Financial Aid for Veterinary Care

The fine folks at the Blind Dog Rescue Alliance have put together a wonderful reference list of financial aid for veterinary care. This aid applies to a wide variety of dog owners, rescues and shelters, not just to blind dogs. If you are not in need of financial aid, you might consider making a donation to one of these organizations. Good people fall on hard times, it is a worthy cause to help loving owners keep and care for their pets.

Cross posting with permission:

Nationwide/worldwide aid for pet owners:

AAHAHelpingPets-for vets who help abandoned animals and pet owners
Brown Dog Foundation-for pet owners whose pet faces a treatable life-threatening condition
Care Credit-for pet owners to apply for credit to pay vet bills
Feline Veterinary Emergency Assistance Program-for cat owners
Good Samaritan Fund-for pet owners
Grey Muzzle Organization-for shelters and rescues, to help senior dogs
Help-A-Pet-for pet owners
IMOM-for pet owners and rescues
Neuter and Spay-low cost spay/neuter programs worldwide
The Pet Fund-for pet owners who can't afford vet care
Pet Lovers Online-Financial Aid in the UK
Protect My Pet-low cost vaccination clinic
Shakespeare Animal Fund-for pet owners who can't afford vet care, focusing on seniors
Spay USA-low cost spay/neuter programs throughout the US
United Animal Nations-for rescues and owners
Veterinary Care Partnership Program-for IIADP assistance dogs

Financial assistance/low cost spay-neuter clinics in specific locations:

Arizona:

Animal Defense League of Arizona-low cost spay/neuter in Tucson

Arkansas:

For Pets Sake-helps senior pet owners in NW Arkansas

California:

Acme Foundation-for seniors and disabled in Lake County, CA
Actors and Others for Animals-helps pet owners in the LA, CA area
Animal Assistance League of Orange County-for elderly, disabled and low income pet owners
Animal Guardian Society-for elderly and low income pet owners in Southern California
Marin Humane Society-provides financial aid and dog food for elderly, those with HIV/AIDS, and those in hospice
Orange County SPCA-has an Animal Rescue Fund to help low income pet owners pay for veterinary care
Pet Orphans of Southern California-helps low income families pay for veterinary care
Pets in Needlow and no cost veterinary care for needy San Mateo and Santa Clara County residents
Sue Freeman's Guide to Rescue Cats-list of sources of financial aid for pets in the LA area
Spay Neuter Animal Network-Helps pet owners with vet care and offers low cost spay/neuter vouchers in Ventura County area
Sacramento Area Animal Coalition-low cost spay/neuter in the Sacramento area
Sacramento SPCA-low cost spay/neuter
Spay California-low cost spay/neuter programs in California

Colorado:

Harrison Memorial Animal Hospital-helps low income pet owners with veterinary care
Maxfund-Low cost veterinary clinic in Denver

Delaware:

Faithful Friends-low cost vaccines and spay/neuter, free spay/neuter for pit bulls and pit bull mixes, in Wilmington

Florida:

St. Francis Veterinary Hospital-501(c)(3) vet office offering low cost veterinary care

Spay Shuttle-low cost mobile spay/neuter clinic in Palm Beach County
SPCA of Central Florida-low cost spay/neuter clinic

Georgia:

Cherokee County Humane Society-low cost spay/neuter clinic in Cherokee County Georgia
Save Our Strays Atlanta-low cost spay/neuter clinic in Atlanta GA

Idaho:

Idaho Humane Society-low cost vet care and spay/neuter in Boise

Indiana:


FACE Spay Neuter Clinic-Low cost spay/neuter clinic in Indianapolis, IN

Massachusetts:

MSPCA SNAP Program-low cost spay/neuter throughout Mass.
The Sampson Fund-for pet owners who can't afford vetwork for their critically ill animal

Maryland

Frederick County SPCA-financial assistance for vet care for pet owners, low cost spay/neuter

Minnesota:

Medipet-spay/neuter and emergency vet care funding for low income pet owners

Missouri:

