calculated energy requirements are estimates with wide bounds. Individual pets vary from the calculation by up to 50%. Ohio State's veterinary school describes these calculations as giving "crude, 'zip-code' level estimates". We agree, and we show the range rather than a single number.
• Growth predictions are population averages. Two healthy puppies of the same breed, sex and age can differ in weight by a factor of well over two, and both be normal.
• Some of our numbers rest on data nobody outside can inspect. The chocolate thresholds are attributed by the ASPCA to their own unpublished internal database. They're the best figures available. That is not the same as independently verifiable, and we say so on the page.
• We can't feel your dog's ribs. Body condition, assessed by hand by your vet, tells you more than any calculator on this site.

Toxicity tools are triage, not clearance

Our toxicity calculators output an urgency state — monitor, call your vet, or emergency. They do not tell you your pet is safe, and they are not designed to. A low estimate is not an all-clear.

Grapes and raisins have no established safe dose. Our grape calculator therefore never returns a state below "call your vet or poison control", regardless of the amount. That is not caution for its own sake — the veterinary evidence genuinely does not establish a threshold, and dogs have been harmed by amounts other dogs survived.

Do not induce vomiting at home unless a veterinarian tells you to. The ASPCA's position is that doing so can be dangerous. We publish no instructions for it.

If you are unsure how much your pet ate, assume the larger amount and call. Guessing low is the common mistake.

No medication dosing

This site publishes no medication doses. Not for Benadryl, not for anything prescription. If you have arrived here looking for one, please speak to your veterinarian — the correct dose depends on your individual animal, their other medications, and their health history, and none of those are things a website knows.

The quality of life scale

The quality of life page uses Dr. Alice Villalobos's HHHHHMM scale, which she designed as a decision-support tool to be used with your veterinary team. It is not a verdict, and a score is not a decision. We present it the way she intended: as a way of organising a conversation you should be having with your vet.

Accuracy, and the limits of our care

We verify the whole data file against Merck, the AAHA guidelines and WSAVA twice a year, and we log every change with a date. Veterinary guidance moves. Between verifications, something here may be out of date, and despite reasonable care, errors are possible.

Paw Charts is provided as-is, without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we accept no liability for any loss, injury or harm arising from use of this site or reliance on anything published here. You use these tools at your own discretion, and your veterinarian's judgement should override ours every time.

If you find something wrong, tell us. We will fix it and log it.

Links and advertising

Where we name an external organisation — Merck, AAHA, the ASPCA, WSAVA, the AKC — we are citing a source, not endorsing a product, and they have no involvement in this site. We are not affiliated with any of them.

This site may display advertising. Ads are never placed beside an emergency or "call your vet" result, and never on the quality of life results view. That is a rule in our code, not a preference.