April 14, 2025 • 33 mins
This week's topics include clipping a cat's nails, diabetes in cats, pet insurance, indoor vs outdoor lifestyle, and more! Tune in every SUNDAY at 12 Noon Eastern, 9am Pacific and call in with your questions at 877-385-8882 or join us on Zoom.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And we are live here on cut Life Radios.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ask the best, talking to death here every Sunday morning
at nine in the West and also live on Instagram
and saying hello to We have a request already, so
we have to make sure that that is legit, because
sometimes people hit the wrong button. They want to just
join on the show and they hit request and when
I accept, they're not there. So if this is real,
(00:45):
if you really want to request on the show, then
please yeah, just give me a thumbs up or something,
or tell me yep, this is real and we will
have you come on. So anyway, as you know, the drill,
here for you, here for your pets. Anything you want
to talk about, now is the time to ask. I
had a very crazy every time I go away, and
I was at a conference last week, and it happens
all the time. Whenever I'm away and I come back,
(01:07):
people think, oh god, it's great, you had a couple
of days off. We're good for you. I said, no,
it's not good for me. What happens is that I
have the same number of people that are going to
come to see me, but instead of putting into five days.
It's now down to three days, and trust me, do
I know it? And my clients know and I pity
them because they they will just they wait and look.
(01:27):
I'm thrilled that those who come to see me are
okay with waiting. They're not okay with it, they deal
with it. But you know, I always say that I
don't think that people would be waiting an hour or
whatever it is to see me if I was that bad.
So the good news is that trust factor is there.
Book makes me great and I'm very happy because I
love seeing them. I love seeing their pets and interesting
(01:49):
what I see all the time is that I think,
I don't know, this is just me or I'm sure
they could be like this with other veterinarians also. But
the pets really like coming in, people tell me. As
soon as they pull into the parking lot. The dogs
are getting excited and the cats that are typically are
really tough. The lady came in it was two weeks
ago with the cat. She warned me that you cannot
(02:11):
clip this cat's toenails. The groomers can't do it, she
can't do it at home. And this sweet looking calm
cat turns into a monster so anyway, I said, okay,
look we'll try it. We'll give it a go. So,
you know, I picked this kiddy up in my arms
and I'm sitting and I'm kind of petting him and
off the table. You know, sometimes that table is the
(02:31):
clue that says, okay, this is not going to be good.
So they already know that. So I get the cat
away from the table in my arms. I just first
of what I'm talking to I'm kind of like touching
his feet and you know, touching his toes a little bit.
And then I pull out the clipper and don't make
it a big deal about it, and I start just
trimming his nails. This cat. Actually I had someone to
take a video because when we also had to do
some other things so them we had to clean his ears,
(02:52):
so he had him in the back and so when
I started clipping the toenails, I know the owner would
probably not believe that we were able to do this
with incident, without struggling. It was just there. So of
course I went ahead and I pulled out my clippers,
and I said to one of my technicians to go ahead,
and let's go ahead, and I want to basically do
(03:16):
this where I could show the owner how sweet and
I mean sweet this cat was, and sure she couldn't
believe it. So I think I would say this. I
think animals can read us better than we can read them.
So it's amazing that we get this all the time.
All right. Question coming in from Shannon Corsey. Hi, I
was fostering a senior with pneumonia in large heart. Well,
(03:37):
that doesn't sound good already, and on plural fusion. Had
him on doxy cloudmox spatrils, he'd be improving. He goes
to the vet and they put him down. WHOA, Well,
that's weird. Do they put him down? Did they talk
to about it? Okay? There are a number of ways
to when I face with an animal like this, those
of us, or I would say us, because it's not me.
Those veterinarians are testing the test results, testing the they're
(04:00):
making decisions based on that, which you know as far
as guiding us what might be the next move, what
to talk to the owner about, as far as what
to expect. But I am not gonna put a cat
down right or a dog anything that if they're doing okay,
right right there, when you say had him on doxy
clap patrol, lots of different antibotics, seem to be improving.
(04:22):
He goes to the vet and they put him down. Well,
if he was improving, maybe you're onto something. Of course,
it's a bad prognosis when you have this pneumonia and
large heart plural effusion. There is failure going on, There's
no doubt about it. But I wouldn't make a decision
to euthanize based on those tests and based on the diagnosis.
Clinically look and see how the pet is doing. If
(04:43):
the pet is miserable and not doing well, which it
wouldn't surprise me with all those things, and he's suffering,
or he's not eating, or he's no longer living. He's
existing but he's not really living, and they make a decision,
a tough decision to say goodbye, then yeah, I'm supportive
of that. But if the pet is doing a little
better and not struggling, is eating, so I don't know
more of the facts of the case, but I would
(05:05):
not make a decision of I mean, that's a no
turnback decision. So you know, with the effusion, I don't
know if they had them on some lay six also
some medication you get diffusion. Did they drain the chest.
I've had animals coming in that we had to drain
the abumen or drain the chest once every few weeks.
But once the cat or the pet was drained, they
(05:27):
did so much better. So if it's okay with an owner,
you say, look, we may have a give lucidation. The
first time I would do is let's try it. It's
worth the trying. If everything else is good. Pet's still
eating and seems to be okay, and there is a
fusion which is just fluid build up. Plural effusion is
in the chest okay, and there's what it's called pericarda,
the fusion where that's a sack around the heart, okay.
(05:49):
And then you can have a fusion in the abdumen
all right, that's called the sights. So we don't know
always what the causes are. In the case of the
bad heart, I would say that's probably contributing to it,
and then maybe the other organs. I mean, I don't
know what the blood tests looked like, but I don't
like to make a decision just based on all these tests.
I kind of wonder how the pet is feeling, how
(06:10):
the pet is doing, and if they are still hanging
in there, and with an attempt to try to make
things better, you start a treatment and they are starting
to improve, then I would have gone in and say, look,
we seem like we're doing a little better. Let's give
it another week or two. Let's see what happens. So
a bit surprised. So he was drowning in fluids. Okay,
well if that's the case, But then again, he couldn't
(06:32):
have been. When you say improving. Was his breathing getting better?
I mean, there are other medications that one can do
to decrease the fluid build up, and so if he
was wheezing and struggling to breathe that one hundred percent
it's time, because that's that's a terrible way to go.
But if he was improving, how were we rating this
quote unquote improvement? Was he eating better? Was he breathing better?
(06:54):
Was he a little more animated? If that was going on,
then I would have, you know, possibly wait a little bit,
or maybe added something to absorb some of the fluids
in the chest, little lasix or something. So there may
have been things to do. But if he was truly
drowning in his own fluids in the chest. Then that
means he probably was suffering. Okay, hey, Steph, how are you? Thursday?
(07:15):
Back to Mexico. We're going to Paderbay, Arcta this time.
So I just say, added Georgean and Walter, Okay, I'm
so broken to see the doing better. He was eating walking,
That says a tough You know, these are the ones
without me seeing the X rays, seeing the cat I
don't know, or the pat Do you ever say it
was a cat or a dog or just a senior
whatever it was. If he was doing a little better,
(07:36):
did they talk to you first? Did you tell them
that he was seemed to be doing better, he was eating, walking,
that's good. And again, if as always they're not suffering,
if he was struggling to breathe, like there is time,
because that's a terrible think about someone who's claustrophobic. That's
the feeling that animals get when they can't breathe. They
start freaking out, and then they try to breathe even
(07:58):
harder because they think the problem is there's not getting
enough oxygen. Has nothing to do with how hard the breathing,
has to do with the ability to absorb the oxygen.
