Financial help for Pets’ Vet Emergencies

Financial Help for Pets’ Vet Emergencies

http://cats.about.com/b/2009/08/12/259134.htm?r=94 (short synposis below of the organizations)

CareCredit

CareCredit, a division of GE Money, was founded in 1987 for the purpose of providing a revolving line of credit for expensive dental procedures. It has expanded to include a number of medical services, including veterinary care. CareCredit offers two basic payment plans, described on its web site, and offers “instant approval,” if you meet its qualifications.

If you have any inclination that you may need CareCredit, I’d suggest you look into it before an emergency arises.

Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program (FVEAP)

The Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides financial assistance to cat and kitten guardians who are unable to afford veterinary services to save their companions when life-threatening illness or injury strikes. ” It helps:

Seniors

People with disabilities

People who have lost their job

Good Samaritans who rescue a cat or kitten

Like many other of these agencies, FVEAP depends heavily on donations to continue its ability to fund for these emergencies.

Help-a-Pet

Help-a-Pet is a small non-profit organization located in Illinois. It helps these pet owners with veterinary expenses:

Physically and mentally challenged individuals

Senior citizens

Children of the working poor

Because its funds are not limitless, Help-a-Pet uses a “cost-sharing” policy, asking those it helps to “pay as much as they can towards the cost in order to spread our assistance to as many pets as possible.” Donations, of course, are welcome.

United Animal Nations

United Animal Nations offers a variety of grants, both to organizations and individuals. LifeLine Crisis Relief for Individuals covers widescale natural disasters, house fire, or domestic violence situations. It provides a number of different services in those events, including:

Transportation of the animal to safety

Veterinary care to treat injury or illness

Temporary boarding

There are a number of conditions which must be met before an individual grant is issued.

The Pet Fund

The Pet Fund is a non-profit organization whose goal is to “work towards a future where decisions about companion animal medical care need never be made on the basis of cost.” This group also provides education and resources to enable pet owners to establish a plan to fund their own pets’ medical care in the future.

Angels4Animals

Angels4Animals is a non-profit program of Inner Voice Community Services, with a mission to serve as the guardian angel of animals whose caretakers find themselves in difficult financial situations. The organization facilitates this goal with a network of veterinary clinics across the U.S. Its services range from financial aid to complete treatment to those pets and pet owners in need. Those veterinary clinics notify Angels4Animals when a pet is in danger of being euthanized because of financial hard times.

AAHA Helping Pets Fund

AAHA Helping Pets Fund is the “benevolent arm” of the American Animal Hospital Association, and as such, offers grants for veterinary care of abandoned pets, or those whose owners are facing financial hardships. Veterinary hospitals which are AAHA-accredited, may apply on behalf of their clients in those circumstances.

Since 2009 has been a rough year financially, grants were suspended temporarily. However, VPI (Veterinary Pet Insurance) came to the rescue, with a donation of $25,000 so the AAHA Helping Pets Fund grants were able to resume. The organization also accepts and appreciates personal donations.

Cats in Crisis

This organization’s Crisis Care Fund was set up to assist cats with serious medical special needs. The criteria includes cats currently up for adoption with a diagnosed chronic medical condition, OR cats adopted from a reputable shelter within the past year with a serious diagnosed medical condition.

The Fund is completely financed through private donations, and receives no public grants or government assistance of any kind. You may donate through Paypal, or even become a Guardian Angel of one of the cats in crisis by setting up monthly donations.

The Veterinary Emergency Funding Mission

This startup organization was co-founded by Lucy L. (Pinkston) Schroth DVM, who is also the President. Dr. Schroth worked in veterinary emergency clinics for 10 years, and has had first-hand experience of the daily tragedies wherein cats who had a chance for survival or even a cure had to be euthanized because their owners simply could not pay for emergency veterinary care. She hopes to be able to help cats in those kinds of situations through grants.

She visited our cats forum recently to post her Open Letter to Veterinarians, By a Veterinarian, and it was largely because of the ensuing discussion that I was able to accumulate this list of resources. Good luck with your VEFM project, Dr. Schroth!