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