Because the lungs aren't working well period. So that's a
tough call. All right, Teddy has a large black dark
spot and it's underside near his what well here, If
it's raised, okay, and you can feel it and it's
itchy and it's crusty, then something we need to see.
(08:21):
If it's just flat and even it could be just pigment,
which you could do, is you my cell is take
a picture and let me see what the picture looks like.
Let me see what it looks what I want to
always and this this is what one way you can tell.
Don't always look. Sometimes feel it. If you're petting him
and you're not looking at it and you you don't
feel the area that is dark being its black spot,
(08:44):
that means it's not raised, it's not sticking three dimensional,
it's it's flush with the skin, and it's not crusty,
and it's not itchy, it's just there, then I think
just a pigment change. If it is itchy, if is
raised meaning you can actually three dimensionally feel it, it's
not the same level with the rest of the skin,
(09:04):
or it's crusty or oozing or has scabs on it, whatever,
then is something we need to see, So send me
a picture. Okay, all right, Dyl how are you no bleeding,
no dirt? So again, take a picture. What you're gonna
do is as I said, feel it. If you feel it,
then it is something we should see. If you don't
even feel it, you just see it, but you're not
feeling it, it doesn't feel any different than the skin
(09:25):
around it, then chances are not a big deal. Jennis, Hello, Yeah,
If he was colling to breathe, then I think yeah,
oh yeah, yeah. I mean the fact that they did
it without letting you know this is what they needed
to do, that concerns me a lot of it. So
what caused diabetes for cats? And what are the signs
are what to avoid so diabetes? So generally in cats
(09:45):
they get type two diabetes, which the same thing as
adult don't set diabetes usually associated with obesity, as it
is in cats. So dogs, regardless of age, they usually
get type one diabetes, which is like the equivalent of
our juvenile diabetes, which means insulin diabetes. They need insulin.
Their islet cells called islets of layer hands cells of
the pancreas are no longer functioning, secreting their own insulin
(10:08):
therefore we have to give insulin externally. That's type one.
Type two maybe non insulin dependent, meaning their kind of
adjustments can be made in diet. Maybe it's giving an
insulin a little bit at first, and then you can
use a supplement that might help destroy some of the
excess glucose that is in the blood. But it's not
always insulin dependent. But in cats that's what they usually
(10:31):
get and is often associated with obesity. So if you
have a cat like one of mine that is overweight,
you need to do your best to try to reduce
that caloric load and so ultimately to help prevent this
type two diabetes. But other than that, the signs are
typically a lot of water drinking, a lot of peeing,
(10:54):
and when you sometimes a lot of eating, which for
cat that's up ofweight, it's not such a good thing.
You take them into the vet for a blood test
and that blood sugar is very very high, that urine
sugar very high, and that's a clue that we might
have a diabetic and of course we treat them with
insulin the same way. But if it is a cat,
there might be waste is ease off the insulin modify diet,
(11:17):
get them to lose weight and you might be able
to treat these without shots daily. Okay, Now the little
girl has a sensitive ear. When I take it to
the vet, have a check, there's no infection. But when
you touch the ear sometimes shit yell, but not okay,
so this could be an allergy. So if the ear
flap called a pinna, seems to be very red and inflame,
that might be a clue. And then other thing you
(11:39):
get to know is that sometimes you can clean in
ear and it looks you're not getting debris out, but
there might be something like a polyp or something going
on down in the ear. Sometimes we have to sedate
these animals. Go down with the scope and take really
a thorough inspection of the entire canal all the way
down to the timpatum, which is the ear drum, and
make sure that so all the timp patent is intact.
(12:01):
Sometimes it's not an that can cause some itching. Make
sure there is not a polyp or a growth, or
sometimes there could be like a piece of something like
a foreign body stuck in that ear and cleaning won't
get it out. They got to actually grab it with
something called an alligator forceps and actually remove it, so
that might be going on. So if we have a
persistent problem, the ears appear to be clean when you
(12:23):
clean them, there's nothing more coming out. The next step
is to do under sedation a thorough, thorough inspection of
the ear canal. Okay, they didn't even call you, Charon.
That is I mean, I'm a little bit shocked. That
is very unusual. It's one thing, they may not have
made the wrong decision based on what you're telling me
struggling to breathe, et cetera. But to make a drastic
(12:45):
move like that without your consent or knowledge, that does
bother me a little bit because, for example, as a
pet parent, if I was faced with that and the
solution was and the right solution was to euthanize, saygabye,
I don't want to be there. I'd want to get
a phone call, say you no, what it's time? Would
you like to be with us when we do it?
I would imagine, of course, So that is troublesome to me.
(13:07):
It really is very disappointing. Okay, the next thing, I know,
this gusting ashes. That's crazy. Again, it may not have
been a wrong decision based on the breathing and what
they found on the X ray's lungs full of fluid.
I get it. But I would imagine you probably want
to be there. I would have wanted to be there.
I would have wanted to hold the pet in my
arms and say goodbye. It just that to me is concerning.
(13:29):
All right, Tammy, how are you say hi to the
fam gott. I have cousins calling from Texas. That's great, Okay,
let's see Todd. How are you okay? Yeah, send me
and Karen, thank you so much. Send me pictures, Hello, Todd. Okay, okay.
But if this is some of the ways I have
to get in touch with my family, my cousins is
have them join me on the study boarding. Hey, that's great.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Saya, Joey and the kids. All right, our cats start
needs good for dogs. The only thing is most of
these can official really good for them is that they
usually are an olive oil. They just may be a
little too fatty. Not the fish itself, it is. What's
you know, those canned sardines. I know they're putting them
in these those really cool little things. You gotta, you know,
take the key and open them up that way. But
(14:11):
am I aging myself and now I probably am. But anyway,
I'm not worried about the sardine. I'm worried about that
if there's too much oil. So if you want to
use them like it's like even when I open a
canton and I still rinse it, rinse it, rinse it,
even though it's back to water, I still rinse it,
rent it like crazy. So if you do that, then
it would be fine. All right, So let's take a
quick break. Here. It is at the time of the
(14:32):
show nine twenty. Actually, when we come back, there are
two things I want to talk about, and you may
need you remind me because you trust me even as
a commercial. But one is pet insurance and one is
indoor versus outdoor lifestyle. No go wait, go back after
these shorts, take.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
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(15:11):
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(15:34):
Let's done, petco at Radio, Petline.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Radio, petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
So we're back.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
We're back.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Youre live with doctor Jeff and we are just talking
about the one thing I wanted to bring up before
the break about indoor outdoor lifestyle. And I want to
just you know, set some some ground rules for me
and you know, hopefully you'll be able to appreciate these.
So when it comes on with the dogs mostly are
indoacter over there, they're not roaming streets. When you see
a dog running the street right away, you think, oh
my god, he must have gotten loose. Let me try
(16:12):
to catch him. C v IZID cat's phone running a neighborhood,
you think twice. Because a lot of people have cat
that are indoor outdoor. Are they roaming around? And that's normal. So,
but my concern is in a municipality like La where
I am, you have dogs, cars, coyotes, feline aids. There
are a lot of dangers out there, and if you
have these cats that are in and out, then you
(16:32):
have to vaccinate them, or at least I would recommend
against rabies and leukemia. And I'm concerned about these vaccines
because I just did surgery on the cat that had
feline vaccine induced sarcoma. That is a tumor and normally
the treatment of choice. That's why we now give vaccines
to cats only in the hind thighs is that if
(16:53):
they should get this ugly sarcoma, you can save their
lives by amputating the leg. Okay, and that's that's I mean,
I mean to think about it. That's pretty dramatic and
drastic you have to do, but that will save your lives. Well,
we used to give shots like on the trum like
we do with dogs all the time. Then you can't
remove it. So I had one. It was relatively new.
