Organization helps veterans with service dog costs

AUSTIN, Texas - These days, so many veterans have service dogs as a way to help them cope and heal. 

Many times these highly-trained dogs are given to veterans, but what happens if the dog needs help?

Vet bills can be very high; what options are there for the veteran for relief?

One option is an organization called Kaya's K9s. FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren spoke with its founder, Cole Lyle, about the problem.

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MIKE WARREN: Tell us about this organization. How did it get started? How does it help veterans?

COLE LYLE: Kaya's K9's was founded back in April after my own service dog passed away. She was tremendously impactful for me personally, overcoming my own issues with post-traumatic stress. And I wanted other veterans to have the same resources I had when she got sick. Because of canines Work on the Paws Act to expand veteran access to service dogs, she was fairly well known. So when she got cancer and, pretty rapidly, there were people that stepped in to tell me, you know, don't worry about her. Veterinary costs will cover it. But that's not common in the United States. Even the largest service dog providers don't provide follow-on veterinary care. So, in thinking of a way to honor her memory and her legacy, this is what I came up with. I thought this was the best way to kill two birds.

MIKE WARREN: So there is a big gap out there for veterans with service dogs.

COLE LYLE: Before Kaya's K9's, there was no national organization that covered the cost of veterinary care for veteran service dogs. And really, we're saving two lives at once because many of the veterans that we've already helped have said that they wouldn't know what to do without their service dogs. So we healed and saved those dogs, but in turn, in some cases, probably healed and saved those veterans because we want to keep these dogs in the fight.

MIKE WARREN: How substantial could the cost be if your service dog has cancer?

COLE LYLE: Every case is different. I had one service dog, one Air Force veteran, a DFW native that came to me, and her service dog had got hit by a car, and the cost of that surgery on the dog's back leg was north of $5,000. For cancer, if they have to go through radiation and chemotherapy treatment, it can be in the tens of thousands of dollars, depending on where they take their dog. So, you know, these dogs are designed to be mental prosthetics and to help veterans overcome their issues and heal. We don't want them to be an added source of financial stress if, for some reason, they need this, they need veterinary care. So that's our mission, is to heal dogs that serve veterans.

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MIKE WARREN: For veterans out there with a service dog and there is a problem, they're looking at bills. What's your best suggestion to them?

COLE LYLE: Come to our website. If you have a service dog, you just verify your service through ID me, submit the application, and we're happy to cover the cost of that veterinary care for veterans with dogs, generally our non-service dogs. You know, obviously, you have pet insurance out there that you can that you can go invest in. You know, maybe in the future we expand to veterans with dogs. But right now, we're doing good work helping our veterans with service dogs.