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Our pets are members of our families. Pet owners want to do everything they can for their furry four-legged family members. But sometimes, veterinary bills can be costly, making it difficult for pet owners to afford their pet’s healthcare, especially in an emergency situation. Pet insurance can help to alleviate some of the financial burden of an emergency vet visit, which pet owners may not be prepared for.
Pet insurance is like health insurance, but for your pet. Typically, pet owners with pet insurance will pay a monthly premium that adds up to a few hundred dollars each year. If a pet is injured or ill and requires veterinary treatment, the pet owner usually has to pay out of pocket, but can then file for reimbursement from the insurance company. How much is covered and what illnesses and injuries are covered may depend on the pet insurance policy.
While pet insurance is similar in many ways to health insurance, it does typically differ in how the insurance payouts work. While hospitals and clinics usually bill insurance for payment, with pet insurance, the pet owner generally has to pay up front. The pet insurance company will then reimburse the pet owner for what they paid, so long as the deductible has been met and the treatment is covered under the pet insurance policy.
If a pet becomes ill or is injured and the vet costs are high to treat the illness or injury, some pet parents don’t have the money to cover the bills. Some pet owners may have to decide between taking on debt to treat their pet or having their beloved pet put down. Pet insurance can help to cover the costs of an emergency vet bill, preventing pet owners from having to make such a devastating decision.
Pet insurance policies can differ depending on the insurance company offering them and also depending on the policy. Most pet insurance policies cover the following:
Hereditary conditions and chronic conditions are sometimes covered but sometimes aren’t. Whether they’re covered depends on the pet insurance company.
Pet insurance policies usually cover accidents and emergencies only. Generally, pet insurance does not cover vet visits and pet care that falls under the wellness category.
Common pet insurance exclusions often include:
Before selecting a pet insurance plan, you should shop around to see what each insurance company covers. Some may cover preexisting or hereditary health conditions, particularly if they are curable, while others may not. Depending on the pet insurance company, you may be able to add on extra insurance to cover some normal exclusions.
How much pet insurance costs depends on the insurance company. Typically pet insurance is a monthly cost that adds up to around a few hundred dollars per year. This works out to around $40 per month. The monthly cost will vary depending on your policy. Pet insurance also typically carries a deductible, which, depending on the plan, can range from no deductible to a deductible of up to $1000.
Depending on the pet insurance company, you may be able to add on extra coverage for medical treatments not normally included on the average policy.
The premiums pet owners pay for pet insurance depend on several different factors. These can include:
The type of pet you have can impact how much the pet insurance premiums cost. For example, dogs, male animals, older animals, and larger animals are usually more expensive to insure than cats, smaller animals, younger animals, and female animals.
The most important thing to do is research. Pet insurance isn’t like health insurance offered by an employer that may have limited options. You’ll have your choice of different insurance companies and policies. However, you’ll need to make sure that your vet will accept your pet insurance and find a policy that both works for your budget and will cover everything you need for your pet.
Check out the blog, updated monthly
Oct 25Welcoming a dog into your family is an exciting time. However, the idea of training a dog can be intimidating for first-time dog owners. Obedience classes can only do so much and while they do help train your dog, there is still some training dog owners will have to do themselves at home. These tips can help new dog owners better train their new furry family member.
If you’ve adopted a puppy, this is the perfect time to start training them not to jump up. While it may be cute as a puppy, it’s usually not a desired behavior in adult dogs, so training in it now is important. The best way to do this is to not pay attention to your puppy until all four of their paws are on the ground. This will teach them that if they want your attention, they can’t jump up to get it.
Socialization is the process of making sure that your dog is used to a wide variety of places, people, and other dogs. The more experience your dog has around other people and other dogs as well as in new places, the more comfortable they will be as an adult. Dogs that aren’t well socialized as puppies can exhibit undesirable behaviors like aggression, excessive barking, and fear as adults.
House training is often the most important thing for new pet owners. They understandably don’t want their pets relieving themselves indoors. However, some techniques, such as scolding or rubbing the puppy’s nose in the mess after an accident aren’t productive. Instead, your puppy will just be confused or even scared. It’s much better to reward successes than it is to punish accidents.
In fact, rewarding success, in general, is the best way to train your dog. Providing treats and praise rather than punishing failure will help your dog learn better and also be more comfortable with you.
Crate training is an important part of training a dog. The crate can give your dog a safe space that is just theirs. Plus, it can also help you to house train your dog. Dogs usually won’t relieve themselves in the place where they sleep, so your puppy will get used to holding it in. However, you should avoid putting your dog in the crate as a punishment. Otherwise, your puppy will associate the crate with being bad and won’t feel safe and secure there.
