Pets are naturally curious about their surroundings. Sometimes this curiosity can get them into big trouble. When we were preparing to move into our first house, we had boxes and moving supplies everywhere. One day we came home and could see that our kitten, Jessie, was not well. She had been vomiting and our normally boisterous kitten was very lethargic.
While cleaning up the vomit, my wife showed me a chewed up ball of packing tape she found in it. Uh oh! It looked like this may be the cause of our kitten’s woes. I knew that eating certain items could bind up a cat’s intestines and treatment may require surgery.
We immediately got in the car and drove her to the nearest 24-hour veterinarian’s office. We explained what we thought had happened, and they took her in the back to do some x-rays. They found a blockage in her intestines, and explained that surgery was the only way to save her life. Our poor kitten! The surgery would cost quite a bit of money – luckily, when we adopted her we had purchased a pet insurance policy that covered just such an emergency.
Jessie had surgery that night – they removed 18 INCHES of tape from her intestines! It was scary to see our tiny kitten go through surgery, but she had a full recovery and is still enriching our family with her purring and antics to this day.
Having just bought our first home, our budget was stretched to the max, and without insurance we would have been forced to go into debt to save Jessie’s life. At least debt was an option for us, many people with unfortunate credit may have had to make a much harder decision.
Pet insurance isn’t just for a curious cat though. Many beloved house pets can get themselves into these situations, or come down with an illness that requires expensive medications to treat. Ongoing illnesses such as diabetes affect our pets as well and it can be very stressful on a family to weigh the monetary burden of such an illness against their beloved pet’s life. Sadly, many pets are euthanized each year due to these illnesses.
Indoor pets, outdoor pets, different types of animals and an animal’s age can all affect what type of insurance policy would be best for them. Most of them are very affordable and provide the peace of mind that our pets can receive the very best care, regardless of the price, when an unforeseen illness or accident occurs.
