Anything For Animals

posted by admin on Jan 1

Unfortunately, Pet Insurance is individual, so you need to find the best one for you and your pet.

Whether you have a dog, cat, parrot, snake, gerbil or horse - you need to know that your pet’s health is covered - whatever happens.

However, there are different types of pet insurance available and so you need to search around for the best one to cover you and your pets - and this isn’t necessarily the most expensive or the cheapest options.

If we use dog insurance as an example; you need to check your insurance covers all the things relevant to your lifestyle and everything relevant to your dogs ongoing needs.

For example, some insurance policies won’t cover your dog if you take it to work with you.  Some insurance policies won’t cover certain dog breeds or certain dog ages. 

And some will only pay out a certain amount of money for each individual illness.  So, if your dog has an eye problem when they are 2 years old and you use up the alloted amount of cover treating it; if the same eye then gets sore again at any time - the insurance company won’t be obliged to pay any more for it.  You will have to pay it all yourself. 

Things like this could be a problem with certain dog breeds which may have hereditary eye problems like entropian, retinal dysplasia or other more general problems like elbow or hip dysplasia.

And obviously it’s not just dogs with these insurance issues - as there are certain things that will be specific to other species - like eventing horses, working ferrets, hunting owls, female anythings used for breeding, show animals, and so much more.

That is why the best thing you can do when insuring your pets is to ask an expert.  Insurance companies offer a variety of levels of cover depending on what you need and what you are willing to pay for it.

However, as they offer different things - it is up to you to make sure you are happy with what you are paying for - and you have checked that it covers ALL that you need AND want.  For example if you want all conditions to be covered for everything, then you need to make sure that you find the exact policy which does that.  You can’t just sign up to what looks ok and than get angry when you aren’t covered.

It’s that same as buying a house - you can’t pay for a one-bedroom flat and then start complaining that they won’t add a second bedroom onto it 2 years later.

There are even different policy clauses for different countries (as they all have slightly different animal control laws), so if you live in Australia; then get pet insurance Australia specific.

The ‘best’ insurance is the one that suits your needs and your budget - there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach to pet insurance.

So speak to an expert about your policy requirements and they will get you covered for everything you need - or want.  

posted by admin on Apr 1

What Is Kennel Cough? 

Kennel cough is a highly infectious disease found in dogs which is particularly prevalent where large number of animals are kept in the same place, for example in kennels, breeding establishments and rescue centres.

This disease is known by several names including Canine Contagious Respiratory Disease  (CCRD), tracheobronchitis as well as the more common ‘kennel cough’.  Basically ’kennel cough’ is a phrase commonly used to umbrella together many types of respiratory tract infections.

What Causes It?
The canine respiratory tract (the windpipe) normally harbours many micro-organisms including Streptococcus spp. amongst others but they are not causing any problems.  However the Bordetella bronchiseptica is the one that is commonly associated with the worst throat infections.

Other viruses that could be identified in canine throat infections include:

CAV-1 - canine adenovirus 1
CAV-2 - canine adenovirus 2
CPIV - canine para-influenza virus
CHV - canine herpes virus
and - Reovirus

What Makes Them Different? 
Depending on which virus is present and whether it was contracted at the same time as Bordetella bronchiseptica or not will vary the actual infection and the ‘kennel cough’ symptoms that actually appear in the dogs themselves.

Infection follows either direct dog-to-dog contact or aerosol transmission (where dogs are having to breath the same air and the infected dog has breathed the virus or micro-organism out into this air). Following inhalation, the micro-organisms rapidly colonize the windpipe tissues leading to inflammation in as little as 4 days.

The severity depends as said above on the combination of organisms causing the infection.