Punishment for failure, in general, is generally not recommended. Yelling can just confuse your dog rather than reinforce the good behavior you want.
Train your dog at the same time every day. This will help your dog feel more comfortable training because they’ll know what to expect. Having a schedule is also particularly helpful with house training. Having meals at a scheduled time every day and then taking your dog outside to relieve themselves right afterward is the best way to train your dog to go outside to use the bathroom.
If you want to teach your dog commands, it’s vital to teach the most important ones first. The commands and tricks that your dog learns first will be the ones they’ll remember the best. In fact, these will be the actions they do if you’re training them in a new command and they don’t know what to do.
It’s important to stick with the same established rules. If you don’t want your dog on the couch as an adult, don’t let the dog on the couch as a puppy. Your dog will just get confused if they get used to certain rules only to have them change later on. The same rule goes for commands. You should stay consistent with the words you use. That way, your dog can learn to associate specific words with the behavior that you want to see.
One of the most important things you can do in training your dog is to be patient. They’re learning and that can take a while. Plus, some breeds learn faster than others. Your dog might get distracted or forget. Don’t get angry when they make a mistake. Instead, correct the behavior and then make sure to reward successes.
Check out the blog, updated monthly
Oct 19There are millions of dogs across the country in need of a good home. Wild One, a pet care startup, is seeking to address that by helping to rescue a dog every day by the year 2024.
Wild One is a pet care brand that was founded in 2018 and sells pet care supplies, including its very popular walking kits. Selling pet care products was never Wild One’s only mission, however. The company also dedicated funds toward getting at least one dog a week rescued.
Wild One opened for business only two years before the COVID-19 pandemic began. During the pandemic, dog adoptions rates rose as pet owners, many for the first time, adopted pets during quarantine. This also corresponded with an increase in the amount of money that pet owners were spending on their pets.
Wild One has helped dogs get rescued by making donations to rescue organizations like Brooklyn-based Badass Animal Rescue (BAR). They also cover the costs of adoption for dogs and for the publicity to help get them adopted. On their website, they run promotions that send proceeds to rescue organizations, most recently a buy one give one program, in which every dollar a customer spent would be matched in the form of a donation.
That all dogs deserve to have safe and comfortable homes is one of Wild One’s core values. To that end, helping a dog a week get rescued wasn’t enough. In 2021, as the company celebrated its third year in business, Wild One announced that it wanted to increase a dog a week to a dog a day. To accomplish this goal, Wild One will continue its partnership with BAR. Working with BAR, Wild One met its original goal of helping a dog a week get rescued.
Wild One’s aim is to start the A Dog a Day program in January of 2022, with the goal of succeeding by 2024.
In order to help a dog a day get adopted, Wild One is also expanding its network of dog rescues. They’ve carefully vetted every animal rescue so that every partner met their strict criteria. On top of that, they wanted to focus on rescues in areas that have large stray populations or have experienced post-pandemic dog abandonment. They also wanted to work with rescues that raised awareness about issues such as discrimination against black dogs.
Dog abandonment is an unfortunate problem that shelters and rescue organizations are constantly combating. There was a major increase in the number of pet adoptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but as things began to go back to normal, some of those pet owners surrendered their pets. Wild One feels strongly about helping rescued organizations deal with pet abandonment all the time, not just during a pandemic, and has purposely sought out organizations to partner with that work to raise awareness about the issue.
Check out the blog, updated monthly
Sep 30Pet owners buy a lot of things for their pets. From food and toys to bedding and clothes, the pet supplies industry is a multi-billion dollar one. Our pets are our family and we want to spare no expense in making sure they’re happy and well-cared for. But what exactly have pet owners been buying for their pets so far this year?
Jungle Scout’s Q2 2021 Consumer Trends Report looks at what pet owners bought for their pets in the second quarter of 2021 and surveyed 1,066 American consumers, 786 of whom reported that they had purchased pet supplies. This makes roughly 65% of those surveyed pet owners.
Jungle Scout did a separate survey to find out what kind of people own pets. They found that more men than women were pet owners, most pet owners worked either full- or part-time, and that while people of all ages are pet owners, the largest age group of pet owners in the survey was Millennials, who made up 52% of those who bought pet supplies. Pet owners also on average made big changes to their lives in the past year. For many, that was the decision to adopt a pet, a decision that may have been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Jungle Scout survey asked pet owners about their online shopping habits for their pet supplies. Amazon was by far the most popular website for online pet supplies purchases, with 76% of the survey participants shopping on Amazon. Next was shopping via a search engine like Google or Bing, with 50% of pet owners shopping for the products they wanted to buy first on a search engine. Most used Amazon to search for products as well as to purchase.
