5 Easy Ways to Boost Your Pet's Health

In the current's fast paced world, many animal owners find themselves without the amount time they'd like to spend caring for their pets.

Between work, chores round the house, kids, and so on. There just aren't really enough hours in the day to get it all done. With that noted, KV Supply has come up with a short list of 5 straightforward things you can do to boost the health of your pet.

1. Higher quality Food

Yes, it's easier and potentially less expensive to simply pick up a bag of dog food at the grocery or buy some enormous retailer's store brand. But is that necessarily the best food for your pet? And in the longer term is it actually cheaper? You may be stunned at what you find if you scanned the ingredient lists on your fave big name brand or store brand pet foods. Many of them contain fillers, unnecessary ingredients and by products that can be extremely unhealthy for your pet and can end up in long-term health Problems and increased costs. Changing to an all-natural or holistic brand can help maintain your pet's health and keep your total expenditures on pet care as small as possible.

2. Supplements

Supplementing your pet's diet can be a straightforward way to help improve their well-being and fitness. There are numerous additions available for joint support, digestive support, skin treatment, protection, weight control, heart health, liver support, muscle support and more.

3. Dental Care

Proper dental care is needed for the health of your pet and nothing beats regular brushing and veterinary dental checkups, but there are some straightforward things you can do to help your pet maintain healthy teeth. Dental chews or treats meant to help control plaque and tartar build-up also promote fresh breath. There are dental supplements that may help to control plaque and promote healthy gums.

4. Flea, Tick & Insect Control

Fleas, Ticks and other insects like flies are a few of the major carriers of diseases in pets. Controlling these pests is easy with the various flea, tick and pest control products around. There are a few flea & tick spot-ons and collars which make defending your pet simple.

Plus there are easy-to-use indoor and outside pest elimination products that can help break the reproductive cycle of pests like fleas which may eventually make insect control even less complicated.

5. Regular Exercise

Okay, so you may not have time to walk your pet every day. But there are methods to guarantee your pet gets sensible exercise. Be certain to provide a variety of toys for them to play with. Ensure you let your pet outside for a while every day or if you have got an within pet, give some space for daily play time. An exercise pen could be beneficial, particularly indoors. Of course you need to make the effort to stroll your pet as often as practicable. There are retractable leashes and even hands free leashes that make it easy to exercise your pet at the same time you are exercising.

Bonus Tip Regular veterinary Visits

This could appear like an obvious point, but many animal owners don't schedule regular vet visits.

Regular vet care is a useful way to maintain the health of your pet. Your vet will probably see a potential concern before the owner may realize there's a problem. Early detection can stop plenty of conditions before it's too late.

Mike is an avid pet enthusiast.

http://www.kvsupply.com

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Pet Health Insurance Policy - Don't Make a Costly Mistake

What to check before you but a Pet Health Insurance Policy.

Yes the policy will be wordy and everyone knows that trawling through it for small details is a pain. But consider the downside: if you happen to rely on something you thought was in it it could cost you thousands. Then perhaps you'll spare that half an hour going through it to ensure it exactly meets, or surpasses, your needs.

If you were sure that it covered existing ailments and when you came to claim for a course of treatment, found out that it didn't, what can you do about it. The answer is nothing.

So go through the following list and make sure that if you require the item that the policy you're investigating actually covers it.

Ensure they cover genetic or pre-existing illnesses. Many insurance companies will not cover illnesses that your pet had before the policy was taken out. In addition they may not cover associated illnesses. If your breed of pet is susceptible to a certain condition then that could also be excluded from any claims.
Apart from the excess on the policy (which is the amount you have to pay before the insurance kicks in) some policies will only pay a certain percentage of the bill. While this may not be a bad thing as it keeps premiums down, make sure the percentage is one you are happy with.
Make sure that you are happy with the amount of insurance that will be paid out in any one year or for any one illness. There is often a cap on the amount paid out by the pet policy.
Does the policy cover dental problems.
Will you be reimbursed for prescription drugs.
Lab work can be expensive, blood tests, scans etc. is this included.
Some policies will only offer reimbursement of expenses for so long into an illness. For example they may stop paying after 6 weeks of treatment. If you think you'll need more then ask for it before signing up.
Does the plan cover conditions that reoccur.
Make sure your policy does not cover anything that you do not want. Some people may have no interest in the "lost and Found" element of a policy. If you don't want it and it's included then you are paying too high a premium.
How long does the company take to pay a claim.
WIll premiums rise if you do make a claim.