I did try to remove it. I know I didn't
(17:15):
get it all. I think I got pretty most of it.
They just said that they that the tumors came down
to the edge of what I took, so there obviously
they have to tell me that most likely there might
be some on the other side of what I removed,
but this cat is doing great. I had to cut
into muscle. I was very concerned. Did I ruined some muscle?
I tried to save as much as I could. She said.
(17:36):
The owner said, the cat's walking. The cats jumping again,
and I felt it yesternight. I took the stitches out.
You feel nothing, no gross. So I'm hoping I was
one of the lucky ones that will at least get
this cat. I was also an older cat, so if
I get it to the live an extra year year
and a half, we're good and without having to amputake.
So that was a plus. But a cat gets hit
by car or attacked by coyote, I'm not worried about
(17:58):
the coyote giving you a rabies coyote. Mike is gonna
probably take a cat. So I really think that My
recommendation is if you're living in a city like La Now,
look one of my cats, as he was found by
my daughter when she was still living at home. Now
she's my youngest, she's thirty three already with two kids
of her own. But this cat came up to her.
She was you know, she was here. We've had the
(18:19):
cat for a long time. Obviously, and so he was
an outdoor cat and we ped him a little bit.
She was really he was really sweet and hey, Keith,
really sweet cat and we that was it. Cat took golf.
A week later, the cat's back and this time my
daughter gives us some food brings in the house. I
tested for I did a micro chip check. No micro chip,
(18:42):
no idea on it. We talked to the neighborhoods put
something out. There was no way and this cat really,
first of all, he's the greatest cat. So he was
an outdoor cat or into outdoor whatever, but he was
certainly outdoors. So when we was still very careful because
we had a front door open or a window open,
he would make a bee line and he would get out.
Fortunately he would come back. You knew where the food
was coming from. Now after all these years, I mean,
(19:06):
I can have the door wide open and he'll go
to the threshold and think, a look, nothing out there
the beach this and he rais right back in. So yes,
you can make these cats indoor cats. You have to
train him to a litter box, which we did no problem.
And now plus he's got oh he had the time.
He had four other friend now we got three and
one of them and he are like Mutt and Jeff.
(19:27):
They are inseparable. And that is such a gorgeous, beautiful
thing to see when you your own cats have such
a bond with each other that you know, I mean
need us, I mean they love it. And he loves
being petted and he's a cuddler. Oh it's the best.
But if you lived like in a farm or ranch,
or you in a barn, cat whatever, then yet then
(19:47):
I would I would definitely say yes, it's probably okay
to have it into our to a cat as long
as the grounds are protected. Now, if you know you're
in some place when you see coyotes or bobcats at night,
then bring them in. Make sure they're inside. I wouldn't
trust anything. Or if you have a barn, close the barn,
keep them inside the barn. But it is possible. But
I know that you're going to need to give the
(20:08):
rabies and the leukemia vaccine, So make sure if you're
going to give those vaccines or any vaccine, even the
FRCPP and E, which is a basic cat upper respiratory's
cat fever vaccine, you want to give them in the
thigh and only in the thigh. You're not let a
veterinarian give a vaccine anywhere but the thigh, because that
is just a recipe for his potential disaster. So hang
on a second. I ping a lot that told me
(20:30):
to keep it a diet, But I'm concerned about this
kidney test. Fine, he was diagnosed before with high creating.
You well, I mean certainly if he's got you know,
creatinine and bun, that is a kidney problem. So it
could be the water intake and the urinating is just
because of kidney disease. Absolutely, I want to know what
the bun was, Okay, that's important, and what the urine
or blood glucose. If the urine is negative for glucose
(20:53):
and the blood is normal glucose, then it's not diabetes.
It's not diabetes. Then you just gotta go with probably
kidney disease and or early kidney failure. Get them out
of kidney diet. Again, there's really not a lot you
can do SubQ fluids on a regular basis, and you
just got to run with older cats. Let's put it
this way. The truth is that they say close to
(21:13):
as a cat age, it's once it hits past fifteen
or sixteen, like, basically one hundred percent are going to
die of kidney failure. Obviously, nothing's ever one hundred percent,
but they've already passed. They'll lived past the age of
getting cancer or organ failure or other dysfunction. It's now
up to the kidneys. And just unfortunately, cats weren't built
to have kidneys last more than you know, typically twenty
(21:34):
twenty one to twenty two years.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
My oldest cat I ever had as a patient was
twenty two. I've heard about a twenty six and it
was some story I think this past year of a
cat that made it to thirty six. I don't know,
anything's possible, so one of the other word to say never,
never impossible, but not normal. So anyway, so that's how
I feel about the indoor only, and I prefer in
a city if you if you can try to get
(21:56):
your cats to the indoor only, it'll be they live longer.
They will live longer. Now, obviously, again that's not a
guarantee because you're gonna have another disease that happens. That
can happen to any cat, but generally it's a rule
of thumb. The outdoor cats do not live as long
in the metropolitan area as the indoor cats because of
all those dangers the dogs, cards coyotes, you know, became
me a feline age, et cetera, et cetera. Now, next, insurance.
(22:18):
This net really deserves more of a time than I'm
going to give it right now. But let's say this.
Here's my tagline. You're gonna need it the most when
you don't have it. Okay, that's Murphy's law. But now
let's talk about insurance. I've been dealing with insurance companies
for well, I've been practicing over forty years. When I
first started, they were not a big deal. I'd say
at least thirty years. And I get the same complaints
(22:39):
from owners, and that is you've got to be really
careful because they make sure they let you know they
do not cover diseases that were existing diseases, pre existing
conditions as they call it. So, oh wow, that's that's
no big deal. I'll tell you why it's a big deal. Okay.
I have a puppy that has oral papal owners. Those
(22:59):
are oral warks, okay and very common in puppies. Is
it really a disease? No, they can get it at daycare.
It's nothing, it's a virus, and they get through the
virus and you're done. Now, let's say eight years later,
nine years later, you make a claim for a skin tumor,
a tumor and they go, oh no, yeah, back when
(23:20):
he's an uppy, he had oral papalomans. Those are awards.
That's a skin but we won't cover any skin growth. Really, really,
is that how we disgusting you guys? Are as insurance companies?
Then we go give it statistic. When I started practicing,
there were like two insurance companies. Now they're like ten,
and yet only two to three percent of pet parents
have interns for the pets. So what does it tell
you would these new companies be coming on board if
(23:42):
those two three now ten to show weren't making boatloads
of money. Not only that they're taking your, say, one
hundred bucks a months, they're taking your hundred and his
hundred and her one hundred and that hundred. Before you
know what, they got one hundred people one hundred bucks
a month, ten thousand dollars. They're investing that money. They're
investing you will money making it worthwhile investment because they're
(24:02):
using other people's money as well at the same time.
So what's happening, Okay, what's happening is they are making
money on that money. So then when you make a
claim and you made more of the lucky ones that
need it and they pay it, you're covered. But they
weren't think there's no money. They were using the money
they made from your money and everybody else's money. Think
of it as Las Vegas casino. Okay. Now, I don't
(24:23):
know how many of your gamblers out there, but if
you look at the casino, the opulence, the people walking around,
the temperature, everything about it, do you think most people
will go in their play? Are winning or losing? Think
about it? Losing the house wins? Now, could you have
gone to Vegas and had a great, great weekend and
lucky hit all the numbers? Your walk came on with
(24:43):
five brand, Yeah, it'll happen. Is it gonna happen every time?
