Holme Grove Santa Fe

Aborted: 6th April 2008

Time:  03:00pm

Sex:  Filly

Colour:  chestnut

Santa Fe by Kostolany out of Sacre Coeur by Upan la Jarthe AA was purchased as a Christmas present for Barbara Watkiss from Neumunster 10 years ago in 1998.  This stunning filly went on to become Premium Graded as a three year old and Champion Mare and TBF Supreme Champion 2005 and in the same year her black filly Holme Grove Sayan by Holme Grove Prokofiev was also Champion foal.  She had bred 6 wonderful foals in 6 years and this would have been her 7^th due on 15^th May 2008. 

We were very sad to loose Santa Fe’s foal 6 weeks premature on Sunday 6^th April but initially she seemed ok.  She did have a colic the previous week and we took her to the Veterinary hospital but by the time she arrived at the hospital her colic had subsided and she was back to normal.  She remained under observation for a couple of days at the hospital and they said all was well.  We collected her on Friday 4^th April and she seemed OK but obviously something was going on as she had a spontaneous abortion on Sunday 6th April where the foal was born in the complete sack and was dead.  We left the dead foal with her for 24 hours to be sure she could adjust to the fact that it was dead so that she did not get stressed and upset.  It was very sad while she was trying to paw at the foal to get her to get up but by the evening she left her alone and went back to eating her hay.  Very sad but our most important priority is that the mare is Ok and so far she seemed fine. 

We kept Santa Fe under careful observation and after a couple of days of tracking her temperature it was slightly raised so we put her on antibiotics and washed her out. This seemed to control it but then on Wednesday 9th her temperature shot up to 40° and she was off her food so we again rushed her to the Veterinary hospital where they put her on IV antibiotics and fluids.  Sadly overnight she deteriorated and laid down and would not get up.  They tried to get her up with slings but she seemed too weak in distress with pain and had gone into toxic shock and very sadly we had to agree to her being PTS as we could not allow her to suffer. 

Her symptoms have confused the vets but we asked them to carry out a Post mortem and full bloods to see if they can find the cause.  Her dead foal was also been sent to Newmarket for testing.  We placed Holme Grove Farm under voluntary isolation until we have received the results to be sure there is no viral infection. 

Results of Post Mortem: 14th April 2008

Results from Newmarket on the foal cultures were negative for EHV1 Virus.

First results from Vets on Santa Fe showed severe Enteritis - inflammation of the small intestine and duodenum.  Her final recumbent status and distress was Endotoximia.

Further results are still awaited from pathology to diagnose cause of the enteritis.
Although this obviously will not bring our wonderful mare back we were relieved to know this is not something contagious and going to effect the rest of the herd.

Sire:

Holme Grove Prokofiev

(black)

Dam:

PM Holme Grove Santa Fe

(black)