A healthy pet is a happy pet.  Your furry friend will gain more enjoyment out of life if they are feeling fit and healthy.  They will be more playful, affectionate, and friendly towards you and your family.  It is nicer to be around a healthy pet with a shiny coat and clean teeth!

Maintaining good pet health is also important if you want to avoid expensive medical bills.  Similar to humans, many health conditions that affect pets are caused by having an unhealthy lifestyle.  If your pet is eating poorly, overweight, and not exercising, they are much more likely to fall ill.  That often results in a trip to the veterinarian and thousands of pounds of medical bills!

Here are 9 great tips that will help you keep your pet happy and healthy!

If you have an adorable pet that you love, it is easy to accidentally overdose them on treats!  Unfortunately, this can have a negative impact on their health.  Pet obesity is cited as the number one nutritional disease that veterinarians deal with.  It can reduce a pet’s lifespan by as much as two years and negatively impact their quality of life.  Obesity is also a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, joint disease and other health conditions.

Vaccinations are an important part of pet health.  They will protect your pet from diseases like distemper, rabies, Parvovirus, and panleukopenia.  Talk to your veterinarian about the different vaccinations that are available and register your pet to receive them annually. 

Dogs are cats are vulnerable to parasites including fleas, ticks, heart worm, and mites.  Some of these parasites can spread disease or are deadly in their own right.  Fortunately, it is simple to protect your pet against parasites by giving them preventative medications.

Exercise is a crucial aspect of pet health.  Some of the advantages obtained by regularly exercising your furry friend include:

• It will reduce their risk of obesity
• It improves the health of their cardiovascular system
• The health of their joint and bones is improved
• The risk of obesity decreases
• Your pet will feel fantastic!

To remain healthy, your pet must eat a nutritious and balanced diet.  This will ensure their immune system, muscles, joints, and organs remain healthy.  When your pet eats well, they will also look better.  They will have a shiny coat, bright eyes and be full of energy.

Most illnesses are easier to treat if they are caught early on.  That is why you should book your pet in for regular health checks with a veterinarian.  The frequency of these health checks should increase as your pet gets older. 

De-sexing your pet safeguards them against unwanted pregnancies.   It also reduces the risk of certain illnesses including:

• Mammary cancer or testicular cancer
• Prostate problems in male animals
• Uterine infections in female animals

A de-sexed pet is less likely to wander or get into fights with other animals.  Most de-sexed animals tend to live longer, are less aggressive, and are calmer.

Having a safe home environment is another important part of pet health.  Some of the steps that should be taken to make your home safe for pets include:

• Remove plants that are toxic to animals
• Keep your bins secure so your pets cannot get into them
• Place all drugs and nutritional supplements in locations where your pet could never find them
• Remove electrical cables from the floor (particularly important if you have a young pet)
• Keep small objects like paper clips, pins, rubber bands, and coins secure. 
• Screen off fireplaces and wood-burning stoves
• Have a fenced yard and make sure doors are closed
• Learn which human foods should not be eaten by pets.  Foods including chocolate, onions, coffee, grapes, and raisins can be dangerous.
• Be careful which types of meat and bones are given to your pet.  Cooked bones and some types of uncooked meat can be unhealthy for your pet

Having a pet insurance policy helps to ensure good pet health.  Insurance providers will pay for a portion of your veterinarian bills if your pet becomes ill or is accidentally injured.  In return, you pay the insurance company insurance premiums.   It is an easy way to ensure your pet gets the help they need if they become ill.

Thanks for reading 9 Essential Tips For Maintaining Good Pet Health!  For more pet care hints and tips, subscribe to our blog.

When you mention pet insurance most people think – dog, cat, and vet bills. Pet owner insurance covers almost any pet. We say almost because although it is unlikely that there is an animal that cannot be insured, there will be some cases where there will be exclusions in a policy or specific cover will be just too expensive rendering the animal uninsurable to that owner.

When you insure your pet, you insure for a lot more than illness. Animals can have accidents too, get into trouble with the law and disappear without a trace. Some insurers will help with the costs of tracing a lost or stolen pet. There are also some things that will be covered by pet insurance for a small enhancement of the premium. This includes accidental damage not only to your own possessions, but also to those belonging to someone else.

This insurance comes as standard with most policies and will cover your pet if the cause damage or injury to a third party or their possessions. While you may like to believe that your precious dog would never bite the postman or plumber, when animals are startled their reactions can be unpredictable. There is also always the risk that you may be sued and this is where this cover is critically important.

