May 17, 2021
By Devin Rokyta, College of Veterinary Medicine
It was not out of the norm for Rachel Faulkner’s 10-year-old Labrador mix, Zephyr, to get an upset stomach and pass on a meal – but a look in the dog’s eyes said this time was different.
“She gave me this look like something was wrong and she wanted me to help her,” Rachel said. “That is when it hit me that there was something really, really wrong,”
In the coming week, Rachel and her husband, Travis, would learn at Washington State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital the full severity of Zephyr’s condition – she had a form of immune-mediated hemolytic anemia, called IMHA, that was causing her body’s immune system to destroy its own red blood cells.