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Help Save Liam

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Two days ago Liam went from his normal upbeat, treat-guarding, howling, world-domination-plotting self, to a listless, limp, eyes glazed over dog, who refused to eat and could barely walk. Something was clearly very wrong, so we called our vet and took the first available appointment for the next morning.

After some blood testing and with the help of his most recent stool sample, they discovered that he had developed a sudden life threatening auto-immune disease called ‘Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia ’ (IMT). That means his immune system has been triggered to start attacking itself, and has destroyed virtually all of his red blood cells and platelets (a necessary blood component which we all have & need so we don’t bleed to death).
Because of this, they needed to immediately “calm down” his hyperactive immune system by administering immunosuppressant drugs. To their surprise, his body didn’t react to the drugs like it was supposed to.

So...next step: an emergency blood transfusion.

We got an uplifting call later that night where the doctor let us know the transfusion helped and we could visit him in the morning and hear about any improvements. 

That improvement was unfortunately short lived.

I (Zach) had my phone in hand as I was falling asleep. I woke up to a vibration and opened my eyes to see an unexpected call from the vet. Liam had taken a turn for the worse. They were stumped. His newly raised blood count had dropped back down to almost nothing. And somehow, the treatments had triggered ‘pulmonary edema’, so his lungs were filling with fluid.

We rushed to pick him up and sped to the specialist with our fingers crossed. Our vet told us that this place was very good, but warned us that we may be shocked to see the high costs for his treatment.

They took him in immediately and checked him out while we sat for what seemed like forever in the waiting room. After awhile they came out to tell us that he needs to stay hospitalized, and they’d have to run a bunch of tests and do more transfusions, etc. In the mean time, they’d have to have someone there to monitor him overnight 24/7 to make sure they can keep him stabilized (not die before morning).

So, he is there now. We are worried sick but hopeful that these doctors can find a solution.


We had to pay part of the estimated cost upfront , so we put $3600 on our care credit card. We have a limit with carecredit and as of now, thousands will need to be paid out of pocket. We are out of financial options. If we don’t get help, we are not going to be able to cover this time consuming and life saving treatment.


Anything anyone can offer is appreciated, even if it’s just sending Liam your love and positive thoughts. We cannot tell you how much your support means right now.

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Zachs story of Liam:

When I went to college I had to smuggle Liam into my on-campus housing despite their strict no-dog policy. I tried working something out with the school but in the end the only way to keep him was to blatantly deny having him and hide him whenever they came to check.
It was during this time that I started to reward Liam with a treat whenever he finished his dog food. He caught on quick and I noticed that his dog food was disappearing faster and faster. So fast in fact that it seemed unusual. One day I heard strange sounds coming from where I had just refilled his food. When I went to see what was up, I was in disbelief at what I was witnessing. Liam was using his snout to push his dog food out of his bowl. He pushed it all into a pile and then moved the bowl on top to cover it up. He didn’t realize I had watched him do this, and came running up to me all excited ready for his treat. This is when I first began to understand just how diabolical he was, but it certainly wasn’t the last time I would discover I had been duped by Liam.
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  • Jessica Johnston
    • $20 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer

Zach Pelle
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA

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