Pet Lovers

[CatLoverDogsToo]

I have a 6 year old Irish Wolfhound. I purchased health insurance when I adopted her. I never used it in the past 5 years as it does not cover preventative visits. I had my dog's teeth cleaned in April and the vet removed a small tumor on her gum above the upper canine tooth. I asked for it to be sent for pathology exam. The vet was certain it would be nothing. It turned out to be a very aggressive squamous cell carcinoma.

She has now had 2 CT scans, xrays, lymph node aspirations, a surgery and is scheduled to begin chemotherapy on Friday.

The pet insurance has been the best thing. The are covering everything at 90%, and are processing and sending checks faster than I ever expected. 

The insurance is HealthyPaws. I am so glad I have it. 

My dog has recovered from the surgery with no complications, now we just have to get through the chemo.  I am praying for a cure.

[sissel]

So glad you can use it, DD has pet smart insurance seems they are only good for check up & dental cleaner once a year. The dog got sick she called around said oh 2 weeks for appt. no way poor dog had to go to another vet could not wait for appt. Petsmart is good for yearly check ups but when you need them takes weeks for an appt.  glad you got it done

[phoenixbrd]

@CatLoverDogsToo I'm so sorrry and wishing for a complete recovery.

[NickNack]

@CatLoverDogsToo   I'm so glad you have it, too!  I pray that your dog is able to beat this.  I'm so surprised your Vet wasn't going to automatically send it for pathology.

Healthy Paws is what I have on my cat and my dog.  I got it when my cat was a kitten.  He's two now, and I've never used it.  I've had to use it on my 7 1/2 year old dog quite a lot since December. She has an immune mediated eye disease.

I'm surprised your dog hasn't needed any medication in six years. Healthy Paws does pay for meds (not heartworm or flea protection).

[srgtdj]

I agree--pet insurance is well worth it!  I have Pet Plan.  I adopted 2 kittens who ended up both having sever problems before they turned 1 year old.  In a single week the vet bill was $15,000.  Yes..I typed that right..$15,000.   Pet Plan paid for all but $500.

I'll never be without pet insurance.

[Mj12]

@CatLoverDogsToo 

We too have Healthy Paws.  They have been great.  They have never, not once ever questioned any part of a claim.  I love their app too - it is sooooo easy to snap a picture of your vet receipt and upload it to submit.

Wishing your pup a complete recovery.  

[Kalli]

Some of you already know I’m a horse owner. I had insurance on the horse I purchased 9 years ago.  In less than a year he developed a lump on his left front leg. Through a friend I got an appt with a well-known and respected equine vet. Biopsy came back neg for cancer, I opted for surgery. Lump come back, second operation. Lump came back and had to euthanize a few months short of his 10th b-day. One of the saddest days of my life. ☹️☹️☹️

Insurance covered everything except a couple thousand. Wish I never had to use it but was thankful for it at the time.

[skittles2]

@CatLoverDogsToo 

I'm sorry about the diagnosis.  My kitty was dx'd as well with the same thing, her's was under her tongue where it connected to the base of her mouth.

 We have Trupanion, sounds lke HealthyPaws as it too covers, illnesses, accidents at 90%, doesn't cover well visits, but thats ok, we can do that.

It's been great, sends payments directly to our bank most time same day they receive the invoices, which is always online through regular vet, or by me online if they've gone to hospital, which has been often the last 6 years. I've had 3 very ill or surgical babies, with charges 30,000+, at least, and still more to come.

As a few of them become older more things come to light. I'm thankful for having it, and I recommend to everyone who finds, adopts, rescues, buys a furbaby to get insurance immediately.

I hope your Wolfie feels better!

[NAES1]

---

@CatLoverDogsToo wrote:

I have a 6 year old Irish Wolfhound. I purchased health insurance when I adopted her. I never used it in the past 5 years as it does not cover preventative visits. I had my dog's teeth cleaned in April and the vet removed a small tumor on her gum above the upper canine tooth. I asked for it to be sent for pathology exam. The vet was certain it would be nothing. It turned out to be a very aggressive squamous cell carcinoma.

She has now had 2 CT scans, xrays, lymph node aspirations, a surgery and is scheduled to begin chemotherapy on Friday.

The pet insurance has been the best thing. The are covering everything at 90%, and are processing and sending checks faster than I ever expected. 

The insurance is HealthyPaws. I am so glad I have it. 

My dog has recovered from the surgery with no complications, now we just have to get through the chemo.  I am praying for a cure.

