Simba's Emergency Vet Bills & Surgery
Donation protected
We know there are plenty of people out there that love Simba just as much as we do. Simba has an Instagram following (https://instagram.com/rawrsimba) of over 20K that show him love on a regular basis. So Instagram fam and anybody that is reading this right now, if you find it in your heart to give, we will greatly appreciate it! Thanks for loving Simba and always supporting him.
What Happened?
Our dog Simba (a 7-year-old Mini Schnauzer) has been having urinary problems that we thought would be a simple fix with some medication. We noticed him acting super weird and having accidents in the house on a consistent basis. Last month, the vet said he had a UTI that should clear up so we took him home and started him on his medication. Well, his issue didn't seem to be getting any better and when he went outside to handle his business he couldn't. He was becoming miserable and stopped eating and drinking his water and wouldn't really respond to us when we talked to him.
We rushed him back to the vet and it turns out that he had more than a UTI, he actually had kidney stones. Kidney stones are life threatening so we had to take him to an emergency vet to get the kidney stones pushed back to his bladder so he could then have surgery to remove them.
This was such a scary time for our family. We definitely didn't have the money that the vet expected up front and are only on a wellness plan which didn't cover anything this major. We had to take out a loan to cover the kidney stones being pushed back to the bladder and the surgery to have the stones removed that needed to be completed ASAP. There was no way that we could just let our dog deal with this pain and the potential of leaving us so soon.
Vet Costs
The emergency vet visit ended up being $1,700. The emergency vet could have also done the surgery, but it would've cost us$2,500 for him to stay there over the weekend because they couldn't do the surgery until Monday. The surgery would've cost $3,500 for a total of $7,700. Thankfully, we were able to get in contact with a trusted vet which is a friend of the family who was able to do the surgery for $1200 which we are definitely thankful for! So in total his vet bill and emergency vet bill is $2900.
Doctor's estimates below:
Kidney stones:
Wellness Plan vs Insurance
Simba is 7 years old and the Wellness Plan was fine up until now because nothing major had happened to him, but now I see that since he's getting older I need to find pet insurance to handle things like this that may come up in the future. We actually had to increase our Wellness Plan to the $52 a month plan just so we could cover them taking a closer look to find out what was going on with him since it seemed to be a bigger problem than a UTI which it was. I'd love to cancel his current Wellness plan which would be over $600 so that I can use that monthly money for dog insurance instead that would be way more helpful in our time of need. I'd also like to start going to a better vet because that one wasn't helpful at all and the emergency vet had to retake the x-rays that the first vet had taken which ended up costing us more money. They also never contacted us back about doing the kidney stone removal because the emergency vet said it would be much cheaper to have them do it. Again, this was a life-threatening situation and they didn't even get back with us which I don't have time to deal with a vet that isn't taking my dog's life seriously.
Support Simba
So, all in all, we are trying to raise $3,500 for Simba's emergency vet bill, the surgery, and to get out of the current Wellness plan we are in so that we can move on to a better vet and find a pet insurance that we can pay for monthly that will actually help with major issues my dog may run into now that he is getting older. We pray that the kidney stones are not something that will keep recurring and we don't have to ever do this process again.
On our way for Simba to have surgery:
I normally wouldn't ask for help because of my pride, but I feel this is something that I need to do for my family. When it rains, it pours it seems, as I'm sure it does with other people too. We currently have a lot on our plate which we can update you on later, but just know that we will be thankful for any little bit that you can give. And if you can't give we appreciate the love and prayers and feel free to share instead.
What Happened?
Our dog Simba (a 7-year-old Mini Schnauzer) has been having urinary problems that we thought would be a simple fix with some medication. We noticed him acting super weird and having accidents in the house on a consistent basis. Last month, the vet said he had a UTI that should clear up so we took him home and started him on his medication. Well, his issue didn't seem to be getting any better and when he went outside to handle his business he couldn't. He was becoming miserable and stopped eating and drinking his water and wouldn't really respond to us when we talked to him.
We rushed him back to the vet and it turns out that he had more than a UTI, he actually had kidney stones. Kidney stones are life threatening so we had to take him to an emergency vet to get the kidney stones pushed back to his bladder so he could then have surgery to remove them.
This was such a scary time for our family. We definitely didn't have the money that the vet expected up front and are only on a wellness plan which didn't cover anything this major. We had to take out a loan to cover the kidney stones being pushed back to the bladder and the surgery to have the stones removed that needed to be completed ASAP. There was no way that we could just let our dog deal with this pain and the potential of leaving us so soon.
Vet Costs
The emergency vet visit ended up being $1,700. The emergency vet could have also done the surgery, but it would've cost us$2,500 for him to stay there over the weekend because they couldn't do the surgery until Monday. The surgery would've cost $3,500 for a total of $7,700. Thankfully, we were able to get in contact with a trusted vet which is a friend of the family who was able to do the surgery for $1200 which we are definitely thankful for! So in total his vet bill and emergency vet bill is $2900.
Doctor's estimates below:
Kidney stones:
Wellness Plan vs Insurance
Simba is 7 years old and the Wellness Plan was fine up until now because nothing major had happened to him, but now I see that since he's getting older I need to find pet insurance to handle things like this that may come up in the future. We actually had to increase our Wellness Plan to the $52 a month plan just so we could cover them taking a closer look to find out what was going on with him since it seemed to be a bigger problem than a UTI which it was. I'd love to cancel his current Wellness plan which would be over $600 so that I can use that monthly money for dog insurance instead that would be way more helpful in our time of need. I'd also like to start going to a better vet because that one wasn't helpful at all and the emergency vet had to retake the x-rays that the first vet had taken which ended up costing us more money. They also never contacted us back about doing the kidney stone removal because the emergency vet said it would be much cheaper to have them do it. Again, this was a life-threatening situation and they didn't even get back with us which I don't have time to deal with a vet that isn't taking my dog's life seriously.
Support Simba
So, all in all, we are trying to raise $3,500 for Simba's emergency vet bill, the surgery, and to get out of the current Wellness plan we are in so that we can move on to a better vet and find a pet insurance that we can pay for monthly that will actually help with major issues my dog may run into now that he is getting older. We pray that the kidney stones are not something that will keep recurring and we don't have to ever do this process again.
On our way for Simba to have surgery:
I normally wouldn't ask for help because of my pride, but I feel this is something that I need to do for my family. When it rains, it pours it seems, as I'm sure it does with other people too. We currently have a lot on our plate which we can update you on later, but just know that we will be thankful for any little bit that you can give. And if you can't give we appreciate the love and prayers and feel free to share instead.
Fundraising team: Team Simba (2)
Kia Chambers
Organizer
Burlington, NC
Jordy Chambers
Team member
