Pet Insurance Research Articles

Canine epilepsy/seizure occurrence in primary care and referral populations: a look into the epidemiology across countries.

Epilepsy is a common neurological condition in dogs. Analysis of primary care populations across countries can provide a more complete understanding of the epidemiology of this condition and provide context for spectrum of care discussions. This narrative literature review was aimed at understanding canine epilepsy/seizure prevalence in primary care populations, and changes in occurrence across geography, culture, and socioeconomic status. There are few studies to give insight into the true general population of epileptic canines and there is inconsistency in the literature regarding the standards applied for epilepsy diagnosis across primary care and referral practices. Therefore, the future focus should be on more epidemiological research in primary care and mixed populations, more veterinary education to standardize use of medical guidelines in primary care settings, and increased awareness of the benefits of having pet insurance to mitigate the potentially substantial cost of care for dogs with epilepsy.

Customer care award for pet insurance

Customer care award for pet insurance

Cat and dog owners' expectations and attitudes towards advanced veterinary care (AVC) in the UK, Austria and Denmark.

Modern veterinary medicine offers a level of care to cats and dogs similar to that available to their owners, including blood transfusions, chemotherapy and MRI scans. The potential benefits to the animals of owners who can afford such care are obvious, but there can also be negative consequences if owners with strong emotional attachments to their pets pursue treatments that significantly reduce the quality of the animal's life while attempting to prolong it. Moreover, caring for a chronically or seriously ill animal can lead to emotional distress and financial and practical challenges for the pet owner. A questionnaire was used to survey cat and dog owners from representative samples of citizens in the UK, Austria and Denmark, to investigate owners' expectations and attitudes towards advanced veterinary care, and the factors that might influence those views. Overall, 58.4% of the pet owners surveyed believed that their pets should have access to the same treatment options as humans, while 51.5% believed that they should have access to the same diagnostic tests as humans. Owners were most likely to be neutral on the question of whether advanced veterinary care has 'gone too far' (45.3%), and to disagree with the statement that advanced care is 'unnecessary' (40.1%). In all three countries, the level of attachment owners had to their pets was most strongly associated with attitudes towards advanced care, with owners scoring higher on Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) being more likely to expect advanced care to be available. Other factors such as owner age, living situation (alone or not), income or possession of pet insurance were less consistently with owner attitudes. Our findings will help inform veterinarians and other health care providers about pet owner expectations and attitudes towards advanced veterinary care, and contribute to the debate on increasing specialisation within the profession.

Research on the Current Situation, Problem and Suggestion of Liability Insurance in Our Country—Taking Pet Insurance as an Example

Research on the Current Situation, Problem and Suggestion of Liability Insurance in Our Country—Taking Pet Insurance as an Example

The epidemiology of patellar luxation in an insured Swedish dog population.

Patellar luxation (PL) is a common orthopaedic condition in dogs. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and cause-specific mortality rate, age at diagnosis, and risk factors for medial PL (MPL), lateral PL (LPL), and bidirectional PL (BPL). Other diagnoses in dogs with PL were also explored. The study population included just over 600,000 dogs insured by Agria Pet Insurance in Sweden (2011-2016). There were 2726 dogs with PL. Medial patellar luxation affected 90 % of the dogs with PL, followed by LPL (5.9 %), BPL (2.4 %), and unspecified PL (1.6 %). The median age at first diagnosis during the study period was 2.8 years for MPL, 2.7years for LPL, and 1.5 years for BPL. In total, 168 (6.2 %) of the dogs with PL had cruciate ligament rupture. There were substantial breed-specific differences in the risk of PL: almost all breeds at increased risk of MPL were small-sized, while several of the breeds at increased risk of LPL were large-sized. The breeds at high risk of BPL varied in size. Females had an increased risk of MPL (RR 1.2, 95 % CI: 1.1-1.3, p<0.001) and a decreased risk of LPL (RR 0.72, 95 % CI: 0.51-1.0, p=0.042) compared to males. In total, 116 dogs were euthanised due to PL and the breeds with the highest risk of PL-related euthanasia were the Pyrenean mountain dog, Dogue de Bordeaux, and German pinscher. The median age for PL-related euthanasia was 2.2 years.

