Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

To treat or not to treat Cushing's Disease

Over at Wellsphere, I had a heart-breaking question on one of my Cushing's Disease posts that I thought worth sharing here. The answer is from our esteemed veterinary consultant, Dr. Heather Carleton.

Question:

I have a minature schnauzer, Kizzie. She turned 11 in Feb. She was diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 and enlarged heart. She has been on 3 meds 2 times a day since. She has been to the vet hospital 3 times with pancreatitis and has cost me about $5,000 in medical bills. A couple of months ago she was diagnosed with Cushings.

I love her very much, but am at the breaking point financially with her. She is a member of the family, but for now I have chosen not to treat her with the additional expensive meds that the vet wants to put her on. Do you know the life expectancy of a dog with cushings...with no treatment?

She has just started loosing her fur in the past 2 weeks. She seems tired a lot and a bit weak, but other than that she is in good spirits and is not wimpering or anything like she is in any pain. From what I've read, the best to expect is 20-30 months...with meds...can't find anything out about without meds...If you know, I'd appreciate it!

Answer:

In general, a dog with untreated Cushing's can actually live as long as a treated dog, but will likely have more side effects (over time) from the disease if not treated. Usually treatment for Cushing's is not even recommended unless the dog has clinical signs because treatment does not necessarily change their overall life span - it just keeps them from being polyuric (urinating a lot), polydypsic (drinking a lot), losing their hair, etc.

However, in this case, if the dog is showing signs of weakness, the Cushing's may be having a negative impact on the dog's heart condition, which would be a reason to treat her if financially possible.

Regardless of whether or not this dog is treated, I would monitor her heart disease, especially if weakness persists or she starts coughing.

[from Laura: my heart goes out to you and your dog. Thank you for sharing your real life story]

Note:
As with any of your pet's health conditions, if you are worried about your pet, talk to your veterinarian - the internet is no substitution for an in-person visit.

Related Posts:
Cushing's Disease in Cats and Dogs

Photo courtesy of the Miniature Schnauzer Rescue of Houston - donations welcome

Gratuitous Embrace articles and a Free Webinar

First, a couple of gratuitous mentions of articles highlighting Embrace, the first being "In the Doghouse", an article on the Lloyd's of London website covering heriditary conditions in purebred dogs. With the recent controversial stance by the BBC not to show Crufts, the 118-year old dog show (equivalent to the Westminster Dog Show here in the US), the article talks about different costs for different breeds with a few quotes from me.

The second is an interview I did with Dr. Janet Tobiassen over at the About.com Veterinary Medicine site talking about Embrace and our pet insurance product. Check it out - I'm sure you'll learn something about Embrace you didn't know before.

And finally, join me for a free webinar I'm presenting on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EDT. It's a business blogging case study based on Embrace Pet Insurance and is kindly being hosted by Worksmart Emarketing, based here in Cleveland. Do come and join in the fun.

Time to say good bye to Barnes

As you may know, my cat Barnes has dealing with his kidney disease for a while now - for nearly six years - and he has been doing pretty well all things considered. 

 

As with chronic illnesses like this, he's had his ups and downs but a couple of months ago, he was definitely on an up, galloping around the house with Lily, his little "sister", shaking off the winter blahs. 

 

But then in the last month, his appetite dropped off and he started to loose weight and things started to go down hill from there. I've been hydrating him with sub-Q fluids and we have been working on his food, trying to get him to eat, but to no avail.

 

Early Sunday morning (yesterday), he retired to the basement and only came up because I carried him. Then he couldn't jump up on the bed. Then last night I noticed he'd stopped drinking - a very bad sign for a cat with kidney problems.

 

This morning, when he could hardly walk, we knew it was time to say goodbye to the old fellow and I held him in my arms as he was put to sleep. He looked at me with his lovely green eyes just being with me as he passed on.  

 

Thank you Barnes for your friendship and love. We will sorely miss you.

Related Posts:
Lily and Barnes visit our new office
Update on Barnes
I Heart Barnes
Lily and Barnes at the vet

Support our small pet-related businesses: waggintails

 

I've followed Waggintails for 5 years now. John Gigliotti, the founder, is really passionate about quality foods (read healthy and safe) for pets and has an exceptional online business that satisfies that niche admirably.

So, I was moved to action when I received the email below:

Dear Friend

I lost a good customer the other day. 