Probably not. So that is insurance. It is a gamble.
You might get lucky right here. Kate McCauley says, I
have insurance and would never stop my aging dog cost
at least three K or more year. Insurances financially save me,
which is great, you're going to get stories like that
one hundred percent. But most of the people that I
(25:04):
talked to and now their next pet, they said, no,
we're not doing insurance thing. They looked for every reason
in the book not to pay out, whether it's pre existing,
whether we don't cover it, we don't cover this, Oh
our cause didn't cover that. But I think you need something.
So here is for me, here is the solution. And
first of all, read all the insurance things really carefully,
(25:27):
what are they going to cover, what are they not
going to cover, and know in advance, because if your
pet had any of those things that they're not going
to cover because of pre existing you need to know
that going into it, so that's important. And then so
there is my only solution, because I think you need something,
is what we call self insuring. I'm sure you've heard
of something called HSA Health Savings account. So what you
(25:47):
can do is you can take one hundred bucks amile
whatever it is you're going to pay for insurance. You
open up an account in Bowser's name, and every single month, automatically,
you have no choice working out with your bay. It's
an automatic deposit into an interestparing savings account and you
put that money away every single month religiously. You don't
use it for routine, don't use it for the dental,
(26:09):
don't use it for the vaccination. It is for that condition,
that disease, that hit by car, that dog fights, when
you have something that is really going to require some
major bucks hospitalization, you know, tuber removal, whatever it is.
And if you just let it ride, after the first year,
got twelve hundred bucks, Second you got twenty four hundred
plus little interest. Third you got thirty six thirty seven
hundred bucks. So you just let it ride, and by
(26:31):
the time your dog is six or seven or eight
years of age, you're gonna have you know, eight thousand
dollars but away. And if you wanted to invest out,
if something comes along and you got a great investment,
invest it and do the same thing insurance companies do.
You'll be using some of your money made from the
investment to pay He'll pay off that big bill. But
the bottom line is it's steal your money. Insurance companies
are banking that you're not going to use it. You're
(26:53):
not going to let you use it all. And at
the end of the day they make the money, not you,
but don't do nothing. They're all I'll agree. If you
are not disciplined enough to be able to do that,
then paid insurance whatever it is. But start young. Always
know that when you the pet gets older and now
you want to start insurance, those premiums are good. I've
(27:13):
had comments science tell me that their premums now we
turn fifty dollars a month. That is insane. So anyway,
what I would do, I would yes again. Her first
dog had cancer and she spent all her savings on it.
And first of all, it depends which company you're using,
what you're gonna be paying for. Don't if you're gonna
do get insurance, don't do routine care. Don't do routine
(27:34):
care that will definitely cost you more than you are putting,
cost you more than they're gonna cover because they won't
cover horwardly anything. So they we cover annual vaccines, maybe
a spain nooter, maybe one dentistry. Whatever it is you're
gonna end up it's going to cost you more to
have it than it is that you're gonna get back
from them if you use it or try to use it.
(27:54):
So you know, again, start young. The premiums get really
really high if you're started for the first time. So
that's my take. I am. I also tell to sharing
with you what most on my clients that I've had insurance,
they're either looking for another company all right, or they
are trying to finagle start with a new vet. No mention,
(28:15):
nothing about ever having had prior existing condition. I mean
the fact that you have to do that, it tells
you right there. They do not want it to pay out.
They want to take him money every month, but it's
hard as hell to get the money out of them.
So you know, again, success story like here absolutely for
Kate McCauley. Absolutely, Then if you had luck with it,
(28:35):
go for it. But I'm just sharing with you what
most on my clients that have had insurance, they will
not renew. And when I mentioned about the HSA the
whole Savman's account, they think that is it's a great solution.
It may not cover as much, but it's going to
cover something. But most importantly, if you don't have a
claim at all, think how much you spent on insurance
(28:55):
at say one hundred bucks a month, or if you
have multiple pets, whatever it is, so somebody think about
look into it now. Also researcher insurance companies. Kate, which
insurance company you said you've had others? Which was the
one that you found is the most amenable and easy
to work with? So if you can answer that, while
I share yes and says, and here from janis that
even if you start younger, PMMs go up significantly as
(29:17):
the pet gets older. So you know again it's not
quite the same and you have to go through hoops
for them to search old records. I mean, let me
give you a perfect example just to show you how
insane this is it that I even have to get
involved our senior panel. When you have a dogs that
are senior based on the lab, they call it a
(29:37):
senior wellness well This dog was a very sick dog
and we had to do the senior panel called SA
seven h five full blood ender your analysis. They were declined.
Why well, because they ran a wellness panel, you idiots.
That wasn't wellness. They called it the lab and they
calls it a senior wellness profile. It's the profile we
do for older dogs. Period. Now I have to go
(30:00):
after write letters, have to talk to them, moron veterinarian
at the insurance company or wherever it's making these decisions,
and that's the problem. You're dealing with people that are
so poorly educated. They're told what they do. They're like robots,
and they go instead wellness, no good, had nothing to
do that all was not well. The profile named by
the own laboratory that we use calls it a senior
wellness profile. So it is just crazy, and this is
(30:23):
what you're going to be, you know. There so case
going with pets, best look into them. But there are
there's Lemonade, there's twenty four hour Pet Watch, there's oh god,
there's so many now a trupanion. So all these are
out there. Do your homework, look into it. But I
would I would be very very very careful because Keith
(30:43):
got on. Keith is the one I've work with right
now who denied him because it's a senior wellness panel.
They didn't read the records. They want you to have
the records, but they don't read them to see that
this was a sick dog that came in and we
had to do blood tests, and if we just called
it blood tests, they were well, we called it aye,
but say seven or five, I've senior wellness. So anyway,
so here's one of the ones that has good experience,
(31:06):
and there are some out there. Yes, the price went up,
but he's seventeen, has tons of issues, and it still
makes financial sense. Absolutely. So as long as you're getting
things before, as long as you have the insurance before
any of these things of these tons of issues issues
we pop up, then you're okay. But if one of
those issues popped up before you got the insurance, oh
(31:27):
my god, your toast. Even if you had a benign
growth on the skin and now you have homangeosarcoma, which
is a malignant tumor inside the body, they're gonna say, Oh, no,
a tumor. We don't do tumors. You already had a
tumbor before we Oh really, is that how cheap you
guys are? So anyway, do your homework. I guess you're
gonna get me. I'll tell you as you can tell.
(31:49):
You think I'm passionate about this, I think so so. No,
it is really frustrat as a veterinarian, and these people
are complaining that they have insurance and they're not paying anything,
or they're saying that it was because of a preexisting No,
it's not a little skin tumor is not a wart
a mole a skin tag. No, that's not pre existing
for hamancho, sarcoma or lymphoma down the road. So you know,
(32:11):
go figure, but ask these questions. If you're thinking about it,
you want to give them scenarios and say is this
going to be a problem, and if they say yes,
pass you do not even waste your money because your
chances are when you think of the major things that
dogs are going to beginning as they get older, it's
the vomiting and diarrhea issues, some of the skin issue,
skin allergies, and it's a lot of cancers, a lot
of tumors, so keep that in mind. Next week I'll
(32:34):
be here, live, not here, I'll be live from Puerto
Bayarta and using up my weeks that I have to
use up. So anyway, I'm almost done. But I won't
be traveling that much after this is done, but anyway,
taking advantage of it. So we'll be in hopefully some
sunshine in Mexico, having a blast, and yes, I will
probably be working a little bit of my tan. But anyway,
(32:56):
we'll see you next week, but live from Puerto Yaka.