Humane Society of Missouri-low cost spay/neuter program
Operation SPOT-low cost spay/neuter program

New Jersey:

STAF-financial assistance for vetwork for pet owners

New York:

Lollypop Farm-financial assistance for senior citizens, low cost spay/neuter in Monroe County

NY Save-for pet owners in the NYC 5 boroughs

North Carolina:

Ashley Fund-for pet owners in NC

Oregon:

Bearen Foundation-for pet owners in Lane County, OR
Dove Lewis Velvet Assistance Fund-helps low income pet owners with emergency vet care, in Portland

Rhode Island:

Rhode Island Companion Animal Foundation-provides funding for vet care for pets with low income owners
Rhode Island Veterinary Medical Association-list of organizations that offer financial assistance with vet bills
Volunteer Services for Animals-information on low cost spay/neuter programs

Texas:

Capper and Chris Save the Animals Fund-helps pet owners with veterinary bills, in College Station

Utah:

Humane Society of Utah-low cost spay/neuter and vaccination clinic

Virginia:

Animal Welfare League of Arlington-low cost spay/neuter and vaccinations, offers loans for vet bills
Partners among Cats and Canines-financial aid for spay/neuter and vetwork

Washington:

Budkis Fund-helps seniors pay for emergency vet care
Concern for Animals-helps owners pay for spay/neuter and vet care in Thurston, Mason and Lewis County area, pet food bank
PAWS of Bainbridge Island-free and low cost spay/neuter program
Washington State University Good Samaritan Fund-helps pay for treatment at WSU for pets whose owners can't afford treatment

Washington, D.C:

Pets-DC-helps people with HIV/AIDS keep their pets
Washington Animal Rescue League-helps low income pet owners with veterinary care

Assistance for pet owners of specific breeds:
Doberman Pinschers:

Doberman911-helps owners with vet bills for senior or special needs Dobermans

Great Pyrenees:

Pyramedic-helps owners and rescues with vet bills for Great Pyrenees

Labrador Retrievers:

Labrador Harbor-for owners of Labrador Retrievers
Labrador Lifeline-for owners of Labrador Retrievers
Labmed-for rescued Labrador Retrievers

Pit Bull:

Pit Bull Rescue Central-for Pit Bull owners

Assistance for rescues:

Art for Animals-financial aid for rescues in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and western Massachusetts
Cats in Crisis-for cat owners and rescues
CorgiAid-helps Corgis in rescue
IMOM-for pet owners and rescues
Labmed-for Labs in rescue
Labrador Harbor-for Labs in 501(c)(3) rescues
Pyramedic-helps owners and rescues with vet bills for Great Pyrenees
SOS-SRF-for Siberian Huskies in rescue

Assistance for specific conditions:

The Magic Bullet Fund-for owners of dogs with cancer
Diabetic Pet Fund-for diabetic animals

Toy Safety

In June, Chai, a yellow lab mix in NYC was injured by a common toy, a ball with a hole in it (likely intended for treat dispensing or simply to make the ball more squeezable). As Chai was licking the ball he got his tongue into the hole and because there was only one hole in the ball, it created a vacuum, his tongue got stuck and by the time an emergency vet team sedated Chai and cut the toy off, the damage was done, his tongue had to be amputated. Despite heavy medication, Chai is still visibly in a lot of pain. He is essentially handicapped and requires extensive special care. And as you can imagine, the veterinary costs have been enormous, in excess of $5,000 so far.

As it turns out, Chai is not the only one.

The company that manufactured this particular toy is Four Paws, Inc. They are a large pet product manufacturer and most of the people reading this blog likely have at least one of their products at home. The toy in question is called the Pimple Ball with Bell. Chai's owner says that he has contacted Four Paws and provided them with detailed accounts of Chai's injury as well as two other dogs that he personally knows of. Apparently, Four Paws refuses to recall the toy, change the design or acknowledge any wrong doing.

Chai's owner has started a blog to spread the word.

