I'm reaching out tonight to tell you about my sister-in-law's best dog Henry the labradoodle who is in critical condition in the veterinary ICU right now. Henry is Mary's service dog, an amazing dog who has accompanied her through many trying times (and some good adventures too) for the last 9 years. He has been a comfort to countless veterans through the work Mary has done with the "Utah For Veterans" program. He has been her rock since the day she got him. If you know Mary and Henry, you know he is everything to her--he is her heart.

On Monday of this week, Henry suddenly became very sick and began to decline quickly. He displayed strange bruising on his tummy and it quickly started spreading down his legs, and his gums started bleeding. Mary rushed him to the veterinary hospital where they did some critical tests and kept him overnight for more testing, leading to a diagnosis of Immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (ITP). ITP is one of several autoimmune diseases in dogs. In ITP, the dog’s own immune system attacks and destroys his or her platelets. As a result, the dog has thrombocytopenia, which is the fancy medical term for a low platelet count.

This is a serious illness, but does have a fairly good potential outcome---thankfully they have ruled out any cancer, so they're giving him an 80% chance of surviving this. But in addition to all the emergency veterinary care he's already received, he has some extremely costly care ahead to keep him stabilized and to help him get to the healing part of this health crisis.

Our family is asking for any help we can get to support Mary and her family as they try to give Henry the best care possible for his healing. Anyone with pets knows how quickly the costs can spiral when blood infusions, x-rays, ultrasounds, hospital stays, and all the other testing and treatments start to stack up. If you have a few dollars to spare to give this good boy and his amazing mama, we would be deeply appreciative.

As Mary told me today, deep in her worry, "He saved my life. Now I need to save his."

Thank you for taking the time to read and to donate and to share Henry's story.