A complication of strangles or purulent infection. Symptoms: Colics,
chill, tender right hypochondrium, emaciation, fatty stools.
Treatment: Constitutional.
Reimers has reported several cases of pancreatic abscess, as a phase of
irregular strangles (rhinoadenitis). In one case multiple abscesses with
an aggregate capacity of 2½ quarts were found, and some of the pus had
escaped by rupture into the peritoneum and produced infective
inflammation. The abscesses had destroyed the greater portion of the
gland, only a few isolated lobules being left.
Galland found an abscess as big as a walnut in the pancreas of a horse
which had multiple tumors in the abdomen.
_Symptoms._ Colics occur from the local phlegmon, and it may be from its
pressure on the duodenum so as to obstruct it, and this appearing in the
course of strangles would indicate a forming abdominal abscess. Staring
coat or shivering may coincide. Tenderness of the abdominal walls has
been noticed by Reimers, together with a partial loss of appetite and a
characteristically rapid emaciation. Fatty stools, if present, would be
almost the only pathognomonic symptom.
_Prognosis_ is that the abscess will open into the abdomen, and cause
fatal infective peritonitis. It is only as an exceptional occurrence
that its rupture into the duodenum or colon can be hoped for, yet in
such a case recovery is possible.
_Treatment._ Little can be done. It would be well to treat the
constitutional symptoms, and await results.