Hiwakea [hee-wa-kay-uh] or Kea is the sweetest 8 year old Siberian Husky. She loves to go on long hikes in Washington state, where she was born and raised. She loves to have conversations with everyone in her family and sing to her favorite songs (her favorite artist is Sam Smith).

On Sunday, June 15, I noticed bleeding on one side of Hiwakea's gums and made a vet appointment. On Tuesday, June 17, I took her into urgent care because the entire top right gum wall began bleeding. They ran some blood tests which showed her blood platelet count was 44k-- its supposed to be 200k.

They sent lab results and found the number fell even lower and told me to take her into the emergency room.

After more tests, they found she had a blood platelet count of 0. This means Hiwakea either has the autoimmune disease ITP or Immune Thrombocytopenia, which is when the immune system begins attacking and destroying platelets. This causes excessive bleeding and bruising. They're trying to pinpoint if it's only ITP or something graver.

In total, I have spent more than $1,500 on these two days alone and I still need to find alternatives to check if she has cancer by getting a chest X-ray and a liver ultrasound, which will cost another $1,000 at the lowest.

Kea is my baby, the reason I started to love life. I am an incoming graduate student in the fall and do not have the funds to cover this emergency that came out of nowhere so we desperately need help at the moment. I just want to see my sweet girl okay again.

Thank you and god bless, may all angels watch over you. My angel, Hiwakea has taken care of me her whole life and I need to make sure she is okay.