Pet Safety Reports

A veterinary adverse event report is a filing made to the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) when an animal experiences an unexpected side effect, injury, or death after being given a veterinary drug or product. These reports are submitted by veterinarians, pet owners, and drug manufacturers. The FDA uses this data to monitor the safety of approved animal drugs and take action when patterns of harm emerge — including updating drug labels, issuing safety alerts, or in rare cases, removing products from the market. Our database contains 1,320,423 of these reports, making it one of the most comprehensive publicly available sources of veterinary drug safety information.

Not necessarily. The number of reports for a drug reflects both its safety profile and how widely it is used. A very popular drug prescribed to millions of animals will naturally accumulate more reports than a niche product — even if the rate of adverse events is lower. Additionally, reporting is voluntary in many cases, so the data does not capture every adverse event that occurs. These reports are a signal, not a verdict. Always consult your veterinarian before making decisions about your pet's medications based on adverse event data.

If your pet experiences a suspected adverse reaction to a drug, you can report it directly to the FDA. The easiest way is through the FDA's Safety Reporting Portal at safetyreporting.hhs.gov. You can also report by calling the FDA at 1-888-FDA-VETS (1-888-332-8387). Provide as much detail as possible: the drug name and dosage, your pet's species, breed, age, and weight, the reactions observed, and the outcome. Your veterinarian can also file a report on your behalf. Reporting helps the FDA identify safety issues and protect other animals.

An adverse event is classified as "serious" by the FDA when it results in death, a life-threatening condition, hospitalization, disability, or a congenital anomaly. Non-serious events include milder reactions like temporary vomiting, diarrhea, or lethargy that resolve without medical intervention. In our database, 328,345 reports are classified as serious — approximately 25% of all reports. The serious classification helps veterinarians and pet owners prioritize which drug safety signals deserve the most attention.

All pet adverse event data on RecallCheck comes directly from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine through the openFDA public data program. The FDA publishes these reports as quarterly data files that we download and process into our database. Our dataset includes 1,320,423 reports spanning multiple years of veterinary drug safety monitoring. The data is updated periodically as the FDA releases new quarterly files.