I have looked into it a few times. Since I have three dogs, it sure would come in handy. I can't remember the company, but if you Google "Pet Health Insurance" you will find what you need. When I considered it, the premiums were somewhat high, and coverage not what I was looking for. Like other forms of insurance, you must weigh the risk. Pet insurance does not cover everything. I did find out that in Europe, pets have the same coverage that people do. It covers everything, shots the works for a low payment. Good luck! Keep us posted! SG

Blu: This might be a good time to chat about diet and what we experienced while combating the cancer and chemo treatments. We learned a lot. Give Spencer Canned food high in protein. Keep his carbs and expecially sugars as low as possible. Sugars feed cancer cells. The protein helps a lot. Carrots, and potatoes break down to simple sugars and are often found in foods. When you experience the days his appitite is off, it is a good idea to have a few things on hand. First go buy some powdered goats milk from a feed store. We used the brand Pro Bloom Instant Goats Milk plus Probiotics. You just mix enough to last one day at time. I used a magic bullet to mix it up well and put a little in and mixed with the canned food. Also keep Chicken or Beef baby food on hand. I Spencer refuses food, try the baby food on a spoon and hand feed him. Sometimes this will work and you had even mix with the goats milk. There is a book out on Amazon called the Dog Cancer Book. There is a lot of info in it. One of the canned foods we used when our Shelby's stomach was "off" was a simple two ingredient food called "Wellness Simple Ingredient Lamb with Oatmeal". There are others with duck, etc. Just find the one that smells the best to Spencers tastebuds and keep on hand. Feed stores carry it and you can buy by the case more economically from Amazon too. We made pill pockets out of lot of food items to keep her from getting wise to the scripts. What we noticed was some chemo treatments our dog tolerated better than others. Make sure you always do the blood count appointments exactly on time. Those are important all the way through diagnosis. Never do them at a vets office that can NOT give you the results immediately. We found out some vets mail them off. One weekend it nearly cost us the life of our dog, so use your specialist for this and always ask about the results. It's that important. We had several ER visits when Shelby's BC's got off. I hope you don't have all the same experiences we had and Spencer comes through these coming weeks like a champ. Our prayers are with you. It is rough, and its a good thing to have a support group. I'm so glad you have the insurance and others to talk with on all subjects that my come up. We always wondered if we were doing enough, and it was helpful to talk and even sometimes just vent or cry it out. The worrying has a way of messing with your own emotions.

