Help Save Maverick - Our Rescue Golden

My husband and I just adopted a golden retriever that was found at a dump in southern Texas.  We applied to be his parents back in December 2020 and were happy to hear we were chosen and he would arrive in Virginia, where we live, on January 16, 2021.  We knew he was in bad shape as when they found him, he was only 40lbs and heartworm positive.  However, we were unaware of other things that were wrong.  We met the transport on the 16th and off came this sweet baby who was literally skin and bones.  We brought him home and noticed right away that he had a large growth on his left cheek and when he ate, he would hack up his food and large amounts of mucus would just glop from the left side of his mouth.  He also had trouble breathing while laying down and a few hours later, that graduated to having difficulty breathing while he was standing as well.  We took him to the hospital within a day of having him.  They ended up keeping him and after a whole night of testing...including a full body CT scan, blood tests, and cytology....they found that his breathing issues looked like they were caused by his salivary glands being extremely infected and his lymph nodes being very swollen.  They decided the best course of action was to perform surgery to remove his mandibular salivary gland and a lymph node.  After a week of staying at the hospital, his doctor recommended we transfer him to North Carolina State Veterinary Hospital because they have more specialists and equipment to help figure out what is going on with him.  He still has a lot of trouble breathing, he can't swallow, his swelling hasn't gone down as much as they had hoped, and he has air all throughout is GI tract from his stomach to his colon...they do not know where this air/gas is coming from and it is distending his stomach and intestines.  We are praying that they can figure out what is going on and be able to fix it...we want him to get healthy and live a full life...and come home to be spoiled.  Once he makes it through this (we are choosing to be positive and believe he will be ok), we have to keep working on his malnutrition. 

In the short time we have had Maverick, he has filled our hearts with happiness and we want nothing but the best for him.  Please help us help him make it through this tough time.  Veterinary care is extremely expensive and he has so much to overcome with his health.... not only the process of finding out what is wrong, but the process of fixing it.... and then onto heart worm eradication.  He has already started the first part of getting rid of the heart worms, but once he recovers from all of this, he will need multiple very expensive injections to kill the worms that are living in his heart.  This poor guy has a lot to handle for the foreseeable future, but he has a loving family that will fight along his side and be there for him.

Thank you so much for your time and we will forever be grateful to you for any help you can give to Maverick.