As a surgeon at Rhinebeck Equine, Jesse Tyma, DVM, DACVS, gets to consult and collaborate on a wide variety of cases that come through the clinic doors. Recently, a two-week-old Standardbred filly was referred to the internal medicine team showing signs of ill thrift, mild colic, and persistent gastrointestinal reflux. They performed a gastroscopy and discovered her pylorus had strictured down to almost nothing.
“There was absolutely no outflow that we could visualize,” said Tyma.
They followed up with a barium study, tubing barium into the foal and taking radiographs at successive times.
“In a normal foal we would expect that to begin to pass through the gastrointestinal tract,” she explained. “And in this foal, it didn’t move anywhere. It just sat in the stomach because there was nowhere for it to go. So that confirmed our diagnosis—that this foal had complete pyloric outflow obstruction and had absolutely no way of moving anything from her stomach into her duodenum.”
The veterinary team was at a point in the road where they essentially had two decisions: Take the foal to surgery to do a bypass procedure, or euthanize. The prognosis for these cases is usually 50-50.
Tyma said the filly’s presentation was a bit unusual because this disease, while uncommon, typically develops in older foals of 2 to 6 months of age. Anecdotally, she said, younger foals are thought to have a slightly better chance of recovery.
With the owner’s consent to go to surgery, Tyma performed a gastrojejunostomy procedure. Listen to the episode to learn about the filly’s medical history leading up to the pyloric outflow obstruction, how the Rhinebeck Equine team treated it, and how she has responded.
About Dr. Jesse Tyma
Jesse Tyma, DVM, DACVS, grew up in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and attended Amherst College for her undergraduate education followed by Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. She completed a rotating internship at Rhinebeck Equine followed by a large animal surgical residency at the University of Georgia, and became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2019. She joined Rhinebeck Equine in 2023. Dr. Tyma is the chair of the AAEP Early Career Committee and is both a Decade One and Starting Gate group facilitator. Her clinical interests include gastrointestinal and soft tissue surgery, wound management, juvenile angular limb disorders, sports medicine, and back disorders. She is passionate about providing dedicated mentorship for intern veterinarians and building a strong sense of community and collaboration through her practice.
Related Reading
- A Novel Approach to Managing Angular Limb Deformities in Foals
- Disease Du Jour: Equine Neonatal Field Care
- A Practitioner’s Guide to Removing Retained Placentas
Stay in the know! Sign up for EquiManagement’s FREE weekly newsletters to get the latest equine research, disease alerts, and vet practice updates delivered straight to your inbox.
