Help Support Nova's fight against heart disease!

Nova, our 1 ½ year old puppy needs help fighting against heart disease and getting a life saving surgery!

Hi there everyone! Say hello to Nova, she is our sweet baby lab girl at only 1.5 years old. She loves playing with her little pomsky sister Luna, eating peanut butter, and giving kisses as much as possible. Despite her young age she’s already had a very hard life with the odds stacked against her with cases of juvenile diabetes and heart disease. Surrendered to the foster-based animal rescue “A Pathway to Hope”, Meaghan and Michael ended up becoming the foster parents to this sweet little girl helping treat her case of juvenile diabetes. Last Christmas though we decided to grant Nova her Christmas wish and adopt her making her a full member of our family. We thought her diabetes would be the worst of it but little did we know things would get worse.

We realized we were in over our heads financially recently after taking Nova to the vet for her annual examination. While looking over Nova in order to get her onto pet insurance, the doctors unfortunately found she had a heart murmur. Since this exam was being used to get her on pet insurance anything heart related would no longer be covered and everything would have to be out of pocket. Being cautious and wanting a second opinion we brought her to Garden State Veterinary Specialists in Eatontown, NJ. Being taken into the back Nova was examined again by a cardiologist and it was discovered she was not doing well.

We found out that Nova did have heart disease and was in early stages of heart failure. Our Doctor, Dr Cusack, told us Nova had Mitral Valve Dysplasia and increased fluid in her lungs. She proceeded to explain what that meant to us- that the valve going between the left atrium and ventricle of the heart was smaller than the tip of a pin needle and not enough blood was pumping through. Due to this whenever Nova would run and play she would begin to cough heavily sounding as if choking. At her last visit on Sept 10th, Dr. Cusack let us know that we would either have to operate on Nova or she would no longer be with us within a couple months. She let us know that from the previous appointment the heart disease had progressed a lot further to the building pressure. Talking with Dr. Cusack more we found out that Nova was a rare Cardiology case only having been seen several times within the world. It was a rough spot for our Nova girl to be in but Dr. Cusack said they had a plan to put together a team to help out as much as possible to save our little girl.

Dr. Cusack offered us two surgery options for Nova to extend her life. The first is a $7000 operation which is less invasive. The Vet’s team would place a stent in and try to open up the hole between Nova’s ventricle and atrium to allow more blood to come through. By doing this it would allow her to breathe easier and give our puppy 1 more years in a best case scenario. Unfortunately between the first and second visit the Doctor has stated it would be more difficult now due to the pressure in her heart causing resistance during the surgery. This does not mean it is impossible or implausible to do just harder. If we were to do this Nova would only have 1 day of recovery and can go back to life as normal afterwards.

The second option is quoted at $15,000 for a more invasive surgery. The plan would be to perform a full operation on Nova, manually cutting open her chest to get to the mitral valve and expand them manually with surgery to make them the proper size while relieving any additional symptoms. This option would be easier for the veterinary team as well as give Nova the best chance of long term survival and extend her life by up to 5 years and would prevent her heart from increasing in size. If we were to do this Nova would have to be crated for about a month and be leash walked everywhere to help her recover since this would be a heavy Cardiothoracic surgery.

We know we need help in order to help save Nova’s life. She’s too young and has too much love to give to be gone so soon after diving into our lives. We want to try to give her the best chance of survival and know the best chance is by asking for help. Nova doesn’t know she has a problem other than her coughing but it's going to start getting worse. She has already become more lethargic and has been having troubles just containing her bladder on a daily basis now due to medications currently being given to treat just the fluid in her lungs. My wife is a Veterinary Technician and has been helping to take care of her at home for the time being to make it easier but that only goes so far when the problem goes deeper.

We love Nova so much and want to have as much time as we can even if it's only a couple more years. Everything you donate goes to the care and operation for Nova. As we get closer to the operation we will provide more updates on how she's doing along with how her surgery went and finally how her recovery is doing. Nova deserves to live the best life she can and we’re doing our best to give it to her. We need more help than just we are able to give and anything you all do helps more than you could know.

All money raised will be going directly to Novas surgery and paying her hospital bills. She will be in the hospital for 4 days total Drop off and blood work Monday, surgery Tuesday, Wednesday recovery day, Thursday pending results will be her release day.

Please help us save our puppy, our baby girl, our super Nova.