Care to Your Dog!

Pet insurance is one of those things you can’t buy when you need it. By comparing the various pet health insurance companies and their policies you will quickly discover who offers the most value for your money.

It can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000 for a dog to undergo chemotherapy and surgeries to treat cancer – depending on the size of the dog and the stage of the cancer. A hip replacement for a dog can cost as much as $10,000.

Pet insurance makes treatments for these ailments feasible. Pet insurance is a way to avoid economic euthanasia. Pet insurance is the best way to budget for any unexpected veterinary bills and help to cover day-to-day expenses like vaccinations and office visits as well.

Veterinary medicine continues to advance and so it is increasingly expensive. With the latest developments in veterinarian medicine, new treatments can help cure your pet from diseases that used to result in euthanasia. These treatments can be expensive, but no one wants to deal with the guilt of not being able to afford their pet’s healthcare.

You get pet health insurance to help share the cost of the expensive, unexpected things, not to save money on veterinary bills. But too often pet parents leave it until too late to get pet insurance and then they’re dissatisfied when they find out they cannot insure a sick cat or dog.

If you’re the proud owner of a new puppy, one of the things you can do to ensure your pet is in good health is to purchase dog insurance as soon as possible. There will always be healthcare issues with your new puppy, from annual vaccinations to spaying, neutering or unexpected illnesses. Dog insurance helps defray most of these costs, ensuring you can always afford to take your dog to the vet when he needs care.

Study after study has proven that regular medical care is a prime factor in giving humans longer healthier lives – and the same is true of your dogs and cats. If they are given access to regular medical care they will not only live longer but also maintain a higher degree of energy and mobility into later life.

When you are thinking of getting a new “Rover” or “Fluffy” you think of all of the positive things about having a pet: the company, the fun, the naughtiness – not the financial responsibility, which obviously hits home when something expensive happens.

Every year 1 in 3 pets become ill or injured. Given that a trip to the vet can cost you hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars, it is not surprising that tens of thousands of cats and dogs in this country alone must be put down because owners cannot afford the cost of treatment. Further still, many of these vet visits are unexpected and hard to plan for presenting a unpleasant surprise for the effected pet owners.

In 2007, the top five reasons for an unexpected visit to the vet were:

1) Cuts or lacerations

2) Lameness

3) Road traffic accident

4) Tumor or growth

5) Abscess

The medical technology available to treat injured or ill pets have increased dramatically in reasons years, in many cases being just as good as what is available for humans. While this is great news, it has also meant to that vet fees and costs have steadily increased.

Pet health insurance can protect you from these high and unexpected vet costs, and ensure that you can afford your cat or dogs treatment in its time of need. Not only that, it doesn’t have to be expensive to take out pet health insurance for your cat or dog.

Affordable

Pet health insurance was once considered a luxury reserved for expensive pedigreed or show animals. Nowadays, this is no longer the case. The pet health insurance industry is growing, expecting to double by 2012. This means that there are more and more companies beginning to offer pet health insurance, and therefore policies have become very affordable. From just a few dollars per month, you can help minimize expensive vet bills.

Instant Protection

Typically, the coverage for accidents is immediate under most pet health insurance policies. This ensures that you are instantly protected from unexpected events. You should however, check your policy’s details to see what the waiting period is to have protection from illnesses and if pre-existing conditions are covered.

Peace Of Mind

With pet health insurance for your cat or dog, you will have the peace of mind knowing that you can afford the treatment that will possibly save your furry friend’s life. Furthermore, if your pet develops a long term, chronic illness such as diabetes or arthritis your pet health insurance company will assist you with the ongoing and expensive costs.

Even More Protection – the Added Bells and Whistles

Not only does pet health insurance covers vet bills, many companies offer other benefits too. Your policy may cover the unfortunate situation of your pet being lost or stolen, and may even pay for a reward and advertising for your pet’s return. Furthermore, just like health insurance humans, you can purchase pet health insurance that will cover your pet for any injuries sustained while on vacation overseas.

As you can see, there are having many benefits to having pet health insurance. One word of caution however, you should research any policy you are wanting to buy to ensure that you know what you are getting for your dollar. There are websites available to assist you in this.

Pet health insurance is the latest buzz word in pet care today. However, for all the hype that it’s making, it can’t magically make all your expenses go away. Before purchasing a pet health insurance plan, there are many aspects that need to be examined. This article outlines the most basic points one should think about before purchasing a pet health insurance plan.

Discount Plan vs. Comprehensive Insurance plan

Before signing anything on paper, pet owners should try to figure out what’s more suitable for their budgets. Pet health insurance plans usually come in two forms: a discount plan and a comprehensive insurance plan.

A discount plan has an easier scheme, which gives you annual discounts on veterinary fees. A comprehensive insurance plan may offer more benefits, but the scheme is similar to a human health insurance plan-which means that there are more conditions to follow.

Choosing your own Veterinary

Most pet health insurance plans may take away your privilege to choose your own veterinary. When shopping for an insurance plan, make sure you examine the clause which states this condition. Most pet owners feel more comfortable working with the vets they trust the most. However, cheaper pet health insurance plans may not have this option.

Period covered

Be very particular about the period that your pet health insurance plan covers. If you’re a pet owner of a new born pup, go for a pet health insurance that covers veterinary services immediately. There’s no use in investing too soon on a pet that’s not fully grown yet.

Exclusions

Like health insurance plans for humans, pet health insurance may have a number of exclusions. Most insurance companies would try to waive off illnesses which are common in some breeds. To take advantage of this situation, read up on the common illnesses experienced by your pet’s breed. This will prevent you from purchasing a useless insurance hyped up by a sweet mouthed insurance agent.

