Trupanion provides medical insurance for cats and dogs throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Puerto Rico, and Australia with over 1 million pets enrolled. The insurance company aimed at evaluating the most common claims submitted by pet owners in order to uncover any trends between 2019 and 2023.

Allergies were the topmost common claim for pets and Trupanion saw a 42% increase in the frequency of allergy and ear infection claims in North America. That same data revealed that, on average, a dog will have 16 allergy related claims, while a cat will have 6 allergy related claims. This calculates to an average cost of treating allergies adding up to approximately $2300 for dogs, and $600 for cats, over the pet’s lifetime.

Trupanion general manager, Stephen Rose, BVSc (Hons1) M Infotech CVA ACVCHM, said in a release, “Allergies, much like in humans, can have broad health implications, affecting skin, ears, eyes, feet, and even internal organs. Allergies are less seldom triggered by a singular factor but rather accumulate from multiple triggers, ultimately prompting the need for treatment. This complexity often makes it challenging to pinpoint the exact allergen causing the reaction, as it's typically a combination of factors.”

“For these reasons, getting veterinary advice on diagnostic options, allergy trials and treatment is essential. Luckily for our furry companions, recent advancements have significantly improved the availability, efficacy, and safety of allergy treatments for pets,” Rose added.

Trupanion also analyzed its data to track the region most of these allergy claims were coming from. Within North America, these are the highest number of allergy related claims over the past 3 years:

Among its members, Trupanion discovered there are about 8.5 times more allergy claims from dogs compared to cats, even after accounting for the number of insured pets in each group. The most common dog breeds submitting allergy claims are:

According to Rose, pet parents can try to manage allergies by consulting a veterinarian for diagnostic options, allergy trials, and treatment recommendations. Owners should come prepared to the veterinary visit by keeping a detailed log of the pet's allergy symptoms and trying to differentiate between allergic itching and skin infections.

“What [clients] don't realize is that animal dermatologists do it all. We do the bumps on the skin, we also do ear infections, and we also manage allergies, which is very different than how human [medicine] is,” Julia E. Miller, DVM, DACVD, said to attendees at the Fetch conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

One of Miller’s suggestions for client education is a website called petsgetallergies.com, and on there, clients can learn more about what veterinary dermatologists do and the diseases and conditions they can treat. Clients can also use this resource to find a dermatologist near them or they can go on the American College of Veterinary Dermatology (ACVD) website to search, as well. “What I really like about this website is it's very much geared towards clients… You could guide them towards this website because it really has some very digestible owner-friendly information.” Miller added.

truInsights into pet allergies: Trupanion decodes trends and provides tips for pet parents. News release. Trupanion. April 25, 2024. Accessed April 25, 2024. 

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240425526904/en/truInsights-into-Pet-Allergies-Trupanion-Decodes-Trends-and-Provides-Tips-for-Pet-Parents

Miller JE. Tips and Tricks for Successful Referral and Co-management with your Neighborhood Dermatologist. Presented at: Fetch dvm360 conference; March 15-17, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina.

Articles

Insurance company reveals how frequently allergy claims came in over the past few years

The prevalence of allergy-related claims

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2024! As you prepare to leave veterinary school and enter the workforce, it can be an exciting yet stressful time, especially when trying to figure out where to start your career.

In order to help you all get your careers off to a good start, Frank Bozelka, DVM, returns to the podcast to give 5 tips to new graduates. Bozelka and host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, discuss how to pick the clinic that is best for you, what to look for in a clinics culture, and what to avoid. 

: So what would be a piece of advice that you would give these the new graduates?