Every now and then a pet does something unexpected. A dog may suddenly run into the street in front of oncoming traffic, or a cat may use up one of their nine lives dodging a delivery van in your driveway. Your hamster may even injure himself by getting his head stuck inside his exercise apparatus. Pet insurance will usually cover accidents in a separate clause. This means that accident cover does not deplete the cover enjoyed under illness cover. Always check to ensure whether this is funded separately.

If your pet becomes lost or is stolen and after much heartache and searching your pet can’t be found many policies will pay out a fixed amount. Some policies will pay out the cost of acquiring the pet, but in some cases the cover will pay out a specified figure from the policy that determines the approximate replacement value.

The cost of publishing the loss of your pet to find or retrieve it is offered in some policies. This cover is separate the actual cover for the loss and is meant to be used as a recovery effort. Apart from printing poster and hunting from vet to vet, you may wish to place an advert in a local, regional or national newspaper. This cover is very useful if you own a popular breed or your dog is nervous when out and likely to run away on opportunity.

Pets, like people are unique. They have different needs and these needs will change as they get older. When you insure your pet, you will need to think about more than simply their immediate insurance needs. Consider whether the policy is going to be diffident to cover their needs should they develop a long term illness and when they get old. Be sure to understand what the policy covers. If the illness cover is £3000, is that an annual limit for any illness or the annual limit with each illness covered to a limit of £1000? The two are very different types of cover.

Will the insurance cover chronic illness if cover takes place after the pet has been insured? Pets also suffer from illnesses such as diabetes, epilepsy and heart conditions. When treatment is managed they can live long and productive lives.

There are a variety of policies available and different insurers will use different criteria to determine the premium. The real question you should ask yourself is whether for less than the cost of a cup of coffee every week is it worth not insuring your beloved companion.

Health insurance for animals is not as simple and straightforward as most would want you to believe. This is because like people, no two animals are the same. 

When insuring a reptile such as a snake or a lizard, there will be different risks to the insurer than insuring a dog or a cat. Snakes are unlikely to go for an outing with their owner but can still escape their enclosure and get lost or stolen. In respect of health insurance for your pet the cover can vary greatly depending on the species, the breed and even the gender of the animal. In some cases, sterilising an animal will reduce premiums because additional risk has been removed.

On the surface, it may appear to be a simple process to seek out and initiate a good health insurance policy for your pet. Different underwriters use different criteria to assess risk when insuring an animal. Certain breeds of dog are prone to certain congenital disorders. These are health problems that are genetic or present from birth. Some genetic disorders only surface later in an animal’s life and are more prevalent in pedigreed animals. German Shepherds for example are considered high risk for hip dysplasia and Dalmatians high risk for urinary stones because they can’t process certain proteins correctly.

Pet insurance policies cover all sorts probabilities, including theft, loss, death, public liability and more. The core reason why someone takes out a policy to insure their pets is for the health cover that provides assurance for both illness and accidents.

It is important to shop around because different insurers will mix and match their policies in accordance with the market segment that they are targeting. It may seem strange to you that it appears that you can get the same cover for a lot less elsewhere. It is unlikely that this is the case. 

When you see a policy that offers £500 cover for illness per year and the excess is £250, it is definitely more worth your while to pay the few extra pounds to get the same cover with an excess of £75. The reasoning here is that there will always be a reason for disparity in quotation. Search the fine print to establish why.

Other factors that will affect your quotation are your postcode, the age of your pet, whether the pet has pre-existing conditions that will be excluded and whether your animal is neutered. The simple act of having your pet sterilised may save you much more that the original cost of the procedure, not only in premiums but also the excess you pay when the animal needs treatment. If your dog or cat has ever behaved aggressively before or had a complaint made about its behaviour will also affect the premiums. Carts can behave aggressively too and have been known to attack dogs walking past their homes. The consequence of not declaring this information and it is later revealed that this information was withheld could invalidate your policy.

When looking at Health insurance for animals, it is often the little extras that make all the difference. Does the policy offer a free veterinary advice line? You may find that you will able to get pet products at a discount or a lower excess charge if you use a specific vet. Accidents don’t happen by appointment, so will after hours emergency care be covered? What about the insurers call centre – is it based in the UK?  An important consideration for many new customers. Do you have to pay upfront and then claim, or can the bill be paid directly to the vet?

Once you have found the right policy, with all the weights and balances in place, remember that you will get what you pay for. Don’t be afraid to pay a little more for that extra peace of mind. After all your pet is worth it, isn’t he?

