Pet Insurance Infographic

By now you know that my daughter works for pet insurance company Trupanion. Well, her team helped develop this great infographic that explains all the ins and outs of pet insurance for people who may not know much about it. I thought I’d share it with all of you.

Click the image to see the larger version!

Pet Insurance 101 graphic created by Trupanion.

How Pet Insurance Can Save You Money

Here is a guest post written by my daughter, Heather Kalinowski. As the mom of a five-month-old baby boy and two dogs, she is always looking for ways to be thrifty. She works for Trupanion pet insurance and truly believes in the benefits – both financial and emotional – a pet insurance policy can provide.

In today’s economy everyone is looking for ways to save money. For pet owners, saving money requires evaluating even more things, including pet food, grooming costs, boarding or pet sitting expenses, and veterinary care.

Unfortunately, for many pet owners, veterinary care is the biggest thing that digs into the family budget. While expected expenses such as yearly exams, vaccinations, monthly flea medications, and dental care can be easily factored into the budget, the unexpected expenses like major injuries and illnesses can cause a huge amount of financial strain and can lead to heart-breaking decisions.

Pet insurance is one way pet owners can help protect their finances in these difficult situations. When a major medical condition develops in their pet, pet owners with insurance can easily and immediately opt for the best medical treatment available without worry of cost.

When you are trying to be thrifty, it can seem counter-intuitive to pay an insurance company a premium every month on the chance that it will pay off in the end. However, pet owners who cherish their pets as part of the family and who may not be independently wealthy need the financial reassurance that if something catastrophic does happen with their pet, they will be covered.

It makes a lot of sense when you consider how veterinary treatment has advanced in recent years and the increase in expense that comes with those advances. Medical conditions that were once thought to be fatal in pets like cancer and diabetes are now curable with veterinary care that rivals that available to humans.

But if you don’t have the funds to pay for these advanced services, you only have two choices – max out as many credit cards as possible, plunging yourself into debt, or make the heart-wrenching decision to leave your pet untreated. With pet insurance, you don’t have to worry about making this decision – you are financially covered and in the end, you end up saving up to thousands of dollars.

How My Pet’s Love is My Holiday Gift

Trupanion Pet Insurance is having a blog contest and I decided to enter it.  I thought this holiday season would be a great time to share with all of you how important pets are to me, how much I love pet sitting and why they are such a wonderful holiday gift to me.

I was fortunate enough to have been raised having pets in our family.  Dad always had his hunting dogs, we had Tinkerbelle our cat, and mom had her canary Sugarfoot.  I was one of those kids who loved all animals and feared none.  Any dog on the street or cat in a tree, I was there to help.  I remember one time my dad and I went to a horse corral when I was very young and while Dad wasn’t looking I walked into the corral and right up to the horses.  My dad about had a heart attack knowing that the huge horses could have crushed me, but I think the animals must have sensed that I was no threat to them and were just so gentle.  I have my parents to thank for always having pets around so I could develop the love I had for them.

We even had a pet skunk when I was about 8 years old.  Dad found out about a man who raised and de-scented skunks so of course he had to get us one.  My sisters and I had Flower (we had to name him Flower, it was during the Bambi movie years) for many years and even took him to “show and tell” at school.  I’m pretty sure we were the only students who ever brought a skunk to school!

My sisters with our pet skunk Flower

Over the years our cat Tinkerbelle had several litters of kittens.  We always had a waiting list of people who wanted them.  In one litter there was a kitten that she rejected.  I kept putting the little kitten back in the basket with her until eventually she started feeding him.  We later found out the kitten had a tumor.  Well, when mom was putting the kittens up for adoption I couldn’t bear to let this one go.  Mom insisted I couldn’t keep him but I persisted until she finally gave in.  I took Smokey with me when I got married and loved him until he died.

Over the years my children had several pets as they were growing up and now in their adult lives share the love of pets that I have.  My son worked for the Humane Society for several years and adopted many dogs that otherwise would have been euthanized.  He and his family now have a mini farm with two very happy dogs, a cat and several chickens.

My daughter has been involved in Italian Greyhound rescue and has played a  big part in saving the lives of several sweet, sweet dogs that wouldn’t have made it without her help.  She and her husband now have two adorable, very spoiled dogs.

And I decided to take an early retirement and spend my time loving and caring for other peoples dogs, cats, birds, chickens and any other kinds of animals that they love and are in need of being cared for.  I consider all of the pets I care for my own and I’m so thankful that I get to share my love for them.  They definitely give it back 100%plus so yes; all of these pets’ love is definitely my holiday gift!

The gift that keeps on giving!

Guest Post: Pet Insurance

This guest post comes from Heather Kalinowski, a pet lover and internet journalist at pet insurance company Trupanion.

No one wants to think of their beloved dog or cat getting sick or injured. We like to think we can protect them from everything that can cause them harm. I was like that. I prided myself on taking extra special care of my dog, keeping her out of danger, making sure she was up to date on all her vaccinations, and never allowing her to get in contact with a sick dog. I even carried her in a dog sling when there were a lot of people around, or when there were potential dangers on the ground.

But unfortuantely, I learned that we can’t protect our pets from everything. My dog ended up developing an auto-immune disorder, which is something I never could have protected her from, never could have predicted, never could have added to a list of ‘possible dangers to keep her away from’. She developed it not because of anything I did or didn’t do – or anything she did. It just happened based on heredity and genetics. And diagnosis and treatment was costly. Extremely costly - in the thousands of dollars.

I shed a lot of tears and lost a lot of sleep during those months she was in and out of the hospital. But luckily, I had pet insurance so I was able to make all my decisions based on what was best for her, not what I could actually afford at the time. We never want to have to put a price on our pets’ lives, and because I had pet insurance, I didn’t have to. And now my sweet little pup is doing well.

Now, it’s true that pet insurance only becomes financially beneficial if something actually happens to your pet. I have a second dog who I have insured as well, and (knock on wood) I haven’t had to submit a claim yet. But just as with human insurance, while you can’t predict if you’re ever going to need it, you don’t want to be caught without it when you do.

Here are some common claims we see here at Trupanion, and the costs associated with each:

1. Patellar Luxation – A condition that occurs when the kneecap moves in and out of place, which can cause lameness. Cost: $600 – $2,000+
2. Glaucoma - Just like with humans, this is an eye condition in which excessive fluid buildup causes increased pressure which may damage the optic nerve and lead to progressive loss of vision. Cost: $1,400 – $3,000
3. Ingestion of a Foreign Body – Our furry friends are curious and like to eat things they shouldn’t be eating. Sometimes this can require surgery. Cost: $2,000 – $3,000
4. Portacaval Shunt – A condition in which the embryonic blood vessel in the liver fails to go away after the puppy or kitten is born. As a result, blood bypasses the liver and never gets detoxified. This causes a litany of issues, including neurological symptoms. Cost: $6,000 – $7,000
5. Seizures - Seizures can be caused by a number of issues, including epilepsy, brain tumors, and portacaval shunts. Cost: $1,000 – $2,000

Pet insurance can give you peace of mind if your beloved pet develops any of these conditions, and more. And remember that if you only invest in pet insurance after a pet becomes sick or injured, it’s too late to receive reimbursement for that particular condition. Invest early to ensure that you are covered for any and all future health issues.

What caused your most expensive trip to the vet?