Support Coco's Road to Recovery

Hello everyone, my name is Miles Stanton and I am here on behalf of my little dog, Coco.

A quick backstory, in January of 2020 I found out that a friend of mine was unfortunately being forced to surrender their newly adopted emotional support dog, and we needed to find a new home for the pup or he was going to be sent back to the kennel and to a uncertain future. I had grown up around dogs, and love them with all of my heart, but was always nervous to get a dog of my own, for fear that something would go wrong or I wouldn't be able to give it the care a dog really deserves, but given the opportunity to step in and save this pup from going back into the system, I knew I had to take him in. The next day, I packed up my car and started the drive from my house in Maine down to Philadelphia where my buddy was living at the time, all the while thinking about the logistics of what I was doing.

I was about to adopt a Pomeranian Chihuahua mix, two of the yappiest, high energy and anxious toy dog breeds imaginable, and take him back to my quiet little neighborhood, and I began to come to terms that I would probably never get a full night's sleep again with my new little barking alarm clock. But when I finally finished the 7 hour drive, I was welcomed to the most pleasant surprise of my life:

The dog I was bringing home was an incredibly lowkey, anxiety free puppy who loved two things more than anything in the world: to cuddle and to nap. He slept on my lap the entire return trip back to Maine, never making so much as a peep, and any anxiety or doubt in adopting a dog of my own evaporated by the time I got home. I knew I had found my little buddy.

The next few years during the lockdown, this dog and I bonded like you wouldn't believe, working from home with the pup snoozing away on my lap, happy as could be. He was the best dog I could have possibly hoped for, a pup who meshed perfectly with our weird little house's weird little routine, and he quickly became more to me than just a pet, he became a part of the family.

This dog had become a staple of my life, someone who was always ecstatic to see me come home, who could always reliably be found snoozing away on a sunny spot in the kitchen or his little heating pad, and no matter where he was when you fell asleep, he would always somehow be under the covers with you when you woke up.

With all this prelude out of the way, I come with a heavy heart today to tell you that Coco's health has been in flux these last few weeks. He began acting very odd around the 2nd of April, crying for seemingly no reason and yelping when picked up. I didn't want to take any chances with his health, and rushed him to the emergency walk in clinic in Portland, where they did a physical exam and X-rays to see if it was a sprain or anything broken, but everything came back clean. It was a temporary relief, as Coco's condition rapidly declined, secluding himself away and crying in pain from under my bed, I knew there was something we had missed.

After another trip to the walk in with no obvious issues detected, they recommended a trip to the vet ER in Portland, a call that came with miraculous timing. The night before we were to bring him into the ER, he had begun stumbling and wobbling around like he was drunk, which looked to be causing him a severe amount of pain and discomfort, and when we brought him in the next day, the ER knew exactly who to talk to, getting him into a Neurologist office the very next day. After a quick screening, it was determined that Coco was having some severe spinal pain, and was looking possibly at a herniated disc, a condition that was extraordinarily uncomfortable, but thankfully treatable. Given his reactions to the exam, it looked to be on the more severe side, and the doc recommended an emergency MRI to look and see what the next stage of treatment would be. Another miraculous call with the best possible timing, Coco was sedated and scanned right way.

A few hours latter, his results came back, and the prognosis were dire. Coco apparently has IVDD, a degenerative disease dogs with short legs and long spines can get that deteriorates their spinal tissue, and can make it very easy to herniate and rupture spinal discs, which is were we were with Coco. He had a SEVERLY herniated disc, one on the verge of rupture which could cause permanent paralysis and pain for the rest of his life, something I wanted to avoid at all cost. The doc said that the timing on this was critical, and the outcome of a non-surgical intervention was likely not going to be enough to avoid a full rupture, so they recommended for him to have the best chance at a happy life, he needed surgery ASAP. I agreed with the docs, and thankfully for the expedience of his diagnosis and the expertise of everyone at the Portland ER, he was rushed into the operating room and a few hours later, he came out with a very happy outcome. According to the vets, from the second he woke up to the time I picked him up, his little tail was wagging full force, the amount of relief the poor pup must have felt was immense, and he has since returned home with a stack of meds, a big new surgical scar and a bright 90% chance of making a full recovery.

I cannot thank the teams at both the Portland Petmedic urgent care and the Portland Veterinary emergency care offices for their incredible fast acting response which saved my poor pup from a dubious outcome, and I do not regret any of the decisions made for Cocos care, but some of the relief felt from this whole ordeal was depleted a bit by Coco's pet insurance's outright refusal to cover a single cent of his procedures or care. Make no mistake, I would do anything in my power to make sure that dog was not in pain, but I wont lie and say that some of the weight was taken off my mind knowing that his insurance was going to cover 70% of the costs, which would allow him to get the care that he needs while allowing me to be able to afford more than white bread and government cheese for dinner.

So imagine my surprise when after sending in a claim for them to cover their share of what was rapidly approaching $15k in vet bills, I receive a very kindly worded "bugger off" mere seconds later. I reached out to the insurance company to plead my case to a human to see if I could reach someone who would resonate with my plight better than their AI run customer service department, and no luck. Apparently while human insurance has made progress away from the draconian "pre-existing conditions" rhetoric by leaps and bounds, pet insurance has had no such luck, and because Coco has a "degenerative disease caused by his breed" that developed before I had him insured, they very politely reiterated that there was nothing they could do, and very politely told me where I could go and shove that $15k bill.

So, that brings us to the present. Between completely emptying my personal savings, calling in a few favors and taking out a line of medical credit for his care, I was able to cover around $12,000 of his initial bill, which was enough to get him home and get him his meds all set, but between the remaining $3k outstanding and a $5k follow-up MRI and postcare to confirm his surgery was successful, I find myself out of options and desperate for any assistance I can muster. I was thankfully granted a grace period of 90 days to cover his remaining expenses, so he will still be able to receive all the care he needs to help him recover, and it will effectively be added to my "tab", but I now have a 3 month window to cover a hair over $10K to get everything square.

If you have made it this far, I cannot thank you enough for just listening to my woeful tale, and I hope you will keep my poor pup in your thoughts as we sort out his recovery, but for those of you who would like to donate any amount to help our situation, you have my endless thanks and gratitude, and know that even though Coco has no concept of bills or debt, he sends his love to you all and would love to go for walkies in the park with any of you when he recovers.

TLDR; My dog needed emergency surgery, and while pet insurance isn't technically a scam, I implore you all to read the fine print before you end up needing it.