All Right, I have a great everybody, and we'll see it.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com
This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And we are live here on cut Life Radios.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Ask the best, talking to death here every Sunday morning
at nine in the West and also live on Instagram
and saying hello to We have a request already, so
we have to make sure that that is legit, because
sometimes people hit the wrong button. They want to just
join on the show and they hit request and when
I accept, they're not there. So if this is real,
(00:45):
if you really want to request on the show, then
please yeah, just give me a thumbs up or something,
or tell me yep, this is real and we will
have you come on. So anyway, as you know, the drill,
here for you, here for your pets. Anything you want
to talk about, now is the time to ask. I
had a very crazy every time I go away, and
I was at a conference last week, and it happens
all the time. Whenever I'm away and I come back,
(01:07):
people think, oh god, it's great, you had a couple
of days off. We're good for you. I said, no,
it's not good for me. What happens is that I
have the same number of people that are going to
come to see me, but instead of putting into five days.
It's now down to three days, and trust me, do
I know it? And my clients know and I pity
them because they they will just they wait and look.
(01:27):
I'm thrilled that those who come to see me are
okay with waiting. They're not okay with it, they deal
with it. But you know, I always say that I
don't think that people would be waiting an hour or
whatever it is to see me if I was that bad.
So the good news is that trust factor is there.
Book makes me great and I'm very happy because I
love seeing them. I love seeing their pets and interesting
(01:49):
what I see all the time is that I think,
I don't know, this is just me or I'm sure
they could be like this with other veterinarians also. But
the pets really like coming in, people tell me. As
soon as they pull into the parking lot. The dogs
are getting excited and the cats that are typically are
really tough. The lady came in it was two weeks
ago with the cat. She warned me that you cannot
(02:11):
clip this cat's toenails. The groomers can't do it, she
can't do it at home. And this sweet looking calm
cat turns into a monster so anyway, I said, okay,
look we'll try it. We'll give it a go. So,
you know, I picked this kiddy up in my arms
and I'm sitting and I'm kind of petting him and
off the table. You know, sometimes that table is the
(02:31):
clue that says, okay, this is not going to be good.
So they already know that. So I get the cat
away from the table in my arms. I just first
of what I'm talking to I'm kind of like touching
his feet and you know, touching his toes a little bit.
And then I pull out the clipper and don't make
it a big deal about it, and I start just
trimming his nails. This cat. Actually I had someone to
take a video because when we also had to do
some other things so them we had to clean his ears,
(02:52):
so he had him in the back and so when
I started clipping the toenails, I know the owner would
probably not believe that we were able to do this
with incident, without struggling. It was just there. So of
course I went ahead and I pulled out my clippers,
and I said to one of my technicians to go ahead,
and let's go ahead, and I want to basically do
(03:16):
this where I could show the owner how sweet and
I mean sweet this cat was, and sure she couldn't
believe it. So I think I would say this. I
think animals can read us better than we can read them.
So it's amazing that we get this all the time.
All right. Question coming in from Shannon Corsey. Hi, I
was fostering a senior with pneumonia in large heart. Well,
(03:37):
that doesn't sound good already, and on plural fusion. Had
him on doxy cloudmox spatrils, he'd be improving. He goes
to the vet and they put him down. WHOA, Well,
that's weird. Do they put him down? Did they talk
to about it? Okay? There are a number of ways
to when I face with an animal like this, those
of us, or I would say us, because it's not me.
Those veterinarians are testing the test results, testing the they're
(04:00):
making decisions based on that, which you know as far
as guiding us what might be the next move, what
to talk to the owner about, as far as what
to expect. But I am not gonna put a cat
down right or a dog anything that if they're doing okay,
right right there, when you say had him on doxy
clap patrol, lots of different antibotics, seem to be improving.
(04:22):
He goes to the vet and they put him down. Well,
if he was improving, maybe you're onto something. Of course,
it's a bad prognosis when you have this pneumonia and
large heart plural effusion. There is failure going on, There's
no doubt about it. But I wouldn't make a decision
to euthanize based on those tests and based on the diagnosis.
Clinically look and see how the pet is doing. If
(04:43):
the pet is miserable and not doing well, which it
wouldn't surprise me with all those things, and he's suffering,
or he's not eating, or he's no longer living. He's
existing but he's not really living, and they make a decision,
a tough decision to say goodbye, then yeah, I'm supportive
of that. But if the pet is doing a little
better and not struggling, is eating, so I don't know
more of the facts of the case, but I would
(05:05):
not make a decision of I mean, that's a no
turnback decision. So you know, with the effusion, I don't
know if they had them on some lay six also
some medication you get diffusion. Did they drain the chest.
I've had animals coming in that we had to drain
the abumen or drain the chest once every few weeks.
But once the cat or the pet was drained, they
(05:27):
did so much better. So if it's okay with an owner,
you say, look, we may have a give lucidation. The
first time I would do is let's try it. It's
worth the trying. If everything else is good. Pet's still
eating and seems to be okay, and there is a
fusion which is just fluid build up. Plural effusion is
in the chest okay, and there's what it's called pericarda,
the fusion where that's a sack around the heart, okay.
(05:49):
And then you can have a fusion in the abdumen
all right, that's called the sights. So we don't know
always what the causes are. In the case of the
bad heart, I would say that's probably contributing to it,
and then maybe the other organs. I mean, I don't
know what the blood tests looked like, but I don't
like to make a decision just based on all these tests.
I kind of wonder how the pet is feeling, how
(06:10):
the pet is doing, and if they are still hanging
in there, and with an attempt to try to make
things better, you start a treatment and they are starting
to improve, then I would have gone in and say, look,
we seem like we're doing a little better. Let's give
it another week or two. Let's see what happens. So
a bit surprised. So he was drowning in fluids. Okay,
well if that's the case, But then again, he couldn't
(06:32):
have been. When you say improving. Was his breathing getting better?
I mean, there are other medications that one can do
to decrease the fluid build up, and so if he
was wheezing and struggling to breathe that one hundred percent
it's time, because that's that's a terrible way to go.
But if he was improving, how were we rating this
quote unquote improvement? Was he eating better? Was he breathing better?
(06:54):
Was he a little more animated? If that was going on,
then I would have, you know, possibly wait a little bit,
or maybe added something to absorb some of the fluids
in the chest, little lasix or something. So there may
have been things to do. But if he was truly
drowning in his own fluids in the chest. Then that
means he probably was suffering. Okay, hey, Steph, how are you? Thursday?
(07:15):
Back to Mexico. We're going to Paderbay, Arcta this time.
So I just say, added Georgean and Walter, Okay, I'm
so broken to see the doing better. He was eating walking,
That says a tough You know, these are the ones
without me seeing the X rays, seeing the cat I
don't know, or the pat Do you ever say it
was a cat or a dog or just a senior
whatever it was. If he was doing a little better,
(07:36):
did they talk to you first? Did you tell them
that he was seemed to be doing better, he was eating, walking,
that's good. And again, if as always they're not suffering,
if he was struggling to breathe, like there is time,
because that's a terrible think about someone who's claustrophobic. That's
the feeling that animals get when they can't breathe. They
start freaking out, and then they try to breathe even
(07:58):
harder because they think the problem is there's not getting
enough oxygen. Has nothing to do with how hard the breathing,
has to do with the ability to absorb the oxygen.
Because the lungs aren't working well period. So that's a
tough call. All right, Teddy has a large black dark
spot and it's underside near his what well here, If
it's raised, okay, and you can feel it and it's
itchy and it's crusty, then something we need to see.
