Finding Nemo's Peace

On Friday October 2nd 2020 at 11am I took baby Nemo's cover off for the day so he could bath in the warm sun. He was happy and nothing amiss with him. Nemo is a 10 month old colt foal I purpose bred to be a future showjumper for myself. At 5pm that night when I went to feed him, I found him laying in the paddock unable to get up. I quickly called the vet who quickly diagnosed him with colic and referred us to Massey equine hospital in Palmerston North for urgent colic surgery.

We arrived at Massey at 9.30pm to a fantastic team who were quickly on the case. They agreed it was colic and needed surgery to try and save him.

Nemo went in for surgery and the news wasn't good. He did not have colic, but he had very inflamed lymph nodes, intestines and bowels. The team could not work out what was wrong or how to fix it. Nemo went downhill very quickly and after 7 hours of the team giving everything they had, nemo was sadly put to sleep.

This is a very rare case and the vets at Massey have never seen anything like it. A post mortem has been carried out on Monday 5th October, and last I heard, they have found nothing, but they still have many tests to do.

I have set this page up as a few friends have offered to put money towards the surgery to try and save him. The estimated cost was between $5-10,000. The post mortem was quoted at $1000. Obviously I'm not expecting anywhere near that amount, but for anyone who would like to chip in, I'd be very grateful and it will be a huge help.

All funds will go towards Nemo's vet bill.