Pets Best Insurance Blog

Blog posts Categorized under ‘Veterinary Medicine’

Top 3 Tips for a Strong My Vet’s the Best Nomination

Posted on: February 12th, 2013 by

Nominate your vet in our pet insurance contest, My Vet's the Best.My Vet’s the Best is back for 2013! The team at Pets Best Insurance is excited to offer a third year of this hugely popular promotion that rewards four of the best veterinarians with $1,000 each to treat needy pets.

If you nominated your vet in a past year, thank you. And please nominate him or her again, as we start with a clean slate each January. Four times in 2013, we’ll choose six finalists and invite the public to vote and choose the big winner. In addition to the vet prize, each winning nominator will receive $200.

Nominations don’t have to be lengthy if they include the right details. Here are a few tips that may help your story rise to the top:

1. Tell us how your vet helped your pet, specifically.

Readers may be more likely to connect with personal stories, so focus on a specific incident that really made a difference in the life of you and your pet.

2. Tell us how your vet goes above and beyond.

By nature, veterinarians tend to be generous individuals who offer extended office hours and return phone calls on weekends. In addition to services like this, how else does your vet go the extra mile?

3. Tell us about any pet-related organization your vet supports.

If your veterinarian volunteers at a shelter or trains K9 police dogs, for example, be sure to include those details. We want to be sure we recognize all the efforts of your vet – not just what happens during office hours.

And remember, you don’t have to be a Pets Best Insurance customer to participate. Nominate your vet today and watch for finalist announcements and voting periods in April, July, October and January!

 

6 Reasons Your Dog May Shiver

Posted on: January 31st, 2013 by

This dog is shivering because it’s cold, learn the other reasons dogs shiver.Dr. Marc is a veterinarian guest blogger for pet insurance provider, Pets Best.

First let’s start with clarifying what shivering (or trembling) is versus what a seizure is.

A seizure is when the dog suddenly loses all body control, paddling their legs, jerking or convulsing. It can last for a number of minutes. To learn more, visit Dr. Fiona’s blog post on dog seizures.

Shivering is when a dog can make eye contact with you and respond to you, but its body is shaking. Shivering can vary from minimally, to a lot, but the dog still has control of its body.

6 Reasons Your Dog May Shiver

1) The most common reason a dog shivers is due to being cold. A normal dog’s temperature may be as high as 102.5 F. Since a dog’s body is warmer than a persons, just touching your dog won’t accurately let you know if they’re cold or not. So be careful during the winter months with dogs being outside, especially little dogs. (more…)

Vote! My Vet’s the Best Winter 2012 Finalists

Posted on: January 14th, 2013 by

Our winter 2012 My Vet’s the Best finalists have been chosen! Read their stories and vote daily through February 11th and help decide who wins $1,000 to treat needy pets. The nominator will also win a $200 cash prize.

In alphabetical order, the finalists are:

Pet insurance contest finalist Dr. Bushnell.

Dr. Georgia Maureen Bushnell of Homestead, FL

 

Dr. Cabell hopes to win My Vet's the Best.

Dr. Lori Cabell of Norristown, PA

 

Dr. Campbell is a pet health insurance contest finalist.

Dr. Helen Campbell of Florence, NJ

 

Dr. Hallstrom has been nominated as best vet.

Dr. Dave Hallstrom of Edina, MN

 

Dr. Matthews has been nominated as the best vet in 2012.

Dr. Nancy Matthews of Valley Center, CA

 

Dr. Steelman has been nominated as the best vet in 2012.

Dr. Linda Steelman of Las Vegas, NV

Four times per year, Pets Best Insurance awards $1,000 to a winning veterinarian to treat needy pets, and $200 cash prizes to the pet owners who shared their winning stories. Hundreds of vets are nominated each quarter, complete with heartwarming and sometimes harrowing stories, and thousands of votes are cast.

Make sure your voice is heard! Read about our winter 2012 finalists, then vote today and every day through February 11th, 2013. You can also nominate your vet in My Vet’s the Best 2013. You don’t need to be a Pets Best Insurance customer to participate, and you can read the Official Rules here.

Cat Birth Defect Often Heals Itself

Posted on: December 15th, 2012 by

Hello. I’m Dr. Jane Matheys, from the Cat Doctor Veterinary Hospital and Hotel in Boise, Idaho. Today I’ll be answering your question from the Pets Best Insurance Facebook page.

This question is from Cassy. She says “I have a cat who had a herniated belly button as a baby but as an adult does not seem to have it anymore. He’s a year old now and it’s still growing with no signs of problems; but I always worry if it’ll show back up”.

Cassy is referring to an umbilical hernia which is where a kitten is born with an umbilical opening that doesn’t close.

The most important thing is to make sure that this is checked by your veterinarian, because if there’s still one there, it can pose a threat to the cat.

If the opening is large enough, what can happen is that some of the abdominal contents can slip through that hole and cause problems. Usually it’s just some fat that slips through, but sometimes you could have a loop of an intestine that can slip through and actually get twisted and that’s very serious for the kitty cat.

So for larger hernias there’s a fairly simple surgical procedure to correct that and that surgery typically done at the time of the spay or the neuter. If the hernia is small, and none of the abdominal contents are able to slip through, sometimes they don’t have to be corrected.

In little kittens, as they advance into adulthood, sometimes those hernias can spontaneously close on their own. That sounds like maybe what has happened in the case of Cassy’s cat. (more…)

What if My Pet is Allergic to Anesthetic?

Posted on: December 15th, 2012 by

Hi. My name is Dr. Mark and I’m filming for Pets Best Insurance, answering some Facebook questions for you guys at Broadway Veterinary Hospital in Boise, Idaho.

This question comes from Vera. She asks: “If your pet is allergic to anesthetic, what other options are there if a surgical procedure is needed?”

Vera, that’s a good question because a lot of people have concerns about using anesthetic. The reality is, most of the advanced surgical procedures require anesthetic to humanely be performed. There’s really no substitute to really knock out that pain sensation and have them knowing what’s going on.

But to elaborate on that just a little bit, anesthetic reactions in and of themselves are typically fairly rare. It would be even more rare for an animal to have a reaction to every anesthetic agent out there.

So, if your pet had an unfavorable reaction to a particular class of anesthetics, it would be good to talk to the veterinarian who’s going to perform the surgery, let him know what the anesthetic agent is that you’re concerned about, and a different protocol can usually be devised that doesn’t include that anesthetic agent, and therefore maybe give you a more favorable outcome.

If an animal has a particular condition that would predispose them to having anesthetic complications, for example, a heart problem, again, there’s enough technology with these anesthetic agents right now that we can devise plans that make things as safe as possible for your pet.

If you have any other questions, post them to the Pets Best Insurance Facebook page, and we’ll see if we can answer them for you.

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