funny chemist encounter

[Lilly]

Went to my local chemist to get some liquid paraffin for the piggy first aid kit in case I need to swish a cotton bud around their behinds. I am well known at this chemist. Couldn't find the stuff so asked "where d'you keep the liquid paraffin?". The answer came back"tums and bums aisle!".

Sure enough, there it was with the antacids and laxatives. So I read the bottle and it was to be used by humans for oral ingestion as a laxative! Even though that was not what I was going to use it for "tums and bums" still seemed appropriate!

 

[Pat Shields]

I have a question, as I am still learning - why liquid paraffin? Why not a vegetable oil, say?

 

[Pepperdog]

and more appropriate for the bums, its an old farming trick to aid constipated lambs but squirting a bit up their bums, that or washing up liquid.

Of course I would not recommend anyone doing this at home with their animals.

 

[Lilly]

I have a question, as I am still learning - why liquid paraffin? Why not a vegetable oil, say?

I see you're in the US and I believe it is called mineral oil over there instead of liquid paraffin. The idea is to dip a cotton bud (Qtip?) in it and then use the moistened bud to clean around their penis and inside their anal sac.

I'm not sure why liquid paraffin in particular but it is an ingredient in baby oil. Perhaps vegetable oil is no good for the same reason we wouldn't use it on babies tushes? Perhaps it would eventually go rancid if left on skin unwashed?

 

[Lilly]

and more appropriate for the bums, its an old farming trick to aid constipated lambs but squirting a bit up their bums, that or washing up liquid.

Of course I would not recommend anyone doing this at home with their animals.

Ha ha, I'm sure the shop clerk thought I was going to use it as a laxative on some living thing! But no, this is to clean boar penises and anal sacs. Until I read the bottle I never knew the stuff was a laxative. The many uses of petroleum!

 

[Guinea pigs <3]