Veterinary Drug Recall Expands, Vets May Not Know

This situation began in July with tainted manufacturing at Teva and was ongoing through the fall, but the recall wasn’t announced until December and many veterinarians don’t know about it or don’t have all the information they need because the recall information is unclear.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Major veterinary drug recall gets bigger, Animal anesthetic drug pulled off market, but questions remain

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.