Some critics on the internet will smugly refer to ketamine as a “horse tranquilizer.” Ketamine is, in fact, used extensively in both human and veterinary medicine. The reason that veterinarians use ketamine is because it generally does not suppress respirations. Said a different way, it does not make the patient stop breathing. This important quality of ketamine makes it not only desirable in veterinary medicine but it makes it very desirable in human medicine…particularly in pediatrics. Ketamine is the “go-to” medication for the sedation of children in emergency departments across the United States. In the same way, if a veterinarian has to do a procedure on a large animal like a horse, they would prefer to use a sedative agent that does not make the animal stop breathing. If a horse stops breathing, this poses some huge logistical challenges for the veterinarian. Horses and humans share a great deal of the same anatomy and physiology. The fact that a pharmaceutical agent can be useful in both the human and veterinary medicine does not represent any kind of earth-shattering revelation. Penicillin is also a medication used extensively in human and veterinary medicine. When critics try to label ketamine as a “horse tranquilizer” in social media outlets, one should recognize this as the uninformed and sophomorish comment that it is.