Pet Insurance Blog – Pets Best Insurance

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Celebrate that special bond on National Kids and Pets Day!

Posted on: April 26th, 2012 by

A dog with dog insurance sits with a baby.

By: Dr. Fiona Caldwell
Idaho Veterinary Hospital
For Pets Best Insurance

April 26th is National Kids and Pets day! The special bond between a child and their pets is a pure and unconditional one. This day is designed to recognize and perpetuate the magical link between children and animals. Having dog or cat insurance is a wonderful way to protect the health of our beloved pets and ensure the special bond is also protected.

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Our future lies in our children’s hands, and by allowing them the experience of living with pets, we can help give them the skills necessary to make our world a kinder and better place to live.

Beyond Lassie and Timmy, kids have reaped the benefits of having relationships with animals for generations. Human development has been shown to be influenced by the presence of pets. Studies show significant correlations between and child-animal bond and that child’s social competency and ability to empathize.

Studies have shown that children in households with pets score higher in terms of ability to undertake responsibilities. Having a pet can make a shy child more outgoing by instilling social confidence. Learning disabled children might benefit from reading aloud to a pet and can achieve more academic success. Animals can also give children a sense of comfort and security, allowing them to grow into more confident adults.

In addition to emotional development, there have been noted health benefits to raising children with pets. It has been shown that kids raised in families with household pets suffer from fewer allergies, such as asthma, than children raised without pets.

While it seems as though kids and pets go together like peanut butter and jelly, there are some safety factors that should be considered prior to introducing a pet to your child’s home. Consider your child’s age and temperament prior to getting an animal, especially a dog. Dogs need to have special consideration due to their ability to potentially inflict harm by biting. Dogs don’t have the mental capacity to comprehend a moral code and will often act on instinct. Experts agree that children under school age should never be left alone with a dog, no matter how gentle the child’s or the dog’s temperament is.

National Kids and Pets day is a wonderful time to recognize the benefits of pet ownership for children. With good common sense, you can help improve your child’s health and development by fostering and nurturing the friendship between them and their animals.

For more information about pet health and behavior, or to learn more about pet health insurance, visit Pets Best Insurance.

Anorexia in cats: Not what you’d think

Posted on: April 24th, 2012 by

A cat with pet health insurance refuses to eat.

By: Dr. Jane Matheys
Associate Veterinarian
The Cat Doctor Veterinary Hospital
For Pets Best Insurance

Most people are familiar with the term “anorexia” as it applies to human health. Outside of medical literature, the words anorexia and anorexia nervosa are often used interchangeably.

Anorexia nervosa is a psychological eating disorder characterized by excessive food restriction, irrational fear of gaining weight and distorted body image. We’ve all probably heard about it in the news, but thankfully, this kind of anorexia doesn’t actually occur in cats. Anorexia, on the other hand, is simply a medical term for loss of appetite for food, and it’s a very common in cat health condition.

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Anorexia in cats usually starts with a decrease in appetite followed by complete refusal to eat food. It can be a very serious indicator of an underlying pet health condition that needs prompt treatment, so always consult with your veterinarian if your cat has not eaten in 24 hours. For a kitten younger than six weeks of age, food avoidance for just 12 hours can pose a lethal threat, so seek veterinary attention immediately.

Anorexia can be a symptom of a diverse number of feline health problems including a fever, nausea/vomiting from gastrointestinal disease, kidney disease, liver disease, pancreatitis, diabetes, upper respiratory infections, dental or mouth pain, trauma injuries and cancer.

Stress can be an important contributing factor. Anorexia is commonly seen in hospitalized patients and among cats that are placed in boarding kennels. Anorexia can also be induced by other stressful and psychological events such as moving into a new house, loss of a companion, a new pet/person in the house and other environmental changes. Dietary changes can prompt anorexia too. Some cats are “picky” eaters, and may dislike a new food that is offered. Whatever the cause of anorexia, the condition is never the result of a cat simply deciding not to eat like with anorexia nervosa in people.

Anorexia in cats is corrected by identifying and treating the underlying problem. A detailed medical history and thorough physical examination should be followed by any labwork or imaging studies indicated by the exam. These may include blood tests, urine tests, x-rays or an ultrasound. Results will help dictate specific treatment plans. Because these kinds of tests can often be expensive, it’s a good idea to have invested in a cat insurance policy early on.

Some cats may need to be hospitalized for fluid support to treat dehydration. Nutritional support may be provided with appetite stimulants, syringe feeding (as long as it doesn’t worsen food aversion) or via a feeding tube. Stress reduction is necessary, and it’s good to offer finicky cats a variety of foods. It’s especially important to quickly treat anorexia in overweight cats since they are more prone to a very serious liver disease called hepatic lipidosis due to prolonged anorexia and/or rapid weight loss. Treatment of the underlying cause of anorexia can be costly, so it is important to be financially prepared for unexpected illnesses in your furry friends. Pet health insurance is a good option to help manage veterinary medical costs.