Prepare for a long but fun road. The profession is definitely not what it was when I came out. There's always an end to the tunnel. It's going to be scary, you're not going to know a lot, you're going to make mistakes, but embrace it. Understand you're a person and my No. 1 bit of advice that I give every new grad is make sure you are taking time for yourself. Whatever you have to do to mentally just check out from everything, do that. Whatever it is, whatever makes you happy. Make sure you're doing that. And the sad part is we do have to say this—if you ever start getting those dark thoughts of 'is this it,' [remember] there's always an out, you don't have to stay in this profession, if it's going to drive you to the point of thinking about things like suicide and if you're thinking about those things, for the love of God, please reach out to somebody because that's never going to be the answer.

Podcasts

New graduates entering the veterinary profession should carefully consider the type of clinic they choose to work at for the first few years of their career

5 things new graduates should know

Nationwide analyzed its own data from more than 22 million pet insurance claims to observe how certain breeds are prone to more health issues like injuries, trauma, and/or ingesting foreign objects. The insurance company also noticed from this data that several claims came from accidents that are usually more likely to occur with puppies. Puppies can be more prone to getting hurt because their natural curiosity often leads them into situations in which they are unaware can be dangerous. However, experts at Nationwide noticed these carefree behaviors and “getting into trouble” tendencies were also happening with adult and senior dogs.

To explain this further, Nationwide’s chief veterinary officer, Jules Benson, BVSc MRCVS, AVP, said in release, “When we looked at the results for the highest-risk conditions across the life stages of certain dog breeds, we noticed the data was telling a particular story. Some dog breeds continue to submit claims for what we might think of as ‘silly puppy’ conditions – including trauma, foreign body ingestion, and toxicity – well into their mature and even senior life stages.”

So, according to Nationwide, dogs who tend to maintain their “puppy-like” behavior well into adulthood and beyond, can also be more at risk to injury. Nationwide found the top 3 breeds most likely to submit a foreign body ingestion claim as mature adults to be:

English Bull Terrier (2.6x more likely than all other dog breeds)

According to the release, Samoyeds are 10x likely to ingest a foreign object as a puppy, but claims for this condition decrease significantly as the breed matures. Experts at Nationwide found these results to be surprising, since most expected Labrador retrievers to be at the top of this list.

The top 5 breeds most likely to submit a trauma claim as mature adults are:

Greyhound (3x more likely than all dog breeds)

On the flip side, the Nationwide team observed that the trend of "eternal youth" was not evident among felines. Although certain breeds experienced foreign body ingestion incidents during their young adult years (notably, the Siberian breed ranked highest with a risk 2.8 times greater than others), no cat breed exhibited such incidents beyond this life stage into adulthood. Notably, British Shorthair, Persian, and Sphynx breeds did not rank for any life stage regarding foreign body, trauma, or toxicity incidents, suggesting a notable level of sensibility among them.

“Could we draw the conclusion that cats seem to be more sensible (or risk-averse!) in general? Perhaps,” said Benson. “At the very least, the Pet HealthZone can inform those breeds’ pet parents that they can likely focus on other concerns. We hope that by making these pet health insights free and easy for everyone to understand, we can impact the way pets receive care, both at home and in the veterinary clinic.”

Peter Pan Pups: Unveiling lifelong health risks in canine breeds with persistent puppy behaviors. News release. Nationwide. 2024. Accessed April 24, 2024. 

https://news.nationwide.com/peter-pan-pups-unveiling-lifelong-health-risks-in-canine-breeds-with-persistent-puppy-behaviors/

Nationwide analyzed data to see which breeds are more susceptible to injuries because of behavioral traits

How puppy behaviors can be linked with health issues

Immunization research and development in veterinary medicine is continuously moving forward and evolving. Canine distemper, canine influenza, canine parvovirus, feline panleukopenia, leptospirosis and rabies are among the deadly and/or highly contagious diseases that are currently being prevented with vaccination.

 is observed each year on April 20, today starts World Immunization Week, which includes human medicine and runs through April 30, 2024.

