The greatest care must be taken to prevent the escape of any of the gastric contents into the abdominal cavity, to render both wounds aseptic and to protect the external wound especially against infection. A wash of carbolic acid (1:100) with a little of some intense bitter (quassia) will often succeed in preventing licking or gnawing.
Even greater care must be given in the matter of diet. At first a few teaspoonfuls of cold water only need be given. After twenty-four hours a little well strained beef tea; later milk or gruel may be added, and by degrees more solid food. In three weeks the ordinary food may usually be resumed.
In case the foreign body has escaped into the peritoneal cavity, the same method may be pursued, the edges of the gastric or intestinal wound being made raw, treated antiseptically and carefully sutured, and the abdomen washed out with an antiseptic solution (aluminum acetate solution) and closed.
TUMORS OF THE STOMACH.
In horse—sarcoma, papilloma, lipoma, adenosarcoma, epithelioma, in cattle—scirrhus, in dog—sarcoma, lipoma, epithelioma. Symptoms: chronic gastritis, periodic indigestions, colics, vertigo, salivation, impacted gullet, blackened fæces, eructations, vomiting, rumbling, stiffness, emaciation. Treatment: laparotomy in dog.
The peptic stomach in the different animals is subject to a great variety of tumors. In many of the recorded cases, however, the true nature of the tumor has been left uncertain.
Sarcoma. In the horse this is the common tumor of the pylorus, and less frequently it is found on the cardia and body of the stomach, especially on the greater curvature. These are usually firm and resistant, though sometimes soft and friable; they tend to swell out in lobules, and show areas of ulceration, or even suppurating excavations opening through the mucosa. In some instances, however, they start under the serous coat, and the ulcerous surface may open into the peritoneum. At other times they are but a local manifestation of a general affection.
In the dog multiple sarcomata have been found on the stomach varying in size and easily mistaken for recent tubercles. In these cases the small round cells were especially numerous in the centre of the tumor rendering it soft and predisposing to degeneration.
Papilloma. In the horse these are found as branching or filamentous dependent projections from the mucosa of the left sac having evidently started from the sores formed by the attachment of the œstrus larvæ. They are also found around the pylorus and of such size as to seriously obstruct that orifice (Stadler).
Lipoma. Fatty tumors have been seen on the stomach of the dog and horse in the submucosa.