I was out of what the product needed, and she was able to find someone else that had it.  “I can’t keep my dogs waiting,” she emailed me.  

She had been with me for three years.  It hurts.

It hurts because I’ve built my whole business on always going the extra mile for my customers and trying hard to earn your loyalty.  And right now, with the economy slumping and with so many of our suppliers hurting, too, it just isn’t possible to always deliver the ship times you’ve come to expect.  I know that puts everyone in a difficult situation.  You can’t feed your dogs and cats apologies.

I could explain it all, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear it.  You may even be hurting, too.  In fact, if you’re feeling the slowdown in your own life or business, you definitely have my empathy. 

I just hope we can get through this together.  I can’t afford to lose another good customer at times like these. 

I wish I could promise things will be better next week or next month, but I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep.  All I can say is, I will continue to do everything I my power to serve you, just as I always have.    

My values haven’t changed, and I know yours haven’t either.   I still sell only products that are good and healthy for pets.  And nothing matters more to my than your pets’ health, and your satisfaction.

There is one thing you can do to help.  If you can place your orders with some extra lead time during these difficult times, it would be very much appreciated.  I don’t want your pets to go hungry or have to switch brands.  And I definitely don’t want to lose another good customer.

With sincere thanks for your business — and your patience,  

John Gigliotti

So if you care about quality pet foods and small business in the US, please visit the Waggintails website.

Better yet, visit the Embrace Pet Community website first and get 10% off non-sale items by clicking through the Featured Partner field top right. We get nothing for your click except the satisfaction that a good business is being supported by people who care.

What do you think of John's email above?

Pet-related Small Business Trends 2009

It's official! Anita Campbell, has posted the detailed Pet Industry Trends for 2009 that I write every year over on her Small Business Trends blog. It's from a small business perspective, a topic dear to my  heart.

In the meantime, here is a summary for you, just in case you didn't have time for the full version.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Pet-related Small Business Trends 2009

Question: is the pet industry recession-proof as many say it is? Answer: 2009 will prove out whether or not pet owners spend on their pets through thick and thin.

The overwhelming pet-related trend in 2009 will be value for money – spending more thoughtfully and spending less. 2009 spending will level off as pet owners pay more attention to their budgets. The top ten trends are:

1. Pet parents will spend, but more thoughtfully than in recent years

Spending on pet supplies and over-the-counter medicines was projected to increase 5.1% in 2008 from $9.8 billion to $10.3 billion according to the American Pet Products Association (APPA) but before the recession announcement. We would not be surprised to see more modest increases in the range of 2% in 2008, continuing on to 2009.

2. Pet services for pets continue to grow

There’s a reason Wal-Mart is testing grooming in its stores and expanding its pet aisle – pet parents are spending good money in this area, even in a recession. More than $3 billion dollars will be spent on pet services in 2008 according to the APPA, which will likely continue to grow in 2009, but at a lower rate than in prior years.

3. Dog’s Star on the Rise for 2009?

The number of cats in the US have long dominated dog numbers (according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, there are more than 72 million pet dogs in the U.S. but nearly 82 million pet cats). Will the new First Dog inspire people with dog allergies to reconsider bringing a dog in-house?

4. Growing interest in pet health care

Pet parents are taking control of their pets’ health care as they do their two legged children. Technology from the human world continues to make its way into the veterinary tool kit including non-invasive surgeries, human medical devices and services being applied to pets. Pet lovers want, and are demanding, the same treatment options for their pets as they can get for themselves.

5. Pet insurance edges towards the mainstream

We estimate the size of the US pet insurance market to be $271 million in premium in 2008, up from approximately $220 million in 2007 (a 23% increase) and we expect 2009 premium to reach $328 million. We project that the market will grow to $500 million by 2012.

6. Hybrids take center stage

Not just popular for cars, recent years saw the popularity of hybrid dogs grow rapidly. As predicted last year, 2008 saw the growth of the puppy farm hybrid to take advantage of the inflated prices people are paying for these dogs. 2009 is only going to get worse in this respect.

7. Increased competition from larger players.

Larger companies are beginning to recognize the economic potential of the pet industry. Target and Wal-Mart are both expanding their pet selection and using pets in their advertising.

8. Large companies hold off buying smaller just when the prices are right.

Some might say that right now is the perfect time for consolidation in the pet industry because of the incredibly low valuations but don’t expect much to happen in the first half of 2009.   

