Because of Fetch pet insurance, these pups received thousands of dollars in care.
It’s nearly impossible to process the news that your dog may never walk again.
And during those emotionally overwhelming moments, you’re often left to figure out what’s next for your best friend, whether it be surgery, rehab treatment or medication. It’s a decision that should never be about what you can afford versus what your pet really needs — but without pet insurance, it can be.
That’s why Fetch by The Dodo offers the most comprehensive pet insurance coverage under one simple plan. Because you shouldn’t have to think twice about giving your best friend the best care when they need it the most.
“You do what you have to do at the moment,” Christi, the pet parent of Birdie, a mini dachshund, told The Dodo. “You have these crazy thoughts about, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ But you have as much chance of a happy ending as a sad ending.”
One day, Birdie let out a scream and immediately fell to the ground while running through her grandparent’s field. The diagnosis was intervertebral disc disease (IVDD), an emergency condition where the discs along the backbone are pushed from their normal position — with proper treatment, Birdie was given a 50 percent chance of ever walking again.
“They kept telling me what life would be like now with a paralyzed dog who would only have function in the front limbs,” Christi shared. “So you start to ready yourself for what that might look like. But these little dogs have other plans.”
Because Christi had Fetch pet insurance, she “didn’t blink” when agreeing to the expensive treatment Birdie needed, from surgery, acupuncture and hydrotherapy to physical and laser therapy. Fetch covered around $10,000 of Birdie’s vet bills, and now the little pup is back to her normal self, running around her grandparent’s field.
Reuben, a Chihuahua mix, is another Fetch pet fighting IVDD — in his case, a disc had burst in his spinal cord, and he needed emergency surgery the next day to remove the fragments.
“It was very serious, and it needed to be taken care of immediately,” Shahar, Reuben’s parent, told The Dodo. “So, luckily, we didn’t need to think about [the medical costs] at all. We could just do whatever is needed to make sure he gets the treatment he needs right away.”
Although Reuben is wheelchair bound, his fight toward recovery is far from over.
“Ongoing therapy is very expensive,” Shahar said. “I think, for now, so far, we’ve gotten about $10,000 back from Fetch, which is really helping us. There’s no other way we could have done it. It’s nice to have this peace of mind and just not worry about it and be able to give Reuben the treatment he needs without even thinking of the cost.”
And when a calcified disc in Dante the Saint Bernard mix’s spine ruptured, his family wasn’t left with many options but to agree to an MRI and surgery. Without the proper care, Dante was on the brink of myelomalacia, a spinal cord condition that can cause permanent paralysis and is sometimes fatal.
“More than just covering the huge expense that we had, with Fetch, we were completely able to focus on Dante’s well-being and not worry about the process or the finance or payment back,” Sridhar, Dante’s pet parent, told The Dodo. “It was all pretty simple.”
A couple of weeks post-operation, Dante showed signs of improvement, from slight tail wagging to eating on his own to finally standing up independently. With physical therapy, he could proudly move around in a wheelchair and return to normal life.
Not many people have thousands of dollars to spare on their pet’s health at a moment’s notice — but sometimes, that’s the reality when accidents and illnesses unexpectedly hit. And that’s where Fetch pet insurance steps in to help.