Help Chauncey walk again

Hello, my name is Joshua Barbeau, and I am the proud fur daddy of a beautiful border collie/german shepherd mix named Chauncey.

Chauncey is an energetic and loving dog. I adopted him in 2018 from a rescue shelter in Oshawa when he was just 13 months old (approximate age, according to the shelter based on dental records). He'll be 5 in September. He is young, healthy, and has never had a history of physical health issues.

He does have anxiety and social/trust issues, being that he comes from a previous owner who abused and abandoned him and spent some time as a stray prior to the shelter rehabilitating him, but when he's not being triggered by outside stressors, he's the most wonderful companion I could have ever asked for. I too suffer from my fair share of mental health issues (autism, ADD, PTSD, anxiety, and depression, to name a few), so I can totally relate to my poor baby's struggles there. Another pet parent might be less understanding, but not me; that's what makes us the perfect, albeit a little weird, pair.

Last month, on the 23rd of May, Chauncey suffered a spinal cord stroke (called an "FCEM" in the veterinary world).

Nothing appeared to precipitate the incident. One minute, he appeared fine, then next, he could not stand up on his own.

It was around 10:30 PM at night, but I rushed him right away to the closest emergency veterinary hospital. We weren't there for very long before the vet told me that Chauncey was paralyzed in his back legs, that this was a neurological issue, and to receive proper care he needed to be seen at a hospital that had a neurology department (this one did not). The vet encouraged me not to wait for a proper transfer, and to just go right away and admit Chauncey as a walk-in because if we were to wait it could take days before he was seen. So, we got in another Uber (the second of the night, thank goodness Uber introduced their new "UberPets" option), and headed down to Toronto to be seen by a hospital with a neurology department. There were two such hospitals to choose from, and we went to the one in Scarborough, where we spent the night.

The emergency vet told me he believed it to be an FCEM (which, was a correct assessment, I would later discover), and that there was nothing they could do for that but give him time to recover on his own, with the help of physiotherapy. They referred me to a hospital that had a rehab clinic and sent us home.

We spent the next day adjusting to the new normal, only we had one problem... Chauncey couldn't pee. I had been given instructions on how to express his bladder manually, but to the best of my ability, I was unsuccessful in initiating them, so that night we went to now our third emergency veterinary hospital to help him pee (might sound silly, but not peeing is a very serious medical issue).

This third hospital was the same one with the rehab clinic that we'd been referred to, so at least they already had a dossier started on Chauncey. There, three people (four, if you include me), tried to express his bladder and couldn't get any pee to come out. They then tried a urinary catheter but were unsuccessful in getting it in. Finally, they used a needle to jab straight into his bladder and remove the pee directly. In the process of doing all this, one of the techs called the hospital we spent the night at previously, whereby she found out that they hadn't gotten him to pee at all while he was there, even though they told me he had (which meant he was on 36 hours without peeing while I thought it was more like 12), and furthermore, he hadn't been looked at by a neurologist at all (which the emergency vet told me he had been). It was as if they hadn't done anything! Plus, the vet at this third hospital said that while an FCEM was possible, the only way to know for sure and to give Chauncey the proper treatment is by having him do an MRI. Without an MRI, there was no diagnosis of FCEM to act on, merely the "supposition" of an FCEM. And so I found myself for the second night in a row being encouraged by one hospital to go to another one with a Neurology department.

Well, I was pretty cheesed at this, but I had to focus on Chauncey, so we Ubered down to Toronto again, this time going to the other choice of the two: Animal Health Partners. Chauncey was checked in and he spent the next 3 days undergoing an MRI and supervision/treatment by their incredibly attentive Neurology team (Thanks Dr. Marchal, JP, Kelly, Kathy, and the rest).

The MRI was incredibly expensive (MRIs are more expensive for pets than even people because they have to be put under general anesthesia for it), but at least now we had a proper diagnosis (as opposed to an educated guess), a clearer understanding of how extensive the stroke was/where it was located, and a plan for how to tackle it. We also had meds to help him pee. Also, diapers (cuz the aforementioned meds made him incontinent). Yay!

The prognosis was not great. It was one of the worst FCEMs the neurologist had ever seen, and he wasn't sure if Chauncey would ever be able to walk again.

But he told us not to get discouraged. There was hope. With regular physiotherapy, both by professionals and at home, Chauncey might recover some function. But it was too early to tell. Once again, I took him home.

My life had been completely derailed by this event, and I could only guess what it was doing to Chauncey. Nevertheless, I tried my best not to get discouraged, and we pressed on. We started going to rehab twice a week (usually administered by the absolutely wonderful Kylie, to who Chauncey took an immediate liking), and after a few weeks, we are actually seeing some progress. See for yourself!

This is all VERY encouraging. After a second visit with the neurologist at Animal Health Partners, he even said Chauncey's chances of recovering now looked better than before! There was hope.

Unfortunately, we've hit another wall. A financial one. This brings us to GoFundMe.

In the last month, without even counting the usual expenses for Chauncey, this is what I have spent on my dog:

Needless to say, this is a LOT of money (for me, I get that a lot is relative to some people). I've burned through all of my savings, other money I'd already set aside for a paralegal (oh yeah, did I mention I'm fighting an eviction order right now? When it rains, it pours—but that's not what this GoFundMe is about), more money I'd borrowed from a friend, and a considerable amount of the earnings I've received for jobs I haven't even completed yet (I work freelance and get paid in advance, which means all the work I will do over the next two months won't bring in much new cash, those earnings are spent already). And to top it off, I'm not done spending money on Chauncey. It is reasonable to expect those Rehab, UberPets, and Other categories will all at least double in the next month.

I'm utterly broke, and I need your help.

Chauncey needs your help.

Please consider donating. Even just $1 helps. This dog means the world to me. He got me through some really, really tough times, and he's only 4 years old. This stroke is not fatal, he has a long life ahead of him. It would be utterly tragic if he has to spend it unable to walk, especially when it is possible he could recover with more rehab therapy. Your donations could directly help him regain the happiness he had before. It could help him be like this again...

If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to read our story. If you're not able to donate yourself, please share this page on your social medias. You might not have the money to help Chauncey, but maybe you know someone who does.

From the bottom of both our hearts, thank you for any help you are able to provide.