For many owners, the first time they realise just how expensive vet fees can be is when they’ve been landed with a bill following an emergency. Pet insurance, in this day in age, shouldn’t be seen as a luxury option. It’s, quite simply, an essential element.

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Let’s see if we can give you 12 good reasons to consider dog insurance:

1. Peace of mind, pure and simple. Knowing that your pet’s medical expenses will be covered should anything serious happen is worth it’s weight in gold for your peace of mind alone.

2. Unexpected injuries. One of the biggest problems dog owners complain of when it comes to vet fees is injuries. One day your happy, healthy dog is chasing a ball in a field and then *snap*….cruciate ligament damaged. What do you do? You HAVE to take the dog to the vet and you HAVE to spend the money to get it fixed, then you HAVE to go through with the rehab and follow ups. Pet insurance helps so, so much in these situations.

3. Serious illness. This one’s as simple as the come really. If your dog is diagnosed with a serious, but treatable condition, pet insurance could be the difference between you being able to afford the treatment or really struggling with the costs. Vets can do much more nowadays so treatments for conditions that may have once proven fatal can now be managed, at a price.

4. Think of pet insurance in a similar vein to a car warranty. You’ll be far more likely to have your dog ‘serviced’ if you’re not worried about the potential costs should the vet find anything wrong. Preventative treatment is the key to having a long living, healthy pet.

5. It’s not only vital organs can prove expensive when they go wrong. One of the top reasons dog owners visit the vet is for ear problems and teeth related trouble. Both of these areas can be covered by pet insurance, so always check exactly what each policy covers before you make the investment.

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Why Insure Your Dog In the First Place?

When it comes to allocating proper health care for your dog, nothing is more effective than taking preventive action. However, our beloved pets are adept at getting themselves in to various scrapes or picking up health conditions that are simply outside of our control. So where preventative action might be impossible, insurance can be a real life-saver (literally!)

Pet insurance is a resource that helps you cover the cost of your dog’s veterinary care.  It offers a wide selection of plans that cover part of the cost of surgery, minor injury, routine checkups, and even dental care.  It also helps pay for part of the cost of the financial expenses of a medical procedure such as a transplant or chemotherapy.

However, if you are thinking about getting pet health insurance for your new rescue dog, you have to be very careful.  Do not sign up with the first one that you see, and do not pay anything unless you know exactly what you are getting. Below are some of the things that you should check for before you sign up for a pet health insurance.

Insuring a Rescue Dog: Tips

1. Read the fine print. What exactly is covered and not covered in the plan?

2. Some plans have high deductibles. Shop around for one that offers the same type of coverage for a lower deductible. This means the excess you might be expected to pay on a routine claim – if it turns out that you have to pay £500 in excess for every claim you may end up asking yourself, what is the point of the insurance in the first place?

3. Does the dog insurance plan cover routine checkup and preventive care?

4. Some plans do not cover a dog once they reach a certain age.  Find out if the one you are looking at has an age limitation and when it comes to rescue dogs, you may not know the exact age of your dog so be prepared to seek the guidance of the shelter and even consider a veterinary opinion on the age of your newly adopted dog.

5. Don’t always sign up for an insurance policy because it happens to be recommended to you from the people from where you get the dog. Do the proper research and only take out a policy once you have compared all options.

Pet insurance, as any other form of insurance, offers more than one option to the pet owner. There are basically two or three kinds of dog insurance or for any other pet for that matter. The simplest and most affordable policy offers cover for a single injury, which has a relatively small limit on the amount paid out and the owner can claim for one year only for this injury. A second kind of dog insurance also covers for a once off injury or illness limited for a year, but the limit paid for this is higher than with the first policy. Then there is a third kind of policy, which covers the pet for life, for any kind of injury or illness and which has a much higher limit to be paid out per year. The owner may claim for the same condition for a number of years, providing the dog insurance is renewed annually. This is the best insurance to consider if your pet has a chronic condition.

Apart from the basics that most dog insurance companies cover, such as vet fees, accidental damage or benefits for the death of the pet, companies have other extras added to a policy. Examples are advertising and reward costs if your pet goes missing, boarding kennel fees and holiday cancellation costs if you need to shorten your holiday as a result of your pet being taken ill. Although these are all welcome extras, the pet owner should be sure that these additions are necessary, as they add to the cost and effect of the pet insurance.

Dog owners might do well to ensure that third party damages have been added to their dog insurance, as this covers for damage your dog might do to someone else’s property, their pet or to them. Some claims have an excess to be paid, so the owner needs to be aware of the contents of the pet insurance.

