Please help me cover my horses medical bills

Ann-Cathrin R. is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello, my name is Ann-Cathrin and I need your help. My horse Cool Bear (we call him Berti) is sick and the vet bills are growing and growing. I would love to share a concrete diagnosis, but to be honest, there isn’t one yet. We are still trying to figure out where his problems are coming from and how best to help him.

But maybe we'll start from the beginning:

I bought Berti last year as a two-year-old horse that no one cared about. You couldn't touch him, groom him and of course you couldn't train with him. Not because he was dangerous, but because he didn't know it, as no one took care of him and gave him the love and support that a horse of that age needs. He was way too thin and needed vaccinations to be kept species appropriate with other horses.

After a few weeks with a lot of love and work, he finally began to trust me and therefore people in general. But this success was marred by the fact that he gradually got worse. He lost weight again and got diarrhea. Really bad diarrhea. He was in pain and didn't want to move at all. It turned out that he had a lot of worms in his intestines. This is totally normal for horses and not dangerous. At least if you notice it and treat it in time. In consultation with the vet he has received a worming cure, with which he should quickly get better. I thought that I helped him with that and he will be better now. But unfortunately it was not that easy.

For a few weeks and even months he was already much better, he could gain weight and has developed physically. However, already at the end of May I noticed that he was getting worse again - despite very regular deworming and consultations with the vet.

Since he didn't look so sick on the outside, my feeling that he was getting worse was not really taken seriously. You know your animal best. He no longer ran with his herd, had absolutely no desire to move, when I wanted to motivate him in training, he became really stubborn, struck out and put on his ears. All a sign of definite discomfort. And of course: diarrhea.

After the worming treatment didn't help at all (otherwise there was at least a small improvement), I insisted on having him examined more closely.

The fecal sample showed that he has a rare type of worm infestation that only affects young horses and the larvae lodge in the intestinal wall and feed on it. They are called small strongylids.

This type of worm is resistant to most drugs against worms and have thus lived in him for a long time and caused damage. How long no one can say. If the other worms died after the medications, these (and especially the larvae in the intestinal wall) have survived and continued to wreak havoc.

Also the blood work showed that berti has very high levels of inflammation and his young body is fighting something.

Even though it wasn't a great diagnosis, I was relieved to have one that was treatable. The right medication, against which the worms are not resistant and antibiotics and cortisone to heal his attacked and inflamed intestine.

This has been 3 weeks now and even though there was short term improvement, he now has stomach pain again, diarrhea and he is miserable. What he has? Hopefully we will know soon.

In order to be able to help him specifically, he must now be examined even more extensively, endoscopy must be done and possibly even surgery must be performed to see what is causing him pain.

All these are costs that are just over my head. My savings have been going to bills for Berti's recovery for the last few months and I am just struggling to keep my head above water.

Berti is the most special horse I have met in over 23 years of horse experience. He is an absolute clown and makes me laugh, wants to do everything right, comes galloping towards me when I come and despite his young age and the pain he must have had, never got angry while riding.