Dog nose-print recognition based on the shape and spatial features of scales

This study proposes a novel method for dog identification using nose-print recognition, with applications in controlling stray dogs, locating lost pets, and pet insurance verification. Nose prints offer a unique and safer means of recognition than implanted chips. Accurate positioning of the dog's nose print (DNP) region and comparing its features can enhance recognition accuracy. The two-stage segmentation method effectively segments dog nostrils and nose boundaries in the DNP image. It combines brightness and texture enhancement with the U-Net model to generate a dog nose-print mask (DNPMask) and extracts scale-like features using a genetic algorithm. Experiments comparing one-stage and two-stage segmentation methods demonstrate the latter's superiority, with higher recall, precision, accuracy, and F1 score values. The DNPMask method achieves an average recognition rate of 94.93%, 97.10%, and 97.10% for Top1, Top2, and Top3, respectively, significantly improving dog recognition accuracy. However, its performance may be affected by poor-quality images.Nevertheless, the proposed dog recognition method effectively identifies most dog identities and holds promise for real-life applications, enhancing overall accuracy. The research findings provide a valuable reference for developing dog recognition systems and offer new ideas and directions for related research fields. The improved performance of dog nose-print recognition based on scale-like shape and spatial features (DNPISSFS) supports its superiority over Texture Feature-based Dog Noseprint Image Matching (TFDNPIM), suggesting enhanced dog recognition capabilities with broader implications in animal tracking, pet management, and wildlife conservation. Further analysis and experimentation on a larger dataset will ascertain the method's generalizability and robustness, addressing potential challenges and limitations for future research and practical implementation in various domains. The source code and trained models are publicly available at: https://github.com/Chuen-HorngLin/Texture-Feature-based-Dog-Noseprint-Image-Matching.

Analysis of the Pet Insurance Market: Taking ManyPets as an Example

The pet insurance industry has experienced rapid growth in recent years, with many leading companies emerging in the market. This research study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of these companies, with a particular focus on ManyPets. The study commences with an evaluation of the current market share of the pet insurance industry, offering a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape. The subsequent section presents an in-depth examination of the unique advantages offered by ManyPets, comparing them to other industry players. The research also delves into the efficacy of international marketing strategies utilized by ManyPets, providing valuable insights into how these strategies enhance its overall marketing efficacy. Furthermore, this study explores ManyPets' strategic partnerships and collaborative initiatives, including its advanced treatment qualifications, timely customer response, and 24-hour online diagnosis capabilities. A detailed analysis of these findings is presented, leading to the development of a comprehensive plan for the future development of ManyPets. Overall, this research provides a valuable and insightful examination of the pet insurance industry and the strategic advantages that ManyPets can offer.

Predicting health outcomes in dogs using insurance claims data

In this paper we propose a machine learning-based approach to predict a multitude of insurance claim categories related to canine diseases. We introduce several machine learning approaches that are evaluated on a pet insurance dataset consisting of 785,565 dogs from the US and Canada whose insurance claims have been recorded over 17 years. 270,203 dogs with a long insurance tenure were used to train a model while the inference is applicable to all dogs in the dataset. Through this analysis we demonstrate that with this richness of data, supported by the right feature engineering, and machine learning approaches, 45 disease categories can be predicted with high accuracy.

Insurance Discrimination, Companion Animal Harm, and Domestic Violence and Abuse - Double Jeopardy in the UK.

Prompted by Signal et al.'s study, this research examines UK "Pet Insurance" policies to see if and how experiencing domestic violence and abuse (DVA) in interspecies households is excluded under insurance policies terms. Situating our findings within the existing literature on human and companion animal victims of DVA, we discuss the implications for improving cross-reporting and multi-agency action to protect and prevent harm to humans and companion animal victims of DVA. In turn we identify a series of recommendations to combat discrimination in insurance, set out in our conclusion.

Morbidity of insured Swedish cats between 2011 and 2016: Comparing disease risk in domestic crosses and purebreds.