(08:21):
If it's just flat and even it could be just pigment,
which you could do, is you my cell is take
a picture and let me see what the picture looks like.
Let me see what it looks what I want to
always and this this is what one way you can tell.
Don't always look. Sometimes feel it. If you're petting him
and you're not looking at it and you you don't
feel the area that is dark being its black spot,
(08:44):
that means it's not raised, it's not sticking three dimensional,
it's it's flush with the skin, and it's not crusty,
and it's not itchy, it's just there, then I think
just a pigment change. If it is itchy, if is
raised meaning you can actually three dimensionally feel it, it's
not the same level with the rest of the skin,
(09:04):
or it's crusty or oozing or has scabs on it, whatever,
then is something we need to see, So send me
a picture. Okay, all right, Dyl how are you no bleeding,
no dirt? So again, take a picture. What you're gonna
do is as I said, feel it. If you feel it,
then it is something we should see. If you don't
even feel it, you just see it, but you're not
feeling it, it doesn't feel any different than the skin
(09:25):
around it, then chances are not a big deal. Jennis, Hello, Yeah,
If he was colling to breathe, then I think yeah,
oh yeah, yeah. I mean the fact that they did
it without letting you know this is what they needed
to do, that concerns me a lot of it. So
what caused diabetes for cats? And what are the signs
are what to avoid so diabetes? So generally in cats
(09:45):
they get type two diabetes, which the same thing as
adult don't set diabetes usually associated with obesity, as it
is in cats. So dogs, regardless of age, they usually
get type one diabetes, which is like the equivalent of
our juvenile diabetes, which means insulin diabetes. They need insulin.
Their islet cells called islets of layer hands cells of
the pancreas are no longer functioning, secreting their own insulin
(10:08):
therefore we have to give insulin externally. That's type one.
Type two maybe non insulin dependent, meaning their kind of
adjustments can be made in diet. Maybe it's giving an
insulin a little bit at first, and then you can
use a supplement that might help destroy some of the
excess glucose that is in the blood. But it's not
always insulin dependent. But in cats that's what they usually
(10:31):
get and is often associated with obesity. So if you
have a cat like one of mine that is overweight,
you need to do your best to try to reduce
that caloric load and so ultimately to help prevent this
type two diabetes. But other than that, the signs are
typically a lot of water drinking, a lot of peeing,
(10:54):
and when you sometimes a lot of eating, which for
cat that's up ofweight, it's not such a good thing.
You take them into the vet for a blood test
and that blood sugar is very very high, that urine
sugar very high, and that's a clue that we might
have a diabetic and of course we treat them with
insulin the same way. But if it is a cat,
there might be waste is ease off the insulin modify diet,
(11:17):
get them to lose weight and you might be able
to treat these without shots daily. Okay, Now the little
girl has a sensitive ear. When I take it to
the vet, have a check, there's no infection. But when
you touch the ear sometimes shit yell, but not okay,
so this could be an allergy. So if the ear
flap called a pinna, seems to be very red and inflame,
that might be a clue. And then other thing you
(11:39):
get to know is that sometimes you can clean in
ear and it looks you're not getting debris out, but
there might be something like a polyp or something going
on down in the ear. Sometimes we have to sedate
these animals. Go down with the scope and take really
a thorough inspection of the entire canal all the way
down to the timpatum, which is the ear drum, and
make sure that so all the timp patent is intact.
(12:01):
Sometimes it's not an that can cause some itching. Make
sure there is not a polyp or a growth, or
sometimes there could be like a piece of something like
a foreign body stuck in that ear and cleaning won't
get it out. They got to actually grab it with
something called an alligator forceps and actually remove it, so
that might be going on. So if we have a
persistent problem, the ears appear to be clean when you
(12:23):
clean them, there's nothing more coming out. The next step
is to do under sedation a thorough, thorough inspection of
the ear canal. Okay, they didn't even call you, Charon.
That is I mean, I'm a little bit shocked. That
is very unusual. It's one thing, they may not have
made the wrong decision based on what you're telling me
struggling to breathe, et cetera. But to make a drastic
(12:45):
move like that without your consent or knowledge, that does
bother me a little bit because, for example, as a
pet parent, if I was faced with that and the
solution was and the right solution was to euthanize, saygabye,
I don't want to be there. I'd want to get
a phone call, say you no, what it's time? Would
you like to be with us when we do it?
I would imagine, of course, So that is troublesome to me.
(13:07):
It really is very disappointing. Okay, the next thing, I know,
this gusting ashes. That's crazy. Again, it may not have
been a wrong decision based on the breathing and what
they found on the X ray's lungs full of fluid.
I get it. But I would imagine you probably want
to be there. I would have wanted to be there.
I would have wanted to hold the pet in my
arms and say goodbye. It just that to me is concerning.
(13:29):
All right, Tammy, how are you say hi to the
fam gott. I have cousins calling from Texas. That's great, Okay,
let's see Todd. How are you okay? Yeah, send me
and Karen, thank you so much. Send me pictures, Hello, Todd. Okay, okay.
But if this is some of the ways I have
to get in touch with my family, my cousins is
have them join me on the study boarding. Hey, that's great.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Saya, Joey and the kids. All right, our cats start
needs good for dogs. The only thing is most of
these can official really good for them is that they
usually are an olive oil. They just may be a
little too fatty. Not the fish itself, it is. What's
you know, those canned sardines. I know they're putting them
in these those really cool little things. You gotta, you know,
take the key and open them up that way. But
(14:11):
am I aging myself and now I probably am. But anyway,
I'm not worried about the sardine. I'm worried about that
if there's too much oil. So if you want to
use them like it's like even when I open a
canton and I still rinse it, rinse it, rinse it,
even though it's back to water, I still rinse it,
rent it like crazy. So if you do that, then
it would be fine. All right, So let's take a
quick break. Here. It is at the time of the
(14:32):
show nine twenty. Actually, when we come back, there are
two things I want to talk about, and you may
need you remind me because you trust me even as
a commercial. But one is pet insurance and one is
indoor versus outdoor lifestyle. No go wait, go back after
these shorts, take.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
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(15:11):
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visit petlifradio dot com. Slash advertised today, Let's talk past,
(15:34):
Let's done, petco at Radio, Petline.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Radio, petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
So we're back.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
We're back.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Youre live with doctor Jeff and we are just talking
about the one thing I wanted to bring up before
the break about indoor outdoor lifestyle. And I want to
just you know, set some some ground rules for me
and you know, hopefully you'll be able to appreciate these.
So when it comes on with the dogs mostly are
indoacter over there, they're not roaming streets. When you see
a dog running the street right away, you think, oh
my god, he must have gotten loose. Let me try
(16:12):
to catch him. C v IZID cat's phone running a neighborhood,
you think twice. Because a lot of people have cat
that are indoor outdoor. Are they roaming around? And that's normal. So,
but my concern is in a municipality like La where
I am, you have dogs, cars, coyotes, feline aids. There
are a lot of dangers out there, and if you
have these cats that are in and out, then you
(16:32):
have to vaccinate them, or at least I would recommend
against rabies and leukemia. And I'm concerned about these vaccines
because I just did surgery on the cat that had
feline vaccine induced sarcoma. That is a tumor and normally
the treatment of choice. That's why we now give vaccines
to cats only in the hind thighs is that if
(16:53):
they should get this ugly sarcoma, you can save their
lives by amputating the leg. Okay, and that's that's I mean,
I mean to think about it. That's pretty dramatic and
drastic you have to do, but that will save your lives. Well,
we used to give shots like on the trum like
we do with dogs all the time. Then you can't
remove it. So I had one. It was relatively new.
