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RedRover Relief

Urgent Care Grant Information and Resources

This page addresses the most frequent reasons RedRover is unable to provide financial assistance through our Urgent Care grant, ideas on how to reduce the cost of veterinary care, and additional fundraising information and resources.

If your application does not currently meet the Urgent Care guidelines to apply, or if you would like to view fundraising tips and resources, please take a look at the information below.

Why an Urgent Care application may not receive financial assistance

The most common reasons the Urgent Care grant is unable to provide financial assistance are: 

  • The funds needed for treatment to begin or continue are $500 or more. 
    • The typical Urgent Care grant is $250-300 and the Urgent Care program is designed to fill a small gap in funding that is keeping an animal from care. We encourage you to reapply once you have raised additional funds and/or your veterinarian has agreed to a payment plan. 
  • The financial assistance request is for testing and/or the animal has not yet been seen by a veterinarian. 
    • Once testing is done and there is a final diagnosis, treatment plan, and estimated cost of care from the veterinarian who will be providing treatment you are welcome to reapply.
  • The animal has received most or all of their treatment. 
  • The request is for routine or non-urgent veterinary care, like vaccinations, spay/neuter, routine dental, etc.

Ways to reduce the cost of veterinary care

While some veterinary care is simply expensive, there may be ways to help reduce that cost:  

  • When reviewing the veterinary estimate, ask your veterinarian what is required versus what is recommended. Sometimes there are things that can be removed from the estimate to help reduce cost.
  • Ask the veterinarian if there are any alternate treatments available.
    • For example, while amputation may not be the first choice in treatment for a broken leg, if the cost of pinning or plating the leg is too high to afford, amputation may be a much less expensive and more attainable option for care.   
  • Speak with the veterinarian to see if they're able to offer payment arrangements.
    • If the veterinarian is not able to offer direct payment arrangements, they may be able to  accept payment plans through companies like Cherry, Scratchpay, or Care Credit. (RedRover is simply providing information and is not endorsing the use of any of these products.)
  • Some veterinarians, like Emergency, Specialty, or Referral veterinarians, are more expensive than general practice veterinarians. If the care your pet needs can be performed at a general practice veterinarian. 

Additional information and resources

  • We recommend seeking estimates from other clinics, as prices can vary significantly from clinic to clinic. Sometimes a drive of an hour or two can make a large difference in price. You can try searching “low cost veterinarian + [YOUR CITY, YOUR STATE]” to find reasonably priced veterinarians near you. They will likely not be able to give you an estimate by phone, but if you call and explain your pet's treatment needs and the current veterinarian’s estimated treatment cost they should be able to tell you if it will be worth going to see them.
  • You can always apply to more than one organization for assistance. We suggest reviewing our list of other organizations that have assistance programs at RedRover.org/help. 
  • You can ask family and friends to help directly, or to help by spreading the word about your situation. Some people have luck when creating a fundraising page using a social network site, like Facebook.com/fundraisers, or by using other funding tools, like Waggle, GoFundMe, or GoGetFunding.
  •  We also encourage you to reach out to your local animal shelters and rescue organizations as they may have leads to low-cost clinics or may have funding options. Pet Help Finder can help you find affordable veterinary care, pet food assistance, urgent animal boarding, and other assistance.

Questions?

Check out our FAQs

Urgent Care grant FAQs

Looking for additional financial assistance?

Here are some additional organizations offering help to both individuals and organizations.

Additional funding resources

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