Are you thinking about getting a wellness plan for your pet? Do you want to understand its value and coverage? Our Woburn veterinarians will explain the benefits of wellness plans for your pet.
What Is A Pet Wellness Plan?
Once you have a pet, your desire to provide the best care grows strong. However, taking care of pets can be costly, especially if they get sick or hurt. This is where a wellness plan comes in handy.
It involves a small monthly fee, but it bundles together all the preventive services required to maintain your pet's health throughout the year. This not only helps you save money but also lets you handle your finances more easily.
What Does It Cover?
Pet wellness plans and pet insurance have a key distinction: pet insurance takes care of expenses for treating injuries or illnesses that occur, while pet wellness plans focus on covering regular check-ups, preventive measures, and screenings to prevent future health problems.
Vaccines
Ensuring the health of your pets is crucial. To safeguard them, your other pets, and even humans, it's essential to provide core vaccines to each pet. These vaccines protect against harmful infections and diseases.
For dogs, the core vaccines include protection against canine parvovirus, distemper, canine hepatitis, and rabies. Cats need core vaccines like panleukopenia, feline calicivirus, feline herpesvirus type I, and rabies. These diseases are the primary causes of death in young dogs and cats, sometimes leading to fatal outcomes shortly after exposure. This highlights the necessity of vaccinations.
Without a pet wellness care plan, you'd have to cover the cost of each vaccine personally. It's a smart move to prioritize these vaccinations to prevent health issues and avoid unexpected expenses.
Blood test
Blood tests for pets can reveal any unusual conditions in their blood, suggesting a potential need for treatment. If a problem arises, your regular pet insurance should help with the costs. However, the actual test is part of extra wellness and prevention plans.
Heartworm Tests & Prevention
While heartworm treatment is covered by pet insurance, prevention, and test are covered only by pet wellness insurance. If you don't have such a policy, you will have to pay out of pocket.
Fecal Tests, Deworming & Urinalysis
Every year, a fecal test is conducted to check for intestinal parasites. Likewise, heartworm and tapeworm tests are done to identify these parasites. Treatment might be needed multiple times over a period.
A regular urinalysis examines urine chemicals. This helps catch issues like kidney failure and urinary infections early. Pet health care plans usually cover treatment, but preventive measures are often not included."
Flea & Tick Prevention
There are a few options for preventing ticks and fleas. But most pets are given monthly medicine to avoid this.
What Is The Difference Between Pet Insurance And A Wellness Plan?
Both wellness plans and pet insurance policies offer benefits, but they are very different. When it comes to your pet's veterinary care, it's important to understand which services your pet is and isn't covered for. That way, you won't be left unexpectedly out of pocket when you visit your vet or need to plan the payment for your pet's care and treatment.
What Does A Wellness Plan Cover?
Wellness plans generally cover routine vet care such as microchipping, vaccinations, and dental care. The primary purpose of these plans is to help you to spread out the cost of improving and maintaining the standard of your pet's overall health.
What Is Pet Insurance?
Pet insurance takes care of any veterinary bills if your pet requires emergency veterinary care.
Treating an illness such as cancer or diabetes, or emergency treatment, can become very expensive. Pet insurance provides you with financial help to pay the bills for accidents and conditions covered by your pet's insurance policy.
What Does Pet Insurance Cover?
Policies differ, but generally, pet insurance covers treatment for illnesses as well as any emergency treatment required after accidents. Some pet insurance policies may also include prescription medications, the treatment of hereditary and congenital conditions as well as orthopedic conditions.
How Do I Choose Which Option To Buy?
Many pet owners choose pet insurance and wellness plans to safeguard their pets fully. Others pick either insurance or wellness. Learning about these choices can guide you in selecting the best option for you and your pet.
Consult your vet for personalized advice on what suits your pet's needs and concerns.