Routine treatment and check ups

A huge bulk of any pet owner’s pet care expenses come from routine treatments and checkups. Before signing any documents, you should be very particular about the services that are included in the package. A pet healthy insurance policy that covers most, if not all, of routine veterinary expenses is a better deal compared to a pet health insurance that only covers accidents and major illnesses.

Deductibles

Most pet health insurance would require its purchasers to make a down payment before rendering any services. Make sure that the benefit of the insurance plan is worth the deductible that you need to pay for it. An insurance agent may try to lure you with a lot of fluff during sales talk, but you need to be wiser and check if these promises are included in black and white.

Company’s reputation

Always make sure that the company who’s offering you a pet health insurance is reliable. Looking for reviews online is very helpful for someone who’s never heard of pet health insurance plans before. Agents are only too quick to prey on uninformed consumers.

You would not even consider the prospect of not having health insurance on members of your family. If you need annual checkups, regular shots for the kids, or that occasional unfortunate trip to the emergency room, you are very thankful that you have health insurance for your family members.

But considering that, is it so strange to think of getting a pet health insurance policy for Rover or Whiskers, who are for all intents and purposes, genuine members of your family as well? These days, the aspect of having a pet health insurance program for your dog or cat or whatever pet you have is not only not strange, it is something that money-conscious consumers are looking at more frequently, since this is something that is saving money for consumers who love their pets.

Think about it – your dog or cat is like a member of your family. You talk to them, they give you unquestioned love in return, but how closely do you watch their health? Do you take them to the vet for annual checkups, or is the only time they see the vet is when they need some kind of emergency health care or that worms or rabies booster shot? If you are like the vast majority of people, your answer is the latter, and you rarely if ever take your pet dog or pet cat to the vet unless there is obviously something wrong with them. And like with people, by the time a problem becomes “obvious”, it is far too late to take any kind of effective preventive measures to make sure a minor problem does not escalate into a major and perhaps life-threatening problem.

Pet health insurance programs come in a variety of types and are available through separate companies and may also be offered by your regular vet. You can usually decide what kind and how much coverage to provide for your pet. At the most basic level, a policy would cover regular checkups and shots, while some of the more comprehensive insurance policies would also cover elective and non-elective surgeries, overnight stays, and sometimes may even cover extended stays at a pet boarding house.

The benefit of having a pet health insurance policy is that these are all covered, and depending on the policy you elect to get, may not even have a deductible, or the deductible amount would be very minor. Even if you get a policy with a deductible, the cost savings over paying each time for each and every procedure is dramatic, plus your pet will be healthier because you will not hesitate to take them to the vet to have something checked out if it appears something may be wrong with them. In the long run, you will have saved money and your pet will be healthier without being a major strain on your wallet.

While pet health care insurance may seem like something that only movie stars get for their Hollywood pets, pet health insurance is becoming more mainstream and is being offered for very reasonable prices. If your pet is really a part of your family as most dogs and cats and other pets are, this is something you may want to look into for the long-term enjoyment of having your pet around as part of your family.

You have probably already realised that having pet cat insurance is part of being a responsible cat owner.

But at the same time, you’re only too well aware that it’s an expense, especially if you have more than one cat. If money is tight, insurance is the most tempting expense to do without. After all, it’s only of any use if something goes wrong. And nothing is going to go wrong, is it?

Unfortunately, it’s not for nothing that cats have been called the most accident-prone of pets. Doing without pet cat insurance could prove a false economy and an expensive mistake. So rather than doing without, it’s much more sensible to make sure you get the most out of your pet cat insurance and that you avoid being faced with an emergency for which the insurance won’t pay out.

So here are some precautions you can take to make sure you get the most effect from your pet cat insurance.

1. Get your cat vaccinated. Your insurance won’t pay for this. But without being vaccinated your cat is vulnerable to some of the most unpleasant and painful diseases in existence, and the insurance may well not cover diseases that result from failure to vaccinate.

2. You should also have your cat neutered, which again the insurance won’t pay for. But unless you are a professional cat breeder there is no excuse for not having your cat neutered, whether it’s male or female. One good reason is that there are far too many kittens without homes. But apart from this, un-neutered males are much more likely to have accidents, and there are many diseases to which un-neutered males and females are more susceptible.

3. Have the cat micro-chipped. If you’ve had a cat before, you will know how much a cat likes to wander and explore, and how prone he is to get into scrapes. Some pet cat insurance policies actually insist on micro-chipping, so if you don’t have it done you won’t be covered for loss of your cat or if he has an accident through wandering off. Other poliicies give a discount if the cat is micro-chipped.

4. Take out your pet cat insurance as early in your cat’s life as possible. With most policies, the younger your cat is when you insure him, the lower your premiums will be. What’s more, the earlier you take out the policy, the less chance there is of your cat having a pre-existing condition, which of course won’t be covered.

5. Think carefully about whether you want a pedigree cat. There are lots of “no particular breed” moggies wanting homes and these will give you as much pleasure and enjoyment as a posh puss, as well as being cheaper and easier to care for. Premiums are usually higher on pedigree cats, and they tend to be more prone to expensive medical conditions.

6. Before you purchase any policy, check it very carefully. Look at the small print with a magnifying glass to make sure there aren’t any exclusions which might affect you and your cat. Check too for excesses, age limits, and caps on payouts.

There is certainly no point in paying out more than you need to. But the answer is not to skimp on pet cat insurance. This could involve you in far more expense than you ever expected. There are all sorts of things you can do to make sure you get the best possible value from your insurance, and the best possible protection for your pet.