Ron may need your help with this one
So this gave me an idea. We all love our sheepies but for various reasons sometimes vet bills can be out of peoples reach. I am grateful that Geoff and I don't have that issue but one day who knows. We must have members who work in Finance? I am thinking we could set up a paypal/escrow account for members who need help in circumstances like Amber? What do you guys think? Thanks Debs x |
|
|
| I think its a wonderful idea! Today I wondered "what if we suddenly needed surgery for one of our dogs? would I do a Chip In?" If we had an account set up, that would be a great way to help all sorts of people. I think the problem would be HOW to pick the people to help. And what about rescues; they often need help with funding. |
| I agree Allison. Lets see what Ron and the other guys think? Debs |
| I really don't have any suggestions on this... I'm just amazed at the incredible response to Amber's chipin. |
| I will make some enquiries about how we might manage this. And think some more. Cheers Debs |
| I think it's a wonderful idea. Having 2 sheepies that have major medical problems, you always wonder if something happened could we pay for a major surgery. Great idea. Lisa Frankie and Mattie |
   You guys are great! I am so glad to find this site. People don't know what they are missing! |
| Sorry all but I have to put in a very strong dissenting opinion on this one. I'm not even comfortable with a member coming here and asking for assistance with vet bills no matter what the circumstances, either for themsleves or on behalf of someone else. I'm not saying it should be prohibited, I'm just not comfortable with it. Any kind of "standing account" to assist with vet bills however totally crosses all lines. It would only be to be a huge problem with the potential to totally fracture this community. How would such an account be administered? Who would be the adminstrator? Who would decide which case is deserving? What would be the basis on which to determine which cases are deserving of assistance and which are not? What if a case is on the evaluation threshhold - would the administrator err on the side of charity or on the side of prudence in case a bigger need develops tomorrow? Would only people who explicitly ask receive assistance or would help be rendered because someone else thinks that it should be offered due to circumstances? Would only people who ask ahead of time recieve assitance or is "request after getting the bill" an acceptable application regime? Would the entire bill be covered, an arbitrary percentage or just the needed balance? Etc. Etc.. The fact is we are all solely responsible for our families. At times life sucks and we just have to "take the cards which we are dealt". Within the last couple of weeks one of our member's dogs bloated and they were faced with a $4,000 bill for that. No assistance was asked up front and none was offered after the fact even though it was apparently quite a financial burden. When our Dawn Eline had her pyometra infection last spring we were in no financial state to bear that bill but I flattened every account we had and maxed out every last bit of credit card balance I had left to save her life and even then I had to draw a small amount of credit from the Vet Hospital. I did not then, nor do I now ask for assistance of this community. When I adopted my kids I assumed full emotional and financial responsibility for their care and custody. If we are not willing or able to do so then in all honesty we should not adopt them. Certainly there are extreme cases and in this economy with so many becoming suddenly unemployed, often for extended periods, after a lifetime of employment stability those cases are indeed becoming more frequent. In those cases then those persons are certainly free to ask for help and the community can and will respond as it chooses. And perhaps even the service providers, ie vets in this case, need to accept that economic conditions are such that they need to review their billings and policies to acccomodate such situations on a case by case basis. Please let us not go down this road. It is indeed a sweet spirited and generous idea. But I do not think it is practical nor is it conducive to maintaining the closeness of the Bobtail family we have here. Carl |
| Thank you Carl. I could not have put it as well as you did. I think a slush fund would be open to abuse, hard feelings, etc. Let's remain friends. |
| Overall, I agree with Carl on this topic because of his following points: Quote: How would such an account be administered? Who would be the adminstrator? Who would decide which case is deserving? What would be the basis on which to determine which cases are deserving of assistance and which are not? What if a case is on the evaluation threshhold - would the administrator err on the side of charity or on the side of prudence in case a bigger need develops tomorrow? Would only people who explicitly ask receive assistance or would help be rendered because someone else thinks that it should be offered due to circumstances? Would only people who ask ahead of time recieve assitance or is "request after getting the bill" an acceptable application regime? Would the entire bill be covered, an arbitrary percentage or just the needed balance? Etc. Etc.. However, I do not agree with him with regards to the community lending a helping hand to members in need. If a member is faced with having to make an ultimate decision, based soley on the criteria of finances, I will ALWAYS offer to help financially. I am of the mind of lending a helping hand whenever, however I can. It's simply the right thing to do. Because, God forbid, if I am ever in a situation that would require me to reach out, that there would be members like the ones here that are ready and willing to help. I want to make sure the members of this board know that if they need help, they just need to ask. |
