Vet struck off for injecting friends with horse tranquilliser during weekend bender

Danny Jones

Vet struck off for injecting herself and friends with horse tranquilliser

‘We got everything sorted for this weekend guys——whoa, Neddy!’

A vet has been struck off after she was found to have injected her friends with horse tranquilliser during a weekend bender. For those who aren’t aware, this is commonly referred to as ketamine.

As reported in multiple outlets, Catherine McGuigan – who worked at Murray Veterinary Services – admitted to a State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) in Coolup, Australia to taking a vial of ketamine with her on the weekend sesh before injecting herself and two of her friends.

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The tribunal revealed that in addition to the incident back in November 2020, she is thought to have regularly gone on such weekends with friends, taking other drugs including cocaine and ecstasy.

McGuigan also confessed to having given a friend diazepam, a powerful muscle relaxer – which she said would help her sleep – as well as using Airway Gel on herself: a bronchodilator used on horses with respiratory problems.

Looping back to the usage of the horse tranquilliser, she is said to have asked her female friend how much she weighed so she could check the correct dosage on the internet, before proceeding to inject herself, the woman and a male friend in the shoulder.

Regardless of her caution in administering the drug, ketamine is heavily governed by health and drug regulations and only intended for prescribed usage among horses – and in some cases, humans – but must be kept in a locked medicine cabinet and its use must be closely monitored in detailed clinical records.

The State Administrative Tribunal said that: “When acting in the lawful practise of her profession as a veterinary surgeon, the respondent was authorised to possess ketamine but was not authorised to administer or use ketamine on humans”, adding that “the respondent was required to make a clinical record of its supply but she did not do so.”

The former veterinarian was fined A$1000 as well as A$3000 in costs before being removed from the veterinary surgeons register in Western Australia.