Sources of population-based cat health information are scarce. The objective of this study was to determine disease frequency in cats using pet insurance data to inform health promotion efforts. A descriptive analysis of cats insured with Agria Pet Insurance in Sweden (2011-2016) was performed. Incidence rates of broad disease categories were calculated based on veterinary care events and an exact denominator consisting of cat-years-at-risk. Rate ratios were calculated, comparing domestic crosses to all purebreds and specific purebreds to all other purebreds combined. The study included over 1.6 million cat-years-at-risk (78.5% were domestic crosses), 18 breeds and 24 disease categories. The most common disease categories causing morbidity in purebreds were digestive, whole body, injury, urinary lower, skin and female reproduction. Purebreds had the highest relative risk (compared to domestics crosses) in the female reproduction, heart, operation complication, respiratory lower and immunological disease categories. There are typical limitations of secondary data, but they do not negate the overall value of such a large dataset. This study demonstrates how pet insurance data can be used to find breed-specific differences in the incidence of various disease categories in cats. This may be of importance for breeders, cat owners, veterinarians and researchers.

Radioiodine treatment in hyperthyroid cats: insights into the characteristics of owners and their cats, and owner motivation and perceptions.

Radioiodine (131I) therapy is the most appropriate treatment option for many hyperthyroid cats, as it is minimally invasive and often curative. Nevertheless, 131I treatment is not always pursued by owners. Hence, it is important to obtain more insight into owner satisfaction during and after 131I treatment, and their decision-making process. In this study, we describe the characteristics of owners and their hyperthyroid cats referred for 131I therapy, and determine owners' motivation and how they experienced the 131I treatment of their cat. A survey was sent to owners whose cats underwent 131I therapy (n = 1071) between 2010 and 2017 at Ghent University. The survey contained 35 questions with tick-box or free-text answer options concerning family situation, pet insurance, previous therapy, comorbidities, motivation for 131I therapy and owner perception of this treatment. In total, 438 owners completed 94% or more of the questionnaire. Over half of the cats (55%) had received previous medical, dietary or surgical treatment. Motivations for changing the initial therapy to 131I therapy included difficulties in administering medication (31%), insufficient improvement in clinical signs (23%), side effects (16%) and following the referring veterinarian's advice (16%). Almost a fifth of owners (18%) were not informed about the existence of 131I therapy by their veterinarian and found information on 131I treatment online or through friends. Hospitalising their cat was very distressing for 17% of owners. Most owners (92%) were satisfied with the treatment. Reasons for dissatisfaction were insufficient communication, iatrogenic hypothyroidism, persistent hyperthyroidism and comorbidities post-treatment. Our study stresses the importance of communication regarding the possible outcome of 131I treatment, the importance of managing underlying comorbidities before treatment and anticipating the stress of owners during their cat's hospitalisation period. The results of this study could help in improving client communication when advising on 131I treatment.

Analyzing the community decision making to purchase pet insurance: Case study of animal lovers in Indonesia

This study aims to measure people's decision-making to buy their pet insurance and compare it with the amount of insurance premium rates offered. It is important due to the increase in people's income which has triggered the birth of a community of pet lovers as part of the middle-class people’s lifestyle in Indonesia. The survey data was conducted using the Stated Preference (SP) format through questionnaires and interviews to determine the public response to pet insurance premiums. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive methods, decision-making analysis was on the basis of the choice of the dichotomous Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), and logistic regression analysis. Based on the calculation analysis using the logit method shows that the ability of the public to pay pet insurance premiums is IDR289,454.54. Analysis of calculations using the Turnbull method was obtained at IDR365,000.00. The results of the WTP amount, both using the logit method and using the Turnbull method, are greater than the minimum premium amount offered which is IDR190,000.00. The results of this study indicate that the premium rates for pet insurance offered are still within reasonable limits, compared to the size of the decision-making by the animal lover community in Indonesia. This provides a very good prospect for insurance companies that have insurance products for pets in Indonesia. This study was conducted to provide empirical evidence that the decision-making of the animal lover community is greater than the premium rate for pet insurance that has been offered. Thus, this research strongly supports the development of pet insurance companies in Indonesia, which can provide pet protection to stay healthy and well looked after.

