Think you may be interested in pet insurance? Here are some facts about pet insurance you may want to consider:

The most common question about pet insurance that owners ask, “Is pet insurance worth the cost?”  To answer that question, let’s consider a few important aspects of pet insurance.

Pet insurance isn’t “one-size-fits-all”—there are a variety of plans out there provided by different companies, suitable for almost any budget out there. Take a look at our pet insurance comparison at the end of this post to see a selection of insurance providers and plans. You can also download the pet insurance comparison here.

When trying to figure out if pet insurance is worth the cost, you also have to consider your attitude towards your pets. Some people would rather euthanize their pet than spend anything more than a few hundred dollars in treatment. Pet insurance is probably not for you if you have this viewpoint.

But for many other people, pets are members of the family and it can be a heart-wrenching decision to decline treatment because of lack of finances. With pet insurance, you won’t have to choose between your pet and your bank account in situations like this.

Many pet owners wonder whether depositing money into a savings account for their pet is a good alternative to pet insurance. Unfortunately, it’s not a good substitute, because it can take years to save the funds needed to pay for a single medical emergency and medical emergencies can happen at any time. It’s much less risky to invest that money into pet insurance.

We’ve made a table comparing common insurance plans and providers. You can download our pet insurance table here as a PDF. This information is provided as-is, meaning that it may not be complete or up-to-date. You should always check the insurance provider’s website before committing to buying pet insurance.

Dogs and cats can fall victim to many different types of parasites. Because many of these parasites live in their intestines, veterinarians will take stool samples during your pet’s annual wellness exam to check for signs of intestinal parasites. Intestinal parasites are not uncommon, especially in young animals, which is why wellness exams are so important for maintaining your pet’s good health.

The most common symptoms of these parasites are diarrhea, weight loss, a dull coat, coughing, and fatigue. With some parasites, you may be able to see worms in your pet’s stool, bedding, or under their tail. Puppies and kittens are especially at risk for health complications from intestinal parasites and, in serious cases, these parasites can be fatal. Another risk is caused by some parasitic infections being “zoonotic,” which means that they can be transmitted to humans. These parasites can cause serious health issues in adults and children, including scarring inflammation.

Your veterinarian will take a stool sample to test for the presence of microscopic eggs laid by adult worms. The veterinarian will then mix the sample with a solution that makes the eggs more visible underneath the microscope.

In some cases, a routine stool sample test may be insufficient to diagnose a parasite. For example, detecting the single-celled parasite giardia requires a special solution to be added to the sample. In another case, testing for tapeworm eggs can sometimes cause false negatives. And if the intestinal worms infecting a dog or cat are not mature enough to be producing eggs, the fecal sample test will give negative results–which is why multiple fecal tests over a period of time are sometimes needed to successfully diagnose infection by an intestinal parasite.

After a diagnosis has been made, intestinal worms can be treated by using a dewormer solution. Other types of parasites have require different types of medications to treat. There are some over-the-counter treatments for intestinal worms, but these don’t work very well. Veterinarians have the most powerful and effective dewormers available for treating your pet.

Preventing infection by intestinal parasites is highly dependent on good sanitation practices.

• Clean up your pet’s droppings as quickly as possible to prevent the spread of infection.
• Make sure your pet has a source of fresh, clean water, because these parasites can often be found in contaminated water.
• Prevent your pet from eating soil or grass, which can contain parasitic eggs.
• Remember that droppings from other dogs might be infested–be sure that your dog doesn’t interact with these while out on walks.
• Use a monthly heartworm preventative medicine for your pet.
• Use a monthly flea prevention treatment to prevent parasite transmission to your pets from infected fleas.
• Don’t allow yourself or your family become infected–wash your hands after playing with your pet and make sure that outdoor play areas for your children, like sandboxes, do not contain any animal droppings.

The most common type of intestinal parasite, roundworms infect dogs and cats through contact with fecal matter, where the roundworms hatch their larvae. Pets can become infected by roundworms through ingestion of infected soil, licking fur and paws that have come into contact with a contaminated source, drinking contaminated water or coming into contact with cockroaches that carry roundworm eggs.

Roundworms are the most dangerous for young puppies and kittens, because the parasite will drain nutrients away from the pet’s body, which can lead to malnutrition, respiratory issues, and intestinal blockage. Infected female dogs and cats can pass an infection to their young through nursing, but only dogs can pass on their infection in the womb.

Roundworms can also infect humans through ingestion or skin contact. This can cause serious health problems, including organ damage as the larvae enter organs and travel through the body.

Roundworms can lay over 200,000 eggs every day, which makes it very important to catch the infection early before any health complications occur. Symptoms in your pet can include a potbellied appearance, lack of growth, coughing, and vomiting. You may be able to see roundworms in your pet’s stool–they are thin, long and pale.

