Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

Does your pet have a coyote problem?

One of the accidents an Embrace Pet Insurance policy covers is attack by another animal and luckily for our Embraced pets, it's not as frequent as some other accidents.

Last night, one of our policyholders, Arthur, chatted back and forth with me online about Pancho, his 1 year old Pomeranian, who he recently rescued from the jaws of a coyote in the backyard of his California house.

Hello Laura, Happy Holidays to you and your Embrace staff.

Pancho was just saved from the jaws of a coyote in our backyard. Normally, I leave the bedroom door open a crack for Pancho to go out and do his duty. It was at 8:30 on a bright, sunny Sunday morning. I heard Pancho bark, once, in the back yard. This is not normal. If he barks, it's in front and for an extended period or until he gets my attention.

I looked out the window of my office to see him dangling limply from a large coyote's jaws. I knocked loudly on the window and rushed out the back door toward the beast. He dropped Pancho in a lifeless heap on the ground, jumped up on the retaining wall and ran up the hill about 50 feet, stopped and turned around. I grabbed the barely breathing Pancho and rushed him into the house to call my Vet. Finally, after some rhythmic thoracic massage, Pancho started breathing regularly. He was in a state of shock.

With Pancho still in my arms, I walked out to see if the coyote had left. He was still sitting, looking down at us from 50 feet away. Yelling did not phase him. I pulled one of the fixed climbing ropes taught to move a tree branch. That worked to move the coyote further up the hill, but as of yesterday morning he was still there, waiting for my dog or any other pet to cross his eye line. I have since found that this is becoming a recurring problem in our neighborhood. There are lots of feral cats that make easy prey, but a dog like Pancho is even easier. So, we are spending more time in doors and only venture out if we are together and never at night.

The doctor examined Pancho on Monday morning and administered an antibiotic for the puncture wound on his neck. He will be fine, but I will never forget. Everyone needs to know how vulnerable their pets are to local predators. Much of my yard is a steep slope with plenty of foliage for these creatures to hide. Now, I am extra watchful for varmints in search of easy meals. Cheers, Arthur

After I expressed my dismay at the horror for both of them, and asked if I could share Pancho's story on the blog as an example for Accident Month, Arthur wrote back:

Sure, please use this as an example. There are predators in our midst, even in the most civilized environments. When I have told this story to local dog owners, each of them has their own horrifying tale of coyotes. One lady said that a coyote den was discovered by a nearby equestrian center and in it were found many dog and cat collars. Pancho and I are very lucky. BTW, Pancho is reluctant to venture into our yard even if I am with him. He saves what's inside until we go to the park. Arthur

Eeks - that would open your eyes wide open to the natural world. Poor Pancho :(

I've seen some coyotes on the outskirts of our village in NE Ohio so I'm really hoping they don't venture in further. Lily and the kittens get into enough trouble without an outside predator's help. I'd rather not test their pet insurance policies that way.

What kind of wildlife do you see around your neighborhood. Are they the worrying kind?

Wall Street Journal covers pet insurance

The WSJ put out an interesting article today on pet insurance "Polly Want An Insurance Policy?". I'll leave it for you to read the details but it's quite comprehensive in what it covers.

Here's a nifty summary table from the article for your review:

 And as an added bonus, the comments make for interesting reading. Make sure to check them out too.

Accident Month - Rocket uses two of her nine lives in a month Part 2

Continuing yesterday's post on Rocket's accidental "adventures", here's Accident #2.

[Just so you know in advance, no kittens were harmed in the making of this story.]

Last Monday night, I was multi-tasking the laundry downstairs with some blogging and email catch up in my office upstairs. It was about 11:30pm.

You know the routine: buzzer goes, run downstairs, fold prior load of laundry, pull next load from washer to dryer, put in next washer load, press go, run back upstairs again... repeat 5 times (kiddy laundry does go on and on and on...)

So, all this runnning up and down stairs gets the kittens all in a quiver. What is this very exciting activity and how can we get into mischief in it? And so they bound up and down the stairs, boing in and out of every laundry basket, and chase every sock thrown into the laundry hamper. Such an adventure!

And Rocket keeps jumping in the dryer. Why not? It's warm and cozy and seems like a very good idea to a 4 month old kitten. 

Every time she'd do it, I'd have horrors of a tumbling kitten while I pulled her out and put her across the laundry room. But she'd soon be back in as I continued folding the laundry. So I pull her out for the last time after the last piece of clothing was done, then I put the clothes from the washer into the dryer, closed the door and switched the dryer on.

