Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Embrace Pet Insurance is a COSE finalist

Today is a good day to toot our own horn for once - toot toot! As an entrepreneur, I generally only get dinged by other companies ("nice idea but come back when you are something," "I'd just put my dog down anyway," "why don't you come and work for us instead" - you get the idea), so to be recognized in some public forum by people apart from my mom and my husband is greatly appreciated.

In that vein and as a nice confidence builder, Embrace Pet Insurance was honored as a finalist in the Northeast Ohio Business Plan Challenge run by the Counsel of Smaller Enterprises (COSE). I'm not sure exactly what our prize package is because it's being personally delivered tomorrow, but I think we get $1,000 and a package of helpful services, including a year's membership to COSE. Every little bit helps and a pat on the back is always welcome. Thanks COSE!

COSE Press Release

A Milk-Bone Ornament - starring your pup

You can now get a Milk-Bone box as a Christmas tree ornament with your pet's face on it. I went and created my own ornament with Rosie, my parents' eldest child, (now that Deb and I have moved out!) and you can see the result to the left. As the small print says, the real thing will have your dog's picture in silhouette and look much nicer.

Thanks to Jackie at Church of the Customer for pointing this out. The folks at On the Package, who are running this campaign, sent her a picture of a completed Milk-Bone ornament with Mini on the cover (on the right). What a cutey!

Amanda Jones - dog and cat photographer extraordinaire

Last Friday, I went to a fundraiser put on by the Cleveland Animal Protective League (APL) at a local art gallery. There I met Amanda Jones, one of the leading US pet photographers. Her pictures have an uncanny knack of capturing the personality of the dog or cat, not just taking a portrait, which is what makes her photos very appealing.

Funnily enough, there was an article in the NY Times Style section this weekend about Amanda and her clients. Unfortunately you need a subscription to read it after this week, but I thought you might like this excerpt:

In addition to doing portraits (her work is online at amandajones.com), Ms. Jones has also published three books featuring dog photographs, the last of which, "Dachshunds Short and Long" (Berkley), came out in October. To find models, she posted a request on Craigslist for fit, well-behaved and well-groomed dachshunds, a strategy, she said, that provided mixed results. "I had one girl tell me she had the most beautiful long-haired dachshund in the world," Ms. Jones said. "Then she showed up for the shoot and the dog was probably seven pounds overweight and not that cute at all. And she barked at me the whole time."

Allison McCabe, Ms. Jones's editor, was also on the shoot. "There was a lot of naked ambition of people who wanted their dogs on the cover," Ms. McCabe said. "Some people were fine, but others made me think of 'Best in Show.' They'd say, 'My dog didn't have enough time.' Or, 'My dog was just getting warmed up.' "

Ms. McCabe, who recently left Berkley for Random House, first discovered Ms. Jones's work a couple years ago, when she was seeking a photographer for a book on greyhounds. "There's a lot of pet photography that's very cloying, very sentimental," Ms. McCabe said. "Amanda gets past that. She has a good rapport with dogs and gets them to be themselves on camera - she gets the expression in their eyes that you see and say, 'Yes, that's my dog.' "

First Cloned Dog Invention of the Year?

Apparently, Time magazine has picked the first cloned dog as the invention of the year. Hard to think of a living being as an invention isn't it?

Article

Non-invasive veterinary surgery

One of my friends, Jeff Solomon, is one of the cofounders of SEVS - the Society of Endovascular Veterinary Surgery. He and his partner, Chick Weisse, have set up the society to pioneer the science of minimally invasive therapy through educating and training veterinarians, conducting research, and establishing standards of care. Given that Jeff is a human doctor and Chick is a veterinarian, they are basically transfering advanced technology and skills from human medicine to veterinary medicine. How cool is that?

Why would they do this? There are many benefits of non-invasive surgery: reduced scar formation, lower blood loss, and fewer infections, and a reduction in the risk of other complications. Recovery time is also shortened and many procedures can be done on an outpatient basis. All of the above add up to a much more comforable surgical experience for your dog or cat, as well as significant reduction in cost as well. Sounds like a win-win to me.

So what do Jeff, Chick and the other members of SEVS actually do? They educate vets on non-invasive surgery techniques and give donated time and materials to specific cases that could use their expertise. 

Here are a couple of interesting case studies: one is the first ever minimally invasive treatment of a liver shunt in a cat; the other is the treatment of a collapsing trachea in a Yorkshire Terrier, a condition that many miniature and toy dogs are prone to getting.In addition, they have procedures for killing tumors and fixing uncontrollable nosebleeds, or "intractable epistaxis", which sounds minor but can be a life threatening condition.

There are also some really lovely testimonials for this procedure.

If you are interested in learning more about SEVS and what they are doing for cats and dogs, check out www.SEVS.org.

Related Posts:
Dr. Chick Weisse - developing the future of veterinary surgery
Treating tracheal collapse in dogs - Dr Chick Weisse
Looking for a veterinary surgeon in the US or Canada?
Repairing a tracheal collapse in dogs
Collapsing Trachea in a dog
New York Times - Cat and Dog Obesity
Dog choking on a ball
Big vet bills and no pet insurance?

