Missy's kidney failure (work story)
Something I love about my company is that we are are fortunate enough to frequently receive compliments or heartfelt thanks from our policyholders. These come through as emails directly to us, testimonials submitted, reviews left, and so on.
The below story was sent to us by way of a veterinarian who offers our insurance in his office. His clinic was holding a community pet insurance seminar, and one of their clients emailed him their story. He then passed it on to us.
The story is a bit bitter-sweet, but at the end of the day, knowing that you have people out there who are really grateful for what you're doing and the service you're offering reminds you just how important what you do each day can be.
Regardless of your feelings on pets or what you think about insurance, the facts are that people today love their pets: to many of us, pets are both best friends and members of the family. Yet veterinary care can quickly become prohibitively expensive. No pet owner wants to be faced with difficult medical decisions for their best friend's care, worse, to have to heavily weigh those decisions based on available finances.
Yes, it's insurance. But I like to think that what we do here makes a difference for people. Our coverage reimbursed me around $900 for my cat's UTI issues. Our coverage has already reimbursed me >$1,600 for Tanner's tumor. These amounts are honestly and thankfully small change compared to what some people face, though both of these reimbursement amounts are already a fair bit more than what I have personally paid out in premiums.
If I had decided to go ahead with surgical debulking of Tanner's tumor and radiation therapy, we would almost for sure have hit $10,000 just this year. (At this point, I personally have chosen not to do this, based primarily on my dog's age along with other factors such as associated risks, personal beliefs, and so on.)
Despite Tanner being around 12yrs old, the decision to not pursue treatment has still been extremely difficult. I can guarantee to you that there is not a day that goes by that I don't look at my baby and wonder if I am making the right decisions and wonder if I shouldn't be doing something else. I try to remember I want to be pragmatic rather than emotional, but it's hard. Just because he's 12yrs old doesn't mean he's as old as you might think: this dog is still enthusiastic about any run or hike, still plays with his toys every night, and still knocks over an unwatched garbage can any chance he gets. He still begs to climb on the couch with us and to snuggle under the blankets in bed with us. He still tries to jump into the back of the car on his own, and he still makes it.. most of the time.
He's slowing down, but he's still keeping up.
So it's not an easy decision. I think I can really relate to what pet owners in these situations go through. I know how hard these decisions can be to make and how much any help or support you get in these tough times can really mean.
I really appreciate it when people take the time to share their stories. Keeping the real, human side in perspective helps us remember why we're here, and also helps us ask ourselves how we can be better.
Dear (DVM).
When I noticed that you were holding a seminar on pet insurance, my first inclination was to sign up so I could share Mike's and my recent experience. Fortunately, however, I have a conflicting commitment and am unable to attend. I say fortunately, as I know I would not be able to speak without becoming overwhelmed with emotion.
If you feel it is appropriate, please share our story with those in attendance:
In late February of this year, the unimaginable happened. Our sweet standard poodle, Missy, my heart dog, suddenly became very ill. She was only 2 years and 10 months old. She had always been a healthy, vibrant, energetic girl; her breeder had done all the tests available to ensure that the sire and dam did not pass on any genetic conditions. To this day, we don't know what went wrong.
We brought Missy to the Bow Bottom clinic; she was, at first, treated for a stomach ailment. A couple of days later, when her condition had worsened, blood tests revealed that she was in acute renal failure...something no one could possibly have suspected. She was transferred to the CARE Animal Hospital, off Deerfoot Trail, where she quickly came under the care of an Internal Specialist. The cause of Missy's kidney failure was never found; there were no toxins (such as antifreeze) in her system, nor was there an infection (such as Leptospirosis).
On the second night at the clinic, Missy's condition had not improved, and we were given three choices: the clinic could keep treating her with IV fluids, hoping that Missy's body would get better on its own, we could have Missy put to sleep (that option was inconceivable to us at that early stage!), or we could try Peritoneal Dialysis...a procedure that could give Missy's kidneys time to heal and start working on their own, again. It was a procedure that was rarely chosen by owners, since it was very, very costly. The patient needs round-the-clock care from a dedicated technician, and virtually individual attention from a veterinary specialist. The hospital could not give us an estimated cost, since none of their clients had ever gone this route.
However, Missy was young and, up until a few days prior, a very robust, healthy dog. As owners, we are willing to do anything reasonable to ensure our dogs have a long and healthy life. And we have pet insurance, through Trupanion. Plus, the hospital had a specialist who believed that Missy had a very good chance of recovery if we went ahead with the dialysis. So that's the route we took. Our fingers were crossed that Trupanion would come through for us, but our main concern was getting Missy back to health and home again.