Multi pet discount is a common feature of pet insurance for owners that have more than one pet and provides cover even if the pets are of different species. Many pet owners will have more than one pet. Whether it’s because they seek to provide a companion for their pets while they are out or simply because the enjoy the company of several species, all the animals will require cover.

Insurers will reward loyalty in several ways and there are two common methods that they use to do this. The most common is a percentage discount for the second and each subsequent policy taken out for a pet. It is exceptionally unusual for more than one pet to be covered in a single policy simply because each animal and indeed each species presents different cover risks and will have different needs.

The second method that that rewards loyalty is fixed fee policies. For some people that insure a lot of pets and we’re talking more than just a couple of dogs and cats, this is the best option. The insurer may decide that because this owner insures a lot of animals, and is not a high level claimant their needs can be underwritten in a different way. Fixed fee figures are often applied when a single policy covers multiple animals and different breeds. If you have different animals spanning a range from dogs, cats and hamsters, to snakes, reptiles and exotic mammals this is probably going to be the policy for you.

Every now and then insurers will target a particular group of consumers and provide discounts to them as a group. E.g. a large retail employer may be able to offer substantially discounted insurance policies to their staff through a particular insurer and this may include pet insurance. By being part of this larger group you get to enjoy the pet discount and in some cases the promotion can deep discount to as much as 25% of what you pay on the open market. These offers are often available through sports clubs, unions or if you have another policy with the same insurer.

When multiple pet policies are applied, they may all offer the same cover or the cover may be varied. It is important to check the level of cover for each animal. Simply because your first policy provides you with £2 000 000 public liability cover for dog, doesn’t mean the subsequent policy will do so for your cat. When you have a single policy covering multiple pets, the public liability clause should cover all your pets. 

It may also be prudent to check how a single policy compared to multiple policies covers each individual animal and the annual limits for treatment. It is not a very safe situation to be in, if you have five dogs and the overall annual limit for accidents is £1000. You want to be sure that this will be cover offered for each animal.

If you have a pet on a single policy and are then offered a discounted multi pet policy there will be some things to consider. A pet that has a chronic condition such as diabetes or epilepsy and is covered under a current single pet policy may not be covered under a new policy that will exclude pre-existing conditions. If the animal is going to be excluded when you switch over to a single multi pet policy then it may be more cost effective to simply accept a slightly lower discount for multiple pet policies than to try and insure them all under one. If you are assured that the pre-existing condition will be covered in a new policy, be sure to get it in writing.

Overall multi pet discount insurance will be worthwhile to anyone that owns multiple pets. There is only one final thing to check especially when taking out multiple policies. Are you over insured? Does your home insurance cover public liability for your pets and if so will you make further savings by adjusting your pet policy accordingly? Check for exclusions. You may find that breeds that are particularly likely to have certain problems may have that medical condition excluded. Sometimes you can request inclusion for a few pounds extra every month. 

Overall pet insurance, whether you’re a single pet owner or own a whole menagerie is not only a safeguard for yourself financially, but also an investment in the welfare of your pet. Consider it carefully when you make a policy decision.

Horses are not your average pet, when you are considering buying one; make sure you do your research before taking the plunge. They are hugely time consuming as well as a huge financial responsibility and so you will need to make sure you can dedicate enough time and money to look after your horse.

Generally, there are 5 main factors to consider before buying a horse:

It may sound obvious but the first thing you should take into account is your finances. A horse cannot sustain itself and will require a large amount of investment. The initial cost of the horse may be steep but the costs are also ongoing. Make sure you can afford everything your horse will need from food, farrier fees, medication and boarding. Don’t forget to budget for those unexpected vet bills too, they will crop up when you least expect it.

Your horses’ lifestyle will impact the feed you choose to give them. You need to make sure that you can provide enough pasture to graze on and provide alternatives during winter months. If you have a working horse you will need to provide extra calories to maintain a healthy weight, and any supplements to aid performance.

Unfortunately you cannot buy a horse and keep it in your back garden unless you have a spare couple of acres! The general opinion is that you should have one acre per horse to ensure they get adequate grazing and exercise. You should also provide shelter from wind rain and hot sun, there are various shelters on the market to suit most budgets. From temporary field shelters to purpose built stables. It really depends on the area you are working with.

You will need tools for mucking out your horses stable, rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows come in especially handy. Horses need regular grooming and so you will need an array of brushes, shampoos and hoof oil. Hoof picks are necessary for cleaning out hooves, this should be done almost every day. Make sure that you have correctly fitting tack, saddles and bridles; you can get your horse fitted by any reputable saddle maker. Your horse will require rugs for when the weather is bad, and potentially fly nets for the summer. There is lots more equipment on the market but as long as you have the basics you are all set.