[Remember, no kittens were harmed in the making of this story - just in case you were getting anxious.]

So, as I was loading the washer with yet more laundry, I couldn't help notice the clunking in the dryer. What is that noise? Did I wash one of the girls' shoes by mistake? I finished loading the laundry, put in the detergent, started the laundry and that noise kept bonking and clunking.

[no kittens were hurt in this story - just remember that]

So I opened the door to see what was going on and my heart literally stopped - Rocket rocketed out from under the towels "me-elping" (no other word to describe it). I'll never forget it.

I was rooted to the spot. I felt ill. My life rushed before my eyes. I ran after her.

By the time I caught up with a very frightened kitten, her heart was beating out of her chest, her face was so afraid. I picked her up and her breathing slowed down and the purring began. I felt so awful; what had I done? How could I have been so careless? How could I not have realized immediately what had happened? (I still don't know how she got back in - must have been when I reached into the washer to pull out the last sock.)

Rocket tumbled around in the dryer for at least 10 seconds. FOR AT LEAST 10 SECONDS :(

Miraculously, Rocket is fine. She was lining up for food with Rosie when I put her down just a few minutes later as if nothing had happened. I do marvel at the elasticity of kittens (but do not test this at home - take my word for it).

Boy oh boy though, I'll be locking the kittens up early when I do laundry next time. An angel was watching over Rocket that day; there's no guarantees she'll be there next time around.

So Rocket, please don't give me any cause for Part 3 of this series. We love you in one piece with no broken bits. No more kitty adventures. We like a quiet life.

Accident Month at Embrace - literally. I think January is going to be Wellness Month...

Accident Month - Rocket uses two of her nine lives in a month Part 1

I consider myself a good cat mom. I feed my three cats (actually 1 cat & 2 skitty kittens) quality food (Wellness, Solid Gold, and Holistic Select at the moment), I take them to the vet regularly, I give them lots and lots of loves, and I try to keep them out of harm's way.

But no matter how much I anticipate all the harm that can happen, little Rocket seems to find a way to get herself into trouble, and I'm talking serious trouble.

Let's start with Accident #1.

Rocket and Rosie, age 9 weeks old, are racing around the house with their usual evening energy burst. The girls (the two-legged variety) are in bed asleep and John and I are in our offices upstairs working. At about 10pm, when I'm deep in the delights of claims data, I hear this distant but distinct "meoof" and I had this immediate and awful knowledge of what had happened.

Rocket had run right through the bannisters on the first floor and fallen 9 feet on to the tiled entryway floor below! Meoof indeed :( 

I'd seen the kittens running around at the top of the stairs and it had fleetingly crossed my mind that perhaps they could fit though the gaps but didn't think more of it (we had the bannisters put in to regulation when we moved in the house 3 years ago so the gaps are very narrow). Retrospectively, I imagined Rocket running right through a gap to thin air and dropping like a stone with a Wile E. Coyote look on her face but that's just my way of coping with my feeling of being a bad mom and allowing this to happen. But I digress...

I ran downstairs and saw Rocket awake on the floor but in a dazed state with her head up just staring ahead. I carefully picked her up and felt along her body for painful spots and there were none. I put her on a chair and checked her eye dilation compared to Rosie's (who was rather "helpfully" trying to play with poor Rocket at the time) and all looked well. But when she started walking, she was staggering around and did not seem herself so off we went to the emergency clinic at 10:20 pm.

Thankfully Rocket turned out to be fine but she did have to stay overnight just to be sure her low hemoglobin levels were normal for a kitten, not from internal bleeding. Apparently she snuggled in the Board-certified specialist's hoodie all night, happy as can be. The bill ended up at around $350 for that episode.

BTW, when I got home that night, John had wrapped the bannisters upstairs in plastic wrap - this is not going to happen again!

Ironically, given that I'm the CEO of a pet insurance company, none of the veterinary costs were covered by Rocket's pet insurance policy as she was still in her 2 week waiting period. Even with perfectly random accidents, the waiting period applies. For future though, given this rather rocky start to her life, I think we're definitely going to be needing the accident portion of the insurance for sure! 

I'll write about Accident #2 tomorrow - I'm still recovering from that one.

[picture is Rocket posing at the top of the plastic-wrapped bannisters - not the sharpest tool in the shed that one! But we love her even so]

Embrace Pet Insurance Jobs - new Facebook group

I'm trying an experiment and I'd like your thoughts on it.