In the end, the dialysis did what it was supposed to, but Missy suffered from one horrible complication after another (none of which was due to the procedure, and all of which baffled the experts taking care of her). After 8 nightmarish days of being tossed back and forth between hope and despair, we had to say goodbye to our wonderful, young companion. Our hearts were broken, and remain unhealed.
But, despite the heartbreaking outcome, we are comforted with the knowledge that we did everything we could to try to save our Missy-girl, thanks to our insurance. I don't know if it's appropriate to mention the exact costs, but the final bill at the CARE Centre was in the 10s of thousands of dollars. Being retired, and having 2 other standard poodles to care for, we could not possibly have shouldered that cost alone. The hospital and insurance company had made all the financial arrangements from the beginning of the treatment, leaving my husband and me free to concentrate all our attention on our poodle. Trupanion paid 90% directly to the hospital; our portion was 10% plus all the taxes. Within a couple of weeks of Missy's passing, we received a hand-written sympathy card from Trupanion. To say that we are now loyal customers for life is not an exaggeration. We tell everyone we know, who has a dog, about the value of pet insurance, and about how wonderfully we were treated by our insurance company. Some of our friends have taken out policies for their dogs as a result of our experience.
A side note...not to disparage other companies, but to further illustrate the value of insurance through Trupanion: We recently added a new female standard poodle to our family. The breeder gave us a one-month trial with a different insurance company, but we enrolled Teesha with Trupanion from the day we brought her home. When the month's trial was over, I received a phone call from the other company, asking if we'd like to continue Teesha's coverage. I briefly told them Missy's story to explain why we had decided to use Trupanion. I mentioned how much Trupanion had paid out for Missy's care. There was a long pause. Then the company rep uttered, "Did you say...?" and he repeated the amount back to me. I assured him that he had heard correctly. I didn't need the confirmation, but that conversation further reinforced that we had chosen the right insurance company for us and our precious dogs.
I know that a representative from Trupanion is your guest speaker at the seminar. Please convey to her our heartfelt and unending thanks to her company for allowing us to do everything humanly possible to care for our companions. Our dogs mean the world to us.
Thanks, (DVM), for letting me share my story.
Sincerely,
(Customer)
If you're wondering what their invoice total was, it was $21,422.42.
We reimbursed over $19,250 of that.
The below story was sent to us by way of a veterinarian who offers our insurance in his office. His clinic was holding a community pet insurance seminar, and one of their clients emailed him their story. He then passed it on to us.
The story is a bit bitter-sweet, but at the end of the day, knowing that you have people out there who are really grateful for what you're doing and the service you're offering reminds you just how important what you do each day can be.
Regardless of your feelings on pets or what you think about insurance, the facts are that people today love their pets: to many of us, pets are both best friends and members of the family. Yet veterinary care can quickly become prohibitively expensive. No pet owner wants to be faced with difficult medical decisions for their best friend's care, worse, to have to heavily weigh those decisions based on available finances.
Yes, it's insurance. But I like to think that what we do here makes a difference for people. Our coverage reimbursed me around $900 for my cat's UTI issues. Our coverage has already reimbursed me >$1,600 for Tanner's tumor. These amounts are honestly and thankfully small change compared to what some people face, though both of these reimbursement amounts are already a fair bit more than what I have personally paid out in premiums.
If I had decided to go ahead with surgical debulking of Tanner's tumor and radiation therapy, we would almost for sure have hit $10,000 just this year. (At this point, I personally have chosen not to do this, based primarily on my dog's age along with other factors such as associated risks, personal beliefs, and so on.)
Despite Tanner being around 12yrs old, the decision to not pursue treatment has still been extremely difficult. I can guarantee to you that there is not a day that goes by that I don't look at my baby and wonder if I am making the right decisions and wonder if I shouldn't be doing something else. I try to remember I want to be pragmatic rather than emotional, but it's hard. Just because he's 12yrs old doesn't mean he's as old as you might think: this dog is still enthusiastic about any run or hike, still plays with his toys every night, and still knocks over an unwatched garbage can any chance he gets. He still begs to climb on the couch with us and to snuggle under the blankets in bed with us. He still tries to jump into the back of the car on his own, and he still makes it.. most of the time.
He's slowing down, but he's still keeping up.
So it's not an easy decision. I think I can really relate to what pet owners in these situations go through. I know how hard these decisions can be to make and how much any help or support you get in these tough times can really mean.