Keep the list above in mind when picking your pet health insurance policy and avoid costly omissions.

Try to get the policy while your pet is healthy and then any decisions to do with treatment can be made on the basis of what is right and not what you can afford.

More advice on Pet Health Insurance Policies [http://essentialcatlinks.com/pet_insurance/pet-health-insurance.html] can be found here [http://essentialcatlinks.com/pet_insurance/pet-health-insurance.html].

Note that we are not attached to any insurance provider and do not sell insurance, we just want to see healthy pets.

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Pet Health Insurance Reimbursement Models - What Pet Owners Need to Know

Besides the obvious limits that are stated in an insurance policy such as annual maximum, per-incident maximum, deductible, and co-pay amounts, there is another variable that isn't so obvious that is an important factor in determining how much a pet owner is reimbursed by the insurance company when they file a claim. Insurance companies figure their reimbursements in one of three ways:

1. A simple computation based on whatever the veterinarian charges. For example, if the total invoice is $2000 and everything on the invoice is a covered item and the deductible is $100 and the co-pay is 20%, the reimbursement would be:

$2000 - $100 = $1900 x 80% = $1520.

This is the easiest method for pet owners to understand and generally gives pet owners the largest reimbursements. Since it is based on the actual charges of the veterinarian, it keeps up with inflation. Most of the newer companies use this method. One criticism of this method is that premiums may rise faster because the only limit on reimbursements of covered expenses is whatever the veterinarian charges.

2. The reimbursement is computed from a "benefit" schedule based on the veterinarian's diagnosis. Sometimes these reimbursements can be as much as method #1. However, sometimes they can be significantly less than method #1. For example, if your pet gets sick with pancreatitis and the maximum reimbursement allowed for this diagnosis is $865, but your submitted claim is for $2000, you'll get reimbursed $865. Using method #1, you would get reimbursed $1520. Most cases of mild pancreatitis will be less than $865, but a severe or complicated case can cost thousands of dollars. Because the benefit schedule does place limits on what the insurance company will pay, the premiums may be lower for this type of policy.

3. The reimbursement is based on a fee schedule of "reasonable and customary" fees for your geographic area of the country. Each charge on the invoice for a procedure or product is compared to the fee schedule and the insurance company will reimburse according to the schedule. If your veterinarian charged more, then you are responsible for the difference.

Fees can vary for a certain procedure from practice to practice even within the same city. Each practice has it's own unique philosophy of practice and overhead which will affect all it's fees. For example, if your pet is referred to a specialist, does the fee schedule take this into account? A specialist's fees are higher because they have more expertise and may use higher technology e.g. CT scan or MRI or perform more sophisticated surgery than your regular veterinarian. Perhaps even your regular veterinarian uses ultrasound, endoscopes, laser surgery or more advanced dental equipment, etc. Perhaps they have a newer hospital and a larger staff. Judging whether a veterinarian's fees are reasonable should not be measured by what is considered customary according to an insurance company's fee or benefit schedule, but on the perceived value you receive in return for the fee.

If you look closely at the fine print in the policies of companies that figure reimbursements using method #1, some also state that they pay benefits based on what is "reasonable and customary." For the time being though, they use that as a fall back - only when a fee for a procedure seems way out of line. Will there be a time in the future when they are forced to use the reasonable and customary fee schedule routinely as a limit on reimbursements in order to keep their premiums competitive?

Unless they are updated frequently, benefit schedules and fee schedules can become obsolete due to inflation.

Be sure and take into account how a company figures your reimbursement when making the decision to purchase pet health insurance.

Dr. Kenney is a practicing veterinarian in Memphis, Tennessee. He author's a blog ( http://petinsuranceguideus.com ) devoted to teaching pet owners how pet insurance works and to helping them make informed and wise decisions when selecting a company and policy to cover their pet.

The blog also offers the latest information on each of the pet insurance companies that insures pets in the United States along with podcasts, videos and even a free Pet Insurance Toolkit to help pet owners when researching pet insurance.

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