I've set up a Facebook group Embrace Pet Insurance Jobs to post job postings, info on Embrace, silly stuff that we do at work, Embracer pet antics, and so on. We are looking for tech-savvy folks who like a bit of a treasure hunt and I'm hoping we are going to find that kind of person with this method.

If you want to apply for a job, you have to join the group to learn about the details (at least I think it's somewhat restricted - you tell me if that's the case). It's a bit of a work in progress but given that people have noticed it already, I thought it wouldn't harm to reveal it far and wide.

So I'm curious about what you think of this. What do you think?

Would it make you more interested, less interested, no different? Is it a useful way to learn about a position and a company?

I await your comments...

Guest Post: Three Surprising, and Even Excruciating, Dog Accidents

Today, we have a guest post from Dr. Rex Riggs, owner of Best Friends Veterinary Hospital in Powell, Ohio. He is a veterinarian, and an Advisory Board member of Embrace Pet Insurance. Dr. Riggs writes about orthopedic issues from a small animal practioner's perspective.

Dr. Riggs writes about three dog accidents he's seen in his clinic - from the unexpected to the excruciating. Don't worry though - all the dogs survive thanks to their excellent veterinary care.

Beware! These stories are not for the faint of heart. And whatever you do, do not look at the pictures at the bottom too closely if you are squeamish (really!) Don't say I didn't warn you.
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Dogs will do crazy things. They are unpredictable and just when you are sure they can’t hurt themselves, they will surely surprise you. I have included three such surprising events.

1. Surprise! Puppies really can eat - just not what you'd expect...

A lady with her small four year old daughter came in with their rambunctious 16 week old Golden Retriever puppy. The puppy seemed happy to be at the vet as he was running around inspecting all the corners of the exam room.

The little girl though had a concerned look on her face. I asked her why she brought her little puppy in to see me. She said that her puppy, Sadie, had just eaten one of her daddy’s golf balls. Being an avid golfer, I just happened to have a golf ball in my office (you have to practice your putting!). I showed the ball to the little girl and explained that Sadie was unable to swallow a ball that size. She insisted that she saw her do it. So to prove to her that her dog would be fine I decided to take an X-ray.

I was right. Sadie had not swallowed a golf ball… she had swallowed three golf balls! Just imagine swallowing one ball and thinking it was such a great idea that you would swallow 2 more! I showed the X-ray to Mom and $1800 later, I presented her with her husband’s three PINK golf balls.

2. A Family Dog Fight Turns Into Major Plastic Surgery for a Little Pug

Madison is an adorable little pug that has been visiting our practice for years. She is gentle little soul that would not hurt a fly. Unfortunately for her, her mom’s boyfriend’s Husky was not as congenial. Madison was attacked and had several bite wounds on her body.

Madison presented to us bloody and in shock. We admitted her and aggressively treated her shocky condition and she was hospitalized with us for a number of days. She was sent home on antibiotics and some good pain medication.

On the recheck exam though, I saw that Madison’s skin was so damaged that it was dying and sloughing off. She had lost about 50 % of her skin on her right leg and neck. Since she did not have enough skin to suture together the conventional way, we had to do a plastic surgical procedure called a rotating pedicle flap. This involved moving the skin from her belly, including the mammary glands, and rotating that skin around, while maintaining a good blood supply, and suturing it in to place.

This is a delicate long surgery but it was successful and Madison looks great today after the $3700 treatment. The only difference now is that she has two nipples on her knee!

[if you are interested, I have posted pictures of the procedure down below - don't look though if you faint at the sight of blood]

3. What Can Happen Throwing a Stick for Fun - Nothing Fun At All For Dolly the Lab Mix

Probably the strangest and most unusual accident happened with Dolly, a lab mix. Dolly is a happy fun loving dog who lives to chase balls and sticks. She would do this for hours upon hours with her owner, Sally.

On this particular day, Sally was throwing a 3 foot long stick. Dolly eagerly would run after the stick and retrieve and wait to chase it again. Sally launched the stick and Dolly happily took chase. Dolly put her head down to get the stick and froze. Sally called her and Dolly would not move.

Sally ran up to her but the stick was nowhere to be found. She tried to lift Dolly’s head when she noticed the tip of the stick in her mouth. The stick had landed on end and Dolly had impaled the stick down her throat.