I did try to remove it. I know I didn't
(17:15):
get it all. I think I got pretty most of it.
They just said that they that the tumors came down
to the edge of what I took, so there obviously
they have to tell me that most likely there might
be some on the other side of what I removed,
but this cat is doing great. I had to cut
into muscle. I was very concerned. Did I ruined some muscle?
I tried to save as much as I could. She said.
(17:36):
The owner said, the cat's walking. The cats jumping again,
and I felt it yesternight. I took the stitches out.
You feel nothing, no gross. So I'm hoping I was
one of the lucky ones that will at least get
this cat. I was also an older cat, so if
I get it to the live an extra year year
and a half, we're good and without having to amputake.
So that was a plus. But a cat gets hit
by car or attacked by coyote, I'm not worried about
(17:58):
the coyote giving you a rabies coyote. Mike is gonna
probably take a cat. So I really think that My
recommendation is if you're living in a city like La Now,
look one of my cats, as he was found by
my daughter when she was still living at home. Now
she's my youngest, she's thirty three already with two kids
of her own. But this cat came up to her.
She was you know, she was here. We've had the
(18:19):
cat for a long time. Obviously, and so he was
an outdoor cat and we ped him a little bit.
She was really he was really sweet and hey, Keith,
really sweet cat and we that was it. Cat took golf.
A week later, the cat's back and this time my
daughter gives us some food brings in the house. I
tested for I did a micro chip check. No micro chip,
(18:42):
no idea on it. We talked to the neighborhoods put
something out. There was no way and this cat really,
first of all, he's the greatest cat. So he was
an outdoor cat or into outdoor whatever, but he was
certainly outdoors. So when we was still very careful because
we had a front door open or a window open,
he would make a bee line and he would get out.
Fortunately he would come back. You knew where the food
was coming from. Now after all these years, I mean,
(19:06):
I can have the door wide open and he'll go
to the threshold and think, a look, nothing out there
the beach this and he rais right back in. So yes,
you can make these cats indoor cats. You have to
train him to a litter box, which we did no problem.
And now plus he's got oh he had the time.
He had four other friend now we got three and
one of them and he are like Mutt and Jeff.
(19:27):
They are inseparable. And that is such a gorgeous, beautiful
thing to see when you your own cats have such
a bond with each other that you know, I mean
need us, I mean they love it. And he loves
being petted and he's a cuddler. Oh it's the best.
But if you lived like in a farm or ranch,
or you in a barn, cat whatever, then yet then
(19:47):
I would I would definitely say yes, it's probably okay
to have it into our to a cat as long
as the grounds are protected. Now, if you know you're
in some place when you see coyotes or bobcats at night,
then bring them in. Make sure they're inside. I wouldn't
trust anything. Or if you have a barn, close the barn,
keep them inside the barn. But it is possible. But
I know that you're going to need to give the
(20:08):
rabies and the leukemia vaccine, So make sure if you're
going to give those vaccines or any vaccine, even the
FRCPP and E, which is a basic cat upper respiratory's
cat fever vaccine, you want to give them in the
thigh and only in the thigh. You're not let a
veterinarian give a vaccine anywhere but the thigh, because that
is just a recipe for his potential disaster. So hang
on a second. I ping a lot that told me
(20:30):
to keep it a diet, But I'm concerned about this
kidney test. Fine, he was diagnosed before with high creating.
You well, I mean certainly if he's got you know,
creatinine and bun, that is a kidney problem. So it
could be the water intake and the urinating is just
because of kidney disease. Absolutely, I want to know what
the bun was, Okay, that's important, and what the urine
or blood glucose. If the urine is negative for glucose
(20:53):
and the blood is normal glucose, then it's not diabetes.
It's not diabetes. Then you just gotta go with probably
kidney disease and or early kidney failure. Get them out
of kidney diet. Again, there's really not a lot you
can do SubQ fluids on a regular basis, and you
just got to run with older cats. Let's put it
this way. The truth is that they say close to
(21:13):
as a cat age, it's once it hits past fifteen
or sixteen, like, basically one hundred percent are going to
die of kidney failure. Obviously, nothing's ever one hundred percent,
but they've already passed. They'll lived past the age of
getting cancer or organ failure or other dysfunction. It's now
up to the kidneys. And just unfortunately, cats weren't built
to have kidneys last more than you know, typically twenty
(21:34):
twenty one to twenty two years.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
My oldest cat I ever had as a patient was
twenty two. I've heard about a twenty six and it
was some story I think this past year of a
cat that made it to thirty six. I don't know,
anything's possible, so one of the other word to say never,
never impossible, but not normal. So anyway, so that's how
I feel about the indoor only, and I prefer in
a city if you if you can try to get
(21:56):
your cats to the indoor only, it'll be they live longer.
They will live longer. Now, obviously, again that's not a
guarantee because you're gonna have another disease that happens. That
can happen to any cat, but generally it's a rule
of thumb. The outdoor cats do not live as long
in the metropolitan area as the indoor cats because of
all those dangers the dogs, cards coyotes, you know, became
me a feline age, et cetera, et cetera. Now, next, insurance.
(22:18):
This net really deserves more of a time than I'm
going to give it right now. But let's say this.
Here's my tagline. You're gonna need it the most when
you don't have it. Okay, that's Murphy's law. But now
let's talk about insurance. I've been dealing with insurance companies
for well, I've been practicing over forty years. When I
first started, they were not a big deal. I'd say
at least thirty years. And I get the same complaints
(22:39):
from owners, and that is you've got to be really
careful because they make sure they let you know they
do not cover diseases that were existing diseases, pre existing
conditions as they call it. So, oh wow, that's that's
no big deal. I'll tell you why it's a big deal. Okay.
I have a puppy that has oral papal owners. Those
(22:59):
are oral warks, okay and very common in puppies. Is
it really a disease? No, they can get it at daycare.
It's nothing, it's a virus, and they get through the
virus and you're done. Now, let's say eight years later,
nine years later, you make a claim for a skin tumor,
a tumor and they go, oh no, yeah, back when
(23:20):
he's an uppy, he had oral papalomans. Those are awards.
That's a skin but we won't cover any skin growth. Really, really,
is that how we disgusting you guys? Are as insurance companies?
Then we go give it statistic. When I started practicing,
there were like two insurance companies. Now they're like ten,
and yet only two to three percent of pet parents
have interns for the pets. So what does it tell
you would these new companies be coming on board if
(23:42):
those two three now ten to show weren't making boatloads
of money. Not only that they're taking your, say, one
hundred bucks a months, they're taking your hundred and his
hundred and her one hundred and that hundred. Before you
know what, they got one hundred people one hundred bucks
a month, ten thousand dollars. They're investing that money. They're
investing you will money making it worthwhile investment because they're
(24:02):
using other people's money as well at the same time.
So what's happening, Okay, what's happening is they are making
money on that money. So then when you make a
claim and you made more of the lucky ones that
need it and they pay it, you're covered. But they
weren't think there's no money. They were using the money
they made from your money and everybody else's money. Think
of it as Las Vegas casino. Okay. Now, I don't
(24:23):
know how many of your gamblers out there, but if
you look at the casino, the opulence, the people walking around,
the temperature, everything about it, do you think most people
will go in their play? Are winning or losing? Think
about it? Losing the house wins? Now, could you have
gone to Vegas and had a great, great weekend and
lucky hit all the numbers? Your walk came on with
(24:43):
five brand, Yeah, it'll happen. Is it gonna happen every time?
Probably not. So that is insurance. It is a gamble.