Accidental Ingestion of Medications (pet or human drugs) 5,131
Rodenticide (mouse & rat poison) 4,028
Methylxanthine Toxicity (chocolate, caffeine) 3,661
Plant Poisoning 2,808
Household Chemicals 1,669
Metaldehyde (snail, slug poison) 396
Insecticide 323
Heavy Metal Toxicity (lead, zinc) 288
Toad Poisoning 270
Antifreeze Poisoning 213
Walnut Poisoning 100
Alcohol Toxicity 75
Strychnine 28

VPI policyholders spent more than $6.6 million between 2005 and 2009 treating their pets for poisoning. Accidental ingestion of pet or human medications, the most common type of poisoning, cost policyholders an average of $791 per claim. The most expensive type of poisoning, heavy metal poisoning, cost an average of $952 per claim.

“Not only can a poisoning incident be life-threatening for the pet, it’s traumatic for the pet owner as well,” said Dr. Carol McConnell, vice president and chief veterinary medical officer for VPI. “Depending on what substance the pet has ingested and the amount, the reaction can be sudden with the animal exhibiting alarming symptoms such as staggering, vomiting, drooling, seizures, and even loss of consciousness. We recommend that pet owners be aware of which items around their homes can be harmful to their pets – medications, insect poisons, chocolate, and certain nuts – and keep these items safely out of reach. Also, they shouldn’t assume that their pets will ignore that bottle of bleach in the laundry room or the Philodendron plant by the window. Our data shows this just isn’t so.”

In addition to taking steps to avoid poisoning emergencies, pet owners should be prepared for such an emergency should it arise. For example, owners should keep the phone number of their pets’ regular veterinarian and a phone number for an emergency veterinary hospital handy at all times. For more information about pet poisoning prevention and poisoning first-aid, please visit the Pet Poison Helpline at www.petpoisonhelpline.com.

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Most authorities agree that the older dog needs more vitamin and mineral supplementation, as well as a smaller quantity of higher-quality food (higher biological value). Many of the experts, however, do not properly interpret degenerative symptoms into recognition of substandard nutrition. When your dog is young, time is on his side, even considering the numerous nutritional errors that were provided to him in his daily menu. Your dog does not know or care that he is not getting optimum nourishment. However, you, as his owner, need to realize that many of the old dog's illness are preventable through proper nutrition!

Many experts agree that essentially there is only one canine disease; toxemia. By whatever local disease names or manifestations you choose to call it, waste matter is backing up in the cells of the body and causing them to malfunction or to cease functioning. How do our animals get into this shameful condition? The shocking truth is that most often they eat the wrong foods.

The common source of canine illness could lie in putrefaction in the colon. The large intestine (colon) develops rings of fecal waste, much like a tree acquires rings as it advances in age. The rings gradually solidify into impermeable yellow plaster (fecal matter) that becomes quite hard. These layers of fecal plaster impair a very obvious function. The main mode of movement of food from the esophagus to the rectum is peristalsis, the wavelike motion used by the digestive system to push the food from one end of the body to the other.

A dog's colon is normally an efficient sewage system for the evacuation of wastes. But we have, in all innocence, turned it into a cesspool of seething putrefaction. Without peristalsis, fecal matter continues to collect in the colon. Without proper elimination, disease-producing bacteria increase in the intestines. With the intestines stuccoed with dried fecal matter, how can good food be absorbed through the walls of the intestines? What is to prevent contamination of good nutrients by putrefactive juices? The flexure that acts to push food from the small to large intestine, is often draped in feces. So it either jams open, or it jams shut; either way, your dog has trouble.

Don't just guess at the problem and throw a home remedy at it. See your veterinarian. You'll probably save money in the long run, and you'll certainly spare your pet some misery. After your dog checks out OK on the medical front, you need to start addressing the other necessities of his life:

Mental Exercise

Training is for life. Your dog needs to keep learning, and keep using all he has been taught. That doesn't mean, however, that you have to make formal obedience sessions a permanent part of your life. Think, instead, of creative ways to expand your dog's working vocabulary and integrate the skills he has learned into your life together.

For example, make him do a "sit" or "down" before you take the ball from him. Put him on "stay," throw the ball, and then send him. Have two family members play recall games with him in the house: One calls and praises, and then the other does. These games keep him engaged, and they also help enforce his place in your family, which makes him feel confident and secure.

Physical Exercise

Probably one of the biggest contributors to dog behavior problems is that dogs don't get nearly enough exercise. (Lack of exercise is also a big contributor to health problems: Too much food and not enough exercise make dogs fat.) By enough exercise I don't mean a walk around the block, stopping and sniffing at every shrub, street light, and fire hydrant. These outings are important, too, for your dog's mental health, not his physical one.

