Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Gear for handicapped dogs

I have seen pictures of dogs with carts on wheels instead of back legs but I never knew you could actually buy items such as these. I thought someone made them specially.

Now I know better. I just stumbled across a website called handicappedpets.com that sells all sorts of items for dogs (I couldn't find any cat stuff but I didn't check every page) that:

• help them walk (carts, slings, ramps, steps, etc.) ;
• keep them dry (diapers, flushable poop bags, leaky-pet beds, etc.);
• protect their feet (regular, active and health); and
• help them heal (collars, splints, boots, coats, life vests, etc.)

...and so on. There's way more stuff to find on this website.

If you have a dog with a sore paw that needs to keep a dressing clean, they have special boots for that that actually stay on - a miracle.

Pet pharmacies online

Welcome to the most comprehensive list of pet pharmacies online. Check out the list on the left hand side of the screen - there are a lot of companies listed there for your review.

Phew - that was much more work than I thought. Can you believe that there are at least 23 companies that sell into the US (a few Canadian companies are also included as they ship to the US). I am sure I missed a few more pet med companies so please let me know if you know of others.

Good luck reviewing them all!

Cat or Dog Life Insurance

Pet life insurance - is there such a thing and how does it work?

Unfortunately, most pet insurers do not cover life insurance. Why is that? That is because it's uncertain whether there is insurance interest involved. This means that it is not obvious that the person who benefits from the payout of a life insurance policy on a cat or dog must care more about keeping the pet alive than receiving the payout on death. It's a bit clearer to insurers that there is insurable interest between a parent and a child, although the amount of insurance you can get on a child is very low just for this same reason.

Unfortunately, with cats and dogs, insurable interest is hard to measure and that's why you can't get a stand-alone life insurance policy on your dog or cat's life. You can imagine all sorts of situations where unscrupulous people might adopt a dog or cat and oops, she suddenly dies in an accident a short while later. Or a stud dog who can't perform and is taking up space and food in the kennel, oops, suddenly ingests rat poison by mistake and dies. By the way, I'm not suggesting that any of you would do this. In fact, if you are reading this blog, you are most certainly not likely to do this but you can imagine others out there who think differently than us about our cats and dogs.

You can get some limited pet life insurance through a pet health insurance policy although, I believe that the PetCare program is the only one with an accidental death benefit up to the value of the purchase price of the dog; however, it is bundled in with the health insurance and is not a stand-alone benefit. It doesn't help you though if you have a breeding dog and want to insure him or her to protect against loss of earnings due to death. That product is a long way off, if it ever appears on the market.

Do you know your dog or cat's real age?

As a follow up to my post earlier this week about letting Barnes go outdoors, a friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a couple of websites that calculate an equivalent human age for your cat or dog.

The websites are www.DogAge.com and www.CatAge.com and they are pretty interesting. You can learn more about the kinds of things that lengthen and shorten a cat or dog's expected lifespan (letting Barnes out unsupervised shortens his life span by 6.1 years, keeping his weight down by feeding him quality food lengthens it by 5.67 years). I see that Purina are big sponsors of the site so some of the questions I think probably are more for their benefit than yours but they aren't overly intrusive so don't let that put you off.

I'm pleased to say that Barnes is approx. 65 years old in human years and about 15 years younger than the average cat his age. Must be all the lovin' we're giving him. Actually, I mistakenly put in that Barnes was underweight the first time around and that had him at around 79 years old. When I changed his weight to normal, that made a whopping 14 years difference in his equivalent human age - I didn't know being underweight was such a health hazard for cats.

Check the sites out and see what your pooch or puss's real age is.

Mini, the Cannes movie star!

I knew that Jackie and Ben were crazy over their mascot Mini, but this is what happens when doting pet parents get a new Mac and make a holiday video.

(be patient when you click the picture; the video will come up but it might take a while)

I almost choked laughing while watching Mini's visit to Santa. Mini behaved just like any toddler would when forced to sit on the lap of a stranger. Quite the hoot! I'm still smiling over it.

Thanks Jackie and Ben!

Should I let my cat outdoors?

