Injection site abscess

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VeDDRA Code: 72

1,067 adverse event reports referencing this reaction

1,067
Total Reports
57
Deaths
530.0%
Death Rate

Species Most Affected

Dog 751
Horse 113
Cattle 110
Cat 79
Other 2
Pig 2
Donkey 2
Goat 2
Llama 2
Alpaca 2

Breeds Most Affected

Retriever - Labrador 77
Dog (unknown) 47
Retriever - Golden 40
Domestic Shorthair 39
Crossbred Canine/dog 38
Quarter Horse 33
Shepherd Dog - German 31
Chihuahua 30
Shih Tzu 27
Mixed (Cattle) 26

Associated Drugs

Carprofen 243
Moxidectin 164
Melarsomine Dihydrochloride 89
Ceftiofur Crystalline Free Acid 65
Maropitant Citrate 59
Cefovecin 43
Prednisone 41
Enrofloxacin 37
Polysulfated Glycosaminoglycan 36
Leptospira Canicola L-15 Strain C-51;Leptospira Grippotyphosa 1550 Lot 10005 Str 36
Melarsomine Dihydrochloride Injection 33
Gabapentin 32
Anesthetic 27
Meloxicam 26
Tigilanol Tiglate 23
Propofol 22
Isoflurane 21
Dexmedetomidine Hydrochloride 20
Buprenorphine 20
Bedinvetmab 19

Data Summary

Metric Value
Total reports referencing reaction 1,067
Reports with fatal outcome 57
Case-fatality rate (reported events) 530.0%
Species observed 10
Breeds observed 20
Drugs associated with reaction 20

Source: FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine — Adverse Event Reporting (CVM AER); reaction term coded under VeDDRA 72.

Injection site abscess Reaction Insights

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine database currently lists 1,067 adverse event reports that reference Injection site abscess as a reaction term, including 57 reports with a death outcome — a 530.0% case-fatality figure calculated across only those events where this reaction was coded. The reaction is indexed in the openFDA system under VeDDRA code 72, the standardized veterinary dictionary used to normalize clinical signs across submitters. Because reports are voluntary and often describe multiple concurrent signs per animal, the volume here reflects reporting intensity rather than true incidence in the broader pet population.

Injection site abscess appears most frequently in reports for Dog (751 reports), Horse (113 reports), Cattle (110 reports) — with Dog dominating at 751 entries. Within those species, the breeds most often named alongside this reaction are Retriever - Labrador (77), Dog (unknown) (47), Retriever - Golden (40). These distributions are influenced both by underlying breed popularity and by how veterinarians and owners code a given clinical sign, so they should be interpreted as a reporting fingerprint rather than a pure susceptibility ranking.

The drugs most commonly co-reported with Injection site abscess are Carprofen (243 reports), Moxidectin (164 reports), Melarsomine Dihydrochloride (89 reports), Ceftiofur Crystalline Free Acid (65 reports), with Carprofen appearing alongside this reaction in 243 submissions. Co-reporting does not establish that any specific product caused the reaction — FDA CVM data captures temporal association only. The value of these aggregates is in flagging which therapeutic classes appear repeatedly alongside a given clinical sign, so owners and veterinarians can ask targeted questions about medications currently in use.

Source: FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine — Adverse Event Reports FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine — Adverse Event Reports Data reflects voluntary submissions and may not represent actual incidence rates

Related

Data sourced from official AKC, AVMA, ACVO, and breed-club veterinary references. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBreed Editorial