Pet owners also shopped on social media platforms. Facebook was the most popular, with 40% of pet owners buying pet supplies there. YouTube and Instagram were close behind in popularity, and some also shopped on TikTok. Only about 23% of pet owners did their browsing directly on the website of a pet supplies retailer. Social media was popular for pet shopping because pet owners can see what’s trending and popular with other pet owners. Plus, there are images showing products in use and reviews from fellow pet owners.
The top pet products of 2021 so far have included:
Check out the blog, updated monthly
Sep 16Heartworm in dogs can be a very serious disease. In some cases, it can even be fatal. Dogs are natural hosts of the disease, which means that the heartworms that cause the disease can live inside a dog’s body, mature into adults, mate, and have offspring within the dog’s body. A dog could potentially be host to hundreds of heartworms, which can cause damage to the dog’s heart, arteries, and lungs, and can continue to negatively impact a dog’s health even after the worms are gone.
For this reason, heartworm prevention is the best way to treat your dog. The disease is treatable in many cases, but it’s best to prevent it before your dog can get heartworms so you can avoid any lasting health problems.
According to the American Heartworm Society, puppies should be taking heartworm prevention medication monthly as young as 6-8 weeks old. They are just as prone to getting infected as older dogs, so the prevention must start as soon as possible.
In Florida, all dogs need to be administered heartworm preventatives regularly. With heartworms being transferred to dogs by mosquitos, Florida is a common place for dogs to contract them. In more northern, cooler areas, it may not be as necessary, but it’s still recommended to protect your dog with preventative heartworm medication. The costs of curing it are significantly more than the cost of preventing it.
Ultimately, giving your dog regular heartworm prevention medication increases the chances of your dog living the long, happy, and healthy life that they deserve.
Not all heartworm medications use the same ingredients, so different breeds can react to them differently. Speak to your vet about which medicine is best for your dog based on their breed, age, and health.
Heartworm prevention medication doesn’t actually prevent your dog from getting infected with heartworms. What it does is kill off heartworms that are in the later larva stages. If you miss a dose, then those larvae have a chance to grow into adult heartworms, at which point the preventative medication will no longer work. In order to avoid the risk of health problems from heartworms, it’s vital that you not miss a dose.
It’s not enough to just give your puppy preventative medication for heartworm. It’s also a good idea to get them tested regularly. Usually, your vet will test your puppy for heartworm for the first time between 6 and 10 months old. After that, heartworm tests are usually annual unless you’ve missed giving your puppy a dose of heartworm medication.
Heartworms can start causing damage to your puppy’s body even before the heartworms are fully grown. This means that before they’re detectable, they can still harm your dog. The worms can inflame the vessels in the heart and arteries as well as damage the liver and lungs. Even if you catch heartworms in time to treat them early, they can still cause irreversible damage, lifelong health problems, and even a shortened lifespan.
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Aug 30It’s vitally important for pet owners to know when a behavior is normal and when it’s something to worry about. Dogs self-groom by licking their paws. If your dog is occasionally licking for the purpose of cleaning, then that’s normal and nothing to be concerned about. If your dog is biting their paws or is excessively and intensely licking their paws, then that’s a cause for concern and you may want to consult your veterinarian.
If your dog is excessively licking or biting their paws, one possibility is that your dog has food allergies. Food allergies can make your dog’s paws itchy, which can lead them to bite or lick. Talk to your vet about your dog’s food for recommendations on specific food and potential ingredient allergies.
If your dog has a parasite, such as mange or fleas, their paws may itch, causing them to lick. Check your dog for flea bites and mange spots, which are caused by mites. These parasites are tiny, so even if you don’t see physical evidence of them, it’s a good idea to consult with your veterinarian, who can determine if there’s a parasite involved and recommend any necessary treatment.
