This Month at Vetrica

10 June 2004

Latest News

This page contains the latest news from Vetrica and Vetrica OnLine. It updates at least monthly, and will also keep you up to date with the latest news about animal care and welfare.

An archive of previous months articles is also available.

Pet Insurance

Changes are afoot in the pet insurance market. The Financial Services Authority has been taking an interest in pet insurance for some time now. They want to make the whole process more open and accountable. People or companies advising on insurance will have to be properly registered (and presumably, trained).

Nothing wrong with that at all. At Vetrica, we're all for openness and clarity in everything that we do. But the practical implications of this is that when the new rules come into force, we won't be able to take payment directly from the insurer. We won't even be able to even post your insurance claim form any more.

The pet insurance market has got a lot more competitive over the past couple of years, with many new entrants. This can only be a good thing. At Vetrica, we are asked every day about pet insurance. We try generally to warn people about one particular company that has a poor payment record, and to give general advice about what the different sorts of insurance mean, with their respective advantages and disadvantages. It appears that from January we will no longer be able to give any of this advice.

For most people, the hassle of form-filling for insurance companies is something they could do without. We try our best to relieve you of this burden by doing most of the paperwork, and for all except two companies, we are able to take payment directly from the insurer. We fill these forms in every day. We're used to the (frequently stupid) questions they ask. We're glad to take this burden away, and what's more, we do all this for free. It's all part of the premium service that you've come to expect from Vetrica.

There is one ray of sunshine in all this. Pet Plan, one of the biggest (probably the biggest pet insurer), has spent a lot of money training vets and nurses to advise on their products. To our knowledge, they are the only company to invest in this way. Here at Vetrica, Audrey and Laura are now fully qualified Pet Plan Pet Insurance Advisors. So at least we will be able to discuss Pet Plan products, and take payment directly from Pet Plan. But, this will be the only company that we will be able to do this with. So, from January, when we start saying some such thing like "We can only advise on Pet Plan insurance blah blah..." remember, it's not our fault. Honest.

Tissue Adhesive

Last month we reported on the use of tissue adhesive at Vetrica, and its many advantages. Well, after another month of using it, we can now be more confident about setting a formal policy on its use.

Our overall impression of it's use has been very positive. Wounds closed with tissue adhesive appear to heal faster, and animals interfere with them less, when compared with conventional closure using nylon sutures. For operations where there has been no skin removed, such as spays and castrations, we will be using tissue adhesive all the time.

Most skin injuries we have found do still require sutures. Maybe it's the animal interfering with the wound, or perhaps the adhesive itself is not strong enough, but we have had some patients require a second wound repair with sutures when there had been some skin loss.

The possible exceptions to this rule are some very minor skin wounds. We had a couple of patients with minor skin lacerations that we repaired in the consulting room, that would previously have required, at the very least, heavy sedation to repair. No sutures. No anaesthetic. In and out in 10 minutes. That's real progress.

This Month's Interesting Case

The rabbit health section has an article about nutrition in rabbits describing the serious adverse effects that modern "rabbit foods" have on a rabbit's mouth. This month, I saw something that I've never seen before...

In the photo you can clearly see thumper's left upper incisor curving into then out of her mouth.
Inset: the affected tooth once removed.

Thumper is an 18 month old rabbit. Her owner had noticed that an incisor tooth was a bit long and brought her along to have it clipped. As you can see from the photograph, the lower left incisor tooth was indeed very long. However, the left upper incisor tooth can be seen curving in a complete circle, into the mouth, and then back out again.

Although dental disease like this can be congenital (meaning the rabbit was born with it), or hereditary, the vast majority of rabbits with dental disease are caused by a poor diet. I try to educate on this as often as possible, but sometimes I wish people had to go to night school to learn about rabbit nutrition before they were allowed to buy a rabbit.

This guinea pig's mouth has cheek teeth that reach from one side to the other, completely enclosing the tongue in a sort of dental arch!

Continuing the theme of dental disease, just look at this guinea pig's mouth! His cheek teeth can be seen arching over his tongue. It's amazing that this poor creature could eat at all, and will require regular dental work.