Service Dogs: All work, some play and belly rubs

Posted on: April 20th, 2012 by

A dog with dog insurance helps his owner.

By: Dr. Fiona Caldwell
Idaho Veterinary Hospital
For Pets Best Insurance

For centuries humans and canine companions have gone together like peanut butter and jelly. In some instances, the human-animal pairing goes even deeper than companionship. Service or assistance dogs tend to have a special bond with their owners, as their relationship transcends friendship and is also based on mutual reliance. There are stories throughout history of assistance dogs, owing in part to their loving nature and readiness to serve the people they love.

People with disabilities can directly benefit from the independence and freedom hard-working assistance dogs provide by performing daily tasks. Assistance dog training courses are rigorous, with much research and experience having gone into the programs, allowing today’s certified assistance dogs to be at the highest level of reliability and safety.

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The term “service dog” can include dogs that work in police and military forces, whereas assistance dog specifically refers to those that help people with disabilities. The first recognized assistance dog job was likely as a seeing-eye dog, meant to help assist the visually impaired, but there are many other instances where dogs have been able to aid the disabled.

We all get irritated when our dogs bark at the doorbell, but hearing service dogs get a ‘free pass’ for this behavior! Hearing assistance dogs will alert their owner when the phone rings, or somebody is at the door, or in more serious situations, like if a fire alarm goes off. This allows their owner the independence to live on their own despite their disability.

Seizure response dogs are especially interesting, as some have developed the ability to sense an impending seizure and alert its owner to take precautions, such as sitting down or summoning help. It is unclear exactly how dogs can sense this, and the behavior is usually report to occur spontaneously. There has been limited success in ‘training’ dogs to recognize their owner is going to have a seizure, which suggests not every dog has this ability. Seizure response dogs must be completely perfectly suited to their job, and it is imperative they can maintain self-control in any situation the owner finds themselves in.

Medical response dogs have been trained to recognize certain medical states, such as dangerously low blood sugar in a diabetic person, at which point they can alert that owner to seek help. In addition, the medical response dog may be able to fetch medications, call for help, provide stability for mobility or carry necessary medical equipment, such as oxygen tanks.

Psychiatric assistance dogs are given all the rights and protections afforded to service dogs with more traditional jobs. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.” Just as with all other traditional assistance dogs, psychiatric service dog is individually trained to perform tasks that lessen their owner’s disability. This might include reminding the owner to take medication, the ability to assess the surrounding in the event of hallucinations or paranoia, interrupting harmful or repetitive behaviors, providing comfort in stressful situations or retrieving objects.

The traditional service dog has been a Labrador or golden retriever, but any breed can become a service dog, as canines are typically easy to train. Typically puppies are placed in approved foster homes until they are ready for advanced training. The foster homes will teach basic obedience, manners, socialization, and desensitization toward all types of different situations and people. The dog’s temperament is assessed during this time as well. If the dog doesn’t ‘make the cut,’ they will be adopted out as a pet. Advanced training is typically done by professional trainers with the program geared towards a specific disability the dog is suited to.

Service dog work requires a special canine that is able to channel their enthusiasm and love for helping out into a productive manner. The mental capacity and intelligence displayed by service animals is astounding and the love and selflessness they possess while providing such a great service is inspirational.

For more information about dog health or behavior, or to learn how to protect your dog with pet health insurance, visit Pets Best Insurance.

The three best ways to ID your pet

Posted on: April 15th, 2012 by

A dog with dog insurance is lost.

By Chryssa Rich
For Pets Best Insurance

This week is National Pet ID Week, which is a great time to evaluate the best ways to keep your pet safe with identification! Nearly every cat or dog is capable of wandering off or running away when the mood strikes, so here are three best tips from Pets Best Insurance to ID your pet.

1. Update Your Pet’s Name Tag
Take a look at your pet’s name tag right now – there’s a good chance it’s outdated, worn down or maybe even missing completely. When we move or change cell phone numbers, pet tags often don’t get updated. And the surfaces get dinged up pretty quickly. Just a few months of scratching and playing can make the details on your pet’s name tag unreadable.

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When choosing a new tag, look for a high-quality style that includes a thin protective layer for the engraved surfaces. On most machines, the more info you engrave, the tinier the letters. So keep yours simple and easy to read by including only your pet’s name and your cell phone number.

