Often malignant, and secondary. Melanoma in white horse. Carcinoma in
mare and dog. Epithelioma. Debility, icterus, abdominal swelling,
emaciation. Treatment: laparotomy, or potassium iodide.
Tumors of the pancreas are quite frequently malignant, and show a
preference for the head of the organ. They may be primary but are more
frequently secondary.
In gray horses melanotic tumors are found, in connection with similar
formations externally, and especially as age advances. Brückmüller found
them of varying size, from a pea to a hazel nut, scattered through the
pancreas and adjacent tissues.
Gamgee records a carcinoma of the pancreas of a mare.
Carcinoma is more frequent in this organ in dogs, the neoplasm having an
irregular form, an imperfect line of delimitation from surrounding parts
and a hard, fibrous stroma enclosing caseous centers, undergoing fatty
degeneration.
Nocard reports an epithelial tumor of the head of the pancreas in a
bitch. The animal which had been ill for six weeks was debilitated,
emaciated, and icteric with a marked abdominal swelling. It died two
weeks later, and necropsy revealed a whitish sublumbar tumor, the size
of a large apple, with irregular rounded projections. This pressed on
the posterior vena cava, surrounded the vena portæ and gall duct and
completely closed the latter. Microscopic examination showed it to be an
epithelioma. The liver was undergoing cirrhosis.
_Treatment_, usually hopeless, would be by laparotomy. If actinomycosis
were present give potassium iodide.