 To highlight the importance of vaccinating animals against diseases, here are 3 articles that spotlight advancements in veterinary immunization:

No evidence of cancer found in dog after novel cancer therapy

: A vaccination treatment developed by a researcher at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is a form of immunotherapy that is currently under review by the USDA. The vaccine has also been tested in clinical trials and has demonstrated promising results for efficacy in hundreds of dogs.

: Michael Lappin, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, director of the Center for Companion Animal Studies at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and chair of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association One Health Committee, lectured on CPV, among other infectious diseases, to an audience of veterinarians and other industry professionals at the 2023 Veterinary Meeting & Expo in Orlando, Florida. In this recap, he addressed the optimal ways to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases in dogs as well as vaccination.

Groundbreaking vaccination research shared at the World Vaccine Congress

: A team of researchers at Anivive is collaborating with the Valley Fever Center for Excellence at the University of Arizona in Tucson to develop a systemic antifungal vaccine. The novel vaccine candidate targets coccidioidomycosis fungal infection, commonly referred to as Valley Fever.

Vaccinations. American Veterinary Medical Association. Accessed April 24, 2024. 

https://www.avma.org/resources-tools/pet-owners/petcare/vaccinations

World Immunization Week 2024. World Health Organization. Accessed April 24, 2024. 

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-immunization-week/2024

Articles spotlighting vaccination development that targets diseases in animals such as parvovirus, cancer, and fungal infection

3 must-reads on veterinary immunization advancements

Researchers at Washington State University have received over $370,000 for a 2-year study looking into the impact of a drug administered to thoroughbred racehorses. Furosemide, commonly known as Lasix, is given to horses before most races across the United States to reduce bleeding in their lungs.

Furosemide is a diuretic that has shown to reduce the prevalence and severity of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), which can cause bleeding in the lungs during exercise. The drug has spiked controversy from those doubting its effectiveness, believing it leads to other health ramifications, and creating a public perception issue for horseracing. The use of furosemide is currently prohibited on race days abroad, and a permanent ban within the United States is under consideration.

“We hypothesize that our study will show horses that regularly get furosemide before racing have more races and longer careers than those that don’t,” Warwick Bayly, BVSc (Honors), PhD, MS, leading the research alongside Macarena Sanz, DVM, PhD, MS, said in an organizational release.

 “The results of this study are going to help guide the final decision on the future use of furosemide.”

The grant was awarded to WSU by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), which was founded in 2020 by Congress to regulate thoroughbred racing in the US. Although most tracks have applied for and received waivers while studies are being performed on the drug, HISA essentially banned its use.

 Despite having waivers, major racetracks, such as the Kentucky Derby, have banned the same-day use of furosemide in horses under the age of 3 years.

According to the release, researchers at WSU plan to analyze information gathered from around 30,000 racehorses. The work will start by breaking down the career trajectories of horses that started competing in 2011 and follow their performances until 2019. The goal of this phase is to give researchers a better understanding of how regular furosemide treatment correlates with increased career longevity and race participation.

Researchers also plan to investigate the impact of banning furosemide on horses' careers and the number of starts for horses 2 years old. The plan is to have researchers compare horses that raced in 2011-2019, before the ban, and horses racing post-ban, from 2021-2025. Data will be collected from videos of horses at racetracks in early 2024 to evaluate EIPH’s severity and influence on participation over 18 months.

 The results of each study should provide crucial information to help HISA make informed future regulations on the use of furosemide in thoroughbreds before racing.

“There are many things that result in a horse ending its career, and there are a lot of things that determine how many races it would have,” explained Bayly.

 “Our theory is that one of those determinants is the severity of the EIPH. A couple of really clever statisticians are participating in the study, and we have to sift through all this data and try and work out whether or not the frequency of Lasix administration is related to career duration.”

 the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) published a consensus statement in the 

, on the use of the effects of furosemide on the athletic capacity of horses and its efficacy of prophylactic interventions for EIPH.