I really appreciate it when people take the time to share their stories. Keeping the real, human side in perspective helps us remember why we're here, and also helps us ask ourselves how we can be better.
Dear (DVM).
When I noticed that you were holding a seminar on pet insurance, my first inclination was to sign up so I could share Mike's and my recent experience. Fortunately, however, I have a conflicting commitment and am unable to attend. I say fortunately, as I know I would not be able to speak without becoming overwhelmed with emotion.
If you feel it is appropriate, please share our story with those in attendance:
In late February of this year, the unimaginable happened. Our sweet standard poodle, Missy, my heart dog, suddenly became very ill. She was only 2 years and 10 months old. She had always been a healthy, vibrant, energetic girl; her breeder had done all the tests available to ensure that the sire and dam did not pass on any genetic conditions. To this day, we don't know what went wrong.
We brought Missy to the Bow Bottom clinic; she was, at first, treated for a stomach ailment. A couple of days later, when her condition had worsened, blood tests revealed that she was in acute renal failure...something no one could possibly have suspected. She was transferred to the CARE Animal Hospital, off Deerfoot Trail, where she quickly came under the care of an Internal Specialist. The cause of Missy's kidney failure was never found; there were no toxins (such as antifreeze) in her system, nor was there an infection (such as Leptospirosis).
On the second night at the clinic, Missy's condition had not improved, and we were given three choices: the clinic could keep treating her with IV fluids, hoping that Missy's body would get better on its own, we could have Missy put to sleep (that option was inconceivable to us at that early stage!), or we could try Peritoneal Dialysis...a procedure that could give Missy's kidneys time to heal and start working on their own, again. It was a procedure that was rarely chosen by owners, since it was very, very costly. The patient needs round-the-clock care from a dedicated technician, and virtually individual attention from a veterinary specialist. The hospital could not give us an estimated cost, since none of their clients had ever gone this route.
However, Missy was young and, up until a few days prior, a very robust, healthy dog. As owners, we are willing to do anything reasonable to ensure our dogs have a long and healthy life. And we have pet insurance, through Trupanion. Plus, the hospital had a specialist who believed that Missy had a very good chance of recovery if we went ahead with the dialysis. So that's the route we took. Our fingers were crossed that Trupanion would come through for us, but our main concern was getting Missy back to health and home again.
In the end, the dialysis did what it was supposed to, but Missy suffered from one horrible complication after another (none of which was due to the procedure, and all of which baffled the experts taking care of her). After 8 nightmarish days of being tossed back and forth between hope and despair, we had to say goodbye to our wonderful, young companion. Our hearts were broken, and remain unhealed.
But, despite the heartbreaking outcome, we are comforted with the knowledge that we did everything we could to try to save our Missy-girl, thanks to our insurance. I don't know if it's appropriate to mention the exact costs, but the final bill at the CARE Centre was in the 10s of thousands of dollars. Being retired, and having 2 other standard poodles to care for, we could not possibly have shouldered that cost alone. The hospital and insurance company had made all the financial arrangements from the beginning of the treatment, leaving my husband and me free to concentrate all our attention on our poodle. Trupanion paid 90% directly to the hospital; our portion was 10% plus all the taxes. Within a couple of weeks of Missy's passing, we received a hand-written sympathy card from Trupanion. To say that we are now loyal customers for life is not an exaggeration. We tell everyone we know, who has a dog, about the value of pet insurance, and about how wonderfully we were treated by our insurance company. Some of our friends have taken out policies for their dogs as a result of our experience.
A side note...not to disparage other companies, but to further illustrate the value of insurance through Trupanion: We recently added a new female standard poodle to our family. The breeder gave us a one-month trial with a different insurance company, but we enrolled Teesha with Trupanion from the day we brought her home. When the month's trial was over, I received a phone call from the other company, asking if we'd like to continue Teesha's coverage. I briefly told them Missy's story to explain why we had decided to use Trupanion. I mentioned how much Trupanion had paid out for Missy's care. There was a long pause. Then the company rep uttered, "Did you say...?" and he repeated the amount back to me. I assured him that he had heard correctly. I didn't need the confirmation, but that conversation further reinforced that we had chosen the right insurance company for us and our precious dogs.
I know that a representative from Trupanion is your guest speaker at the seminar. Please convey to her our heartfelt and unending thanks to her company for allowing us to do everything humanly possible to care for our companions. Our dogs mean the world to us.
Thanks, (DVM), for letting me share my story.
Sincerely,
(Customer)
If you're wondering what their invoice total was, it was $21,422.42.
We reimbursed over $19,250 of that.