    "......... Dear @CatLoverDogsToo ,

   I have 'not' been here to post for approximately (maybe) three weeks when I saw your title, INSURANCE, while hurriedly checking the pet food alert, along with checking on PL concerning different foods...then I read yours". 

   I believe many of the pet lover posters know who I am, along with the day time forum / threads. 

POINT:: We adopted an older cat from the SPCA that had just been SURRENDERED on her 10th birthday.

     ~This was a day after the lovely neighborhood feral cat we were trying to tame and keep ( about 3 years old), but by 8+months, she was found dead under our neighbor's bush from a sever bite -maybe ( I am believing) infection that had been there from another cat).

 Our next pet:  The little female that we adopted from > day 1 never appeared to be healthy in the sense she was having eating complications and some problems maintaining drinking water.

We immediately went to one of the closest 24/7 animal hospitals. Nothing was found by a mere __let's take a look exam_. 

That was the 1st of many visits back & forth becoming worse by visit #2. being a medical professional, I TOLD THEM, yes there is something seriously becoming worse.

 To make a very personal - grueling, horrifying time going through this, we demanded KittieCream be thoroughly checked for all blood work, xrays and a biopsy. They had prodded her little mouth and gums so often that one evening we were told to keep her there over night, then again and again.

 I wanted to remove her and have a 2nd opinion; she was too weak, and there was no way we were dragging her across town over AND over.

  Closing off here, she did have squamous cell carcinoma that (USUALLY) metastasized rapidly. The finally admitted !

    ---- *I had spoken to another larger clinic across town earlier but the wait list was later for 8 hours and we needed help immediately.

  I have always believed that the former owners that had surrendered her on her TENTH birthday knew, that the shelter never examined her, nor did any of the the first veterinarian(S) did their professional exam as proper protocols- period!

 To say we went through torture is an understatement. ( Writing this has brought back unbelievable non trusting of many so called vets, but will stop there-    angry...!)

   They called and said she was doing better, which was not true.

 She was home for 8 hours and right back there to RELEASE her from what was worse than they ever expected. Squamous cell carcinoma is a rapid cancer, a very aggressive cancer, and her spread like wildfire.

To this day ( with a he said - she said case) I definitely do believe they made total assessment(S), very poor judgements, and that the former owners knew this when they gave their TEN year old (sweetest kitten /LIKE) up immediately. 

What we went through affected me indefinably.

I understand the pet insurance, and it's wonderful, but we had no chance to undertake this, nor with her age would she be eligible..(?)... I thought that you should know of our experience. The cost was nothing compared to her PAINLESS if we could, days. One trip was each time --about $800. to the end-. I do believe some of the pet hospitals have a whiff of pet insurance, or know definitely when you pay in cash. The visits accrue quite large.

I have known of billing invoices edging up over the $20,000 from many save the pet when it [THEY] are so ill. How selfish is that putting a pet through anxiety, anguish, but we had no idea. 

 I wish you the best, and would never want anyone to go through what we did. I have a prayer for hope, but in reality,,,,,,, I do not know your personal pet history...yes, hoping for the best outcome and that your pet is home free. 

 There would have been another journey for her, sooner, if we had known ~~ blessings. 

If this post is misspelled or scrambled, I apologize by doing a quick learning lesson that happened to us; in a hurry before time runs out. 

---

[CatLoverDogsToo]

I'm so sorry your sweet kitty went through all of that. In 2001 I had a sweet himalayan kitty that was 8 years old. We noticed he wasn't eating and took him to our vet. The vet immediately did light sedation and examined his mouth, did a biopsy of the tongue which came back squamous cell carcinoma. We elected to do a feeding tube while waiting for an appointment at Auburn. My vet did tell me that nothing was likely to be helpful. Auburn did call and asked me some questions and said even with treatment it could not be cured. We did have to put the kitty to sleep. It was an awfully hard time for us, as we loved him so much.

Now 18 years later, my dog has the same cancer. I have been fortunate it was caught "early" and the surgery did get "clean margins". We are doing the chemo because there were a few cells in a blood vessel and lymph vessel. 

We are very fortunate to have Auburn Veterinary College and the oncology department there. They have been wonderful. It has been heartwarming to see other pet familites get the 2 year clean bill of health on their pets after cancer surgery and chemo.

Interestingly, the oncology clinic now has an NIH grant to treat and study glioblastoma in dogs as the treatment is the same as for humans, so it is a study being done right along with the ones being done on humans in the hope that all the data will benefit us as well as the dogs. (not sure I conveyed that very well, but is is exciting research.)

My neighbor took in a stray that another family deserted. That sweet kitty also had mouth cancer which I bet is why they deserted him. She tried everything to save him as well, but couldn't.