If Four Paws does nothing to help these owners and their dogs and makes no effort to redesign this toy, I will certainly never recommend any of their products or purchase them myself. You may contact Mr. Allen Simon, the CEO of Four Paws at this email address hbirk@fourpaws.com

I would also like to point out that I have seen similar products from other manufacturers both in stores and online, even very upscale brands. This is probably a very common design flaw, but now that word is out, I hope that all pet toy makers will rework their products to include a second hole (I don't hold out much hope though). In the mean time, I suggest that you check your pet's toys, and if you think there's any chance that your dog could get even the tip of their tongue into such a toy, take it away. You can give it to a more appropriately sized dog, recycle it or simply throw it away.

Help!

A great YouTube video with an even better message.



If you can't keep your pet from reproducing, please have them spayed or neutered. A disturbingly high number of "oops" litters and "free" pets end up abused, homeless or euthanized. Don't bring a life into this world that you aren't prepared to be responsible for, for life.

Allergies

Well, Indy got to go see the vet yesterday. He was tickled pink, going to vet is like going to Disneyland for him, all the smells, sights, new people and animals ... did I mention smells? He always reverts to his hyperactive puppy from hell behavior when we go to the vet, bouncing all over the place, whole body wagging, typical lab "smile" from ear to ear, tongue hanging out, happy as can be. Though labs in this state can be downright aggravating with their over exuberance, they absolutely exude the joy of life, and everyone present smiles despite themselves.

Indy has been an itchy, sneezy dog since we got him a year ago, he had a noticeable worse spell in the spring where you could hear him clearing his throat and he sneezed and scratched and nibbled even more than usual, but I really didn't want to put him on drugs unless it was necessary, so we went into wait and see mode, and things seemed to improve. I've been supplementing his diet with fish body oil capsules and a little vitamin E, his coat became even softer and shinier, but it still seemed like he scratched more than a normal dog and with the arrival of fall, his severe itchiness has returned. He was nibbling so hard he had marks and little pustules on his skin, easily visible on his belly and inner hind legs. He was scratching his ears all the time and they were starting to look a bit pink. The diagnoses is mild atopy or atopic dermatitis. We're trying out Hydroxyzine Hcl 50mg twice per day. It's a prescription antihistamine and should be more than enough to give him relief from mild allergies. There was a noticeable difference within an hour or two of the first pill, I only saw him scratch once all night and no nibbles or rolling around on his back. The vet said that he would probably get drowsy on this medicine, I don't mind saying, that sounded rather appealing at the time :) It didn't happen though, he was wide awake and his wild and crazy self. By this morning, 12 hours later, it was clear that he was ready for his second dose as the aggressive scratching had returned. That's to be expected, it's not a cure, it just offers some relief from the symptoms. I really don't care for the idea of keeping my pets on medication long term, so hopefully (fingers crossed) this drug will only be needed to get him through allergy season.

Achieving a low kill shelter

I'm going to take this opportunity to plug Nathan Winograd's blog because I feel very strongly that he's on the right track when it comes to animal welfare and reducing the number of animals killed in shelters each day.

The average person doesn't have any idea how shelters are really being run or what's wrong with the system. Winograd's works are a good introduction to that world and what really can be done about it. We do not have to kill nearly as many animals as we do each year, there is a humane solution and it is not limited to just spay and neuter programs.

You may also want to check out his book, Redemption.

Before you journey into this world, I should warn you, there is a polarizing battle going on between animal rights and animal welfare organizations, and what most people don't know, is that there is a significant difference between the two.

