Primary liver-cell carcinoma in a young thoroughbred horse (original) (raw)

PLATES CLXX AND CLXXI NEOPLASIA in equines is not common in spite of the fact that horses frequently survive to old age. The B.E.V.A. Survey of Equine Disease (1965) reported an incidence of 0.5 per cent., with 226 tumours occurring in a clinical series of 43,538 racehorses, hunters, ponies and heavy horses. The tumours encountered most frequently in the horse are papillomas and " sarcoids " of the skin, subcutaneous fibromas and melanomas, carcinoma of the third eyelid and penis, lymphosarcoma and teratoma of the testis. The present case is considered to be an example of a primary liver-cell carcinoma in a 2-yr-old thoroughbred colt. No report of a similar case has been found in the literature. CASE REPORT Over a period of a month the colt had lost its appetite and had shown a considerable reduction in condition. On admission to this station it was debilitated and anorexic, and there was a history of some intermittent diarrhoea. The mucous membranes at no time showed any evidence of jaundice. A rectal examination revealed the presence of a considerable volume of fluid in the abdominal cavity and relatively little ingesta in the alimentary