Free pet insurance for Ukrainian refugees

Veterinary RecordVolume 190, Issue 9 p. 354-354 Business & Innovation Free pet insurance for Ukrainian refugees First published: 06 May 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.1753Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume190, Issue97/14 May 2022Pages 354-354 RelatedInformation

People's choice awards for pet insurance

Veterinary RecordVolume 190, Issue 4 p. 151-151 News & Reports People's choice awards for pet insurance First published: 20 February 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.1505Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume190, Issue419/26 February 2022Pages 151-151 RelatedInformation

The epidemiology of cruciate ligament rupture in an insured Swedish dog population

Cruciate ligament rupture (CLR) is a common orthopedic disorder in dogs. The study objectives were to evaluate incidence rate (IR), cause-specific mortality rate (CSMR) and risk factors for CLR in insured dogs. A single cohort study of dogs insured in Agria Pet Insurance in Sweden (2011–2016) was performed. Age at diagnosis, IR, CSMR and relative risk (RR) for CLR was calculated overall and per breed. The cohort included just over 600,000 dogs. The IR of CLR was 23.8 (95% confidence interval, 23.1–24.6) cases per 10,000 DYAR. The breeds with highest RR of CLR were Boerboel and Dogo Canario, while the breeds with lowest RR were Standard Dachshund and Miniature Pinscher. Dogue de Bordeaux had highest RR of euthanasia due to CLR. The median age at veterinary care claim for CLR was 7.1 (range 0.3–16.0) years and 6.6 (0.3–12) years at life insurance settlement. Large and giant breeds were generally diagnosed and euthanized due to CLR at a younger age compared to smaller breeds. The majority of the breeds with increased RR of CLR diagnosis and CLR-related euthanasia were large or giant. A pattern of increasing size and decreasing age at diagnosis/CLR-related euthanasia was observed.

Analysis of the demand for pet insurance among uninsured pet owners in the United States.

Although cost is often a barrier to providing optimal veterinary care, only a minority of pet owners use insurance to help cover veterinary costs. We sought to estimate consumer demand and preferences for pet insurance and how educating owners on treatment costs and disease risk affects pet insurance uptake. We surveyed 306 dog owners across the United States without pet insurance, including a choice experiment, used ordinary least squares regression to estimate the demand for pet insurance, and conjoint analysis to estimate the pet insurance feature preferences. Pet insurance uptake increased by 12.3% after veterinary treatment cost and canine cancer risk information was presented to participants. We found that, on average, pet owners were willing to pay $24 more per month for a preventive care service in pet insurance. Forty-four percent of participants were willing to spend up to $1000 to prolong their pet's life a year, while 46% of the sample were willing to spend $3000 or more. Our results suggest that providing pet owners' information about the costs and likelihood of disease can increase their willingness to pay for pet insurance. Coverage of preventive care was the most valuable feature in pet insurance among those presented to dog owners.

The epidemiology of stifle joint disease in an insured Swedish dog population.

Stifle joint diseases (SJD) are common in dogs and include a variety of diagnoses. The objective of the study was to provide an overview of the epidemiology of SJD in insured dogs. An historical single cohort study of dogs insured in Agria Pet Insurance (2011-2016) in Sweden was performed. Incidence and relative risk (RR) of SJD was calculated for the whole dog population and for subgroups divided by breed, breed group and sex. The study population included almost 600,000 insured dogs (>1.7 million dog-years). Ninety-three different stifle joint diagnoses were reported in 9624 dogs, and the most common were cruciate ligament rupture and patellar luxation. The incidence of SJD was 55.4 cases per 10,000 dog-years at risk. Bulldog and boerboel had the highest RR of SJD. The breeds that accounted for the highest proportion of all SJD claimed dogs were mixed breed and Labrador retriever. Female dogs had a slightly increased RR compared with male dogs (RR 1.06, p = 0.006). The incidence increased yearly during the observation period. The study demonstrates breed-specific differences in incidence of SJD in dogs, which may be of importance for breeders, dog owners and veterinarians.

