When you buy comprehensive pet health insurance you expect it to be comprehensive. That seems pretty straight forward. In reality, it appears that there are different interpretations of what comprehensive actually means. Let me give you a couple of examples.

It's that scary, spooky time of the year again. We wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't include a post about Halloween hazards. Dr. Bill recently put together the Top Halloween Pet Hazards - including the admonition about chocolate.

Really, don't we all know this by now: chocolate is toxic to dogs. A bag of great tasting goodies from the chocolate family might be mouth-watering for us (including our dogs), but it's best to keep that bag of goodies far, far from Fido's reach. If this is news to you, I'm glad I could share it. Don't even be tempted to share that chocolate with your dog. Give him or her a nice doggie treat, instead.

Here are three other Halloween hazards, compliments of Dr. Bill, which you may not have thought of:

The deductible is the amount of money you have to pay out of pocket on veterinary care before your insurance kicks in. It's just like the deductible you probably have on your car and home owners insurance policy. 

Let's face it. Insurance is right up there with politicians of a certain stripe and the legal profession when it comes to the public love meter. In some cases that reputation is deserved and in other cases insurance can save your bacon.

My lovely wife backed our truck over her $3000 bicycle the other day. Within ten days we had a check from our home owners policy for replacement costs. She's riding a nice new bike as I write this. Dr Bill relayed a story the other day about bi-lateral hip replacement in a Labrador retriever. The total vet bill for that one was over $5000 and the owners got a check for over $4000 from us.

Found this great series over at The New York Times called "The Puppy Diaries." The author is writing about the first year of owning a puppy. Good stuff.

This particular article is about pet health insurance. She says, "pet insurance" but we know she means pet health insurance. In the article, Jill, the author, talks extensively about what she considers the pros and cons of having pet insurance for Scout, her puppy, who is almost six months old. Much of what Jill writes has been posted here - for instance, she says, "Frankly, I think the possibility of a big out-of-pocket puppy health expense is pretty high." Smart woman.

What a difference a year makes. While unemployment is still way too high, it seems we have dodged a major bullet as far as the economy goes. Companies are starting to report better than expected earnings and the stock market is doing much better than it was last spring, for sure. Hopefully those same companies will start hiring again and soon. Consumers with jobs are starting to spend a little more given the better national mood on things economic.

The topic was pet health insurance when our own Dr. Bill Craig appeared recently as the featured guest on the TexVetPets podcast series from the Texas Veterinary Medical Association. Host Francisco Garcia asked Dr. Bill several questions about how pet health insurance works from the point of view of both pet owners and veterinarians.

But my favorite part came near the end, when Dr. Bill said that the frequently asked question, "Is pet health insurance a good investment?" is the wrong way to look at it.

He explained that, just like health insurance for ourselves and our children, you don't buy pet health insurance "in hopes of getting a return, you're really buying peace of mind." He added that the great thing about having pet health insurance for veterinarians, pet owners, and of course for our pets, is that

"when they're standing in the exam room, they don't have to talk about finances, they can immediately go to 'what's the right thing to do to get this pet healthy again.' " 

You can listen to excerpted highlights from the interview here:

MP3 File

Or go to the TexVetPets page at iTunes, where you can hear the entire interview (Episode 23), along with lots of others in which host Francisco Garcia interviews veterinary experts on a wide range of pet health topics.

It's every pet owner's nightmare. Your dog or cat bolts out the door and is gone in a flash. Or even worse, you are traveling with your pet in a strange city and they get lost. Your pet won't recognize anything about his surroundings and it's unlikely he'll find his way back to the hotel.

Yep, I'm telling you to go out to your local shelter and adopt a big, black dog. Ok, it doesn't have to be big - although it's the BIG black dogs that are suffering from "black dog syndrome."

That's a fancy, schmancy phrase for "no one wants to adopt the big black dogs." For that matter, it happens to cats, also.

I had a beautiful, wonderful, black cat, once. I named him Merlin and he was magical. That was in the olden days when I was stupid and let him out every night. One night, he went out and never came back. I miss him, still!

In my last post we talked about what a bargain health insurance for your cat can be. In some cases you can get comprehensive coverage for accidents and illnesses for less than ten dollars a month and you can add preventive care for another five dollars or so. The cost varies by location, age and breed so go get a quote for your very own feline.