Hello! This past summer my boyfriend, Troy, and I, adopted a 7 month old puppy from a shelter. We named him Chevy! Chevy was found on the side of the road with some injuries (broken tail and knick in his ear) before being brought to the shelter. As soon as we saw Chevy we immediately fell in love with him and knew we needed to bring him home to a safe home filled with love. Once we brought him home and brought him into his physical exam/general check up, we were notified that Chevy had a level 4/5 out of 6 heart murmur. This was scary news for us to find out as we did not know what this may entail. Our vet conducted an echocardiogram on Chevy where they then explained he had a very rare heart condition that they had not seen/worked with before and recommended we go to a specialist. We then took Chevy to University of Illinois Vet school where they conducted another echocardiogram. In our consultation with the doctors at U of I, we were told the news that Chevy has 4 different heart defects. The most serious one being a defect called "Pulmonic Stenosis". This is something that Chevy was born with but we unfortunately were not notified of when rescuing him. What this means is that in Chevy's tricuspid valve, there are 3 leaflets at the bottom that are supposed to open and close for blood to flow between the 2 atriums of his heart. Although, in Chevy's valve, the leaflets can not open all the way which means he is not able to move blood throughout his heart very easily. So one side of his heart is working extra hard and the muscle is growing to be too big, eventually it can become too big and the heart will not have enough blood to supply it causing him to go into cardiac arrest/failure. Due to this, the doctors believe that he will have a shortened lifespan, living until about 5 years. So, the doctors told us that the only solution to his defects is a surgery. The surgery is expected to extend Chevy's lifespan to a normal lifespan around 8-9 years. There is over an 80% success rate for this surgery and we would love to give Chevy the chance to expand his lifespan. Although, we are reaching out to all of you on here because we both are in school and are trying to raise some money for the puppy that we rescued. The surgery can range from $3,500-$5,000. We love our puppy so much and the surgery is most effective when done at young ages. We do not expect any donations but we greatly appreciate any and all donations from anyone! All donations will go straight to Chevy's surgery. On behalf of Emilee, Troy, and Chevy boy, we thank you!!