9. Increased online sophistication from new pet-related businesses in ecommerce, design, and usability.

In 2008, a whole slew of new “WebMD for pets” websites appeared, such as WebVet, PetMD, and PetDoc, and we’ll see them battle it out for the lead position in 2009. Newer players are more sophisticated in design and ecommerce, reaching their target audience via web-site usability, search engine optimization, paid search, and word of mouth marketing.

10. Pet-related blogs continue to grow their influence.

The power of pet-related blogs really showed up during the pet food recall in the middle of 2007. Blogs such as Pet Connection, Pet Sit USA and Dolittler continue to provide high quality commentary on all aspects of pet news and issues.

And one final bonus trend that indicates the direction of pet health …

11. The divergence of the veterinary clinic

On the one hand, the advent of advanced human medical tests and treatments in the pet world has led to the growth in private specialty clinics. At the other end of the spectrum, there is good money to be made by a single veterinarian in a practice focusing on pet wellness, without the need for fancy equipment and more than a handful of support staff. We predict this divergence between wellness and accident/illness care in veterinary clinics will grow noticeably over the next five years.
______________________________________________________________________

So there you have it - what do you think the pet trends of 2009, 2010 and beyond will be?

Who or What is PetInsuranceReview.com anyway?

There was a very interesting comment from Chris on a post I did about PetInsuranceReview.com as follows:

I am skeptical about this petinsurancereview site as it does not give any indication as to who is responsible for it's content. Who decides which reviews make it onto the site, and who makes sure that there is no bias. What's more, how does this site pay for its operating costs as it has no visible advertisements, and we all know that no one would maintain a site without a bit of payback... Are the companies themselves involved in this site? Are some companies more involved than others? Very odd...

These are very valid questions that need answers so I asked Mike Hemstreet who runs the site to respond so I could post the answers. Here's his reply to me:

Hi Laura,

Thanks for giving me a chance to respond to the post. I suppose I could do a better job at clarifying these issues on my site. Anyway, here is my answer:

PetinsuranceReview.com is run by Michael Hemstreet and is not affiliated with any insurance company. The goal of the site is to provide objective information and customer reviews to assist pet owners researching pet insurance. The site makes money when a user fills out a form requesting quotes from multiple insurers. This service is available to any pet insurance company that wishes to participate. Whether or not an insurance company chooses to participate has no effect on the content of the site. (Embrace does not participate and they are prominently featured and have one of the highest ratings.)

I take several steps to weed out fraudulent reviews, including scanning the reviewer’s IP address and looking for similar language or sentence structure in multiple posts. While I can’t guarantee the legitimacy of every review, I believe a reader can obtain an accurate view of a company by looking at the cumulative effect of dozens (or hundreds) of reviews.

Mike

I only know Mike from when he contacted us back in September 2006 when he launched the site.

Hope that helps clarify the situation - hopefully Mike will put something up on the site as well. 

Related Posts:
Customer reviews for Embrace Pet Insurance
Pet Insurance Reviews by Customers
Evangelism at its best
Invisible Voices blog entries on pet insurance
"Mo’s How-to guide on getting the most out of pet insurance" on Invisible Voices

Ask Laura: dog weight bearing toe amputation appropriate or not?

I received this question as a comment on my post Toe Amputation for Cats and Dogs and thought I'd pull it out on its own as I get asked this question frequently enough.

Question from Jill Kane:

My dog's rear foot was run over by a car - tearing the pad through to the tendon and ultimately breaking her toe. One option I have is to patiently wait to see if the bones will heal over time (6-8 weeks). This option may not work due to the break. The other option is to amputate her toe. The concern is that it is a weight bearing toe - can this be done with favorable results?

Answer:

Jill, that is an excellent question that I'm definitely not qualified to answer. So, I popped the question off to one of our advisory veterinarians who specializes in orthopedic surgery and this was here answer:

One weight bearing toe can be amputated and the dog should do well, the veterinarian needs to be sure to reconstruct the skin in order to assist with weight distribution.

Also other things to take into consideration is how much of the toe needs to be removed. Are the metatarsals/metacarpals intact, certainly DO NOT remove those. Amputation of just p3 will do better than p2 and p3 as well as p1-p3.... Also, what is the size of the dog? Smaller dogs will do better than larger ones.

