Ordering Ketamine for Use in Animals

Recently, shortages of the anesthetic drug Ketamine have been reported in human medicine. Thus far, supplies manufactured specifically for use in veterinary animal care have NOT been impacted.

As a result of shortages in the human drug, the Michigan Medicine B2 Pharmacy is currently limiting the distribution of Ketamine to animal users. Study Teams needing to order Ketamine during this time are encouraged to reach out to the U-M’s approved vendor, MWI Animal Health, to purchase supplies.

ESSENTIAL Veterinary use of ketamine.

Ketamine is one of the most widely used anaesthetic medicines in veterinary practiceworld wide, and is also used for the provision of analgesia in certain circumstances.Limitation to its availability would be a major loss to animal welfare.Advantages of ketamine in veterinary anaesthesia are that it is an excellent analgesic,and that respiration and the cardiovascular system are not depressed until doses that
are much higher than those of that needed for anaesthesia, making it very safe in use even by relatively inexperienced personnel. However, the property of ketamine that is most important (and is rare in the field of anaesthesia) is that it is safe and effective when given by the intramuscular (IM) route- intravenous injection can be used but is not necessary.