The product is a dissociative anaesthetic agent for use by intramuscular, subcutaneous or intravenous injection.
The product induces a state of catalepsy with amnesia and analgesia; muscle tone is maintained including the pharyngeal and laryngeal reflexes. The heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac output are increased; respiratory depression is not a noticeable feature. All these characteristics may be modified if the product is used in combination with other agents. Ketamine is distributed to all body tissues rapidly after intravenous administration, with the highest levels found in the brain, liver, lung and fat. Plasma protein binding is approximately 53% in the dog, 37-53% in the cat and 50% in the horse. In most species, ketamine is metabolised in the liver and these metabolites, along with unmetabolised ketamine, are eliminated in urine. In cats, ketamine is almost exclusively excreted unchanged in the urine. The elimination half-life in the cat and the horse has been reported to be approximately 1 hour. The redistribution of ketamine out of the CNS is more of a factor in determining duration of anaesthesia than the elimination half-life.