Pet Insurance

You should look at how you feed your pet, the way you feed yourself and your family. Your family pet would benefit more and be a healthier companion by feeding them the healthy fruits and vegetables that are high in nutrients. Grind it up and mix it in with their food. Pets should not get table scraps, especially greasy foods, although they love them and they will devour just about anything you put in front of them, these foods will do to your pet just what they do to you. High cholestral, heart disease and clogged arteries, obesity and other diseases that are affected by diet should be considered when you are throwing fido the scraps.

Does your vet check you dog out for what we consider human disease? Has he looked at or cleaned your dog’s teeth? Has he ran blood tests? Has he check your pet for diabetes? These diseases are as real for pet’s as they are for humans, especially when we don’t feed them a good balanced nutrious diet.

If you see your once vivacious pet laying around, labor when breathing and he is looking a little too human, time to look at what both of you are eating. Eat healthy and feed your pet healthy, this will save on those vet visits also.

Many breeds of dogs that are known to bite could raise your homeowners insurance. Some insurance companies may refuse to cover them period. Insurance companies pull reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine what breeds go on these lists.

Click here to see what one insurer says about biting breeds.

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Might seem like a strange question to ask, but is your pet covered under your vehicle insurance? Check under you collision coverage and see if your pet is covered if they are in the vehicle or injured by the vehicle. Some insurance companies will offer this type of coverage that will pay for vet bills in case of injury. Check your policy out and see if this is coverage that you have or not.

Please list your questions, I will do the research and post the answers here. An open forum of sorts on pet insurance.

Honestly, shopping for pet insurance is much like shopping for insurance for yourself or any other family member. There are some key points that you will want to ask about. I have listed some of the common questions that you should be asking below.

1. Ask your vet what if any policies they accept, just like your private physician, some plans are not accepted. This will save you time and money.

2. What does the plan cover?  Routine care should cover everything from vaccinations to checkups, heartworm tests, dental care, and deworming. This is a must and will be the most used part of the plan for you.

3. Does the plan insure for major catastophes, accidents, injury or major onset of a disease. Find out if the insurance policy will cover bone scans, lab fees, medications, reconstructive surgery, X-rays, and CAT scans. If your dog gets seriously injured and is suspected of having a major condition as a result from the injury, he may need the above mentioned procedures and tests. You will find out real quickly in this situation the costs can be phenominal.

4. Just like us, our pets can have a pre-existing condition, just like our insurance plans, pet insurance can choose to cover or not to cover the pre-existing condition. Also find out the details on genetic conditions that may come along later in life with your pet.

5. Ask what your out of pocket expense will be, deductibles will be broke down, just like it is for our insurance.

6. Check out the company history, see what thier customers have to say about them. A good reputation for taking care of customers will go along way. A company that has been around for a long time will have more experience with coverage and billing.

7. The smartest thing to do is to shop around. Treat this insurance as if you were shopping for insurance for yourself. Ask the right questions, look at your breed or animal history, being educated is a step in the right direction.

I have listed some more articles in my “Articles on pet insurance” section. Please read them also, the more information that you have the better.

We have an older coondog, his name is Thunder. We noticed a difference in Thunder when he would enter water when we were out hunting. On one particular night he jumped in a pond to retrieve a coon, he got out on the other side and started to scratch aggressively, it got to the point that he would not stop, he was absolutely miserable.

We took him to a groomer for an oatmeal/tar bath to sooth his skin. Upon examination, we noticed some swelling of his nipples and his legs. We found out that he was actually suffering from a food allergy. We changed his food to a lamb and rice base food and he is a different dog. His color changed from a mostly white dog to mainly brown, all his swelling is gone and he does not scratch at all. This dog seemed healthy and would eat all his food daily. We never would have noticed this food allergy if he had not gotten wet that night in the pond.

This dog was purchased when he was about 6 years old, the person we got him from could not read or write but loved the breed, he did not pay attention to what was going on with these dogs, so he could not pass on what he did not know. The dog was flea ridden and it was more like a rescue effort on our part. He is a wonderful part of our family. He is much better today.

Watch for differences in your animal, they will let you know when something is going on.

I thought it would be interesting to find out just what types of animals that everyone has? I will take this information and try to find specialized products that will best fit the need. I found it very hard to find information on peacocks, I needed to know what wormers to use, what to use for successful breeding and many other questions that I had. Now, that I have had them for a few years, I have learned a lot through my own experience.

I also have akc registered English hounds, these guys are put into the woods and find all kinds of trouble to get into, from the rabies of the animal they hunt to routine care. I found out quickly that they are much more involved, even down to the food they eat, than my two house dogs.

The two cats and the rabbit have been the easiest to deal with. Although they require the normal vet care and maintenance, they more or less stay around the house and don’t get into too much trouble.

What type of pet do you have and what stories can you tell about the trouble that your pet got into or some curious event that may have happened. I have one about our older coondog that I will share in a bit. Just curious as to what others have to say and what they have done about it?