Injection site necrosis

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VeDDRA Code: 89

678 adverse event reports referencing this reaction

678
Total Reports
70
Deaths
1030.0%
Death Rate

Species Most Affected

Dog 535
Cat 71
Horse 35
Cattle 22
Pig 7
Other Reptiles 2
Human 2
Guinea Pig 1
Chicken 1
Other Rodents 1

Breeds Most Affected

Retriever - Labrador 53
Dog (unknown) 38
Pit Bull 35
Domestic Shorthair 35
Boxer (German Boxer) 32
Chihuahua 28
Crossbred Canine/dog 23
Retriever - Golden 21
Bulldog - French 18
Domestic (unspecified) 15

Associated Drugs

Tigilanol Tiglate 231
Carprofen 133
Enrofloxacin 61
Maropitant Citrate 48
Butorphanol 46
Gabapentin 44
Famotidine 40
Diphenhydramine 40
Cefovecin 39
Dexmedetomidine 38
Buprenorphine 36
Prednisone 36
Meloxicam 29
Ceftiofur Crystalline Free Acid 28
Atipamezole 27
Melarsomine Dihydrochloride 22
Isoflurane 22
Dexmedetomidine Hydrochloride 20
Propofol 20
Moxidectin 18

Data Summary

Metric Value
Total reports referencing reaction 678
Reports with fatal outcome 70
Case-fatality rate (reported events) 1030.0%
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 89.

Injection site necrosis Reaction Insights

The FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine database currently lists 678 adverse event reports that reference Injection site necrosis as a reaction term, including 70 reports with a death outcome — a 1030.0% case-fatality figure calculated across only those events where this reaction was coded. The reaction is indexed in the openFDA system under VeDDRA code 89, 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 necrosis appears most frequently in reports for Dog (535 reports), Cat (71 reports), Horse (35 reports) — with Dog dominating at 535 entries. Within those species, the breeds most often named alongside this reaction are Retriever - Labrador (53), Dog (unknown) (38), Pit Bull (35). 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 necrosis are Tigilanol Tiglate (231 reports), Carprofen (133 reports), Enrofloxacin (61 reports), Maropitant Citrate (48 reports), with Tigilanol Tiglate appearing alongside this reaction in 231 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