Should You Add Preventative Care to Your Pet Insurance Policy?

If you are a pet owner, you love your animal, and you want to do whatever you can to ensure their health and safety. Pet insurance is a valuable solution for many people to protect their cats and dogs from unforeseen injuries and illnesses. However, sometimes you need more than the basic protections provided by pet insurance policies. Many insurance providers offer optional preventative care packages, which can be a lifesaver for your furry friend. Let’s break down what preventative care is, the pros and cons of these packages, and whether you should add it to your policy or not.

Types of Services a Preventative Care Package Includes

Most basic pet insurance policies cover emergencies and illnesses that may arise for your pet. However, there is a whole other range of situations, those that fall into the category of “preventative,” that can affect your animal. As the term implies, preventative care helps your pet avoid severe conditions down the road. Some of these preventative services include:

Vaccines

Vaccines can be critical to stopping diseases, especially viruses, from infecting us. The same is true for our pets. Some of the illnesses that vaccines protect against include rabies, distemper, parvovirus, and hepatitis. Some veterinarians recommend specific vaccines, such as Lyme Disease and leptospirosis, for at-risk animals.

Dental Care

Dogs and cats need to take care of their teeth, too. Regular cleaning and check-ups are essential to maintaining dental health, as leaving conditions untreated can cause serious issues down the road.

Parasite Prevention

Your vet can help protect your pets from heartworm, ticks, and fleas via medication. Depending on where you live, veterinarians tailor these protocols to fit your pet.

Wellness Exams and Screenings

These routine exams are exceptional prevention tools, as you can discover any underlying problems in your pets early. These screenings are especially beneficial for cats as they tend not to display symptoms as clearly as dogs.

Spaying or Neutering

Beyond the expected benefits of spaying or neutering your pet, other advantages include avoiding certain cancers.

Pros and Cons of Adding Preventative Care to Your Policy

As you can see above, there are many benefits to adding these services to your base policy. The primary advantage is simply seeing your pet’s doctor more often, which can help your dog or cat avoid serious illnesses. Many of the conditions that a vet screens for, including heartworm, dental issues, and ticks, are avoidable or more controllable when they are identified early.

As with most things in pet care, there are drawbacks to preventative and wellness packages. The most significant disadvantage is the cost. Depending on your insurance provider, the monthly fee for these services can add up quickly. Additionally, if you have an exceptionally healthy pet, many of these services are unnecessary or irrelevant to your animal. You may question whether you need flea prevention, for example, if your cat is an indoor pet.

When Should You Add Preventative Care?

For many pet owners, adding preventative care is a necessity. If you live in a place where heartworm is endemic, you will certainly benefit from a prevention protocol. If your dog or cat is obese or has underlying conditions, mysterious symptoms, or vision issues, wellness services can help. For some pet owners, total protection of their animal is worth every cent, and they feel it is an essential expense.

When Might You Not Need Preventative Care?

If your finances are stretched, you will have to do a lot of tough cost analysis. Is the added cost even possible with your budget? How much money should you allot to your pet, based on your total income? These are hard questions because every pet owner wants to safeguard their animal. In addition to financial reasons, you can skip these optional services if you think the potential costs aren’t worth the gains. Perhaps your animal is generally healthy and at low risk for disease or illness. In these cases, you can opt for baseline accident-only insurance, but provide preventative health care through simple at-home dental care and close observation of symptoms and physical changes.

The Verdict

So, do you need to add preventative care to your base pet insurance policy? That depends. If your pet is already at risk for various conditions or displays outward symptoms and behaviors, then you likely should. On the other hand, if your dog or cat is naturally healthy and you monitor their health actively, or if cost is an issue, you can probably get by without it.