Sample vet bill

Thanks to our local animal vet, Barnes's foot is much better and he's back to normal - thank goodness for antibiotics (thank you Alexander Fleming).

In retrospect, even though I have pet insurance for Barnes through a competitor, I was worried that there would be a lot of expense associated with Barnes's foot such as X-rays, foot casts etc. After all, I have a $200 deductible, 80% copay and have to pay the bill up front and wait 3-months to get paid back (this company is a bit slow paying their claims).

When I did take Barnes in, It turned out not to be the case but it still wasn't cheap. Here's a break down of the expense - this will be different at every vet's office and keep in mind, we're located in suburban Chagrin Falls, not a major urban area.

Office visit:$36.50

CBC-In house: $24.50 (complete blood count, which tells the vet if there is an infection, anemia, or a blood clotting disease, among other things)

VetScan Diagnostic Profile - Feline: $61.00 (an overall analysis of the blood that tests things like levels of creatinine, which are important for kidney function,  blood urea nitrogen, mineral levels, blood sugar levels, amylase, etc.)

Amoxi-Drop 50 mg 30 ml: $17.35

Total: $139.35

At least Barnes didn't need an X-Ray this time.

Bubblegum flavored antibiotics?!

At our recent vet visit, our doctor gave me the option of giving Barnes antibiotic pills or liquid. I normally would give pills as I don't have much difficulty giving them to Barnes (although he can be quite wily about stuffing them in his cheek and spitting them out if I'm not precise about inserting to the back of his mouth) but I chose the liquid since I thought that it would be easier on his paw for some reason (something to do with perhaps Barnes struggling more with the pills than the liquid - what was I thinking?!).

So, I take the liquid (Amoxi-drop made by Pfizer) home and what do you know, it's pink and bubblegum flavored! It just goes to show the extension of human medications into the animal world.

Advice to medication manufacturers from a pet lover and mother of young children: even if you don't want to do anything about the bubblegum flavor for pets (fish or chicken might be nice), could you do something about the color for both pets and children (which is obviously where the flavor is really targeted)? Make it clear and non-staining for example? That would save the parents a lot of cleaning up at the least.

The Importance of Dental care for Cats and Dogs

Having been around cats pretty much all my life, I have come across a number of times when they have needed dental care in response to problems that have occured - broken teeth, periodontal disease, gingivitis, etc.. I was thinking about dental care (prompted by the picture of Churchill and his pearly whites) and took a look at the AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association) site on the topic of oral care.

AAHA has some really good information on dental care for pet lovers (when in doubt, do see what the experts say) but one fact that stood out to me, which is right at the end of the article (AAHA - you really should lead with this fact, it's a big attention grabber), is that good dental care for a cat or dog can extend his or her life by 5 years. That's kind of like saying if we didn't brush our teeth every day, we'd live 35 years less than you'd expect - wow!

If you are interested in more details, check out the AAHA's Dental Care Guidelines for Cats and Dogs. And if you really want to get involved in your pet's dental care, check out this article on brushing teeth at home.

Barnes's foot

Poor Barnes! He's been walking on three legs since Saturday and looks to be in quite a bit of pain so we're off to the vet this afternoon. He was limping with his left front paw on Friday but I couldn't find any obvious source of pain like a thorn or cut on his foot or a sore shoulder or leg so I figured I'd wait and see what happened with it.

Now his foot is really swollen (even under all his fluff) so he's definitely done something bad and he won't put any pressure on it at all. It's obviously very painful for him so we'll check in with our new vet this afternoon and see what they say. My guess is that he jumped down from a window ledge and landed on an acorn and sprained his paw wrist. Ouch! I hope it's not worse than that for him. He does love his freedom.

Ellie, our 22 month old daughter, tried to make him feel better last night by telling him stories out of her books at the chair he was curled up in. I'm sure that helped cheer him up!

Update 1 Tuesday: the diagnosis is in - Barnes has an infection in his foot. We'll know for sure if he responds to the antibiotics the vet gave him but after shaving Barnes's paddy paw and a close look and feel of the tender area, she concluded that there were no broken bones or sprains, just lots of swelling. Finger's crossed that the drugs do the trick. Wonder how he got the infection? Better not walk around outside in bare feet!

Update 2 Wednesday: yes, it definitely was an infection in his foot as Barnes is much better now. Before the antibiotics, he just slept in the basement all day, only coming up for some food every now and then. Now he bugs me for strokes at my desk, meows demandingly for his food, and puts weight on his paw once more. I'd say he's definitely on the mend.

Oh my! Really Chic Dog Beds

Ever been embarrassed by your dog bed when company comes over? Well, if you have a few dollars to spare, then check out the Pet Revolution dog beds and accessories by the Canadian company Start Revolution. Their dog beds are ultra-modern and ultra-chic.

I'm not sure if the prices are in Canadian dollars (let's hope so) but the beds range from $399 to $799, depending on the model. They are gorgeous though. Wonder what the dogs think - perhaps this is equivalent to their personal throne...?

Thanks to Luxist for bringing this to my attention - such a cool blog for wannabe billionaires.