Have you had a crisis with your pet that required you to seek emergency veterinary care? Have you been in the awful situation of not having the money to pay for it? Sadly, many pet owners cannot afford the treatment that their animal needs. Some of you had no one to turn to and were forced to choose inadequate care or even euthanasia. We want to hear your story. No pet should be denied emergency care because an owner has fallen on hard times. Let us hear from you, to help kick-start the birth of the Veterinary Emergency Funding Mission. Help us meet our target
start-up date of January 1, 2009.
OUR MISSION
1- ... that no pet owner be forced to choose inadequate treatment or euthanasia for their animal because of inability to pay for emergency medical care.
2- ... that people who receive financial help for a veterinary emergency be given the opportunity to return their gift by becoming mentors, by volunteering for VEFM, or by supporting the VEFM fund financially.
3- ... that it is the responsibility of both the local pet-owning and veterinary communities to make emergency care available--that this is not a national responsibility but a grass-roots responsibility.
4-... that the vision of VEFM will extend to communities all across the United States, possibly even the world.
2- ... that people who receive financial help for a veterinary emergency be given the opportunity to return their gift by becoming mentors, by volunteering for VEFM, or by supporting the VEFM fund financially.
3- ... that it is the responsibility of both the local pet-owning and veterinary communities to make emergency care available--that this is not a national responsibility but a grass-roots responsibility.
4-... that the vision of VEFM will extend to communities all across the United States, possibly even the world.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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Do You Need Assistance to Pay for Emergency Treatment?
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~WE CANNOT HELP YET~ ~ ~ ~ ~
PLEASE HELP US, SO THAT WE CAN HELP OTHERS
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UNTIL WE ARE SET UP TO ACCEPT APPLICATIONS, PLEASE REFER TO THE FOLLOWING LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS WHO MAY BE ABLE TO HELP:
CATS ONLY:
http://www.fveap.org/sys-tmpl/door/ --Calif. only; cats only;
http://www.catsincrisis.org/ --Cats only;
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DOGS ONLY:
http://www.labradorlifeline.org/ --Labs only
http://www.doberman911.org/index.html --Dobermans only
http://www.pbrc.net/fund/financial.html --Pit Bulls only
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DOGS OR CATS (OR OTHERS):
http://www.uan.org/index.cfm?navid=28http://www.pawssf.org/client_overview.html --Senior citizens only; San Francisco only;
http://www.help-a-pet.org/apply.htmlhttp://www.aahahelpingpets.org/http://www.petsamaritan.org/Medical/http://www.browndogfoundation.org/home --Tenn. only
http://www.myjakebrady.com/memorial_fund.shtmlhttp://www.saveuspets.org/about_saveuspets/info_pet_owners.html --N.J. only;
http://www.thepetfund.com/http://www.actorsandothers.com/emergencyhelp.html --Greater Los Angeles area only
http://www.ashleyfund.org/index.html --N. Carolina only
http://www.nysave.org/about.html --NYC only (5 boroughs)
http://www.bearenfoundation.org/funding.htm --Lane county, Oregon only
http://www.pgaa.com/animalhelp.html -- list of agencies that help injured animals
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14 comments:
Hi, I am a guide dog raiser in Seattle, WA. The puppy I am currently raising is named Shep. I love your blog and I love reading about other people's pet experiences. I also have a website where I sell pet supplies and i have a blog on it also about guide dogs. I built the site to try and help raise money for guide dogs and other animal charities. And if anyone would be willing to write a blog post on my blog or website or about the work i do with guide dogs, it would be very much appreciated and i could do the same in return.
Learning about guide dogs was my first love, after I read a book called Follow My Leader, when I was young. I will definitely go to your blog. Do you have any suggestions on raising money before being able to become a 501(C)3 organization?
This sounds like such a wonderful thing you are doing!
