Chewbacca (Chewy) Needs Your Help

On  September 12th  we decided to finally go get Chewbacca after losing our dog, Stoli back in April during the pandemic. Losing Stoli was heart breaking for our family, but he was 15 years old and got very sick towards the end.  After a few months of my children missing our dog and begging for another family friend. We decided to get a puppy, and Chewy made my family so happy. He filled that empty feeling that we were all missing, especially for my 2 young kids. This past Saturday ,October 3rd,  after coming home from a party, we noticed that Chewy was acting very strange and not himself. I thought he was just nervous from being home alone for a couple of hours; But, within an hour of being home, Chewy started to  tense up, and foam from the mouth.  My wife and I got very nervous and just held him, we thought he had something stuck in his throat. About 2 hours later, it happened again, and then 2 hours after that it happened again.   At that moment, we saw that it was seizures.  My wife works with children with disabilities and seizure disorders and she has witnessed these seizure episodes happening. We decide to take him to the emergency room where they did x-rays and blood work. The results both came back negative and the vet thought it was kennel cough and gave him an antibiotic, which they completely misdiagnosed! Needless to say that vet bill was $800.  We were encouraged to take a video of Chewy the next time it happened.   Later on that night, Sunday around 6pm, Chewy had another episode which I recorded.  Immediately, I contacted the vet and sent her the video and that is when they confirmed he was having seizures.  The vet wanted me to bring him for observation but I was not happy with this vet, so I decided to bring him to the Red Bank Vet Hospital in New Jersey where they have a neurologist on site. After showing them the video,  they put him into ICU. The doctor told me that it was very rare for a 10 week old puppy to have so many seizures in a row, and that he needed many tests performed, including MRIs, ultrasound , specialized blood work and a 3 day hospital stay to monitor him overnight. The cost  for all this was about $7000 and that was just the beginning.  They also said that he might need a liver shunt surgery and that would be another $5000.  The Vet explained that it is crucial to diagnose his seizures properly and without the help he needs, Chewy would develop brain damage.  I  decided to call the breeder and he was very shocked and saddened by the news. He told us that we can bring him back and exchange him for another dog.  We were NOT exchanging our new family member like a pair of shoes, and we were afraid that the breeder would just put him to sleep, instead of treating his illness.  A few hours later the breeder called to tell us that another puppy, one of Chewy's siblings was brought back to him for the same reasons, only confirming further that the seizures are likely genetic.  Chewy is already a part of our family and we could never live with ourselves if anything happened to him.   All we want is for our puppy, Chewy to get the best treatment possible, so he can get well to live a healthy and happy life with our family.  Please help us with these medical bills, it is a tremendous financial burden and we really need to help our puppy Chewy! Thank you again for listening to our story and we appreciate any help possible. If you like to see more pictures and videos please visit his Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/help_chewbacca_chewy/