Pet Insurance

[Showal]

I have recently put my ferrets under pet insurance. At a little under 10 bucks a month, it doesn't seem like a bad idea considering the great possibility of something physicially going wrong with a ferret's health. They seem to cover any type of pet. Look it up if you're interested.

Now Bennie and Buster are just like me.

www.petinsurance.com (http://www.petinsurance.com)


[Edited on 11-19-2005 by Showal]

[Kyra]

Heh, I tried to get a quote for my cockatoo but they said he was "old" & I needed to speak to them personally :rolleyes: Apparantly they don't realize a 10 y/o 'too is still a baby since he can live to be 100.

I'll have to call & check into it though since avian care is quite expensive. Thanks Showal.

K.

[kranfer]

I thought about getting pet insurance for my birds, but ran into the same issue at Kyra. I have a 25 year old Amazon, and a 10 year old amazon. They thought that they were well beyond mid life, when in fact... they will outlive me. ::mutters::

[Showal]

Call them up and let them know they're idiots. Avian care looked pretty good on the brochure.

[kranfer]

Heh. Avian care is always expensive and usually not very easy though... had a friend who had to have her bird's wing amputated and still died... its harder than a cat or dog :( Blah

[Showal]

Yeah it's the same way with ferrets, I think like 75% of them go through some sort of adrenal problem and most get cancer.

[Jazuela]

Parrots of most types -can- live to be around 75-100. But birds kept as pets might not. I think that's why the insurance company says they're old. They're old, for pet birds. They probably look at some table that shows that pet birds are more prone to sickness and injury than wild birds. I don't know if that's a "fact" or not, but maybe that's how they're figuring it out.

[Killer Kitten]

Originally posted by kranfer
Heh. Avian care is always expensive and usually not very easy though... had a friend who had to have her bird's wing amputated and still died... its harder than a cat or dog :( Blah

Not so much harder as different, and vet schools do not place a huge amount of emphasis on avian medicine. Sure, vets are exposed to it and have to know the basics, but unless a vet specializes in exotic/avian care they're not going to be great at the special needs that their feathered patients have.

Two of the vets at the zoo were really into birds and I saw them pull off a lot of miracles when it came to treating the avians in our collection. When I started at the zoo I knew nothing of birds beyond their basic anatomy. By the time I left, they had become my main area of interest as far as patient care. After retiring, I even got a pair of parakeets because I missed being around birds.

[Kyra]

Originally posted by Jazuela
Parrots of most types -can- live to be around 75-100. But birds kept as pets might not. I think that's why the insurance company says they're old. They're old, for pet birds. They probably look at some table that shows that pet birds are more prone to sickness and injury than wild birds. I don't know if that's a "fact" or not, but maybe that's how they're figuring it out.

Umm, no. In the wild birds are prey & live very short lives in comparison to domesticated birds.

Wild starlings live to be 3 y/o on an average. The oldest captive starling is now 21 y/o. The oldest amazon is 117 y/o.

Wild birds are exposed to the elements, gape worm, disease, predators, etc... I know several people who have large parrots well over 50 years old that are still thriving.

These people are judging the birds on a scale they pulled out of their arse. Any Avian certified vet can tell you it's probable that a large parrot WILL outlive a human owner.

K.

[Kyra]

Originally posted by Showal
Call them up and let them know they're idiots. Avian care looked pretty good on the brochure.

I may have to try that :D

[Jazuela]

Thanks for clearing that up Kyra. I really had no idea, I was just trying to figure out why they'd say that avian pets didn't live very long, and I knew that parrots -can- live to 100 (and as you've pointed out, even older than that). It was just a guess, as I said.

[Showal]

Before you do this, figure out what is NOT covered. I found out after doing some more research that adrenal and insulin problems and treatments are NOT covered by this insurance. Even considering ferrets don't generally have these problems until they're 3, at the least, I would have been willing to pay the 240/year for the chance in the future it would happen. I have since dropped their coverage. I can deal with all the other treatments, as they are considerably cheaper.