Dermatitis can affect dogs as well as humans. It’s a skin condition that involves itching. It can be caused by a variety of things, from an allergy to bacteria. If you suspect dermatitis, you can consult with your vet to make sure it’s not caused by bacteria. If your dog frequently licks their paws after coming in from outside, keep a bowl of water near the door so you can wash their paws off when they come inside. Dermatitis in dogs can be caused by allergies to a number of things, including:
Just like in humans, dogs’ allergies can be year-round or seasonal, so be on the lookout for behavior changes as the seasons change. Luckily, allergies in dogs are very treatable once the cause is found. Some of the common treatments are:
Injuries such as bee stings, cuts, torn nails, a blister, a stone or thorn stuck between the pads, or other small injuries can irritate your dog’s paw. If you see that your dog is biting or excessively licking one paw in particular, check to make sure there’s not a small injury-causing irritation. You may be able to treat the injury with basic first aid, but if it doesn’t improve, or if the injury is more serious, you’ll want to take your dog to the vet.
Take special care of your dog’s paws to ensure that they don’t get injured and develop behaviors such as excessive licking and biting of their paws.
Licking can also be a sign of a health problem or a behavioral problem like boredom or anxiety. Speak to your veterinarian if you can’t figure out why your dog is excessively licking or biting their paws. Your vet should be able to help you pinpoint what’s going on and if there’s a health or behavioral issue they can advise you on how to manage it.
The first thing that you should do if you notice your dog licking or biting at their paws is check for visual clues of the cause. Sometimes you can see discoloration or a rash, so you know exactly what is causing the pain or discomfort and can inform your vet about it during your visit.
Check in between their toes and under their paws for any of the following:
Be on the lookout for any other behavior that may be a sign of pain, such as limping or lack of movement.
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Aug 27Pets are members of our families. We want what’s best for them and that includes veterinary care. For many, if a pet is sick or injured, there’s an instinct to take them immediately to the vet. However, vet bills can be costly. It’s important for pet owners to determine ahead of time if the symptoms their pets are showing are something that can be waited out or if they warrant immediate veterinary attention.
Fortunately, there’s an app for that. Petriage’s Pet Symptom Checker app can help pet owners check their pet’s symptoms to learn whether they should take their pet to the vet.
The Pet Symptom Checker app works by allowing pet owners to input their pet’s symptoms. The app then uses an algorithm to analyze the symptoms and make a recommendation to the pet owner with 97% accuracy whether the symptoms warrant veterinary attention.
Pet owners will receive one of the following recommendations from the app based on the symptoms they entered:
The app also uses machine learning to improve. This means that each time a pet owner uses the app, Pet Symptom Checker is able to learn. As pet owners use the app, the database of information on which the app can draw will be even more robust.
Petriage is a telehealth veterinary service. The company offers a free Essential membership that gives pet owners access to online analysis tools to triage pet symptoms, including the Pet Symptom Checker app. However, their Premium membership gives pet owners 24/7 access to veterinary services, including video calls and live chat with participating veterinarians.
If your vet subscribes to Petriage, then the Pet Symptom Checker app can automatically send an alert to your vet with the symptoms you input into the app. The Pet Symptom Checker app is free for pet owners to use. They don’t need to have Petriage’s premium service themselves in order for the alert to be transmitted to their vet. Even in non-emergency situations, this can help veterinary professionals keep track of your pet’s medical history.
The AVMA, or American Veterinary Medicine Association, is supporting a bipartisan effort to introduce a bill to combat zoonotic diseases. The Advancing Emergency Preparedness Through One Health Act (One Health Act for short) is designed to focus on the prevention of zoonotic diseases and to coordinate efforts between the departments that deal with them.
A zoonotic disease is any disease that is shared between humans and animals. It can be a disease that spreads from animals to humans or vice versa. Some commonly known zoonotic diseases are:
Not all of the diseases listed above are currently a major risk to humans. However, up to 60% of infectious diseases are actually zoonotic in nature. The CDC has compiled a list of the eight zoonotic diseases that are of greatest risk to humans in the United States:
The One Health bill has the following three goals:
The bill aims to ensure that the relevant federal agencies are better equipped to handle diseases. With more resources, the federal agencies involved with handling zoonotic diseases can better prevent the spread of diseases.
The One Health bill was reintroduced to both the Senate and the House of Representatives by a bipartisan team. In the House of Representatives, the bill was reintroduced by Republican Representative Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Representative Kurt Schrader, a Democratic representative from Oregon, who is also a veterinarian. In the Senate, the bill was reintroduced by Senator Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Senator Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana.
Many dogs have behavioral problems related to fearfulness.
These can include:
A study at the University of Helsinki in Finland examined the behaviors of 14,000 dogs and found that a more active lifestyle can help to reduce fearfulness in dogs, resolving many behavioral problems that result.
Fearfulness in dogs and behavioral problems that can result are stressful for both the dogs and their owners. So how can physical exercise help to reduce fearfulness in dogs?