Instead, your dog needs 30 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise that gets his heart pumping, and he needs it three or more times a week to stay fit, burn excess energy, and alleviate the stresses of modern life, which for many dogs starts with being a latchkey pup. This kind of exercise is especially important for dogs with a working heritage such as sporting or herding breeds. They need to move!

Food is a highly significant factor in your older dog's health. The broadest food classifications are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. The three classifications help us in assessing the major components of a food. Foods are generally considered to be of the category that predominates in their composition. But this does not mean that a carbohydrate such as wheat contains no protein because it does. Or that a protein such as liver contains no carbohydrates because it certainly does. Similar to people, pets need a proper ratio of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in their diet in order to maintain proper health.

Proteins are vital to the growth and development of all body tissues. Protein helps in the formation of hormones; it regulates the acid-alkaline and water balances; and it helps the body to form enzymes and antibodies. Protein also aids in the formation of milk during lactation, and in the process of blood clotting. Protein can be used as an energy source when fats and carbohydrates are insufficient in the diet.

Fats (lipids) are the most concentrated energy source in the diet. When oxidized, fats yield more than twice the calories of proteins or carbohydrates. Fats act as carriers for the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. By helping vitamin D to be absorbed, fats make calcium more
available to body tissues. Fats also aid in the conversion of carotene to vitamin A. Fats insulate major organs such as the heart, liver, and kidneys, and help to maintain body heat.

Carbohydrates are the major source of energy for all bodily functions. They are a splendid source of quick energy. They assist in the digestion of other foods, and they are essential in regulating protein and fat metabolism. Carbohydrates are considered the fuel in which the fat burns. Carbohydrates consist of sugars, starches, and cellulose. Simple sugars, as in honey and fruits, are easily digested.

Dogs like most animal life forms need the six basic nutrients for survival: carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals. These nutrients serve different functions in sustaining the health and well-being of your dog. This guide will elaborate on dogs’ need of these nutrients.

1. Proteins: the building blocks of your dog’s health
Proteins are chemicals made of amino acids. Your dog can produce some of these chemicals in their own bodies. The rest has to be supplied through food. The best sources of these amino acids are meat and its byproducts. Dogs can extract proteins from these sources a lot easier than it would with plant sources.

Choose feeds that have an adequate amount of protein in them to help your puppies and working dogs grow. Too much of this, however, may cause kidney problems and has been known to cause temperament problems.

2. Fats: delivering other nutrients to the body
Fat sound like a bad word – everyone tries to avoid it because it causes tons of health problems. Dogs, however, just like man, also have a need for these nutrients – albeit in a moderate amount.

The right amount of fat is needed to promote good skin health, and to transport fat-soluble vitamins. Fats are also essential to kidney function and reproductive health. They make food tastier too. Too much fat will result in obesity and lethargy.

3. Carbohydrates: doggie fuel
Fifty percent of your dog’s diet should consist of carbohydrates since they need it for their energy. Corn is one of the more popular sources of this nutrient, along with soybeans. If this source is clean and of good nutritional quality then that should be fine as well.

4. Vitamins and Minerals: keeping your dog healthy
It would have been easier if your dog only had to splurge on vitamins and minerals to get optimal health. However, the opposite is true. Your dog needs an exact amount of vitamins and minerals to be healthy. Although, your dog may receive these nutrients from food, vitamin supplements for your dogs could be helpful. Specially formulated commercial feeds also make it easier for dog owners to give their dogs good nutrition.

It can also be a nightmare for a dog insurance provider too.

Let’s be realistic and honest, a dog insurance provider is – like you – hoping your pet remains fit, healthy and well throughout its life and that the policy never has to be claimed on.

If everyone claimed on their dog insurance for major canine illnesses such as cancer, pet insurers would either go bust or their premiums would be through the roof.

This is why not all dog insurance and pet insurance policies are created equal.

If you are looking to make sure that, should the worst happen and your dog did get a longterm illness like cancer, your finances are protected and you can afford to get your dog the best health treatment, you need to very carefully understand the dog insurance policy you choose.

1) You need whole of life cover.

2) You need to check that your dog insurance cover pays out on an ongoing basis for an illness such as cancer.

3) You need to make absolutely sure that your premiums are up to date. It sounds obvious but many dog owners have let their insurance lapse and then their dog gets ill and they try and pick up the dog insurance where they left off – dog insurance providers are not stupid!

4) In the event that you have a breed that is more prone to canine cancer, speak with your vet and ask if they have had experience with a dog being treated for cancer and ask them to advise which pet insurance providers offered the most comprehensive cover.

5) Take out your OWN insurance. Make sure your dog has regular health check ups, a high quality diet, lots of exercise and if you’re actually in the market to acquire a puppy, insist that you get a breed with a low incidence of cancer and who’s parents are both health checked.