“Our 1 year old Pekingese, Nick passed away on January 3, 2010. We don’t know if he ingested rat poison, but after taking him to emergency veterinarian he had X-rays taken and he was shown to be bleeding internally. They sedated him. He never woke up. They let us take him home and said if he awoke and was worse to bring him back or go to our veterinarian the next morning. Our loss is tragic. I feel the emergency veterinarian could have done more (but we didn’t have the money to cover it all) and so the price cost was our dear little pet! He will be missed greatly.”
Sharon and William are devastated by the loss of their precious Nick, and understandably so. In a year’s time we can become firmly attached to a pet, and with a pet so young we assume he will be with us “forever,” which, in pet terms, is the next ten to fifteen years. To lose a baby we’ve just come to know so well rips our hearts out.
Nick, Sharon and William’s situation is a perfect example of the need for pet health insurance. Advance planning and the assurance that insurance provides might have prevented this heartache.
Pet health insurance companies, such as PetFirst Pet Health Insurance Company, offer a wide variety of policy options which range from full-service preventive care programs to catastrophic major medical-only programs.
Had Sharon and William purchased a policy to cover catastrophes their monthly cost would have been minimal, but the charges for a complete workup and more aggressive therapy would have been covered. Nick still might not have survived, as we know not all rodenticide-poisoned patients do, but everyone involved would have had the comfort of knowing that everything possible had been done.
Other cases where insurance might make a life-or-death difference include automobile accidents where orthopaedic or exploratory intervention are necessary; diabetes, which requires a lifetime of care and testing; or cancer that needed extensive and expensive chemotherapy and/or radiation.
We can’t possibly fault William or Sharon for not having health insurance for Nick. How many of us consider the possibility that our one year old puppy could fall into disaster?
Yet, it happens every single day.
Our sympathies, William and Sharon, on the loss of your adorable Nick.
See you tomorrow, Dr. Randolph.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bill and Sam for the loss of their wonderful Pekingese dog, Nick. Nick was born 27 December, 2008, from our dogs Bear (dad) and Sasha (mom). We do have health insurance at PetSmart on both of our pets and will look for insurance in case of emergency visits.