Galloping towards the weekend

Image - Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel in the middle of a green field galloping flat out with his tongue out and ears in the air, under him in blue text are the words galloping into the weekend

Yes that really is Boris galloping along at full pelt and fully extended, I used to love watching him galloping for the pure joy of it

When Boris could no longer gallop flat out due to his Arthritis, I stopped doing Galloping into the Weekend posts

This morning I was in a lot of pain and feeling particularly down about my own Arthritis, when this picture of Boris came up in fb memories

It must have been fate!

It reminded me how Boris has never let his Arthritis define him

Boris just gets on with life as if nothing is wrong and still has lots of fun

So that Boris can live his best life alongside his Arthritis he has regular vet check ups to monitor his pain medication and weight, he's fed a good quality raw diet, a range of suppliments as well as regular exercise, Boris also has Massage Therapy to free up his muscles which get very tight and it really helps him

But the most important thing in all of Boris's care these days, was the best that I could afford at the time Lifetime pet insurance policy I took out on him as puppy, without Boris's insurance policy I don't know where we'd be today with Boris's health and quality of life

There's no NHS for pets here in the UK only the eqivilant of private healthcare which has to be paid by the owner, owning a pet isn't a right anymore its a luxury and insurance is also essential part of owning that pet these days, it should never be treated as an afterthought

Vets are amazing and are people too, they do such a fantastic job which is extremely stressful and love our animals as much as we do, or why would they work with them

It's not their fault if you've not made preperations to pay for any accidents or emergencies, or in Boris's  case an ongoing condition he was diagnosed with at under a year old

I can't even begin to imagine how heartbreaking it must be to be a vet and having to put somebodies much loved pet to sleep that you've got to know over the years and everything medical has been done to preserve their life and keep their dignity, then have to comfort the owner before you can even leave the room to grieve for the life just lost

But to have to put a pet down because the owner is unable to pay for treatment, when they know deep down inside that if the owner had only taken out pet insurance the outcome could potentially have been a lot different, has got be up there with the most traumatising things vets must have to witness on a daily basis

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If you do one thing for your pet today, look into pet insurance if you've not already done so, if you've already got pet insurance check that it's for more than just a couple of thousand pounds because if you ever find yourself in the situation of needing to see a specialist vet for further investigation, orthopedic surgery or cancer treatments a few thousand pounds won't last you very long

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Not all pet insurance is equal, cheap does not equate to good, you must read the fine print and go through it with a fine tooth comb, don't get sucked in by huge discounts offered in your first year as you'll no doubt be in for a shock at renewal

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A good life time policy is what you should aim for, that way if your pet develops an ongoing condition like Boris did with his joint problems that then led onto arthritis, providing you renew said policy each year that condition is covered for the rest of your pets life

Only once have we ever hit the maximum that Boris is insured for in his nearly 11 years and that was when he fractured his elbow in 2023 which you can read about here and the surgery update here

 There nothing worse than discovering your pet isn't covered for something because you've exceeded what you've insured them for, luckily for us it was only a couple of weeks until Boris's policy renewed and his full veterinary costs reinstated once again, we weren't too much out of pocket covering his bills for that short period of time, but I couldn't have done it without my partners financial help

I found those those couple of weeks extremely stressful until the policy renewed though, I dread to think what the outcome would have been had Boris not had any insurance to cover the surgery, I just don't have access to that kind of money on my small private pension

A word of caution needs to be mentioned when changing insurance cover, if your pet has an ongoing condition at the time of taking out a new policy, that condition most likely won't be covered, so depending on what the condition is it's worth remembering you'll most likely need to pay that cost out of pocket as it won't be covered on a new policy,  do you stick with the policy you have or do you change policy?

Only you can do the maths and decide the best route to follow

There's also the flip side where you have a dog like Eko who rarely needs to see the vet unless it's for his yearly vaccinations and a health check, there you are paying out for an all singing and all dancing policy yet never needing to make a claim and you start too thinking, should I change to a cheaper policy with lower cover?

Last year I found myself in that exact situation and started looking around at other policies to maybe cut some costs, but I'm so glad I didn't get around to changing his policy because out of the blue Eko suddenly started vomiting copious amounts of blood and became acutely unwell with pancreatic type symptoms and required a hospital stay to recieve fluids and a trip out to see the specialist vet for more in depth scans, thankfully I didn't have to worry about the cost as Eko still had his original insurance policy, 

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If here's one thing that's guaranteed about our pets - it's that if they're going to be ill or injure themselves they'll nearly always do it at the most inconvenient of times, when your vet practice is closed or it's a Sunday and your only option available is the emergency vet practice that's on duty and that's when you'll be really glad of a decent insurance policy to pay you back afterwards

Another thing we have in our arsenal of pet care is the Vidivet app I've lost count of how many times it's saved me from making an unnecessary trip to the emergency vets for something that could safely wait until our usual vets are open the next day. We originally joined Vidivet as Beta Testers and love it so much we're still using it for enquires

Like the afternoon Eko decided to eat his bodyweight in green acorns whilst out on a walk, I knew they were poisonous to horses but didn't know about dogs and wanted some advice quickly, before we'd even got back to the car we had an appointment booked for Eko to take him straight to the vet to make him be sick, thankfully he had no after effects and we now avoid that area when the green acorns are on the ground, I walked Eko in a muzzle for a few weeks after that escapade to stop him eating acorns and now he has a solid leave it whenever I spot any on the ground

 Don't get me wrong Vidivet isn't in any way designed to replace your vet, but its great to have access to a qualified vet 24/7 to help make an informed choice if you're not sure of something and because we've been with Vidivet since the beginning we have a discount code for our friends and followers for 25% off your first year using the code BORIS25

Well that went off on a bit of a tangent, but pet insurance is something I feel very strongly about, it absolutely infuriates me whenever I see posts or comments vet bashing on social media about high vet bills or a GoFund Me set up to cover vets costs due to lack of insurance

You wouldn't work for nothing so why should our vets who've spent many years training to give your pet the very best health care and treatments money can buy

Until next time

Dawn, Boris & Eko xxx

This Post is linked too

Comedy Plus - Awww Monday

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