Taking Care Of Your Pet
What is Pet Insurance and Why Do I Need It?
Pet insurance works on the same basis as personal health insurance: you pay a premium every month based on certain factors related to your lifestyle and general health, and if something should go wrong medically your insurance company will pay the related bills. Since there is no NHS for pets, it makes even more sense to buy your own insurance for your animal family members.
Everyone who owns a pet should consider taking out pet insurance as part of being a responsible pet owner, and to provide you with peace of mind in the event that your pet should need emergency veterinary care.
Additionally, most pet insurance companies will provide you with special tag to put on your pet’s collar, and in the event that it gets lost, these tags are then used by police, veterinary clinics and animal rescue organisations to ensure that you get your pet back as quickly and safely as possible.
Why Should I Spay or Neuter My Kitten/Cat or Puppy/Dog?
Spaying and neutering helps reduce the problem of pet overpopulation, and helps to reduce the number of unwanted animals that end up in animal shelters or on the street. Unless you are a qualified breeder who intends to use their new pet as breeding stock, it is recommended that you alter your pet. If you are going to allow your new pet to go outdoors or to interact with other animals you should have them spayed or neutered as soon as it is safe for to do so. Your veterinarian can give you more information and advice on when this time will be for your specific animal.
Spaying reduces the stress and discomfort females endure during heat periods, eliminates the risk of dangerous uterine infections and reduces the chance of mammary cancer. Neutering makes males far less likely to roam or fight and helps prevents testicular cancer and other medical problems.
In addition, spaying and neutering can help alleviate or even eliminate certain behavioural problems associated with sexual maturity in animals.
Microchipping/ID Tagging Your Pet
Veterinarians and animal welfare organisations, like the RSPCA, recommend that you microchip your pet in order to provide a quick, stress-free way to identify them if they are ever lost. Animal welfare organisations, vets and dog wardens have scanners that can read the microchip's details by passing a scanner over the chip. Once the scanner identifies your pet’s unique chip number, animal welfare workers can match up the chip number with your details as they are entered in the PetLog database.
A microchip, which is about the size of a grain of rice, is painlessly inserted under the animal's skin by your veterinarian. Once in, the microchip cannot move or be seen, but can be read by the scanner; thereby providing a safe and fool-proof way of identifying your pet if they are ever separated from you.
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Finding a Veterinarian in the UK
The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is the official governing body for veterinarians in the United Kingdom. You can search the RCVS’s database to find all licensed UK veterinarians currently practising.
The RCVS’s website can be found at http://www.rcvs.org.uk/
Their database of all UK veterinarians can be found here.
Find an Animal Welfare Organisation in the UK
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a registered charity whose mission statement is to “by all lawful means, prevent cruelty, promote kindness to and alleviate suffering of animals.” The RSPCA works with local and national law enforcement to put an end to the abuse of animals both through prevention via education, and through legal means. The RSPCA also operates animal shelters and adoption agencies that care for and rehome animals in its care.
To find out more information about the RSPCA and what it does, you can find their website at http://www.rspca.org.uk/
