Bocephus seems to have it all; at only 21 months old, he’s handsome, super smart and very good natured. Unfortunately, he also has an auto immune disease called Immune-Mediated Thrombocytopenia (IMT). The cause of this disease is unknown and it’s extremely frustrating because it’s so difficult to treat; Bo’s body attacks its own platelets, and the most common symptoms are low energy, bruising, fever and nose bleeds.

Bo was originally diagnosed with IMT at the end of May, not too long after he came into BARC and we have tried everything possible since that time to stabilize him. He has been to two different vets who specialize in this disease and progress has been sporadic at best. The medication he currently takes is very expensive, $575.28 per month, not including frequent (often weekly) vet visits and bloodwork to monitor his platelet count.

IMT is a life-threatening disease and at this time, we have spent over $3000 and are not even close to having him stable. This type of disease is crippling to a small rescue who has so many other dogs to take care of and we are asking - in fact begging - for help from our Facebook family so that we can continue to try and find the right combination of drugs to help Bo lead a long and happy life. Our vets remain hopeful that we can stabilize him and either wean him off all drugs or have him on a low maintenance dose, but we aren’t there yet. No combination of drugs so far has proven effective and your donations are critical to BARC continuing this journey with Bo, to try and get him healthy. We are committed to this special boy and hope you will consider digging deep to help him. Bo’s very life depends on it.