[Note that P1, P2, P3 are short for the different "phalanges" or toe bones, which you can see labeled in the illustration to the right]

new pet health websites suddenly popping up

A couple of years or so ago, I was online looking up Barnes's chronic renal failure and I try as I might, I couldn't find the equivalent of WebMD for pets.

Seems that several others not only thought the same, they went ahead and launched it, and now there are at least 6 "pet doctor" sites that I can find vying for your attention:

1. WebVet
2. PetWave
3. PetMD
4. PetDoc
5. Petside
6. MedHelp/pets

What do you think of these sites? Got any favorites I haven't included? Have you found them useful?

Update on Barnes

As you may recall, my cat Barnes had been having some subtle signs that something was amiss with his health (blogged about it in Serious Illness Is Never Expected) so I took him to the vet and we were awaiting test results with the hope he had hyperthyroidism (option 1) and not cardiomyopathy (option 2).

Well, it turned out to be option 3 - worsening of his kidney disease aka chronic kidney failure - and option 2, cardiomyopathy or some such heart issue. Sigh. Not what I'd hoped for.

His BUN (blood urea nitrogen) results were high and his potassium was low so we're working on stabilizing his blood levels and then worrying about his heart. Sigh again.

So, he's on twice weekly subcutaneous fluids (that I give - eek!), a potassium supplement, and Prescription Diet k/d (which Barnes does not like and now refuses to eat without much coaxing.) So, I just ordered Hi-Tor Canned Neo-Diet Feline Canned Kidney Diet to see if he'll eat that since it got rave reviews on Waggin Tails. He's gotta eat...

Fingers crossed this helps. After a recheck in a month, our next stop is heart condition.

Go Barnes Go!

Serious illness is never expected

I've been following the dog health stories two of my blogging friends, Dr. Patty Khuly (Dolittler) and Therese (PetSitUSA), and their dog's cancer treatments lately. Dr Patty's dog, 10 year old Sophie, has a brainstem tumor and Therese's 7 year old dog Lydia has anal gland adenocarcinoma.

It's struck me how calm Patty and Terese have seemed while blogging about the extremely serious health issues their dogs are going through. I can imagine though that behind the scenes, they ponder life, death, and all that is in between and wonder why it should happen to them, knowing there are no answers to that particular question.

Yesterday, I started my own steps down that path with Barnes. Barnes as you might recall is my 13 year old neutered male cat who has kidney disease. He's been doing very well with his kidney issues as I've been able to manage it very well with food (discussed in my blog post Tips for Looking after Cat with Feline Kidney Disease).

But lately, he seems a little off, not himself in a way that only I seem to notice. He's a big cat - larger than a small dog - and an excellent weight for his size. We gave him his summer coat a month or so ago and when all the fluff was shaved off, I thought he looked even slimmer than he normally does but I put that down to the contrast between his real body and his fluff body - he's got a lot of fur!

But for some months now, he's seemed more needy and hungry all the time. And he's got so little body fat and no fur now, he's been hiding under the covers in our bed during the day as it's been a little colder than you'd expect this summer. In all other ways though, he's been great, going outside and wandering all over and being his handsome and gentlemanly self with the kids and Lily, our other cat.

But something continued to nag at me about his health so I took him to our vet yesterday evening and yes, there's something seriously wrong.

Barnes is now 11 lbs compared to the 15 lbs he was 4 months ago and he has a seriously loud heart murmur. My poor baby :(

So, X-rays were taken showing Barnes has an elongated heart (and we saw what we thought was the calcification in his right kidney he'd had from years back) and then we looked at the most likely options.

1. hyperthyroidism: an overactive thyroid gland (cardiomyopathy is a secondary condition for hyperthyroidism)
2. cardiomyopathy as the primary condition: a thickening of the heart

If I had to pick, I'd definitely want it to be option 1 hyperthyroidism, which is definitely manageable. There's an excellent article on Pet Education on hyperthyroidism if you'd like to read more. Barnes has all the signs (even with the average onset age of unlucky 13) and it seems we might have caught it early enough that hopefully we can get him back to abnormal with treatment.

Option 2 Cardiomyopathy by itself is more worrying as no-one knows what causes it and it only leads to bad things, including saddle thrombus (which is my nightmare after reading all the incredibly painful comments on my Saddle Thrombus blog series) and sudden death.

So we shall see what his blood work shows us today and go from there. Fingers, toes and paws crossed. I'm optimistic we can manage Barnes's health through this.

Pet parents go through situations like this all the time. I'm just sad that our time has to start now.