Embrace Pet Insurance Blog

To treat or not to treat Cushing's Disease

2009-07-13T05:37:00-04:00

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

New Embrace friend alert - PetRelocation.com

2009-06-01T05:19:00-04:00

New friend alert! PetRelocation.com (this is what happens when you hang out too much on Twitter!)

If you have ever left the US or Canada to go to Europe with a pet, it's worse than trying to get your own paperwork in order. The rules aren't particularly clear, the airlines are some help but not particularly enthusiastic, and you have that awful feeling as you look out the window on the plane whether they will turn your family pet away at the other end because you overlooked some nuance.

In my prior life many moons ago (pre-kids, pre-MBA, pre-Embrace), I worked at a large life and health insurance company in Toronto, Canada. At the time, I was an actuarial student and lucky enough to get an internal job posting to Dublin, Ireland, which I jumped at. There was just one problem - what to do with my cat Simon?

At the time, there was a 6-month quarantine period for cats and dogs (to prevent rabies reaching the British Isles) and so if you took your pet across the pond, he or she had to wait at the border for half a year before rejoining you. When faced with such a long time in some sort of government pet facility (I'm afraid that however nice it is, my imagination really went wild on that one), I balked at the option and luckily some relatives took Simon into their home while I was abroad.

Now the rules have changed (it's a bit round about but you bring your pet into the UK under the new Pet Travel Scheme and then take it into Ireland) but I must say, if I was to ship a pet abroad while working for another company, I'd hire professional pet shippers.

Since I didn't look at the option all those years ago, I didn't really know much about pet shippers until I was on Twitter (@laurabennett) and bumped into Pet Relocation over there. We got talking and now PetRelocation is one of our most interesting affilate sites.

Since becoming acquainted with PetRelocation.com, I wondered what it would be like if I was moving to Ireland today: how would I do it; how much would it cost; what would be involved? Over at their website, I was quite surprised to find a ready list of most countries you might ever want to move to (and some you might not) and detailed requirements of what you need to do to get from here to there. Here's the page for Ireland.

Now why would a pet shipping company give you all the information so you could do it yourself? Because now you can see how involved the process can be. If you want to do it yourself, you can, but if you find it a little bit daunting (and it's not something you want to mess up either), you can get help from someone who knows what they are doing.

Anyway, it's a great place to start if you are researching moving your pet. Pet Relocation is a nifty example of how a small but focused company can get the job done well.

Shipping within the US starts at $1,000 and overseas starts at $2,500 so it's not cheap but it sure does take the worry out of shipping your loved ones to your new home. I've just put a quote in for my "move" to Ireland so I'll let you know how much that turns out to be.

P.S. If you are moving, you can get a 10% discount off PetRelocation's services over at the Embrace Pet Community in the services section.

Embrace Pet Insurance joins NAPHIA

2009-05-11T21:15:08-04:00

NAPHIA is the North American Pet Health Insurance Association and Embrace is the 5th member to join (see bottom of this post for the other members).

I'm not one for joining organizations (I have better things to be doing with my time right now) but I thought this is one was worth the time and effort.

Pet insurance is only going to grow if pet parents know more about the benefits of pet insurance and we (embrace) can't do it by ourselves.

Pet Health Insurance Association Grows in Robust Market Adding Additional Pedigree to Board of Directors

May 7, 2009 (Pittsburgh, PA) The North American Pet Health Insurance Association(NAPHIA) announced today the addition of Laura Bennett, President and Chief Embracer of Embrace Pet Insurance to its Board of Directors.

According to Loran Hickton, Executive Director of NAPHIA, “Laura Bennett is a champion of pets and their owners. Along with her team, she has built a successful pet health insurance company, while supporting the most positive principals of third party support for better pet care for all pets. Laura is creative and a keenly focused business person who will add significant value to the efforts of our Board.”

Ms. Bennett has over 16 years of insurance industry experience, including her work for The Canada Life Assurance Company in Toronto, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland, where she held a number of different leadership roles in asset-liability management, strategic planning, and business development. Laura holds an honors mathematics degree from the University of Western Ontario, is a qualified life and health actuary, and holds a chartered financial analyst designation. Laura is the only pet health insurance actuary in North America. Laura received her MBA, with a concentration in Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where she graduated with several university and peer awards. She was also part of the team that won first prize in the Wharton Business Plan Competition in 2003, with an entry for a pet insurance company.

“I am honored to be a member of this distinguished board and I look forward to working with all pet health insurance providers to educate pet parents on the value of pet insurance, and to promote the highest levels of transparency in pet health insurance,” added Laura Bennett.

“While this difficult economy presents challenges for consumers and pet owners, it is also driving a robust market for pet insurance; in fact, the market in North America is very strong and has grown over 300% in just the past few years,” continued Hickton.

Research by the American Veterinary Medical Association shows that today pets are truly members of the American family. In the United States, for example, about 60% of households have at least one dog, cat, bird, or other companion animal; many have more than one. There are more than 72 million pet dogs in the U.S. and nearly 82 million pet cats. The owners of these pets spent $24.5 billion on veterinary medicine in 2006, more than double their spending of ten years earlier.

The Board of Directors of NAPHIA:

Jack Stephens, DVM, President & Founder, Pets Best Pet Health Insurance

Darryl Rawlings, CEO & Founder, American Pet Insurance Company, Trupanion™ and Vetinsurance™ brands

Dennis Rushovich, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hartville Group, which includes Hartville Pet Health Insurance, ASPCA Pet Health Insurance™, and Petshealth Care Plan™ brands

Randy Valpy, President & COO, SecuriCan, Petsecure Pet Health Insurance

Founded in 2007, the North American Pet Health Insurance Association is committed to educating and promoting the values and benefits of pet health insurance to North American pet owners, the general public, and the veterinary industry. For more information, visit www.naphia.orgor call 412-319-7730 / 412-908-9766.

Loran Hickton

Executive Director

North American Pet Health Insurance Association