GREENSBORO, N.C. — Treats! My dog loves them. They are the only thing she loves more than being outside and playing with her tire and jumping in her pool. Like most pets, my Kona is rewarded with treats. It's gotten to the point she wants to go out, walk around, and then come back in and get a treat.
We want our pets to be happy, but we also want them to be healthy.
“When you think about a treat for your dog, think about it as a cookie for yourself. Would you eat 12 cookies in a sitting, maybe not. Sometimes we give our pets 12 treats, if they're tiny treats, that’s different than a big treat! Keep in mind the size of the treat and the size of the dog and think of each treat as a cookie if you have 3 Oreos at a time every day, that might be too many,” says Kelley Gebhardt of Happy Tails Emergency Vet Clinic.
Gebhardt says pet owners absolutely need pet insurance, not for routine visits, but more for emergency care. Consumer Reports looked at pet health insurance.
Much like human health plans, they include deductibles, copays, monthly premiums and have coverage limitations. The average accident and illness premiums cost about $585 a year for a dog and $350 for a cat.
If your dog got hit by a car or has a foreign body or needs surgery or has heart failure, major medical issues, that are financially significant, it takes the pressure off because you know you have insurance and can provide the level of car that I want to.
If you're looking at a policy, look for free quotes, read the full terms and conditions. Consider coverage with simple percentage-based payouts and no reliance on judgments of what is reasonable.