ŒSOPHAGEAN TUMORS.
Forms of neoplasm in gullet of horse, ox, sheep, pig, dog. Symptoms: dysphagia; eructation; vomiting; bloating; cough; dyspnœa; stertor; fœtor; palpitation. Treatment.
These have been often noticed in the lower animals. In the horse have been noticed melanoma (Olivier, Röll, Kopp, Besnard, Pouleau), fibroma (Dandrieu, Dieckerhoff), Carcinoma (Chouard, Lorenz, Cadeac, Laurent), epithelioma (Blanc, Lorenz), Leiomyoma (Lucet, Lothes), cystoma (Caillau, Legrand), mucous cysts (Lucet).
In cattle papilloma is especially common, having been noted by Johne, Mons, Fessler, Schütz, Lusckar, Gratia, Beck, Cadeac and Kitt. Tubercles, and fibroid masses with cystic purulent centres are not uncommon. Actinomycosis is also frequent, sometimes hard and warty and at others soft and vascular.
In the Sheep, Dandrieu found between the muscular and mucous coats a hard tumor as large as a hen’s egg, the removal of which put a stop to a persistent choking. In both cattle and sheep, swellings from coccidiosis are common; in cattle and swine from gongylonema, and in sheep from filaria (Harms) or spiroptera (Zurn).
In pigs, fibroma is met with in the walls of the gullet (Raveski) and in dogs fibroma, papilloma, and the tumors of spiroptera.
Symptoms. The coccidia and spiroptera usually cause few symptoms or none, but neoplasms usually develop symptoms of obstruction, dysphagia, eructation, vomiting, and all the indications of choking according to their seat. These do not come on suddenly and recover as in simple choking, but even though there may be periodic obstructions, spasms and paroxysms, there is a slow, progressive advance as the neoplasms increase. Stertorous or mucous breathing, cough, dyspnœa and fœtid exhalations are common, the symptoms may be aggravated when the head is bent, and the tumor may even be felt on palpation of the throat or left jugular furrow. In ruminants tympany occurs after feeding.
Treatment is surgical and consists in the removal of the tumors by incision and ecraseur or otherwise. Thoracic œsophagean tumors are usually inoperable.