 ACVIM put together a panel of experts to assess evidence in peer-reviewed literature and found much of the evidence out there was low to very low quality with studies frequently lacking adequate statistical power, and stated that furosemide is efficacious in decreasing the incidence as well as severity of EIPH. The conclusion of the ACVIM investigation strongly recommends EIPH be considered a disease, but a weak recommendation for using furosemide in managing this condition in racehorses.

In 2026, HISA expects to make its final decision on furosemide based on the findings in studies it has funded, including this study at WSU.

WSU to study effect of controversial drug on racehorses. News release. Washington State University. April 23,2024. Accessed April 24, 2024. 

https://news.wsu.edu/news/2024/04/23/wsu-to-study-effect-of-controversial-drug-on-racehorses/

Hinchcliff KW, Couetil LL, Knight PK, et al. Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage in Horses: American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Consensus Statement. 

 2015;29(3):743-758. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.12593

Washington State University researchers received over $370,000 for a 2-year study 

Researchers investigate effects of furosemide on racehorses 

Selling your veterinary hospital is a major decision—one fraught with intricacies beyond the emotional ties to your establishment. While veterinarians excel in animal care, navigating the complexities of business sales might not be their forte. Enter the veterinary-focused sell-side advisor, a key ally in this transition. A veterinary advisor specializes in understanding market trends, valuation methodologies, negotiation techniques, and the legal aspects of business sales. Their expertise becomes your guiding light, simplifying the labyrinth of selling your practice and saving you time, money, and headaches.

Before you sign with a sell-side advisor, it’s important to understand what they should bring to the table. Below are a few things your sell-side advisor should be offering and what they should accomplish for you.

Determining the fair market value of your veterinary practice is no easy feat. Veterinary business advisors possess the experience to accurately value tangible assets, key performance indicators, goodwill, and other intangible factors. This ensures your practice is optimally priced, maximizing its sale potential and bringing you the best value.

Engaging a veterinary sell-side advisor means tapping into their extensive network of potential buyers actively seeking ownership opportunities. This widened reach expedites the selling process, connecting you with vetted and well-qualified buyers, whether for a corporate or private sale.

An experienced broker facilitates introductions to vital professionals, including transactional attorneys, accountants, and investment advisors, all with experience in transitioning veterinary hospitals. They help fill any team gaps, ensuring a smooth transaction and helping you navigate post-sale considerations.

Negotiating the sale of a veterinary practice requires finesse and strategic prowess. An advisor, acting on your behalf, leverages their negotiation skills to secure the most favorable terms beyond the selling price, encompassing contingencies and transition periods, and other critical aspects that safeguard your interests. Experience in reviewing offers and letters of intent is paramount at the offer phase of your sale to ensure no detail is missed.

Selling a business involves many varied tasks, from legal documentation to due diligence. A sell-side advisor takes charge of these complexities, streamlining the process and allowing you to focus on day-to-day operations, ensuring minimal disruption.

Unexpected challenges can arise during the sale of a veterinary practice. Business advisors anticipate potential hurdles, mitigating risks by structuring deals that protect your interests. Their expertise ensures a smooth transition for both parties.

In essence, engaging a veterinary advisor isn't just pragmatic; it's a strategic advantage. Their expertise, extensive networks, and negotiation skills simplify the selling process, enhancing the likelihood of a successful and profitable transaction. Utilizing their services empowers veterinarians to transition out of their practice seamlessly, lucratively, and with peace of mind.

Bill Murray, CEO, Wicklow Healthcare Advisory.

is the founder and CEO of Wicklow Healthcare Advisory. Prior to founding Wicklow, Murray spent more than 20 years at Bank of America, most recently as senior vice president of the veterinary lending division. Bill started Wicklow after seeing a gap in the current model where many independent practice owners were not getting the attention and specific expertise needed to help them grow, scale, and exit their businesses.

Bill Murray, CEO, Wicklow Healthcare Advisory, explains the value of having a veterinary business advisor for your practice sale