Update on technologies, medicines and treatments.

An abstract presented at the 2020 European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) suggests that, in future, we might be able to monitor longer term exposure to glucose through our tears. The study measured glycated albumin (GA) in lacrimal fluid and found this to be strongly correlated to glycated albumin in blood, an indicator of glycaemia over a 2 week period.

The Effect of Pet Insurance on Presurgical Euthanasia of Dogs With Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus: A Novel Approach to Quantifying Economic Euthanasia in Veterinary Emergency Medicine.

Euthanasia of companion animals in veterinary emergency medicine is a common cause of death. Euthanasia is economic when it is the consequence of the pet owner's inability to afford essential treatment while a viable medical alternative to euthanasia exists. Gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is an acute life-threatening emergency condition of dogs; if left untreated, rapid death is highly likely. Surgical treatment leads to survival of around 80-90% of dogs; however, such treatment is costly. Therefore, pre-surgical euthanasia may be largely economically motivated. Having pet insurance, a financial instrument to reduce the burden of unforeseen veterinary medical costs on pet owners, would be expected to abolish the risk for pre-surgical economic euthanasia. We therefore aimed to determine whether pet insurance attenuates the risk of pre-surgical economic euthanasia in dogs with GDV. Non-referred dogs (n = 260) with GDV and known insurance status seen at 24 emergency clinics over a 2-year period were included. Relevant data (e.g., insurance status, age, comorbidities, outcome) were retrospectively extracted from a pet insurer's claim records (insured animals) or from electronic medical records of participating hospitals (non-insured animals). Forty-one percent of dogs (106 of 260 dogs) did not survive to hospital discharge; 82 (77%) of non-survivors died before surgery, all through euthanasia. The pre-surgical euthanasia rate was 10% in insured and 37% in non-insured dogs (p < 0.001). When adjusted for the effect of age, deposit size, comorbidities, and blood lactate concentration, the absence of insurance increased the odds of pre-surgical euthanasia by a factor of 7.4 (95% CI 2.0 to 37; p = 0.002). Of dogs undergoing surgery, 86% survived to hospital discharge. Overall, 80% of insured animals and 53% of non-insured animals survived to hospital discharge (p < 0.001). Thus, insurance was associated with a marked decrease in risk of pre-surgical euthanasia indicating that the cause of pre-surgical euthanasia of dogs with GDV is predominantly economic in nature. The rate of pre-surgical euthanasia in dogs with GDV may emerge as a suitable marker to quantify economic decision making of pet owners and to measure the impact of financial interventions aimed at mitigating economic duress associated with cost of veterinary emergency care.

Incidence of presenting complaints and diagnoses in insured Australian dogs.

Knowledge of the most common presenting complaints and diagnoses in companion animals is valuable in preparing veterinary students and veterinarians to manage the most frequently observed conditions in clinical practice. Pet insurance databases provide access to large sample populations and have been previously used to describe disease incidence in companion animals. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of presenting complaints and diagnoses in insured Australian dogs through the use of a pet insurance database. Analysis of a de-identified dataset containing pet insurance claims associated with presenting complaints and diagnoses from 488,472 insured Australian dogs insured in the years 2016 and 2017, was performed. Annual incidence rates of presenting complaints and diagnoses were calculated and expressed as, number of events per 1,000 dog years at risk. The presenting complaints with the highest incidence were vomiting (14.21 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2016, 15.80 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2017) and pruritus (8.79 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2016, 10.30 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2017). Presenting complaints affecting the gastrointestinal system were the most common (19.20 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2016, 20.77 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2017). The diagnoses with the highest incidence were otitis externa (34.12 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2016, 34.82 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2017) and dermatitis (28.05 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2016, 29.99 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2017). Diagnoses affecting the integument were the most common (216.56 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2016, 219.06 events per 1,000 dog years at risk in 2017). The results from this study can aid in the design of relevant veterinary curricula and may be helpful in prioritising research on common clinical conditions.