How to Choose the Right Pet Insurance

From socks to balls, stones to string, foreign body ingestion is more common in pets than you might think. And when it happens, it can become a serious and costly emergency. So I caught up with Dr. Amelia Bunker from Nose Pet Insurance to hear more about it. Amelia, how common and what are some of the most common items that you see dogs and cats ingesting? So foreign body ingestion is really quite common in clinical practice and for claims as well, both for puppies and kittens in particular when they're little, that's when they're starting to get up to a little bit of mischief, explore the world with their mouth. Absolutely. So probably the most common things we see them ingesting that they shouldn't would be things like socks. That can be a real culprit of socks and little bits of clothing and for cats they typically like those linear foreign bodies, we call them more, so that would be like wool or bits of string or tassels, that kind of stuff. We also see food-based items ingested really quite commonly, so things like corn cobs. Animals generally like to eat stone fruit pits or things like that can cause just the perfect little size to cause a real nasty obstruction. And we also would see things like sticks, animals eating sticks that can, or catching sticks in their mouths that can cause really quite bad injuries as well. So what are some of the signs to look out for? Yeah, so probably the first thing that most people will notice if they don't actually see the animal, witness it, and don't actually see the animal ingesting it, would be that the animal's just not quite right or a bit off their food, feeling lethargic. But we typically also might see vomiting as another symptom of foreign body ingestion or at the other end we can get diarrhoea or being a bit constipated or unable to go to the toilet. If something's blocking it and then of course if you know something's missing and you see those signs. Go straight to your vet. Absolutely. What are some of the different treatments then depending on what they might have had? Yeah, so it depends a little bit on what the object is and where the vet suspects it is in terms of the intestinal tract. So if it's higher up or in the stomach, a lot of vets can do either a procedure to help your animal vomit and actually just physically bring the object up versus using what's called an endoscope and putting like a little camera with forceps down from the mouth down into the tummy. More to the other extensive end would be full surgery, like exploratory surgery to remove it surgically. Okay, that doesn't sound cheap when you get to the bigger ones. What are sort of the price ranges in terms of cost? Yeah, so it depends again on the extent of the treatment, but anywhere from a consultation and making an animal vomit can be a few hundred dollars up to sort of $500. All the way up to really extensive surgery can be, you know, $15,000 to $20,000 depending on how unwell your animal is. And I know some pet insurance companies just have like one claim per year that they cap it at. Does Nose Pet Insurance have that? No, so our policy is provided recurring foreign body ingestions not pre-existing and you're following your vet's advice. Our policies do not have a limit on the number of episodes or ingestions your pet can have per year. Okay, that does not mean that it's a good thing for your pet to keep doing that because you're covered. I love it. So prevention really is key. Keep things well out of reach of your pet. Don't throw sticks at your dogs and teach them to leave it. Thanks, Amelia. If you'd like to learn how Nose Pet Insurance can help your pet in an emergency like that, visit nose.com.au.