Just like humans, horses can get lonely. It is highly recommended that you keep your horse with some sort of companion to spend their time with. This can just about any type of farm animal from a goat to a donkey, although another horse is best. Essentially you will need to double the costs of keep above, to provide the best environment for your horse. The alternative of course is to keep your horse at a yard along with other people’s horses, this may be of benefit if you cannot dedicate a lot of time for your horse as you can pay for someone else to clean their stable and feed them.

Novice riders may be put off showing due to their lack of knowledge of what is acceptable. Here are a few handy tips that will have you showing like a pro in no time…

Generally, brown saddlery is considered correct for showing. Depending on the type of show there are several variations in the type of tack you should use, however, straight cut saddles are considered the norm. Working hunters would have a jumping saddle. Generally, you cannot go wrong with a neat black or brown numnah, brightly coloured ones are not usually suitable. Cobs and hunters should wear a plain brow band whereas riding horses and show ponies wear coloured brow bands.

If you are entering a best turned out competition, do not forget to clean your tack thoroughly as the judges will inspect it closely.

The type of jacket you should wear varies according to the classes. Tweed jackets are commonly used in showing, tweeds are available in a wide variety of colours, weights and styles. Although a smart blue or black jacket is also acceptable. Your Jodhpurs should be a fawn, cream or buff colour, and white for show jumping. Children normally wear yellow coloured jodhpurs. A white shirt with a tie is common for children, and they should wear jodhpur boots until they reach intermediate classes. Adults should wear brown or black leather boots with a garter strap.

Grooming is an essential part of show preparation. Especially if you are entering a best turned out competition. As a rule, show horses and ponies are plaited unless they are native breeds or show cobs. Cobs are hogged and natives should be shown in their natural state according to the showing and/or breed society guidelines. Plaited tails are used for youngstock in-hand showing; horses and ponies under saddle have pulled tails unless they are natives. If you are jumping or taking art in dressage the mane and tail should both be plaited although you won’t get marked on this.

It is courteous to not overtake any other riders in the ring. If you are going at a faster pace of those in front of you, do a small circle to keep a distance between you. It is important to enjoy yourself during the show, a big smile on your face will not go missed. You should remain polite to the other riders and offer help should someone need it. Tantrums, tears and jealously are never a good look.

Once the results have been announced, those that make it to the final, are expected to line up whilst the judges award the rosettes, sashes, or prize money. The winner will then proceed to do a lap of honour. In preparation for this it is worth teaching your horse to stand politely for a prolonged period of time, there is still time to get penalised right up until the last rosette has been awarded due to poor behaviour.

As a horse owner, you will know how unpredictable they can be. There is nothing worse than the feeling you get when your horse causes an accident, whether the damage is to property or a person. That’s why it is recommended that you have third party insurance to cover you for these circumstances.

Often referred to as Public Liability Insurance or Third-Party Liability. It is not a legal requirement to take out such policies although it is strongly recommended as it is not very expensive. Should something happen you could save thousands of pounds in the event of a claim. In the grand scheme of things, it is generally worth its weight in gold, giving you peace of mind.

Some household policies may already cover you for any accidents whilst riding your horse, please read your policies carefully to understand exactly what you are covered for.

Having cover for legal liability is one of the most important areas to have insured. As the policy owner, you will be covered for liability to any third party, or any damage to a third party’s property. For example, if your horse was to break free from your yard or field and go on to cause a road or traffic accident and damage vehicles or cause someone an injury.

Normally these policies will cover you for anyone else riding or handling your horse, as long as they are doing so with your permission. This does not apply to business use, for example if the horse is being used for lessons at a riding school. Check with your insurer to clarify exactly what you are covered for.

Some affiliated bodies will include legal liability cover with their membership. If you are a member of any such bodies, make sure you check exactly what you are covered for. Such as exactly when, where and what it covers you for as some memberships will only cover you for when you are actually riding your horse or when you are at one of their competitions or events.

If an accident should occur, do not admit to any responsibility or negotiate any kind of settlement outside of your insurance. Claims for liability can be very complex and so your insurance will only be valid if you were legally responsible for your horse at the time of the incident and the incident was a direct result of your negligence. This is something that only trained professionals can decide and you should not take matters into your own hands.

Do not waste time after an accident and notify your insurance company straight away. Forward any details and documentation to them and they will deal with all of your claims on your behalf – this is what you are paying them to do!

If your liability to the third party is under dispute for whatever reason, it may be settled on ‘economic grounds’ due to the fees that would be incurred should it have to go to court.