ABSTRACT: For the most part, the average pet owner can afford basic veterinary costs, the story is different when emergencies arise, yet there is help for those high bills.
(UPDATE: Important new information at end of article)
CONTENT: Those of us who are pet owners will practically do anything to insure that our "babies" remain healthy during their lifetime. If we have adopted a pet at a shelter, the conscientious pet owner will make sure the pet gets spayed/neutered in order to prevent unwanted litters that would only add to the burden of overcrowded pet shelters. We also make sure they get their shots on a regular basis to keep them healthy, and of course we provide the best type of food to feed them.
Many of us who have pets, can usually afford the most basic of veterinary costs and thankfully there are many programs out there that can provide low cost vet care for the basics, such as spay/neuter and vaccines, but what happens, if for some reason your pet develops a health condition that requires more extensive care, not to mention cost that could go into the thousands? In today's world, there actually are pet health insurance plans, but in today's economy, many people don't even have their own health insurance coverage due to the staggering costs, so how can one think of pet health insurance as well? Also, many pet health insurance plans don't cover all procedures that may be necessary to cover the pet's health problems. Sadly, many people will actually resort to putting their beloved pet down if the veterinary costs are too extensive to financially handle. One such incident happened to me, many, many years ago.
Friskey had come into my life May 19, 1968. My grandmother and I were walking on our way home from having visited my great-grandmother who lived not too far away. As we continued on our way, a beautiful young stray silver tabby cat was quite literally following us. At the time, our family only had one cat, so since this cat seemed so friendly, I scooped him off from the ground and took him home. He was to have the most charming, sweet, gentle nature and I named him Friskey. Then, many years later, in 1975 something happened to him. At the time I was visiting with friends and therefore away, but when I came home, of course first thing I noticed was that Friskey was missing. When I asked my grandmother (my mother was at work) what happened to him, she told me for some strange reason, he literally collapsed and she rushed him to our vet.
This vet was one our family went to ever since we got our first cat back in 1961. He was a very popular vet, well-known and respected and we trusted him. The trust was to diminish quite rapidly. Now you have to understand, back in those days, there was no such thing as pet health insurance, nor one ever thought of suing a vet for malpractice...like I said, our family trusted this vet explicitly. Friskey was to remain at the vet's for over a week. When we asked if we could visit him, the vet told us that it might upset him. Little did we know at the time, if one does have a pet in a vet's care, one does have the right to visit, but we trusted our vet and valued his judgment despite his keeping us in the dark as to what was wrong with Friskey. Finally, fed up, we demanded Friskey to be returned to us. When we picked him up, he had a noticeable bandage on his back leg--no explanation of what was wrong, and no medication were given to us. Yes, this should have raised flags, but once again, we trusted the vet.
Time passed and it was obvious Friskey wasn't getting better. He wasn't eating, was getting weaker, and he walked with a limp. Our trust in that vet had by now already waned so my grandmother, mother and I took a cab and went to a animal hospital in the Manhattan area, reported to be one the best of its kind. This was by no means an inexpensive animal hospital as they were, at that time one of the few animal hospitals open 24/7 even on holidays. After the attending vet carefully examined Friskey, we were informed that his back leg had gangrene. Now how Friskey developed gangrene I'll never know even to this day, as he sure didn't have it when my grandmother had taken him to that vet weeks prior and remember, we had never even been given any medication, not even antibiotics.
The news wasn't good as far as how Friskey's medical problem could be handled. The vet informed us of two options that could be done. One, the leg could be amputated and then Friskey would have to undergo "therapy" for several weeks to get him used to walking on three legs. The estimated cost for all this was in the thousands. The second option, as you can guess was the worst scenario option and that was to put him down. To this day, some thirty-four years later I can remember the three of us crying buckets, for there just was no way we could have afforded the first option. Friskey was euthanized on July 7, 1975 and later buried in a plot at the animal cemetery at the Wantaugh, Long Island Bide-A-Wee.
I relate this only due to the fact that all too many times, even today, pet owners are faced with the same heartbreaking decision of euthanizing their beloved furbaby if it suddenly develops a sudden, catastrophic illness or injury of any type where the vet bill may be all too staggeringly high for the owners to deal with. Believe it or not, however, there is hope, and I only wish such organizations had existed back then.
One can do a simplistic search under "help for paying vet bills" but I list here some of the more noted ones. A great listing of such organizations is here
AAHA HELPING PETS FUND:
The first listed at the AllForums.net is under the American Animal Hospital Association in which they have their AAHA Helping Pets Fund. At this site one can fill out a grant application for financial help for veterinary costs, however, there are guidelines one must follow to be eligible to receive the grant. The most common eligibility factor are those pet owners who have financial hardship due to being on the Food Stamp Program, Unemployment Insurance, SSI, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and/or Medicaid. This grant can only be used for medical care for pets that are in emergency situations only (illness or injuries), that is the grant won't cover regular exams of the pet, will not cover spay/neuter nor routine vaccinations of the pet. There is a limit on how much one can expect to receive however, via their grant,which is usually only $500.
Angels4Animals
With Angels4Animals it's advisable to contact them for more specifics in how they work as their website information tends to be a bit vague, yet it too works on the principle of helping financially burdened people who need funds to help their pet(s). They indicate that they don't expect any reimbursement of funds granted.
CareCredit
This is an organization that can help people having financial hardships, and not just for veterinary care but for all kinds of unexpected financial needs. The Care Credit recognizes over 100,000 providers, including veterinarians. One can find out if there is a vet under this plan by simply doing a search on their website, pick out the service needed, in this case veterinary and type in one's zip code to see if there is a vet nearby that accepts Care Credit. One can apply on-line or download the application to fill out for their services.
Feline Veterinary Emergency assistance Program
Another program for helping seniors, the disabled or people who have lost their job and need help to pay veterinary costs for their cat or kitten. As with all these organizations for veterinary cost help, this program is for emergency situations and not for basic health care needs for the cat/kitten.
Wish Upon A Hero
This organization doesn't just help people with financial needs for their pets but for any kind of situation where finances are hard. It works on a different principle however, in that a person joins this organization and can "make a wish" and hope that a "hero" will help out in some way. There is a way to set one's wish up to include a paypal donation button where "heroes" can click it to send a person money for their financial problems. I've seen many a person at this website ask for financial help to pay for vet costs.
Here is a listing of other organizations that may be able to help financial costs for emergency situations for pets and work on the same principles as those I've previously listed.. Almost all have on-line applications, contact information, guidelines of eligibility and so forth:
The organization below is a financial assistance program for people with financial difficulties with vet bills in the NYC area only
If you yourself are in financial need for veterinary costs, be sure to read all the guidelines for each organization, as some organizations may expect to be reimbursed via low payments, or do expect the pet owner to pay for some of the vet costs, while others grant money to deserving pet owners without any reimbursement at all.
For those who may never need such financial assistance to pay for veterinary costs and recognize how beloved and valuable your own pet is to you, please consider donating to any of these organizations yourself to help someone not so fortunate as yourself. One can donate to all of these organizations on-line.
Sources:
IMPORTANT UPDATE:There is a new resource pet owners can try to get financial aid for veterinary bills. There is a website called PetChance.org that was set up in 2012 by Peter Alberti. How it works is that one contacts this website and what veterinary procedures are needed for one's pet. If approved, a chip-in fundraiser is set up under the person in need and people can donate toward this chip-in. One of the great advantages is that ALL donations are set up and arranged and go directly to the vet.
PET CHANCE WEBSITE:
IMAGE SOURCE~©MELANIE NEER~Photo of Friskey
No comments:
Post a Comment