Major veterinary drug recall gets bigger
Animal anesthetic drug pulled off market, but questions remain
By Christie Keith, Special to SF Gate
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
What if your veterinarian was using a recalled drug -- and didn't know it?
That's not a hypothetical question. On Sept. 4, at least two veterinary
drugs made by Teva Animal Health, Inc., a division of Israeli-based Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries, were recalled by the FDA, which shut the
company down in July. But few veterinarians or pet owners were aware of
the recall until the end of December.
Although the reported deaths of five cats led the FDA to issue public
recall notices on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29, just what products are involved,
and over what time period they were manufactured and sold, remains unclear.
The recalls involve two commonly used injectable veterinary drugs:
butorphanol, a fast-acting opioid used to control pain from surgical
procedures in dogs and cats, and the anesthetic agent ketamine....
