Does ketamine make horses hallucinate?
Hallucinations, if horses can hallucinate (which is unknown), would be the least of the side effects to be concerned with when anesthetizing or sedating a horse. Sustaining breathing, maintaining blood pressure, and avoiding heart arrhythmias are far more legitimate concerns. Ketamine is useful in equine medicine and as with every medicine on the planet, it is effective only within a specific margin of safety based on dosage and particulars of administration, it carries the risk of potential side effects and there are contraindications for its use. By your reasoning, and considering the fact that all drugs pose risks, use of drugs of any kind would be unethical in the treatment of animals, or of our own human babies for that matter, since they lack the ability to decide for themselves whether or not to accept the associated risks.
