After a veterinarian suggested to Christine Trimnal that she buy pet insurance for her two Weimaraner puppies, the first-time dog owner decided to make the investment.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette photos Christine Trimnal has veterinary health insurance for Toby, left, and Jaxson. Click photo for larger image.

After all, premiums are lowest for young pets with no history of health problems.

When one of the dogs, Toby, was just 2 years old, Ms. Trimnal, a Pleasant Hills resident, noticed that one of his teeth was discolored. Her vet said the tooth was damaged and needed a root canal. The procedure cost about $700.

"I got nearly $500 back from the insurance company," Ms. Trimnal said.

She has also been reimbursed by her company, Veterinary Pet Insurance, for some of the costs of routine care and inoculations.

"I have a $50 deductible, and then I get a percentage back" on veterinarian bills, she said. "My premiums are about $30 a month for both dogs."

As a pet health insurance policy holder, Ms. Trimnal is a member of a small minority.

Christine Trimnal says she pays about $30 a month for veterinary care insurance for both of her dogs, including Jaxson, above. Click photo for larger image.

Less than 1 percent of U.S. pet owners have veterinary insurance. By contrast, nearly half of all pet owners in Sweden have policies for their pets.

Both of those figures come from Veterinary Pet Insurance, or VPI, the oldest and largest pet health insurance company in the United States. VPI writes an estimated 80 percent of the pet health insurance policies in this country.

The number of insured pets is slowly but steadily growing, according to Brian Iannessa, public relations supervisor at VPI.

The pet food recall and local outbreaks of canine influenza have reminded pet owners that well-cared-for pets with no history of health problems can get very sick and rack up big vet bills.

Dogs and cats that ate tainted food have suffered kidney damage, and some of them died. While most dog flu victims recover, secondary infections can require multiple days in a veterinary clinic hooked up to intravenous antibiotics. In both scenarios, bills can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The pet food recall may prompt pet owners to take a harder look at insurance.

"It's too early to tell what the impact will be" on pet insurance, Mr. Iannessa said. "It's too early to tell how many claims will be filed as a result. But we have gotten several hundred calls from clients asking if their pets' care will be covered if they get sick" during the food recall.

The answer to that is yes.

The cost of veterinary care -- like most everything else in the world -- is steadily rising. Veterinary bills have gone up as diagnostic tests and procedures and treatments have improved dramatically in the past 10 years. But the price can be very high for high-tech treatments that lengthen lives.

For instance, MRIs, once available only to humans, are now available to pets. The cost for the test is generally $500 and up. The blood and urine analyses used to test pets who may have eaten contaminated pet food average about $160.

Expensive MRIs and ultrasounds can diagnose cancers, and chemotherapy and radiation can add months or years to the lives of canine and feline cancer victims. But a course of cancer treatment can easily cost $5,000.

"It's neat that we can do all of these things now," said veterinarian Shannon Fujimoto Nakaya, author of "Kindred Spirit, Kindred Care," a book to help pet owners make health decisions about their pets. "But there has always been a discrepancy between dogs and cats that have health care and dogs and cats that do not."

With the high cost of high-tech vet care, "the gap will widen, and to me that is a huge concern," Dr. Nakaya said.

She devotes an entire chapter in her book to financial commitments, which includes a look at pet health insurance, an industry that will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.

"Some pet insurance plans are more inclusive than others," Dr. Nakaya writes in the book, but "not a single pet health plan is all-inclusive" and "all plans have limits."

"Pet insurance can be financially helpful, especially for unanticipated illnesses or injuries; however, having pet insurance does not mean that you will never need to think about the cost of veterinary care," Dr. Nakaya said.

In her own experience as a veterinarian, including her current practice in Kona on the big island of Hawaii, she said "a relatively small number of the population buys pet insurance, and the people who buy it are relatively affluent."

The relatively short life spans of dogs and cats coupled with ever-improving veterinary care does make it difficult to compute premium costs, said Laura Bennett, founder of what may be the smallest and newest pet health insurance company.

She and a partner started the Embrace Pet Insurance company in Cleveland last year. They currently have fewer than 1,000 pets on their client list. But she's optimistic that her company in particular and the pet health insurance industry in general are bound to grow "because I think there is a real need for good companies" in this field.

Ms. Bennett, a native of England, says about 20 percent of pets in the United Kingdom are insured.

Her own background is in the human insurance industry -- health and life -- as an actuary. She's still an actuary, and thinks she is the only pet actuary in the United States. Actuaries assess risks and set premiums.

Ms. Bennett wanted to start her own business, so she went back to school and earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She was a member of the team that won first prize in the Wharton Business Plan Competition with an entry for a pet insurance company.

When a beloved pet has an illness or injury that requires expensive veterinary care, "at what point do you stop paying?" Ms. Bennett asked. "Some people will put themselves under financial strain" to try to save a pet. Health insurance "can help you avoid the life-or-money decisions."

While many pet insurance companies, including VPI, will not cover genetic conditions and illnesses such as hip dysplasia, Embrace will. Ms. Bennett says her company gives clients a great deal of leeway to customize the policies they wish to pay for. And if a client is seeking coverage only for very large bills, the premiums will be very low "if you choose a $500 deductible," she said.

Dr. Nakaya says she has had clients who are, in effect, self-insured, when it comes to pet health care. They set up savings accounts or "slush funds," making monthly payments to themselves.

"If you are lucky and your pet is generally healthy for the first 10 years of its life, you could save and invest several thousand dollars that would otherwise have been spent on insurance premiums," she writes in her book.

For further information about Dr. Nakaya and her book, go to www.kindredspiritkindredcare.com.