You might get lucky right here. Kate McCauley says, I
have insurance and would never stop my aging dog cost
at least three K or more year. Insurances financially save me,
which is great, you're going to get stories like that
one hundred percent. But most of the people that I
(25:04):
talked to and now their next pet, they said, no,
we're not doing insurance thing. They looked for every reason
in the book not to pay out, whether it's pre existing,
whether we don't cover it, we don't cover this, Oh
our cause didn't cover that. But I think you need something.
So here is for me, here is the solution. And
first of all, read all the insurance things really carefully,
(25:27):
what are they going to cover, what are they not
going to cover, and know in advance, because if your
pet had any of those things that they're not going
to cover because of pre existing you need to know
that going into it, so that's important. And then so
there is my only solution, because I think you need something,
is what we call self insuring. I'm sure you've heard
of something called HSA Health Savings account. So what you
(25:47):
can do is you can take one hundred bucks amile
whatever it is you're going to pay for insurance. You
open up an account in Bowser's name, and every single month, automatically,
you have no choice working out with your bay. It's
an automatic deposit into an interestparing savings account and you
put that money away every single month religiously. You don't
use it for routine, don't use it for the dental,
(26:09):
don't use it for the vaccination. It is for that condition,
that disease, that hit by car, that dog fights, when
you have something that is really going to require some
major bucks hospitalization, you know, tuber removal, whatever it is.
And if you just let it ride, after the first year,
got twelve hundred bucks, Second you got twenty four hundred
plus little interest. Third you got thirty six thirty seven
hundred bucks. So you just let it ride, and by
(26:31):
the time your dog is six or seven or eight
years of age, you're gonna have you know, eight thousand
dollars but away. And if you wanted to invest out,
if something comes along and you got a great investment,
invest it and do the same thing insurance companies do.
You'll be using some of your money made from the
investment to pay He'll pay off that big bill. But
the bottom line is it's steal your money. Insurance companies
are banking that you're not going to use it. You're
(26:53):
not going to let you use it all. And at
the end of the day they make the money, not you,
but don't do nothing. They're all I'll agree. If you
are not disciplined enough to be able to do that,
then paid insurance whatever it is. But start young. Always
know that when you the pet gets older and now
you want to start insurance, those premiums are good. I've
(27:13):
had comments science tell me that their premums now we
turn fifty dollars a month. That is insane. So anyway,
what I would do, I would yes again. Her first
dog had cancer and she spent all her savings on it.
And first of all, it depends which company you're using,
what you're gonna be paying for. Don't if you're gonna
do get insurance, don't do routine care. Don't do routine
(27:34):
care that will definitely cost you more than you are putting,
cost you more than they're gonna cover because they won't
cover horwardly anything. So they we cover annual vaccines, maybe
a spain nooter, maybe one dentistry. Whatever it is you're
gonna end up it's going to cost you more to
have it than it is that you're gonna get back
from them if you use it or try to use it.
(27:54):
So you know, again, start young. The premiums get really
really high if you're started for the first time. So
that's my take. I am. I also tell to sharing
with you what most on my clients that I've had insurance,
they're either looking for another company all right, or they
are trying to finagle start with a new vet. No mention,
(28:15):
nothing about ever having had prior existing condition. I mean
the fact that you have to do that, it tells
you right there. They do not want it to pay out.
They want to take him money every month, but it's
hard as hell to get the money out of them.
So you know, again, success story like here absolutely for
Kate McCauley. Absolutely, Then if you had luck with it,
(28:35):
go for it. But I'm just sharing with you what
most on my clients that have had insurance, they will
not renew. And when I mentioned about the HSA the
whole Savman's account, they think that is it's a great solution.
It may not cover as much, but it's going to
cover something. But most importantly, if you don't have a
claim at all, think how much you spent on insurance
(28:55):
at say one hundred bucks a month, or if you
have multiple pets, whatever it is, so somebody think about
look into it now. Also researcher insurance companies. Kate, which
insurance company you said you've had others? Which was the
one that you found is the most amenable and easy
to work with? So if you can answer that, while
I share yes and says, and here from janis that
even if you start younger, PMMs go up significantly as
(29:17):
the pet gets older. So you know again it's not
quite the same and you have to go through hoops
for them to search old records. I mean, let me
give you a perfect example just to show you how
insane this is it that I even have to get
involved our senior panel. When you have a dogs that
are senior based on the lab, they call it a
(29:37):
senior wellness well This dog was a very sick dog
and we had to do the senior panel called SA
seven h five full blood ender your analysis. They were declined.
Why well, because they ran a wellness panel, you idiots.
That wasn't wellness. They called it the lab and they
calls it a senior wellness profile. It's the profile we
do for older dogs. Period. Now I have to go
(30:00):
after write letters, have to talk to them, moron veterinarian
at the insurance company or wherever it's making these decisions,
and that's the problem. You're dealing with people that are
so poorly educated. They're told what they do. They're like robots,
and they go instead wellness, no good, had nothing to
do that all was not well. The profile named by
the own laboratory that we use calls it a senior
wellness profile. So it is just crazy, and this is
(30:23):
what you're going to be, you know. There so case
going with pets, best look into them. But there are
there's Lemonade, there's twenty four hour Pet Watch, there's oh god,
there's so many now a trupanion. So all these are
out there. Do your homework, look into it. But I
would I would be very very very careful because Keith
(30:43):
got on. Keith is the one I've work with right
now who denied him because it's a senior wellness panel.
They didn't read the records. They want you to have
the records, but they don't read them to see that
this was a sick dog that came in and we
had to do blood tests, and if we just called
it blood tests, they were well, we called it aye,
but say seven or five, I've senior wellness. So anyway,
so here's one of the ones that has good experience,
(31:06):
and there are some out there. Yes, the price went up,
but he's seventeen, has tons of issues, and it still
makes financial sense. Absolutely. So as long as you're getting
things before, as long as you have the insurance before
any of these things of these tons of issues issues
we pop up, then you're okay. But if one of
those issues popped up before you got the insurance, oh
(31:27):
my god, your toast. Even if you had a benign
growth on the skin and now you have homangeosarcoma, which
is a malignant tumor inside the body, they're gonna say, Oh, no,
a tumor. We don't do tumors. You already had a
tumbor before we Oh really, is that how cheap you
guys are? So anyway, do your homework. I guess you're
gonna get me. I'll tell you as you can tell.
(31:49):
You think I'm passionate about this, I think so so. No,
it is really frustrat as a veterinarian, and these people
are complaining that they have insurance and they're not paying anything,
or they're saying that it was because of a preexisting No,
it's not a little skin tumor is not a wart
a mole a skin tag. No, that's not pre existing
for hamancho, sarcoma or lymphoma down the road. So you know,
(32:11):
go figure, but ask these questions. If you're thinking about it,
you want to give them scenarios and say is this
going to be a problem, and if they say yes,
pass you do not even waste your money because your
chances are when you think of the major things that
dogs are going to beginning as they get older, it's
the vomiting and diarrhea issues, some of the skin issue,
skin allergies, and it's a lot of cancers, a lot
of tumors, so keep that in mind. Next week I'll
(32:34):
be here, live, not here, I'll be live from Puerto
Bayarta and using up my weeks that I have to
use up. So anyway, I'm almost done. But I won't
be traveling that much after this is done, but anyway,
taking advantage of it. So we'll be in hopefully some
sunshine in Mexico, having a blast, and yes, I will
probably be working a little bit of my tan. But anyway,
(32:56):
we'll see you next week, but live from Puerto Yaka.
All Right, I have a great everybody, and we'll see it.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com
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