Jeter from the Outer Banks

When KC W. took in 12-year-old Beagle Jeter she got Embrace Pet Insurance right away. Jeter was at an advantage having KC as his mom because she's a veterinary technician and knows that healthy pets can have unexpected things happen. Even with her experience in the veterinary field, nothing could have prepared her for the bizarre situation Jeter found himself in. KC shared his story with Embrace.

"Jeter is a 14-year-old Beagle who we adopted at the ripe old age of 12. He was actually a dog that we dog sat for a couple of years and when his owners were going to euthanize him due to urinating in the house, my husband and I knew he needed to come live with us. Being a veterinary technician I know how much animals cost, especially geriatric animals, so we knew insurance was a must.

Jeter has made insurance well worth it for us. He was diagnosed after only a few months of having him with proteinuria, hypertension, and degenerative valve disease. And even though he was fully vaccinated for seven years, he somehow managed to contract parainfluenza virus. The vaccine company paid that bill, but before I knew that I did not have to worry since he had insurance. He has also had to have a mass removed from his eyelid and dental work. All of these are covered under his Embrace policy.

Our biggest scare came in May. For the second year in a row, my husband and I and our good friends took our combined five dogs to Outer Banks, North Carolina. On the third day of vacation (and Jeter's 14th birthday), we woke up to multiple piles of vomit. We took him to the island doctor who had limited equipment for assessment and sent us home with medications. He said if Jeter vomited again to call their mainland office. Jeter waited until the office was closing to vomit again. They told us to bring him in the morning for reassessment. He continued to be lethargic the rest of the night, and, as we were getting into bed at 11:45 PM, he vomited a large pile of bile. We realized that we could no longer wait --he needed a veterinarian immediately.

The closest ER was three hours away in Virginia Beach. We rushed him there and his vitals were all over the place. The doctor came out and needed me to give the okay for them to start treatment. As I was frantically telling the doctor yes to all the treatments and diagnostics he finally asked me, "what is your max on money?" It felt so nice to be able to say, "$5,000, he has insurance." After three days in the intensive care unit we were finally able to pick him up on our way home. We were told that he ingested too much sand (he was playing with his ball at the beach) and that he had a sand impaction. I have worked in the veterinary field for seven years and I had never heard of that. Leave it up to Jeter to get something totally off the wall!

We are hopeful that he will continue to be healthy after this, but we know that insurance is there if he needs it. "