Pharmacokinetics of sulfamerazine and antipyrine in neonatal and young lambs.

The disposition of sulfamerazine after oral and after IV administrations was studied in lambs at different times after birth. There was a gradual increase in systemic clearance and plasma binding until the 9th week. After sulfamerazine was given orally, there was a marked evolution in the shape of the concentration-time curves in function of age, strongly suggesting a defective absorption rate in the first weeks after birth. For antipyrine, too, the clearance increased gradually during the period of study, but absorption seemed to be rapid in the very young animals.