Hello! My name is Nick Kiefer and I am trying to raise money for my 3 year old dog Luna's bone marrow biopsy and continued treatment of her autoimmune disease. Read Luna's story below.

In February of 2024 Luna spent 5 days in the hospital after she went in with symptoms of lethargy and suspected GI bleeding. She needed several tests run and 3 blood transfusions, but, miraculously made it through it and started to improve upon going home. She was diagnosed with IMHA Evans syndrome, an autoimmune disease. This means that her body targets and kills its own red blood cells and platelets. Using an aggressive regimen of steroids and immunosuppressant medications we were able to control her condition and bring her back to her normal happy self later that spring.

Unfortunately in late summer of 2024, Luna had a relapse. This is common for dogs with autoimmune diseases but was concerning how soon it happened. We had been trying to take her off of all medications since she's so young, but it didn't work. Luckily, this time we knew what to do and caught it early enough to restart her steroids and immunosuppressant medications.

Luna had been doing better and better, so we slowly (even slower than the first time), backed off her medications again. The reasoning for this is most dogs with this condition younger in life are able to live medication free once their condition is under control. Long term use of some of these medications can have differing side effects, from things as mild as UTIs, to as bad as cancer.

This time, we saw something different. As we backed off all of her medications entirely, her IMHA Evans syndrome was still under control, but her white blood cells neutrophils were extremely low. This means that her body has almost no way to fight infection on its own, no matter how big or small. Luna had a scary unknown infection in early March of this year, but luckily after a week of intense antibiotics, she made a full recovery and was completely feeling back to normal.

Since then, we've tried to increase her immunosuppressant medications, but have seen a continuous decline of her neutrophils (3,000+ is normal, hers is at 108 as of 4/25). She has also been on the same level of intense antibiotics for over a month now, since she can't fight any infections. Throughout this, her doctor has advised a bone marrow biopsy, but up until now it hasn't really been required as our treatments had been working. He has urged that we really need to get to the bottom of what going on.

The biopsy is a relatively simple procedure, they simply stick into her bone with a needle to pull a sample of her marrow (according to her doc). She needs to be put under and anesthesia for a dog isn't cheap. The full procedure is estimated to cost $1900-$2600. This procedure will determine once and for all what is going on with her. There are 3 outcomes we could see from the biopsy:

1. She has an autoimmune disease.

2. She has fibrosis (scar tissue in her bones where they stop making cells).

3. She has some form of cancer.

We're hopeful that this is just a different form of her autoimmune disease, as her doctor has stated that over time her body can change which cells it targets to kill. In this case, she would go back to her steroids and possibly a different immunosuppressant medication in hopes of controlling and bringing her back to normal again (and hoping that she fully stabilizes this time).

Luna is a young energetic dog and we really want to give her another chance, but financially it's becoming difficult. She's loved by so many friends, family, and of course her incredible doctor and nurses at MedVet. Below is a breakdown of the typical costs we see with Luna's treatment, for complete transparency:

Monthly-

Special diet food $130

1-2 visits to MedVet for blood-work $360-$720

Immunosuppressant medications $60-120

Other inconsistent meds (anti nausea, antibiotics, blood thinners) $10-150

This is kind of her "base" cost. Sometimes other things can come up such as the main goal of this fundraiser - the bone marrow biopsy. Ultimately, our goal is to get Luna through this giving her the best care we can, and your donation means the world to us, no matter the amount.

In the sad event that Luna ends up passing, any excess funds will go for her end of life care. If funds remain after this, they will be donated to Cincinnati Animal CARE Humane Society - the shelter that we adopted Luna from back in 2023.