The second most common intestinal parasite, hookworms are found in dogs and cats, but most commonly in dogs. A pet can become infected by coming into contact with hookworm larvae that enters their body through either their skin or the lining of their mouth. Puppies can become infected by drinking contaminated milk from their mother, but this does not occur in cats.

Hookworms bite into the intestinal lining and drain the blood of their host. This can cause blood loss, weakness and malnutrition, which is especially dangerous for kittens, puppies, and elderly pets.

Like roundworms, hookworms can infect humans through ingestion or skin contact. Ingestion can cause intestinal symptoms, while infection via skin contact can create itching and redness as the hookworm larvae moves through the skin.

Dogs and cats can become infected with tapeworms when they eat fleas, lice or rodents that are already infected by tapeworms.

Tapeworms live in the small intestine and take nutrients away from the food being digested there. This can cause malnutrition in the pet. You may be able to spot tapeworm’s segments in your pet’s stool or backside. They look like grains of rice.

Whipworms are more commonly found infecting dogs than cats. A whipworm infection results from contact with whipworm larvae found in feces, which can occur by eating infected soil or licking contaminated fur and paws.

Whipworms bite into the lining of the large intestine and drain the body of blood. However, they are much less harmful than hookworms and generally do not cause serious health problems. Usually, the only symptoms are weight loss, diarrhea, and blood loss. Whipworms also rarely infect humans. Whipworms look like tiny pieces of thread when found in the stool.

Coccidia is a single-celled organism that can infect cats and dogs through contact with fecal matter containing the parasite. A pet can become infected by eating contaminated soil, drinking contaminated water, or licking paws and fur that has come into contact with infected feces.

After infection, coccidia travels to the intestines and destroys the intestinal lining, which prevents absorption of nutrients. This causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. In some cases, infection can even lead to death.

Coccidia is very contagious to puppies and kittens, so frequently cleaning up feces and frequent changes of water to prevent contamination is especially important around young pets.

Giardia is another single-celled intestinal parasite that can infect dogs, cats, and humans. Infection is caused by ingesting giardia through contact with contaminated food, water, soil, or fur.

Like coccidia, giardia travels to the intestines and damages the lining of the intestinal wall, reducing the absorption of nutrients. Unlike coccidia, infections often have no symptoms. If there is diarrhea, there is usually no blood in the stool.

Diagnosing giardia can sometimes be difficult due to the lack of symptoms and multiple stool samples are needed to confirm the infection because of the specialized tests of giardia.

Proper dietary nutrition is one of the keys to good health and longevity for our pets. In this article, you’ll learn about the nutritional requirements for both dogs and cats. Then, we’ll discuss how to provide your pet with a balanced diet, including how to choose the right type of food, if you should feed them homemade food, and what not to feed your pet.

Another factor to consider in choosing the right diet for your pet is the ingredients that go into a pet food. Ingredients should be chosen based on their nutritional content and their digestibility–which is how much of that nutritional content is actually absorbed by the animal’s body. For example, the graph below shows the percentage of starch in various grain flours that is digestible by dogs.

Source: Murray SM, Fahey GC, Merchen RN, et al. Evaluation of selected high-starch fl ours as ingredients in canine diets. J Anim Sci. 1999;77:2180-2186.

Cats are carnivores and require a high amount of protein in their diet. In fact, kittens need about 50% more protein in their diet than puppies, and adult cats need 200% more protein in their diet than adult dogs.

Cats require a three essential amino acids: taurine, arginine, and methionine. Taurine is required to have a healthy heart, good vision, and functioning reproductive systems. Arginine is required for a cat’s liver to function properly and filter out harmful byproducts from their body. In fact, eating a single meal deficient in arginine can make a cat ill from ammonia toxicity. Methionine plays a role in many different proteins in a cat’s body and deficiencies can affect a cat’s coat, skin, eyes, and heart health. All of these amino acid are only found in meat, so all cats need meat-based diets to maintain their health.

That being said, cats do have enzymes in their digestive tract that can digest carbohydrates, so the starches found in many cat foods can be digested for energy. For growing and active animals, this can be an effective source of energy. But these starches should only make up a small portion of the cat’s food, about 35% max.

For a cat, vegetarian diets are absolutely out of the question. Not even nutritional supplements can allow a cat to eat vegetarian or vegan, because some of their essential nutrients are only obtainable from animal products. For example, sources of Vitamin A can come from plants, as carotene, or from animal livers, as retinyl palmitate. Cats lack the enzymes to convert carotene to Vitamin A–they can only convert retinyl palmitate from animal livers to Vitamin A. So, they necessarily need to consume animal products to survive.