2. Consider a Service Like Help 4 Pets
In addition to a standard name tag, services like Help 4 Pets can reconnect you and your pet in the event of an emergency. They provide a tag with an 800 number and a special code for your pet. If someone finds your pet, they can simply call the number, provide the code and get help 24 hours a day. Services like these are nice in addition to regular name tags because you can have more info than just name and phone number on record. Help 4 Pets even has a special offer for Pets Best Insurance readers.

3. Microchip Your Pet and Keep Your Info Current
Some pet owners still underestimate the power of a microchip ID. True, you can’t see it, you can’t read a phone number on it and you can’t even tell if a pet has one. But microchips are an absolute must for every cat and dog.

Think of how easy it is for your dog to back out of his collar when he doesn’t want to do something. And collars break or come apart – every pet owner has seen that happen. Cat collars are even less reliable, because they’re designed to break away if kitty gets tangled on a branch or a fence.

It has become quite standard for vet hospitals and shelters to scan pets thoroughly and check for microchips when they’re brought in as “strays”. If your pet has lost his collar, a microchip is possibly the only way you can be reunited before he is adopted to someone else, or worse.

Microchips are also becoming more affordable every day. Many shelters include them in their adoption fees, and non-profits and vet hospitals sometimes run specials as low as $12 per microchip, depending on where you live.

If your pet is microchipped, great! Do you remember the name of the company that keeps your information? Track it down and call or go online to make sure it’s current.

With these three layers of protection, you can feel better knowing that even in a worst-case scenario, the odds are good you’ll be reunited with your pet.

Learn how you can protect your pet with dog or cat insurance today!

Does your cat have acne?

Posted on: April 12th, 2012 by

A cat with cat insurance eats from a bowl.

By: Dr. Jane Matheys
Associate Veterinarian
The Cat Doctor Veterinary Hospital
For Pets Best Insurance

One of my cats was outside under my supervision the other day enjoying the sunshine and mild spring temperatures. After he came in, I saw a couple of little black specks on his chin. My first thought was that he had chin acne that I hadn’t noticed before, but I was relieved to find that it was just a little dirt from rolling around on the dusty sidewalk.

Feline acne is a common skin condition seen in cats and can affect cats of any age, breed or sex. It is characterized by tiny black plugs in the skin on a cat’s lips and chin called blackheads or comedones. In many instances there are only a small number of blackheads which are benign and go unnoticed by the owner. However, some cases can evolve into serious, deep, painful infections, so chin acne should never be ignored. Having pet health insurance may help make the best health care more affordable for your cat, as it’s important to take your cat to the veterinarian for proper diagnosis and treatment if you suspect feline acne.

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A blackhead forms when excess keratin (a protein which is the main component of hair) collects in a hair follicle. Associated sebaceous glands in the skin also produce an oily substance called sebum. Over time, a sufficient collection of keratin and sebaceous debris can plug the hair follicle causing a blackhead. If the plug traps bacteria or yeast down in the hair follicle, secondary infection may result which leads to inflammation (folliculitis) and pus-filled boils under the skin called furuncles. In these severe cases, cats can get very swollen chins with draining pustules that are tender and painful.

The specific cause or causes of feline acne are poorly understood, but there are several possible explanations. These include dirty, bacteria-laden food and water bowls, allergies, genetic predisposition, poor grooming habits, defects in keratin production and overproduction of sebum.

Plastic food bowls were once considered a possible culprit for causing feline acne. That idea has since been disputed, and it’s recommended that owners keep food bowls spotlessly clean regardless of what they’re made of. It was also thought that cats with sloppy eating habits were at higher risk of acne, but even the most fastidious cats get it. In addition, it has been suggested that stress can cause feline acne. If that was true, you would expect to see a cat that’s showing many other problems associated with chronic, intense stress, but that’s not the case.

Feline acne is most often diagnosed by simple veterinary examination. In severe or chronic, non-responsive cases, your doctor will want to rule out other possibilities such as mites, fungal and bacterial infections. Testing methods include fungal and bacterial cultures, skin scrapings and skin biopsies.

Treatment of feline acne depends on the severity of the condition. In very mild cases with only a few blackheads, sometimes “benign neglect” with simple monitoring is the best option. When blackheads are more numerous, emphasis is usually placed on good hygiene. Gentle cleansing with mild, antibacterial soap or special shampoos can help to remove blackheads and other debris. Topical application of prescription products or over-the-counter products for human use can be very effective.

Treatment of severe acne can be much more complicated. Your veterinarian may clip the fur around your cat’s chin to enable deep cleaning of the affected area and to allow any topical medications to be better absorbed. Oral antibiotics or oral antifungal medications may be used depending on the source of the infection. Small doses of steroids may also be used for severe inflammation. Always consult your veterinarian if you suspect feline acne, and never treat your cat at home with an anti-acne treatment designed for human use.

Learn more about cat health, behavior and cat or dog insurance today!

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