International Journal of Molecular Veterinary Research
          
        
        
          
            2012,
          
        
        
          
            Vol.2, No.6, 22
          
        
        
          -
        
        
          
            24
          
        
        
        
          24
        
        
          The buck was treated by using allopurinol (Zyloric®
        
        
          GSK, Ltd.) @ 10 mg/kg of body weight PO, bid in com-
        
        
          bination with Ketoprofen (Leads Pharma®, Ltd. Pak-
        
        
          istan) @ 3 mg/kg of body weight I/M, sid for 3 days.
        
        
          After 8 hours of the start of treatment, the buck voided
        
        
          urine without any difficulty but the color of urine was
        
        
          still whitish yellow. The animal recovered completely
        
        
          after treatment of 3 days. The urine was again analyzed
        
        
          after the recovery (Table 1).
        
        
          
            Discussion
          
        
        
          Obstructive urolithiasis is the most common urinary
        
        
          tract disease in breeding rams and goats (Radostits et
        
        
          al., 2007). The urethral occlusion due to calculi is
        
        
          more common in males than females due to more
        
        
          length of urethra (Samal et al., 2011).
        
        
          In this study, both the cases of bucks were being fed
        
        
          with high amount of protein diet. The animals were
        
        
          kept for fattening and the ration was not balanced
        
        
          (
        
        
          comprised of high protein contents). Goats are more
        
        
          commonly affected by the urolithiasis followed by
        
        
          cattle, cats and dogs (Samal et al., 2011). The animals
        
        
          are at high risk of developing urolithiasis fed on high
        
        
          grain diets with roughly 1:1 calcium to phosphorous
        
        
          ratio, high magnesium contents in diet and high mineral
        
        
          level in the drinking water (Kahn, 2005; Radostits et
        
        
          al., 2007).
        
        
          The specific type of crystals depends upon the nature
        
        
          of diet and chemical composition like pH of the urine
        
        
          (
        
        
          Samal et al., 2011). Alkaline pH (pH>8.0) of the urine
        
        
          favors the formation of phosphate, carbonate and stru-
        
        
          vite calculi while acidic urine (pH<7.0) predisposes
        
        
          the animal to urate and silicate calculi (Pugh, 2002).
        
        
          One of the treated animals had a history of ammonium
        
        
          chloride administration, a known urine acidifier (Samal
        
        
          et al., 2011) while in case of other animal, pH of the
        
        
          urine was acidic (pH=5.8) which showed that there
        
        
          was problem of calculi common in acidic urine, and
        
        
          presence of urate crystals (hexagonal, barrels, rosettes
        
        
          in shape and amber in color) in urine further confirmed
        
        
          urate associated urolithiasis (Pugh, 2002).
        
        
          There are few approaches to handle the urolithiasis
        
        
          like surgical methods and use of different medicines.
        
        
          Surgical approaches may involve excision of urethral
        
        
          process, urethrotomy and bladder marsupialization but
        
        
          these may be followed by many complications (Kahn,
        
        
          2005;
        
        
          Kinjavdekar et al., 2005; Samal et al., 2011).
        
        
          Allopurinol was used to treat the urinary calculi found
        
        
          in acidic urine as depicted by the history and urine
        
        
          analysis. Oxypurines are converted into uric acid (urate
        
        
          crystals) in the presence of an enzyme xanthine
        
        
          oxidase leading to obstruction of the urine outflow if
        
        
          lodged in the urinary tract. Allopurinol and its metab-
        
        
          olite (oxypurinol) inhibit the enzyme xanthine oxidase
        
        
          (
        
        
          Plumb, 2008) result into decreased production of uric
        
        
          acid. The fallouts in both of the cases were successful
        
        
          and the animals recovered after treatment.
        
        
          
            Conclusion
          
        
        
          This manuscript suggested that the clinician may
        
        
          found uroliths in small ruminant’s urine which are
        
        
          normally present in acidic urine and these can be suc-
        
        
          cessfully treated by using allopurinol and ketoprofen.
        
        
          
            References
          
        
        
          Bishop Y., 2008, The veterinary formulary, 6
        
        
          th
        
        
          Ed., Pharm-
        
        
          aceutical Press, London, U.K.
        
        
          Kahn C.M., 2005, The merck veterinary manual, 10
        
        
          th
        
        
          Ed.,
        
        
          Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., A subsidiary of Merck &
        
        
          Co., Inc., N.J, USA
        
        
          Kinjavdekar P., Amarpal, H.P. Aithal, A.M. Pawde, K. Partap, T.
        
        
          Singh, and K. Singh, 2005, Management of urolithiasis in
        
        
          goats (
        
        
          
            Capra hircus
          
        
        
          )-
        
        
          A retrospective study of 25 cases,
        
        
          Indian J. Anim. Res., 39 (1): 8-13
        
        
          Plumb D.C., 2008, Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook, 6th Ed.,
        
        
          Blackwell Publishing Professionals, Ames, Iowa, UAS.
        
        
          Pugh D.G., 2002, Sheep and Goat Medicine, 1
        
        
          st
        
        
          Ed. Elsevier
        
        
          Publishing Co., Philadelphia, USA
        
        
          Radostits O.M., C.C. Gay, K.W. Hinchchlif, and P.D. Constable,
        
        
          2007,
        
        
          Veterinary Medicine; A Textbook of the Diseases of
        
        
          Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Goats and Horses, 10
        
        
          th
        
        
          Ed. Elsevier
        
        
          Publishing Co., London
        
        
          Samal L., A.K. Pattanaik, C. Mishra, B.R. Maharana, L.N. Saran-
        
        
          gi, and R.K. Baithalu, 2011, Nutritional strategies to prev-
        
        
          ent urolithiasis in animals, Veterinary World 4(3): 142-144