Millie is a small cavoodle who unfortunately had a big tumble off the table at home one day while her owner Sam was grooming her. Sam had turned away briefly to get nail clippers when Millie unfortunately took it upon herself to end the grooming session early by leaping from the table.
Millie’s owner Sam immediately knew that Millie had really hurt herself. “I heard her hit the floor, and she immediately started yelping frantically. I ran to pick her up and she was in so much pain. It was just awful,” said Sam.
Sam immediately took Millie to her regular veterinary clinic, where Millie was given pain relief medication. Once Millie was comfortable and otherwise stable, she was sedated so that x-rays could be taken to allow the vet to make an assessment of her injuries.
Unfortunately, Millie’s x-rays showed a badly dislocated hip joint. Hip dislocation is a serious injury, where the supportive ligaments and fibrous capsule that hold the hip in place are often damaged or torn. For this reason, even if the dislocated joint is put back into place, the area is weak and the dislocation may recur before the injury heals.
With Sam’s permission, the vet team placed Millie under general anaesthetic and adjusted her dislocated joint back into place. They applied a special supportive sling bandage around her injured leg to help stabilise the joint whilst she recovered.
However, the routine repeat x-ray taken after this bandage had been applied, showed that Millie’s hip had already dislocated again. Millie’s vet advised Sam that specialist surgery would be the best option to stabilise the hip but that it would probably cost a further $7,000 to $8,000.
Sam was relieved to recall that she had taken out pet insurance for Millie with Vets Choice, with good coverage for orthopaedic injuries, so she did not hesitate to accept the offer of referral to a specialist veterinary clinic.
“Finding that amount of money at such short notice would have been a huge worry normally. It was such a weight off my mind to know that Vets Choice would cover her treatment. It meant I could immediately consent to what was best for Millie,” Sam said.
Millie was transferred to a nearby specialist veterinary clinic, where surgeons stabilised her hip with advanced surgery known as the ‘toggle pin method’. Millie had a smooth, comfortable recovery in the clinic, and was then sent home the following day with ongoing pain relief and supportive care instructions.
Sam recalls that she still felt nervous in the recovery period as Millie required close confinement and gradual, careful physiotherapy to allow her damaged leg to slowly heal and strengthen over a period of eight weeks. However, Sam found the follow-up rechecks offered by the specialist veterinary hospital to be thorough and helpful, and was also pleasantly surprised by a caring phone call from her regular vet clinic asking how Millie was doing!
Ten months later, Millie is happy, active and comfortable (although she is now groomed on the floor only!) and Sam is grateful for all the essential treatment Millie received.
“We received wonderful care and support from everyone. I am just so relieved that I had pet insurance for Millie. All up, Vets Choice covered $8,515 for the whole episode! I keep telling all my pet-owning friends: make sure you have pet insurance!”
Vets Choice is a pet insurance product endorsed by vets, for pets, and is backed by a 20-year partnership between Guild Insurance and the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA). When your dog is insured with Vets Choice, you can focus on the good times with your pet, safe in the knowledge they are protected should the unexpected occur.
Click here for more information about Vets Choice insurance for your pet.