To keep this short and sweet, but certainly not without my own bias, animal rights refers to organizations such as PETA, The Animal Liberation Front and the Humane Society of the United States (which has absolutely nothing to do with your local humane society shelter). These organizations raise a great deal of money and spend almost all of it on advertising, programs to promote veganism (even for our carnivorous pets) and to influence law makers. The HSUS does not operate a single shelter, anywhere, yet they raise millions every year and have one hell of a PR department. PETA, raises millions per year and is under investigation by the FBI for fraud and terrorist related activities, they own one shelter, where the kill rate is over 90%. Remember all that money PETA raised to help the animal victims of Katrina and Michael Vick's pit bulls? Yeah, if you read the fine print, that doesn't actually go to rescue and rehab efforts, it gets reinvested into public education programs, like when PETA does presentations in public schools to promote veganism and discourage pet ownership, or like when they handed out "buckets of blood" to children as they left KFC restaurants, or the development of video games that promote their ideals. The ALF is a known terrorist organization with very close ties to PETA, that proudly proclaims they support violence against humans as an acceptable method of coercion in the "liberation" of all animals. Incidentally, these organizations have members who have released people's pets from their crates or fenced in enclosures and/or killed well loved and cared for pets in the name of "liberation". The leaders of these organizations have publicly declared that they seek the extinction of the domestic animal .. no more pet ownership period. No working dogs, no police dogs, no service dogs, no search and rescue dogs. They would like to achieve this through mandatory spay/neuter laws, and breed specific regulation (outlawing just about every breed of cat and dog you can imagine) that in the course of a few generations would eliminate pets. By the way, they also want to eliminate livestock and have all humans subsist on a vegan diet. You can also forget about insulin for diabetics and most medical research and technology. These organizations support legislation that would make you the guardian of your pet rather than the owner, which at first glance sounds sweet, but what it really means is that you give up your rights to that animal, your right to decide what is best for your pet, what to feed them, what kind of veterinary care to get, whether they are spayed or neutered, whether you compete in dog shows or sports, whether you dog wears a sweater and boots or not. Guardianship means that you and your vet may not be the ones who decide when it's time to humanely euthanize a suffering pet. It means that someone could sue you on behalf of your pet for perceived abuse. Before you nod your head, thinking that's a good thing, remember all of the nut cases out there. Recently a man was turned in to animal control for taking his healthy, happy, energetic, hunting dog running with him (off leash, the dog was running of his own free will), the accuser stated that dogs should not run, and to let them do so is tantamount to abuse (Every vet, breeder and animal trainer on the planet just cringed in unison). Animal control dealt with the crackpot appropriately, but keep in mind that if animal guardianship comes about, those kind of claims will have to be taken seriously under the law.

Animal welfare refers to anyone interested in preventing animal abuse, promoting responsible ownership and running no/low-kill shelters and rescues. These are the moderates, the people who truly love animals, who keep pets of their own, who save lives. These are the people who spent their own money and risked their own lives entering New Orleans to rescue cats and dogs before it was too late. These are the people who are deserving of your donations, volunteer efforts, moral and political support.

Now, if you don't believe me, want citations, want to read the same information in a coherent format :) or just want to learn more, I'm going to provide you with a very short list of links, just to get you started. A quick Google search would probably give you enough reading material to keep you busy for the next ten years ...

http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

http://www.dogpolitics.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ijLulwUTY

http://www.naiaonline.org/body/animal_welfare.htm

http://www.fatpet.com/elvessa/rights.html

http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm

http://www.undueinfluence.com/peta.htm

http://www.stlzoo.org/pressroom/zoointhenews/petacommentary.htm

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/1706

http://animalscam.com/references/peta_fbi1.cfm

What a week!

Well, its been quite a roller coaster ride the past seven days. Last Friday morning, while I was in the bathroom getting ready for work, Indy had quite a party in the kitchen pantry, actually, that's where it started, it spilled over into the kitchen, through the dining room and all the way across the living room. He pulled out a box of corn starch, tore it up and ate a lot of the plastic and cardboard, and who knows how much actual cornstarch, there was still enough to cover the floors in all three rooms, his bed and the lower half of the dark green velvet curtains :(. It seriously looked like it had snowed in the house.

Then he grabbed a brand new sponge mop head off the shelf, ate off the plastic packaging and went to town on the spongy part. He seemed to be ripping it in small parts (from the little that was still on the floor) then eating it. So I'm all dressed for work, shoes on, ready to walk out the door when I spot Indy, covered in unidentifiable white powder with a partially eaten mop head hanging from his mouth and the guiltiest look you've ever seen on his face, for a split second anyway, then he wiggled his butt,turned around and took off, so the game of chase was on, up and down the stairs until I got him by the tail and stalled him long enough to extract the mop head. By this time I'm covered in the white stuff too. Got Indy crated, cleaned up the whole mess, made sure the kitchen door was shut, changed my clothes and left for work an hour late.