Finally, we’ll discuss the most important nutrient for cats: water. Keeping your cat well-hydrated is vital in preventing diseases associated with the urinary tract. Wild cats receive most of their hydration from the prey they eat, so sometimes it can be a little tricky to keep your house cat hydrated. Here are a few tips:

• Cats with sensitive whiskers might prefer to drink from a wide, shallow bowl.
• Some cats prefer a source of running water, so investing in a cat fountain might encourage your cat to drink more water.
• Change your cat’s water supply frequently, wiping away any residue on the bowl.
• Aim to keep your cat’s bowl as clean as your own glassware, even occasionally running it through the dishwasher.
• Some cats will not drink water that is placed next to their food source or litter box, so try moving their water bowl to another area.
• Milk is not a replacement for water, and can actually give your cat serious digestive issues.
• Wet food can help supplement your cat’s hydration, but only giving your cat wet food can lead to dental health issues.

Dogs are omnivores, which may come as a surprise to some dog owners. Although wolves are primarily carnivores, during the process of domestication, dogs gained the ability to effectively digest starches. In fact, dogs have about four to thirty copies of a gene that produces an enzyme for digesting starches in their bodies. In contrast, wolves only have two copies.

This provides evidence that a raw meat diet is not the best choice for our canine companions, because their bodies have adapted to digesting starches and using them for energy. In fact, a raw meat diet can have harmful effects, because it contains too much protein, not enough carbohydrates, and can be difficult on a dog’s kidneys. It’s interesting to note that even wolves will graze on grasses and eat the stomach contents of herbivorous prey to supplement their primarily meat-based diet with carbohydrates.

Think of it this way: if a raw meat diet isn’t nutritionally complete enough for a wolf, it will definitely pose problems for a dog, whose species has over many generations adapted to eat grains and vegetables while coexisting with human society.

On the other hand, dogs do require some proteins that are only available in animal products, so switching your dog to a vegetarian diet can pose issues as well. Although it is possible for dogs to survive on both of these specialized diets with the right supplementation and guidance from a veterinary nutritionist, a dog will only thrive when it eats as an omnivore, because its body is adapted to an omnivorous diet.

Let’s not forget the most important nutrient for dogs: water! Make sure that your dog always has access to clean, fresh water, especially after work or exercise. Change the water in your dog’s bowl at least once a day and be sure to wipe away any build-up on the inside of the bowl when you do this. Aim to keep your dog’s water bowl as clean as your other glassware to keep your dog healthy and happy.

When choosing what type of pet food to buy your pet, there are a few questions to consider:

• “What is the current life stage of my pet?” Depending on whether your pet is growing, an adult, a senior, or pregnant, they will require different formulations of food.
• “Does my pet have any health factors that I need to consider?” If your pet has a health condition, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, or is overweight, they may require a special formulation of food. Consult your veterinarian to find the right type of food for your pet’s medical status.
• “Should I feed my pet wet food or dry food?” While dry food is better for dental health, wet food has added hydration, which can benefit pets that are predisposed to kidney problems, like senior cats, or pets who are diabetic. Most pets will be fine eating either food.

And finally, how can we be sure that a manufacturer’s pet food is high quality? One of the best ways is by making sure they have an AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) Nutritional Adequacy Statement on the packaging. If a pet food does not have an AAFCO statement on its packaging, there is no way to ensure that its claims of being “complete and balanced” are true.

There are two different ways that AAFCO verifies that food is nutritionally complete and balanced.

AAFCO has a set of nutritional profiles for dogs and cats in every age group that include what quantities of nutrients should be present in a particular type of pet food. Pet food manufacturers can use these profiles as guidelines to formulate their pet food and then use a laboratory analysis to substantiate their nutritional content. This method is less expensive for pet food manufacturers and can be done more quickly than the feeding trial method. However, because this method means the food has not been tested on animals, there is no guarantee that the food will effectively supply nutrients to the pet, due to factors like digestibility.

An AAFCO statement that guarantees nutritional completeness using the formulation method would look like this:

“ABC Brand Cat Food is formulated to meet the nutritional levels established by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles for Maintenance.”

Pet food formulated using this method also follows AAFCO nutritional profiles and undergoes laboratory analysis. Additionally, the pet food will undergo a feeding trial, which means that the food will be given to a group of pets for a minimum of twenty six weeks in order to ensure that they can use it as a sole source of nutrition, per AAFCO feeding trial protocols. This method is more expensive and takes more time to complete, but it ensures that pets can use the food as their only source of nutrition. The feeding trial method is preferred, because it guarantees palatability and digestibility.

An AAFCO statement that guarantees nutritional completeness using the feeding trial method would look like this:

“Animal feeding trials using AAFCO procedures substantiate that XYZ Brand Dog Food provides complete and balanced nutrition for adult dogs.”