A nationwide shortage of injectable painkillers and anaesthetics could soon affect surgeries for pets.
The drugs manufactured by Sandoz Canadaare being rationed because the company cut production to meet safety standards and deal with a recent fire.
That prompted the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and some provincial organizations, such as the College of Veterinarians of British Columbia, to send out an alert to its members telling vets that hospitals will get priority over veterinary clinics.
"It's very, very annoying because you are used to certain drugs," said Jean Gauvin, spokesman of the national veterinary organization.
"We know they're effective and now there's a learning curve with certain drugs and some drugs are coming. Some other alternatives will probably be a bit more expensive."
Gauvin also said it will be a couple of weeks before clinics turn to alternative drugs and at least a year before they get their regular supply back.
Clinics have trouble finding drugs
As a result Dr. Uschi Craigdallie with the Vancouver Animal Emergency Clinic said she is most concerned about shortages of anti-seizure medications and opiods for old pets.
"When we have to start ordering new drugs and they're not being supplied to us ... we may run into problems, he said."
The drug shortage could last from 12 to 18 months and pharmacist Allan Baker said he is getting calls from worried veterinary clinics every day.
"The most urgent cases would I suspect would get treated first and anything that can be delayed would be set back until they were able to get the drugs that they need," said Baker.
Baker says some drugs can be "compounded" or made by certified pharmacists but that can cost pet owners three to four times more.
An Ottawa veterinarian told CBC News he has never seen such a drug shortage for animal medical care.
"The extent of this is far beyond anything that I've seen. It's just the sheer size of the number of drugs that are being limited and the extent to which they’re being limited for," said Dr. Nigel Gumley from the Cedarview Animal Hospital.
Last month, Sandoz announced it was scaling back production of certain drugs — mostly painkillers, antibiotics and anaesthetics — to upgrade its Quebec facility after quality-control assessments by the FDA warned the factory fell short of its standards.
Then, to exacerbate supply concerns, a fire in the ceiling above the boiler room of Sandoz's Boucherville plant halted all production.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has been hearing submissions regarding NASA's 2013 budget request and on the priorities, plans and progress of the U.S. space program.
Witnesses appearing before the Committee on March 7 included Charles F Bolden Jr, NASA's Administrator, and Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and well known commentator on space exploration.
Bolden, who flew on four space shuttle missions after a career in the Marine Corps, was appointed to lead NASA in 2009 after being nominated by President Obama. Administrator Bolden outlined the space agency's achievements in 2011 and updated the Committee on the status of current missions. His statement outlined how the requested budget of $17.7 billion for 2013 would be allocated and concluded by stating:
"NASA's FY 2013 budget request of $17.7 billion represents a substantial investment in a balanced program of science, exploration, technology and aeronautics research. Despite the constrained budget environment facing the Nation, this request supports a robust space program that keeps us on a path to achieving a truly audacious set of goals. NASA is working to send humans to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars, to observe the first galaxies form, and to expand the productivity of humanity's only permanently-crewed space station. We are making air travel safer and more efficient, learning to live and work in space, and developing the critical technologies to achieve these goals. The coming year will include the first commercial cargo flights to the ISS, a nuclear powered robot the size of a small car landing on the surface of Mars, and the launch of the Nation's next land observing satellite. We have spacecraft studying the Sun, circling Mercury, cruising to Pluto and investigating almost everything inbetween. In the face of very difficult times, the American p