Barnes has been a bit of a sloth as of late since the weather has turned distinctly wintery here in Cleveland (and he blames me!). He hasn't been outside at all for about a week, although he keeps asking and then stalking away from the open door when I offer the reat outdoors. I think he remembers the time that he got his paw fur stuck to my patio doors in Toronto once. I heard him yowling and I rushed out to see what animal was attacking him, only to find him tugging at his paw stuck on the door desperately. He must have melted some snow under his paw and then put it on the metal door to ask to be let back in (just like getting your tongue stuck on a frozen railing). Luckily, it was only the fur that got stuck but he wouldn't go out for a while in the winter after that.

I was thinking of cats going outdoors lately because I recently talked to our neighbor who adopted 2 cats a couple of years ago at Christmas. Dave told me that one of the rules for adopting the cats (they were kittens then) was that he had to promise never to let the cats outside, which goes against what I believe is right for cats. If you do a search on the web, you'll see though that many people agree with keeping cats indoors - there is a lot of vocal support for it.

While I let my cats outside (rarely at night if I can help it), all my cats are vaccinated and spayed or neutered too, which significantly reduces the risks from going outside (far fewer cat fights and they roam less). There are still risks that they will catch an infectious disease, get bitten by a wild animal, get run over, or be abused, and that's a decision each pet guardian has to make for herself/himself. Do you override the cat's natural instinct to enjoy the outdoors for their safety? Each pet lover is different. To me, the decision is no different than the choices you make on the limits and freedoms you give your children.

There are still risks for indoor cats. They can still have accidents (take my friend Peter's cat who ate dental floss and nearly died from the result) and they can get into trouble because they are bored. Indoor cats also are much more sedentary and often more overweight than their outdoor counterparts, and are more likely to get illnesses such as diabetes and skin conditions as a result. Indoors does nto mean risk free or behavior problem free by any means.

I often see it quoted that indoor cats live long lives (around 13-15 years) while outdoor cats live only 3-5 years. This is true for purely outdoor cats; however, most pet lovers let their cats out for limited periods during the day, not 24 hours a day. I don't know what part-timers' life span is, but it's much longer than 3-5 years for sure.

I prefer quality over quantity of life. How about you?

WagginTails - ultra premium cat and dog food

Since I converted my cat Barnes over to super-premium cat food (and what a difference to his fur and health it has made), I have been interested in the different brands and types of dog and cat foods out there. There are quite a few and the pricing is not much more than the more well-known premium foods.

One place where you can get a very interesting variety of foods and other accessories online is at WagginTails. They have come a long way since I started looking at them in 2003 (including a very nice new website and an expanded line up of foods, accessories and even people foods). They are one of the few companies that have managed to work their way around the connundrum of making money selling pet food online, which is often bogged down by the cost of shipping.

Here's a sample of their newsletters - simple and to the point. If you want to learn more, check out their website. Just so you know, I did know someone who used to be on their board before he did his MBA (his company helped finance WagginTails) but I have no ties with the company at the moment.

Pet-related small business trends 2006

I'm a big fan of Anita Campbell's at Small Business Trends for a number of reasons - she always knows what's she's talking about, her blog entries always make good reading that I can relate to, and best of all, she's from Cleveland. Her blog is always rated very highly out of all of those in the US, even being elevated to the Forbes Favorite this last summer. That's big!

So when she asked me if I would write up some small business trends for the pet industry for her website, I jumped at the opportunity. There are lots of pet trends out there on the web but nothing focused on the business side of things so I thought I'd take a stab at it. Let me know what you think - did I miss anything?

Check out the entry here.

Coping with your dog's cancer

Dealing with cancer in your dog can be just as devestating as dealing with it in any other family member. In the Cleveland area, there's an organization called Millie's Millions that is trying to make a difference to those people who have found out their dog has cancer. They offer a mentoring program and some resources to educate yourself on your situation.

I'm sure there are many other organizations like this around the US - any others you'd like to add to the list?

Dog Flu Virus

If you want to learn a little more about the dog flu that has been going around from a reputable source, check out the fact page at the University of Pennsylvania's Veterinary School.

September 20, 2005

A flu virus has been isolated from dogs in Florida and New York. There is no evidence that this virus can infect humans. The virus can be transmitted from dog to dog by nasal discharge and causes a flu-like illness that looks like kennel cough. Your vet should consider dog flu in dogs that have a cough.

Some dogs that come into contact with the virus will get the flu. The symptoms may be very mild or moderate, rarely causing death. The animals most likely to catch the flu will be very young, very old, and those that are already sick. ...

The rest is here and there is more detailed information here.