Yes, I have. My cat "kitty" I had adopted as a kitten from an animal shelter and he was with me for 8 years. I took good care of him, necessary vaccinations, and neutering, fed Science diet food to ensure good health. When he was about 1 year old, his tail was broken, and the vet thought that maybe someone swung him around that caused a serious break, and it was amputated. He was always sensitive in his back area, would hiss if you pick him up wrong. He became ill about a year after that, was having a hard time breathing. I took him to the vet, she said his stomach was bloated, putting pressure on his lungs. He liked to chew on the elastic string on cat toys you hang on a door, but I couldn't find any evidence that he swallowed any. She said exploratory surgery with estimated costs of about $700.00 which was out of my budget, and she gave medications (I forget what they where) and I started treatment. He was not an easy cat to pill. But he got better and I took him back for a checkup, everything was OK. My veterinarian was real helpful, it was costly, gave me a discount. Kitty was an indoor-outdoor cat, he never had a litter box, he always went out. After his tail was amputated, he was scared of people, only going out at night, stayed in during the day. He would look around before going out, if anything didn't look right, refused to go until later. He always stayed very close, never roaming the neighborhood. This year, in May, I was up late one on the computer in the front room, let him out. Later, I heard noises the neighborhood dogs barking, I opened the window and heard dogs growling, didn't even think it had anything to do with kitty, it was dark and couldn't see anything. I started yelling, and grabbed a book, banging it against the house making noise to interrupt the dogs. My boyfriend heard me, went outside to chase them off. That's when I realize "where's kitty", and I saw he had been horribly attacked by three dogs. Kitty was not a small cat, he weighed 18 lbs, and they had apparently picked him up by his rear end carried him off to the street, had deep puncture wounds and could not walk. He was hurt, bleeding and crying, but was comforted when I petted and stroked him, I was so sad and upset to see him in so much pain. I called the animal hospital, was unable to afford an emergency trip, and had to wait until the next day, when I gathered funds and transportation. What really makes me sad, was waiting, and he was in pain. When the vet examined him, had lost feeling in his back legs and was told it would cost several thousand dollars to save him, which was not an option for me. I knew he was dying, he was put to sleep. He should have had immediate care, instead of waiting because I had no funds.
I even wrote an article of where to look for emergency funding for ferrets. I own two ferrets - Abby and Little boy. When ferrets get ill, it's really critical for immediate vet care, without it they can go downhill and die in a matter of days. Abby is going on 8 years old, and I don't want her to suffer when it is time for her to go.
Thanks for sharing that, Susie. What a heart-breaking story. I am going to start a collection of stories to use as part of our start-up fund-raising campaign. Would you be willing to have me use yours?
Thanks for checking out my blog. You have a great cause started here. My mom was able to help and save my sister Misty without funding a while back and we wish everyone had the money to do so with their pets too. If you have time, read my sister Misty's story:
http://jbssmallworld.blogspot.com/2008/01/mistys-story.html
Thanks!
JB
This is so badly needed.When I was a former vet tech the most painful times were putting down a beloved pet because the owners couldn't afford treatment.It was especially painful when elderly owners had to put down their pets.Most often that pet was all the company that person had and was the focus of all their attention and love.Having to euthanize them due to a lack of money was so hard for them to bear.Often they felt guilty because they couldn't afford it and that compounded their grief.
This charity is long overdue.
I will send over readers from my own blog http://dogsdollarssense.blogspot.com/ and hope they in turn will pass it on to others, good luck.
JB--Misty has a great story. Thanks to her ability to receive intensive care, it has a happy ending.
Debie--Thanks for the words of support, and the referrals from your blog.
Here's the article -
http://ferrettimes.blogspot.com/2008/04/financial-responsibilites-of-owning-pet.html
Thank you, Susie. I have posted the link to that article on the blog.
Shadow likes floss. We didn't realize this until it was to late. Shadow started to act lethargic. Then he started to vomit white foam. I knew this was a really bad sign. I was going to wait till Monday to bring him to his doctor but he wouldn't even drink water. My husband and I decide that this wouldn't wait til Monday. We found a local animal hospital and packed up Shadow car to drive him to the next town over.
When we finally saw the Vet we were told that Shadow needed to have emergency surgery. It would cost one thousand dollars. Jeff and I didn't have that type of cash. He had just been medically released from the Navy and wasn't working. We were tight as it was.
We had the surgery done any way. Shadow is my family. We both agreed if this was our human child we would do this with out thought and deal with the consequences.
Shadow took about a week to recover. Our finical situation had been tight before the surgery. It took almost five years to recover from the domino affect caused by choosing to have the surgery done when we didn't have the money for it.
My heart goes out to anyone that is in this situation.
Nikki--Thank you so much for posting your story. Dental floss is not all that uncommon as a reason for emergency surgery in cats. The problem is that it causes the intestines to accordion up, and then starts to cut through. If you had waited until Monday for the surgery, Shadow would probably not still be alive.
I recently had to euthanize my cat because of lack of funds. This is an unbearable situation to be in and leaves you feeling like vets should have emergency funds or be able to take payments. It's devastating. I appreciate your efforts so much and will donate as soon as I can. I have donated often to animal rescue organizations, but have to stop because my own rescues don't have enough.
Mary--What a heartbreaking thing to hear. I would love to have you participate in VEFM, if you would like to. Even if you just want to tell the whole story of your cat, I'd like to hear about it.
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