Hello!! So I was listening to the Art of Racing in the Rain... I'm not sure if I like it to be honest. Some of the parts were so sad for me to listen too!! I love sad books/movies of humans but when its animals.... oh its too much! I'll keep going however! How crazy is this coronavirus stuff. Geez, I keep refreshing the John Hopkins live stats and it just keeps going.. especially Italy. Over 10,000 infected now. Death toll rising as well. I really hope they cancel your flight to Italy. It's just not safe there. I mean entire country lock down? Wow. The other countries, including US - I know it's only lower because they aren't testing enough. I've been feeling a little bit under the weather because we've had some hot and cold days (well for California standards anyway!). I visit my parents very frequently so even I'm a little concerned about going out in public to shop etc. I'm finding myself pouring sanitizer on my hands after each store LOL. I've even had to give out some of my toilet paper stash to my neighbors bc they can't find toilet paper! haha!! As for the Houzz issue, you might want to try to clear your cache and cookies on your web browser? It could help maybe? Costco - "just ask the snowbirds" - oh gee what does that mean? lol. I don't know anyone that doesn't have Costco membership here in the US. I guess unlike where you are, it helps that location wise, they are very close by. We kind of cheat the system because your allowed to have 2 in a member. So my mom has one and I have one but we are on the same account. Shhhhhh. Membership isn't cheap. Since I pay for the membership fee, I get the money back rewards. Galliprant - we are going in to week 3. Hopefully we will see improvement. I did start her on VetCBC because some nights I can tell she is in a lot of pain where her back hips droop down like a german shepherd. Poor baby. When its really bad I've been giving her Herbaprin which is a natural herbal version of aspirin. I pretty much knocks her out at night and she sleeps soundly - by morning she is better. I'm curious to find out what your vet says about Galliprant. Please let me know. I think the pill is still only a few years on the market so it's really hard to find a lot of reviews. I'm hopeful. I do want to get her blood work done again in the next month or two to make sure there is no effect on her liver/kidney. Somedays I feel like she is drinking too much water which makes me worry. I have to remind myself that weather has bee been hot and dry too. I think it's great when dogs want to eat. It's worrisome when they don't. I have a friend who's dog is possibly dealing with some kind of cancer. loss of appetite. It wasn't until she tried Prednisone and now the dog is back to eating really well and gained back his weight. Still not a cure of course - more of a bandaid. Now on to FIGO - not the dog but insurance. LOL. So yes I finally got some more answers from them and it turns out that I have 30 days after renewal to make any changes to the plan. So I guess I am renewing instead of canceling. I'm ok with that. I'm still trying to figure out what plan to choose. They did make it easier to reach the deductible quicker by changing the way it calculates the deductible. So as much as I hate having to go up to $1000 deductible, I think it will be ok. I probably won't be utilizing much of the insurance but thats okay too... just means that my dog was healthy and didn't require too much vet care right? Oh and it turns out that she does have "pre-existing" on the front legs. So I'm still not sure why they covered her x rays when she hurt her front leg. Maybe it was just a mistake on their part. The thing that sucks all four of her legs are pre-existing including her spine/back etc. So what does that leave? Not much right? (insert eye roll). All the more reason to increase the deductible and pay less on the premium is my thinking. It also includes Physical Therapy. I doubt with all the pre-existing, I doubt I'll even be able to use PT at all. If I remove it its only like $60/year anyway so not much change. If you were curious, here is the premium below: I might have already asked this but have you heard of PEMF mats? Its electromagnetic pulsing bla bla bla. I found a company that rent to own. I'm thinking of giving it a try. They use it on horses. Its therapy I can do at home. I could probably use it too or even on my mom who recently broke her wrist! I've been doing a lot of research on it and it sounds promising... or it can be bogus too. LOL. For $250 for 3 months rental - it might be worth trying. Even the vet I go to was excited about it bc I was able to find it for such a low cost and they have always wanted to offer it to their patients but was too expensive. Hope you are all doing well. I feel like this thread has turned into a pen pal exchange between u and me. For those coming across this post, my apologies! I wonder if I can private msg you my contact info. I'm enjoying your responses. Stay safe!

i did extensive research when we got our (then) kitten last fall. We‘d had Nationwide (previously VPI when took out the policies) for our previous two cats, but I wasn't happy with what they offered. I wanted a plan that ticked off most, if not all of the boxes for us. i spent hours online and on the phone comparing insurance companies and plans. i decided on PetFirst (a MetLife company, which has been around for many years). The plan I put together (after getting the prices for various options) includes unlimited annual and lifetime reimbursement, unlimited reimbursement for dental for the things that are covered, which includes dental disease (a few companies only cover dental accidents). FYI, most, if not all insurance does NOT cover routine dental or cleanings, unless you have routine care added to your plan (which will often also include vaccines, flea/heartworm meds, annual exam). We chose a policy with 90% reimbursement of the actual bill, including exam fees (Trupanion does NOT cover the exam fee for any visit), $100 annual deductible, and they offer a ”family” policy which is available for up to three pets I believe, so the $100 deductible only has to be met once per year (by one pet, or split between the other pet or pets on the policy. We were able to convert our first kitten’s policy into a family policy, which saves us some $ on the annual premium in addition to the benefit of a shared deductible. There is also a discount for paying the annual premium in full, which we preferred, rather than monthly. You can choose a higher or lower deductible (or none), a lower or hgiher % reimbursement, whatever works for your budget. The important thing, is to have pet insurance. Just a couole of weeks before her first birthday, our younger cat had to be hospitalized, and then have tests done at a nearby emergency hospital. Minus the $100 deductible, we received a reimbursement check for 90% of the bills (the bills totaled over $5000), Embrace seemed good as well, but there’s a cap on dental reimbursement (i forget if annual or lifetime), and overall i was happy with my choice of PetFirst.