![\"char5\"](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/wp-content\/uploads\/char5-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Two years ago, with all of their kids off to university, my parents filled their empty nest by getting a puppy. They settled on an adorable three-month-old bichon-poodle named Charlie, who happened to be a bit high-maintenance. He preferred deli meats and string cheese to his kibble, and my parents bended to his every whim.<\/p>\n
One morning when Charlie was 10-months-old, he refused food and water and began vomiting. After taking him to the vet, my parents were told Charlie had a severe case of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, resulting from a fatty diet. After multiple blood tests, ultrasounds and IV fluids, Charlie was back to his normal self, but my parents were served with a $3,500 vet bill.<\/p>\n
My parents were shocked at the high cost of an emergency procedure for a pet. Charlie was still a puppy, and they hadn\u2019t planned for such a costly surgery. The vet recommended looking into pet insurance.<\/p>\n
Even though there are 14 million dogs and cats in Canada, according to Canada\u2019s Pet Wellness Report, it\u2019s estimated that less than five per cent are insured. In Britain, 40-50 per cent of pets are insured.<\/p>\n
Pet insurance allows pet owners to have security in emergency situations, says Alison Cross, spokesperson for the Ontario Soceity for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. \u201cThere are surprises that can happen at any point in your pet\u2019s life,\u201d she said. \u201cPet insurance protects you so you\u2019re not sitting in a situation where you can\u2019t care for your pet because you don\u2019t have the funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Canada, there are four main pet insurance providers and pet insurance can cover some or all of veterinary bills, emergency surgeries and medicine, depending on your plan. Owners pay a monthly premium, a deductible for a claim\u00a0and a portion of\u00a0medical costs. Plans range from $8-$100 a month and cover 50-90 per cent of pet-related bills.<\/p>\n
Not all pet owners believe that insurance is necessary, as is evident from the low number of pets insured. Pet insurance doesn\u2019t seem essential to owning a pet, according to Erin Schroeter, a 21-year-old student and owner of a three-year-old rescue cat named Oreo.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy vet has never recommended it to me, and when I used to volunteer at the Humane Society I only heard insurance being mentioned if the animal had a known medical condition,\u201d said Schroeter.<\/p>\n
Pet insurance doesn\u2019t have to be the only option though, says Cross. She suggests setting up a savings account for emergency situations, sort of like an RRSP for your pet, if that suits your needs better.<\/p>\n
Yet there are risks with this method, says Randy Valpy, founder and \u2018Top Dog\u2019 of Pets Plus Us, a Canadian pet insurance company. \u201cSay you put $25 in a month and three months later your cat gets cancer or your dog gets hit by a car. Seventy-five dollars will barely get you in the door of any clinic, let alone pay any bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valpy adds that even if you save for multiple years, when the roof of the house needs fixing, or the car needs to be taken in for repairs, very few people are disciplined enough to leave the pet\u2019s savings alone.<\/p>\n
All pet owners should try to find a way to include pet insurance within their budget, says Valpy. He says his company has tried to address people\u2019s biggest critique of pet insurance: its lack of value if you don\u2019t have to use it. Pet Plus Us does this by providing customers with a 24-hour emergency line, a subscription to pet-oriented magazines, a collar, a tag and registration to a lost and found website.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost pet owner\u2019s don\u2019t have any conception to what the potential costs are to a pet getting sick,\u201d said Valpy. \u201cIt\u2019s expensive enough just having a pet, if your pet gets sick or an accident happens, the bills can rack up in the thousands and without pet insurance, the choice for many owners may have to be to put their pet to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two years ago, with all of their kids off to university, my parents filled their empty nest by getting a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-finance-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4566,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions\/4566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/ottawainsight\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}