VPT 311: General and Systemic Veterinary Pharmacology (2+1)

CHOICE INDICATIONS, COMBINATIONS ABUSE OF PURGATIVES

Choice and use of purgatives

• Laxatives are important for their harmfulness as they are for their value in medicine.
• All laxatives are contraindicated in:
  • An animal of undiagnosed abdominal pain, colic or vomiting
  • Organic constipation due to stricture or obstruction in bowel, hypothryroidism, hypercalcemia, malignancies an ceratin drugs like opioids, sedatives,, anticholinergics etc.,

Valid indications of laxatives are

• Functional constipation – Spastic (irritable bowel) and Atonic ( Sluggish bowel)
• Recumbent animals
• Tenesmus
• Bowel surgery, endoscopyu, abdominal X-ray
• After anthelmintics treatment
• Food/drug poisoning.

Combined preparations of purgatives

• Agarol: Liquid paraffin+Phenolphthalein+ Agar
• Cremaffin: Milk of magnesia+Liquid paraffin+Phenolphthalein
• Julax: Bisacodyl+ Casanthrol
• Laxatin: Sennosides+Docusates
• Pursennid-IN: Purified senna extract + docusates.

Purgative abuse

• Chronic use of purgatives must be discouraged.
• Once the purgative habit forms, it is difficult to break.
• Dangers of purgative abuse are:
  • Flairing of intestinal pathology, rupture of inflamed bowel
  • Fluid and electrolyte imbalance, specially hypokalemia
  • Steatorrhoea, malabsorption syndrome
  • Protein losing enteropathy
  • Spastic colitis