Immunotherapy Treatment for desensitisation for Chewie

Hi All, my name is Lisa and I am raising funds for my precious fur baby Chewie in order to receive live saving treatment.

A few days before Christmas we almost lost Chewie after he presented with anaphylaxis.

We have since discovered that this was the highest level anaphylaxis, after a specialist consultation.

I am extremely embarrassed to be asking and yet prompted by a lot of lovely people to set up the go fund me for support.

To give a bit of background…. I have always loved my precious fur babies and lost my 3 labs over the past 3 years, this was by far one of the hardest times and I cannot describe the grief my son and I felt losing them and the pain that we still feel.

We considered not having dogs again, but for both our mental health we realised we couldn’t go without them and we were fortunate to have Obi, Chewie and Leia come into our lives to bring back the joy and help us to smile.

Life has been extremely challenging, as it is for many of us, and I have personally been hit with further life changing news today that impacts me financially as well as some ongoing health concerns that I keep trying to avoid, but my fundraising is not for those things, it’s just another added financial pressure when life throws you everything at once.

The honest truth is that my dogs have kept me alive when I don’t want to be here and I am in tears as I write this and being so candid. I keep myself to myself and not many people know the struggles I face alone.

To anyone who’s a dog lover you perhaps know what deep love from a dog can do to keep you going. Being single and having no support as well as mental health issues, it’s a struggle everyday to keep doing your best and being there for others as I am every day.

The fundraising for Chewie will be spent on the initial next 6 months of intensive desensitisation treatment, we have spent a few thousand already on the initial event, the referral consult to start the process, epi-pens and daily antihistamines to offer protection for an event and we are also needing to explore many things to keep the outside area safe so he can somehow still enjoy life as a dog running and playing, which he’s not getting to do outside right now.

At this point I am in hyper-vigilance mode, scared every second that we could lose him and I feel I have no choice but to try the immunotherapy to give Chewie a shot of having a normal life and being able to go on walks again feeling safe that I will have time to get him to treatment before becoming fatal.

The $15,000 covers just the cost of specialist treatment for the next 5 months, from there he will require monthly injections to maintain the Desensitisation process. It is not cheap and we have the estimates of costs from the specialists.

Insurance will not cover pre-existing conditions.

I am grateful for any support, perhaps that will allow me to also focus giving Chewie back some of his freedoms in the garden and on my own surgeries as well as have some peace of mind we are going to make it through this time and still continue to live and pay the bills.

Thank you for reading and any donations offered. This is not something I would normally consider but for once I’ve listened to some lovely people and perhaps this difficult time may not feel so dark.

Lisa and Chewie