Siberians are, in general, a healthy and hardy breed. However, accidents and unforeseen illnesses can happen. Vet bills can be Very Expensive as is most health care nowadays.
I highly recommend Pet Health Insurance for your Siberian, especially during the first two years when young cats can do silly things. If something unexpected happens, you’ll be able to focus on your Siberian and not need to worry about the cost ($) for recovery.
A word of caution regarding Banfield Pet Hospital. It offers a program similar to health insurance. However, you must go to a Banfield hospital for coverage. It seems like many accidents and illnesses happen on a Saturday or Sunday evening, and then your only option is going to the Emergency Veterinary Hospital (expensive!). You have no coverage at the Emergence Veterinary Hospital through the Banfield program. So, if you do opt for Banfield’s program, consider additional Health Insurance that will cover your Siberian at Emergency Hospitals, and perhaps offer additional health options not available with the Banfield program.
At the recommendation of one of our Siberian buyers, I’ve taken a look at HealthyPaws Pet Insurance: http://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com It appears to have excellent coverage for about the same monthly fee as other companies. Monthly fees are usually around $20 to $30 per month.
I encourage you to do some shopping for pet medical insurance. Just like you would shop a big-ticket item, do your research. Because I breed my cats, I have only found one pet insurance that I can use. You will have many more choices than my situation.
The following website has a helpful article regarding pet health insurance.
Things to consider:
- Is the deductible per year or per incident? Obviously, per year is better!
- Although most insurance companies will not cover dental cleaning, find out if they would cover tooth extraction or other dental complications.
- Testing can be very expensive, try to find an insurance that would cover the costs of tests.
- Young, male neutered, obese cats are predisposed to sustaining spontaneous capital physeal fractures, as well as fractures of the femoral neck secondary to metaphyseal osteopathy. A very expensive surgical repair that usually ends up being Bi-Lateral. This has happened to one of my Siberian kittens. So not common, and avoidable by not letting your young male kitty get over-weight.
Sometimes the only way to get the information you need to make a good choice is to go ahead and sign of with a few pet insurance companies. You’ll have to pay the first month’s premium, but once you are their customer, they will answer those questions above. Once you know who you want to stay with, you simply cancel those other policies.
Some pet medical insurance companies to look into are:
- Healthy Paws
- Trupanion
- Embrace
- PetFirst
- Petplan
If you find a pet insurance company that you really like, please let me know. I would like to be able to recommend specific companies.