I did call the vet just to get her opinion. She said wait and see. If he's puking Monday he needs to come in. We discussed using canned pumpkin and the cat's fur ball laxative to get things moving. She thought the sponge would probably pass OK. Of course you know he had this little feast after eating an enormous meal of ground venison, and its the first venison he's ever had (it can make dogs a little gasy) ... so I was expecting the worst. As the day wore on I got myself more and more worked up, remembering that cornstarch is a thickening agent, it will absorb water and get pasty, the sponge will absorb water and expand plus he has who knows how much plastic bag and cardboard in there. By the time I got home I was a nervous wreck, watched him like a hawk all weekend. I was told by fellow dog people, to fast him for the first 24 hours and no exercise until everything has passed. Have you ever tried to make a lab puppy lay still? Have you ever tried to fast a lab for that matter? Those big sad eyes are just too much!

This is of course only the latest in a long line of things Indy has eaten that he should not (some of which should have killed him, but didn't, he didn't even get an upset tummy) ... but the sheer quantity of garbage he must have ingested along with the sponge, had me worried.

Well he never vomited, he did his business without fail (yes, I was on poop watch) I never saw more than the tiniest bit of sponge come out, but he seemed just fine after five days, so Tuesday night I took him to the park where we ran into his buddy Hercules, they had a great time running and laying in mud puddles. He whined a little bit, but I couldn't tell if he was just whining for attention or if it was something else. He seemed a little slower at times, but then would bounce right back and act normal again. By the time we got home he was really lethargic, he laid down the second we stepped inside, I walked him to the bathroom, he laid down on the floor, normally he jumps right in the tub, he didn't want to get in the bath tub (which is unheard of), with coaxing he finally put his front end in but I had to lift his hind section into the tub, where he just sat down (normally he's an active tail-wagging participant in his shower). When we were done, he climbed out ok, but then just laid down on his towel while I dried him. He seemed really tired and it's been very hot out, so I let him rest. On Wednesday, by mid-afternoon I noticed that he was extremely mellow and quiet. Went down stairs and let him out to potty, and I noticed he was moving very stiffly, kind of hobbling up and down the porch stairs, didn't want to stay outside at all. When he came back in I noticed that he was having a very hard time moving his back legs, and he sort of had them bent and he was quivering a bit. Normally I would have held out a day or two in case it was just pulled muscle, but given the risk of a blockage and the shaking (which was really kind of scary) I decide to err on the side of caution and went to the Vet. I had to lift his back end into the car (also unheard of, he lives for car rides). The vet did a physical exam of his belly, hips, feet, elbows, ligaments etc ... of course Indy was so excited at the Vet's office he showed very few signs of pain other than some stiffness once he finally settled down. His anal sacs were full, the Vet drained those and said that might be the cause of his discomfort but that unless his symptoms went away within a few hours he couldn't really rule out an obstruction, hip dysplasia or some other sort of lameness.

Since Indy has been eating and pooping OK with no vomiting, we're hoping it's not an obstruction, but if any of this changes he's going to do a barium x-ray. If his appetite and defecation remains normal and symptoms persist for more than a few days, he's going to do hip x-rays to check for dysplasia :(

On Thursday the limp became much more noticeable on the left side, which was sort of a relief, if it had been an obstruction, his whole stomach and back end would be in terrible pain by now, not just one leg. His new Orbee Tuff Diamond Plate ball came in the mail and that took his mind off things as he laid down to chew on it.

Today he seems to be getting around a little easier and a little faster. I'm feeling very relieved, it appears that we were only dealing with a sore muscle or a strain. Hopefully in a few more days he'll be back to romping with Hercules and swimming in all kinds of disgusting lakes and rivers :)