Support Chewie and Miranda with MG & ME

update: Chewie has crossed over the rainbow bridge and we were all lucky enough to say goodbye. However, we are still paying off the vet bills during this difficult time and we are SO grateful for all the donations, thoughts, and prayers we have received. Miranda is so overwhelmed by the love and support she has received and thanks you all. Please consider continuing to share and donate as Miranda and our family grieves the loss of Chewie. 

Hi, my name is Cristina and I’m starting this GoFundMe to help raise money for a sweet pup named Chewie. My cousin Miranda got Chewie her freshman year of college as an emotional support animal, as all animals do, and he has become a member of our family. He is a 4 year old malti-poo chowchow terrier mix, and if you’ve met him, you know how playful and sweet he can be!

On June 9th he was diagnosed with megaesophagus after regurgitating 15 times in under an hour.

Megaesophagus in dogs is a condition that leads to the inability of food and liquid to pass into the stomach. It occurs when there is an abnormal enlargement of the esophagus, which interrupts the normal flow of food and liquid. Symptoms involve difficulty swallowing, hypersalivation, coughing, regurgitation, and weight loss. Treatment includes dietary changes and medications to help control symptoms.

Then we started treatment, and we noticed him restricting his exercise and a weird limp in his hind legs. After working with doctors and joining support groups, we quickly learned he also showed symptoms of Myasthenia Gravis

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a relatively common neuromuscular disease of dogs. It’s caused by an abnormality in the transmission of information from one nerve to another. Specifically, it’s the result of a reduction in the number of receptors for a chemical crucial to this transmission: the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The most common symptom associated with myasthenia gravis is regurgitation. This symptom, commonly confused with vomiting, happens when the smooth muscle of the esophagus (the tube leading from the mouth to the stomach) is unable to function well enough to move swallowed food into the stomach. Dogs so affected will bring up undigested food, will lose weight or fail to thrive, and may have respiratory symptoms consistent with aspiration pneumonia (coughing, fever, malaise and/or difficulty breathing). These symptoms are more common with the acquired form of the disease.

We had to pay thousands of dollars in ER visits, x-rays, and tests, all of which were coming back inconclusive. On June 29th we finally found a neurologist who was able to treat him for a suspected case of acquired Myasthenia Gravis based on a positive response to a neostigmine injection. Since then, he’s been declining in health as we’ve had to try and get his medication dosage right and through it all he ended up developing aspiration pneumonia. (something that is very common in dogs with Megaesophagus) He’s now been hospitalized since Monday night/early Tuesday morning and the bill for just this trip has already reached 5,500 dollars and is likely to keep increasing up to 8,000 dollars. We had already spent close to 4,000 dollars when we were going to the ER to get the diagnosis since we didn’t know what was wrong. A lot of tests and x-rays were done searching for answers which we finally have.

Miranda is an aspiring social worker who just graduated and is still finding a good source of income in the social work field. She really did want to be able to pay for this on her own, but this will likely happen again. Hopefully, he can come home soon, but every day at the hospital includes more tests and bills. Anything that anyone could donate would be greatly appreciated by Miranda, Chewie, and our entire family and support system.