Severe reaction to Vetalog injection

Question
Good evening,

My 2 year old lab mix was having some ear flap swelling due to allergies.  He got an injection of Vetalog <6mg and had some Animax Panalog Dermavet applied to his ear.  About 10 minutes later, he went into shock and almost stopped breathing.  He was pale and could not walk.  Thank God we had just left the parking lot and rushed back in.  After some fluid and oxygen he came back and is better now.  The Dr. said they had never seen this reaction before for Vetalog.  I did a quick google search and found nothing.  I was wondering if this has ever happened before, and if so how was it treated?  Thanks for any information.

Answer
Ryan,

I did have something similar happen to a patient.  It was not a vetalog injection, though.  We treated the dog pretty much the same way and within minutes the dog was better and within hours back to normal.  I wish I could explain it.  One cause could be a severe anaphylactic type reaction to whatever medication was administered.  Blood pressure drops, heart starts beating too fast, oxygen become depleted.  Another could be cause by some sort of vagal stimulation.  Stimulation of the vagal nerve can cause the same symptoms of blood pressure drop etc.....

I'm glad you were lucky enough to be close to the vet's when it happened (my patient crashed in our treatment area).  Oxygen and fluids to increase blood pressure is pretty much the treatment of choice for any shock type situation.

Unfortunately, medications, while being helpful, can also cause harm.  We try to take that into account when we treat, but every once in a while we will get an unexpected reaction or complication. I dont think these rare reactions are enough to stop all medications.  Although in your case, I would avoid the two given just in case ;-)