Sally rushed her in to see us and when they arrived, Dolly was very calm, wagging her tail for me. We sedated her and realized that the stick had traveled down her esophagus, exited at the level of the shoulder traveled under the shoulder blade and ended outside of the ribs.

It was a dicey surgery but we were able to removed the stick with remarkably little trauma to the esophagus. A couple of weeks after the $2500 surgery, Dolly was again out running after…..a ball. Never again a stick.

Related Posts: other posts by Dr Riggs
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Perhaps a few lessons learned from these? I think so!

Dr. Rex Riggs grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio, near Akron. Dr Riggs is co-owner of Best Friends Veterinary Hospital in Powell, Ohio. He is also on the board of the North Central Region of Canine Companions of Independence, a board member of The Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine Alumni Society and Small Animal Practitioner Advancement Board at The Ohio State College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Riggs lives in Lewis Center with his wife Nancy, their two dogs Boo and Maggie, and two cats Franklin and Speeder. Outside of work, Dr. Riggs is an avid golfer and enjoys travel and photography.

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Announcement: Embrace Pet Insurance partners with The International Cat Association TICA

Ooh ooh! Some exciting news I've been dying to share.

We at Embrace Pet Insurance have partnered with The International Cat Association (TICA) to provide discounts and pet health insurance education to TICA's members and pet owners.

While I do love dogs (having grown up with many different canine characters through to my adulthood), I've most recently had only cats in the house (young family, young company, neglected husband - no time to care properly for a dog - yet!) so I'm very happy with this relationship. Cats get the short end of the stick when it comes to pet insurance so hopefully our relationship with TICA will change that.

Here's my favorite part of the press release:

"Other organizations have associations with other pet insurance companies but Embrace not only provides what we consider the best insurance coverage compared to other companies, but Embrace also shares the same philosophy about cat welfare as TICA," said Fisher. "That is important to our members and it is why we chose to partner with Embrace."

About The International Cat Association
Organized during 1979, The International Cat Association (TICA) is the world's largest genetic registry of pedigreed cats, largest registry of household pet cats and kittens, and one of the world's largest sanctioning bodies for cat shows. TICA currently recognizes more than 54 breeds of cats. No matter where you are, you’re in TICA’s world. A world of fabulous felines…fun…and friendships. To learn more about TICA visit http://www.tica.org/

Picture courtesy of Emily Krooglik, age 6 (daughter of Alex Krooglik, co-founder of Embrace) - it's her modernistic tribute to her black cat Mila. Don't you think it's awesome?!

December is all about Accidents at Embrace Pet Insurance

With the Christmas season coming up, I thought it a good idea to focus on accidents since there are so many opportunities for unexpected events to occur during the festivities.

Lots of food within easy reach, distracted people letting the indoor cat out, strains - or worse - from romping in the snow with the family. You get the idea. 

So, I perused the Embrace Pet Insurance claims data and pulled out the following information about the accidents our Embraced pets have (the greater the ++++, the greater the number of that particular type of accident):

Dogs

++++ Puncture wounds or lacerations – basically a collection of cut paws (mostly), legs, ears and nose. Don’t get your foot caught in the door or walk on sharp rocks is all I can say there.

+++   Ingestion of a foreign body – ranges from swallowing underwear to kumquats to toys, rocks, pennies, sticks, gloves, and even handwarmers (next highest cost)

+++   Cruciate ligament tears – from sudden emergencies to chronic issues culminating in surgery (highest cost)

++ Soft tissue injuries – generally playing or exercising too hard and causing limping that heals itself reasonably readily

+    Poisoning – ingestion of prescription meds, vitamins and other supplements, acetaminophen, rat or ant poison, xylitol

+   Torn toenails – just what it sounds like

+   Bites – other dogs, cats, raccoons

Cats

++++ Ingestion of a foreign body – ranges from bra straps to plastic mesh to grass, and even a needle (ouch!)

++++ Automobile accidents - when they happen, they are very very expensive. Sadly, most cats do not live after being in a direct accident

++ Soft tissue injuries – limping of an unknown cause that heals itself reasonably readily

++ Bites – mainly fights with other cats

+    Fractures – mainly feet and tails from being outside

+    Fan belt injury – hanging out in a warm car => not good :(

I also suspect that cat poisoning would be up there but we often do not see them because they just go off and die from ingesting poison before they make it to the emergency room.

Good pet insurance has high limits for any eventuality. For example, we recently paid out $10,000 for a cat in a car accident - the full year's limit. More on that later in the month.

What accidents have you seen your pets get into? Was it costly?