Over the past 15 years in mastiffs, I have heard so many horror stories about dogs being lost or damaged to anesthesia and/or other drugs. I ask myself why so many of these drugs are still in use while we have newer safer ones available. The truth is, it is hard getting a drug company to pull a profitable item off the market without a big push from the goverment. One of the biggest problems is without pushing vets to report these dangers it doesn't get done.

Today I was surfing the FDA web site and ran across a link to the below page. It includes contact info for reporting bad drug reactions. It also includes an invitation to animal owners to be the ones to report problems >

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/adetoc.htm

Adverse Drug Experience Reporting

Veterinarians and animal owners are encouraged to report Veterinary Adverse Drug Experiences (ADEs) and suspected product failures to the government Agency that regulates the product in question. Pre-testing by the manufacturer and review of the data by the government does not guarantee absolute safety and effectiveness of approved veterinary drugs due to the inherent limitations imposed by testing the product on a limited population of animals. Anyone with information to report is also encouraged to contact the manufacturer of the suspect product.

Tips on reporting ADEs

To help FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) accurately analyze the report, it is important that the reports include sound clinical information about an animal. This means that the report should preferably include a good medical history, all other drugs the animal has been given at the same time, any recent surgical procedures, and as much in the way of clinical findings as is possible. Clinical findings would include veterinary exam, clinical chemistries, complete blood counts, urinalysis, fecal exams, radiographic results, and data such as blood pressure, any other pressure measurements in or around the heart, and neurologic assessments.

Questions regarding ADE Reporting should be addressed to:

Center for Veterinary Medicine
Division of Surveillance, HFV-210
7519 Standish Place
Rockville, MD 20855
1-888-FDA-VETS