Luna’s Story: The importance of knowing your pet

Here at VPI, we love receiving letters from our policyholders. The following story comes from Adam D., who recently had a close call with his cat Luna:

“My wife and I are huge animal lovers and have had both dogs and cats. We purchased pet insurance for our 3-year-old cat, Luna, at the end of January 2012 as a protective measure for the future. We knew firsthand how expensive medical bills for pets could get through experiences with our previous cat, Kitty (who passed away in 2009 from cancer at the age of 14) and current “senior citizen,” Shadow (now 16 years old and also with his share of medical issues).

We had purchased the Major Medical Plan for Luna along with the optional CareGuard plan for routine care. To get a better understanding of Luna, you have to understand that she is a crazy kitty and loves to run around the house and “torment” her older brother. She also loves to talk (as opposed to her older brother who mouths his words), enjoys chasing bugs when they sneak into the house and is super loving (very dog-like, just like her brother).

One night at the end of May 2012, my wife and I noticed that Luna had vomited on our family room carpet (very unusual for her). Keeping an eye on her, we didn’t think too much of it. However, her condition quickly worsened later that night. After getting ready for bed, Luna vomited again and appeared to be very lethargic and definitely not her normal self.

My wife and I were very worried about her and didn’t want to take the chance on waiting to see how she was the next morning. So, at midnight, we packed her up in her crate and took her to the emergency animal hospital near our house. After examining Luna, the vet determined that she had a temperature of 104.2 degrees and was in danger of dehydration and other complications. After staying at the hospital until 3:30 a.m., the vet asked that we keep Luna overnight to continue IV in hopes of reducing her temperature.

I came back to the hospital a few hours later to pick her up and thankfully the IV had worked! Her temperature had returned to normal. After then taking her to our normal veterinarian for a follow-up later that morning, we ended up paying almost $800 for the experience. We were so thankful to have a healthy Luna back in the house… and thankful that we had purchased a VPI Pet Insurance policy.

Within two weeks of submitting our claim, we were reimbursed more than $600 ($800 minus the $100 deductible minus $100 that wasn’t covered). My wife and I were so pleased with VPI and grateful to have Luna back to her normal, crazy self! We are so thankful to have a program like VPI available that allows us to take wonderful care of our pets (who are a huge part of our family) without having to worry about cost. I would recommend a VPI policy to anyone that loves their pets as much as we do.

Thank you, VPI… and Luna thanks you too!”

– Adam D., VPI policyholder through NYSUT (New York State United Teachers) Member Benefits

To find out whether your employer offers VPI Pet Insurance as a group benefit, visit: http://www.petinsurance.com/EmployerSearch.aspx?extcmp=smd-ebiz-PR0001-hambone.

If you’d like the chance to have your policyholder testimonial featured on Hambone Nation or on our Facebook page, send a write-up and photo of your pet to mediainfo@petinsurance.com.