In humans, exercise releases endorphins in the brain, which reduce stress levels and boost a good mood. Physical activity can therefore help relieve symptoms of anxiety and depressed moods as well as improve self-esteem. The same is actually true for dogs as well. Physical exercise can help improve a dog’s mood. Plus, dogs are generally social animals and enjoy activities done with their owners.
Dogs that aren’t well socialized may have greater fears of unknown situations and people or other dogs. Properly socializing dogs can help to introduce them to new situations, people, and other dogs and give them the skills they need to face new situations. Physical activity may help with socialization as well when done outside. Taking a dog for a walk may introduce the dog to new situations and surroundings. Taking a dog to a dog park could encourage socialization with other dogs and people.
Physical activity or lack thereof isn’t the only factor that determines whether or not a dog will be fearful. A more physical lifestyle in dogs won’t necessarily eliminate fearfulness although it can help reduce the effects. Breed and environmental factors can also influence fearfulness in dogs. For example, smaller dogs were found to be more likely to be fearful than larger dogs.
Factors that can affect fearfulness include:
The fact that breed can affect fearfulness indicates that some amount of fearfulness may be hereditary.
The University of Helsinki study also found that the environment has an impact on whether or not a dog is fearful. Dogs living in urban areas are more likely to be fearful than those living in rural areas. The researchers in the University of Helsinki study suggested that an urban environment had a higher population density of both humans and other dogs and that the urban environment was much more hectic.
Jun 01We spend a lot of time on our smartphones, and for good reason. They can do practically everything, from browsing the Internet and playing videos to making phone calls and texting. And to top it all off, there’s an app for practically everything as well. Fortunately for pet owners, there are also a plethora of apps available to help do everything from finding pet sitters and dog parks to monitoring your pet’s health.
There are so many apps out there for pet owners that it’s important to research the best ones ahead of time. Otherwise, you’d fill up the hard drive space on your phone with them all. But which ones are the best?
Rover connects dog owners with pet services, including:
Rover offers these services for both dog and cat owners. If you’re in need of a cat sitter, a dog walker, or to board your pet, Rover can help you find someone to take care of your furry family member. The app has its own Rover Guarantee for its services, offers 24/7 support, and protection for any reservations you make. Plus, you can even receive photo updates of your pet while you’re gone so you can rest assured your pet is doing well. Rover is available both online and via mobile app.
Pet First Aid is an app offered by the Red Cross that helps pet owners find the veterinarian advice that they need. Vet visits can cost money and there are plenty of pet ailments that can be treated at home. Pet First Aid can help you determine whether you can care for your pet yourself or whether the condition is serious enough to warrant a visit to the veterinarian. Plus, it can help you learn what to do in an emergency as well as more about everyday care for your pet. Of course, if you’re concerned for your pet’s safety or health, it’s still a good idea to contact your vet.
Keeping track of everything your pet needs, from vaccinations to vet appointments, can be difficult. MyPet Reminders is an app that helps you keep your pet’s schedule organized. You can set up a profile for each pet, so if you have multiple pets, you can still keep track of everything you need to know. This way, you’ll never forget your pet’s medication or vaccination appointment again.
Chewy’s app is a handy way to get all of the pet supplies you need. Instead of having to go to the website, you can just download the app so you can order pet food, toys, and more easily. You can even set up recurring shipments if there’s something, like pet food, that you regularly purchase.
The Animal Poison app by the ASPCA is a free and easy way to identify whether something your pet has eating is poisonous. Offering information about 300 different potential poisons for owners of dogs, cats, birds, and horses, if you think your pet has eaten something it shouldn’t, you can quickly check the app. The app won’t just let you know whether something is toxic to your pet, but also how severe the situation is and what your next steps should be.
PetParents connects other pet owners with each other and with a wider community of pet owners. This includes services for pets, such as grooming and dog parks. Pet owners can use the app to set up play dates with other pets as well as find pet-friendly businesses.
DogSync makes it easy to keep track of your pet’s everyday needs. It’s especially useful if you own more than one pet or if there is more than one person taking care of your pet(s). With DogSync, you can track whether or not your pet has been fed, walked, watered, and more. No more pets tricking their owners into feeding them multiple meals by pretending that they haven’t yet eaten.
PetRescuers is an app that connects thousands of participating clinics and shelters into one database. The app can send you detailed information about any missing pets in your area. This can help you to reunite lost pets with their owners and can help reunite you with yours if they should ever go missing. Other pet owners using the app can keep an eye out for any animals they see matching your missing pet’s description.
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