What is a wellness plan for pets?
A pet wellness plan is essentially a discounted pre-payment program designed to help pet owners manage routine healthcare expenses for their pets. Unlike pet insurance, which typically covers unexpected accidents and illnesses, wellness plans focus more on making preventive care more affordable.
These plans usually include services such as twice-yearly check-ups, vaccinations, flea and tick prevention, and heartworm prevention. Some plans even cover diagnostic bloodwork or urinalysis.
Many veterinary clinics have started to offer pet wellness plans to help pet parents budget for their furry friend's preventive care.
How do pet wellness plans work?
Pet owners pay a monthly or annual fee for the plan, and in return, they receive coverage for various preventive care services outlined in the plan, and an extra discount on many key services not covered in the plan. The goal is to help pet owners budget for routine healthcare expenses and ensure their pets receive the necessary preventive care to stay healthy.
What are some benefits of wellness plans?
As a pet parent, you understand how important it is to ensure that your cat or dog lives a happy, healthy life. There are several ways to accomplish this, including providing affection, play, and exercise, a healthy diet... and routine preventive vet care. Wellness Plans allow your vet team to monitor your pet's health and well-being. Routine monitoring makes spotting subtle symptoms of emerging health problems easier. This helps to protect your pet's long-term health because early diagnosis and treatment can prevent the development of severe symptoms and complications, allowing the progression of disease to be slowed or even reversed.
Budgeting is Easier with Pet Wellness Plans
The bundling of services in wellness plans and the set cost of these plans means that budgeting is more manageable than tackling the cost of each service as it occurs. Wellness plans positively affect your budget in a couple of ways:
- Can be paid monthly or annually
- Usually includes discounts on certain products and services
Cost of One or Two Examinations is Covered
It's always tough to think about our pets getting hurt or sick, but it's possible. Wellness plans are designed to cover preventive care, not emergency care. However, they can be helpful if you're concerned that your pet may be unwell, as they usually cover a certain number of included examinations.
Discounts Are Applied to Essential Preventive Services
When the cost of all services are bundled together, the veterinary clinic typically provides a discount. Signing up your pet for a wellness plan can result in lower costs compared to paying for each service individually throughout the year. For more details on how your veterinary clinic prices pet wellness plans, ask your vet for details.
Pets Routinely Attend Vital Wellness Exams
Pet parents who opt to enroll their dog or cat in a wellness plan are generally better at scheduling routine checkups for their furry family members. This is because there are fewer concerns about paying for these appointments since the cost is already covered by their monthly payments. They are also encouraged to bring their pet's in for regular checkups because they don't want to miss out on services they are paying for.
Wellness Plans Are Pet Specific
With wellness plans, you can enroll your pet in customized care based on their size and breed, ensuring they receive tailored care while only paying for necessary services.
Pets with Special Needs Get the Proactive Attention They Need
At our Oceanside animal hospital, the wellness plans we offer cover dogs and cats of all sizes, shapes, and ages. Most wellness plans offer options for cats and small, medium, large, XL, and giant dogs and provide a range of preventive annual and biannual wellness procedures.
We believe that pets with special needs, such as senior cats and dogs, new puppies and kittens, and pets with chronic or recurring issues, particularly benefit from enrollment in these plans because wellness plans encourage routine vet care, including early detection screenings, important preventive vaccinations, and physical examinations.
Note: The advice provided in this post is intended for informational purposes and does not constitute medical advice regarding pets. For an accurate diagnosis of your pet's condition, please make an appointment with your vet.