With the New Year right around the corner, there is one thing I think you should consider for a resolution.
Get health insurance for your pet.
I know, I know, insurance companies are occasionally difficult to deal with; all the paperwork and claims and payments. But, in the long run, it will be worth it.
Let me tell you a story…
I have an Australian Cattle Dog named Adele. She is a great dog but chews things she shouldn’t and destroys her toys. She is very toy motivated, so I used toys as her reward. I noticed that she would chew off the small pieces of the toys and swallow them. I didn’t think anything of it, the pieces were small, and they always passed. One day at work a dog came in with a foreign body, after that, I was completely freaked out. I monitored her toys, she wasn’t allowed to have any unattended, and they were always put away. Well, I always put them away.
However, (one Tuesday night in August) I arrived home from work and Adele was acting very strange. She was avoiding me, hiding and lying in the middle of the driveway. I thought maybe she was just mad at me. Then she started vomiting, multiple times, yellow bile. She looked painful and was hunched. I knew at that point she had a foreign body.
I brought her into the clinic and took a radiograph. Sure enough, something showed up. I was extremely lucky that Dr. Edwards was able to come in and perform an exploratory. It was late at night, and we were in surgery for 1.5 hours. Adele recovered well, and the foreign body was 3 pieces of a soccer ball.
When I first got Adele I signed her up for a 6-week insurance trial. I continued it because of all the things I see at work. The moral of the story is accidents happen, and they can be costly to treat. Having insurance enabled me to afford treatment for Adele and not having to make a difficult decision. If you are really against insurance, start a bank account for your animal. Put a small amount in weekly or monthly. Any little bit can help. It will help you make a decision for your furry family member without worrying about finances. Hopefully, this is something you will never be faced with.
Written by: Monica Snider, RVT