| Yeah it's a sweet idea, but I think it'd be extremely difficult to manage. I will support individual cases on a case-by-case basis. I've donated to rescues and of course Amber's Abbey through this forum, and will likely continue to do so in the future. I think this has been working. |
| I could see perceived or actual injustices... there simply wouldn't be enough money to go around and feelings would surely be hurt. I agree with Carl that it could divide this community. I think ChipIns and fundraisers are the best approach. We can never assume that we'll get a healthy dog... never. Bumble's required about $15,000 worth of medical care in just 2 1/2 years. Embrace Pet Insurance has reimbursed me with about 80% of this. His $5+ per day ostrich requirement (definite food allergies) isn't a covered expense but I'm not complaining... Embrace has paid extremely well. I feel darn lucky I had taken out this policy on him when he was just a puppy and continued it after the first year. Zahra, a member here on the forum, first mentioned this company back in 2008- viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21215&hilit=embrace+insurance If you have a healthy puppy/dog at least take a look at what's called catastrophic coverage. I just ran a quote through Embrace using my zipcode and a 5 year old spayed, female OES. A $1,000 annual deductible, 10% co-pay with $10,000 annual coverage is $18.35/mo... a $1,000 annual deductible, 20% co-pay with $10,000 annual coverage was $14.12/mo... a $1,000 annual deductible, 20% co-pay with $5,000 annual coverage is $11.87/mo. (Of course verify this by getting your own quote to be sure the info here is accurate.) It's coverage should the unthinkable happen and you want to at least have the option of trying to save your dog. Amber and I are proof that the unthinkable can and does happen and there's now way to predict it.  But some dogs are purchased or adopted with known health problems that prevent us from obtaining insurance... Lisa's Mattie comes to mind as do my Kaytee and Panda. Lisa, I'll surely donate if the need ever arises.  |
| This is a tough one, sorta.. This subject was brought up during a lunchtime chat a couple days ago and I tried to skirt it as I had some pretty strong opinions on it. And here's part of it. When we got Caitlyn, I was already aware of pet insurance because of Bentley and his cancer and Sean our Cocker, (and his cancer, hearing and sight loss as well as really bad teeth), from before Bentley. When we actually picked up Caitlyn, we had the insurance kick in the Friday prior to that Saturday. We were assuming that Wanda would be able to handle anything prior to that. The VPI policy we got for her was the same that we got for Zoey the week after we put Bentley down. Zoey's policy was $26 a month and Caitlyn's was $21 a month. I was told that this would change once she hit a year but I suspect it will fall in close to Zoey's rate. Neither dog had any known or preexisting issues so I'm guessing this made things easier for us. We also keep a credit card sitting idle for big house-hold emergencies. Anything that isn't on the huge list of covered items on the VPI covered illness list will see that credit card. Jen is really smart too as she won't tell me what card that one is or where she keeps it  I'm sure if any car parts show up unexpected, she'll know I found it...I know from my experiences that the premium rates are affordable for most so it's a no-brainer for me... and I hate the idea of insurance on the surface - legalized gambling. But after having to go through the issues that we had with our Cocker and Bentley, I'll stomach the insurance for these two as I know Vets aren't cheap. Ours is really good and fair, but still not cheap. Anyone interested in VPI, go here http://www.petinsurance.com/. Money well spent for any age dog. When this came up on the chat, I thought that it would be an accounting an tax nightmare. Keep in mind that Jen is not only an accountant, but she works for a national charity, so that's the direction my thoughts went when this first came up. Helping out in times of need is fine with me, so long that folks don't take advantage of it. We see that kind of thing everywhere and I'd really hate to see it here. Hope no one is now angry at me... Vance |
| Hi Gang, 1st I am not angry with anybody. All I was doing was floating an idea. I understand the pros and cons. I would never to do anything to undermine our great sheepie community. I am just aware that we all have big hearts and out instinct is to help. Apologies if I have rocked the boat, was only done from good intentions. Thanks for all the input guys. Cheers Debs |
Thats what I love about Sheepie people wops I meen OES people  As Debs wrote " we all have big hearts and out instinct is to help".   |
Quote: Apologies if I have rocked the boat, was only done from good intentions. Of course your intentions were good! There's no harm in exploring possibilities. |
CamVal1 wrote: Overall, I agree with Carl on this topic because of his following points: Quote: However, I do not agree with him with regards to the community lending a helping hand to members in need. If a member is faced with having to make an ultimate decision, based soley on the criteria of finances, I will ALWAYS offer to help financially. I am of the mind of lending a helping hand whenever, however I can. It's simply the right thing to do. Because, God forbid, if I am ever in a situation that would require me to reach out, that there would be members like the ones here that are ready and willing to help. I want to make sure the members of this board know that if they need help, they just need to ask. I feel too that I would like to help when a member has a dire emergency. We live on a very tight budget and that is why I don't have another dog. We try to do everything right for Butchy and did also with Tripper but it gets costly. If I can help someone even in a small way I would glady do so. |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|