Calendar of Catastrophes: The Most Common Pet Health Conditions Month-by-Month

As dog moms and dads, we all have a similar worry… what sort of trouble will our four-legged family find themselves in next!

Wouldn’t it be great if you could anticipate your pet’s next move and take precautions to prevent accidents, injuries, and illnesses? While it’s impossible to predict the future, there are some surprising statistics to keep in mind! Throughout the year, certain health conditions presented in pets more often than any other.  With this in mind, Petplan pet insurance pawed through 2016 claims data to find which health conditions cost pet parents the most per month.

After discovering what sends pets to the vet every month, Petplan found that the timing of some conditions weren’t surprising. Others had everyone scratching their heads:

Month	Condition	Average Cost to Treat
January	cruciate injuries	$3,569
February	periodontal disease	$907
March	intervertebral disc disease	$2,127
April	foreign body ingestion	$1,872
May	bite wounds	$947
June	cancer	$3,058
July	fractures	$1,175
August	cardiac disease	$1,343
September	pancreatic disease	$1,524
October	ear infections	$407
November	GI disease	$938
December	allergies	$787

“While we might expect GI disease during Thanksgiving month, we don’t necessarily know why intervertebral disc disease occurred most frequently in March, and didn’t expect that December would be a big month for allergies,” says Elyse Donnarumma, Petplan’s Veterinary Manager. “It’s a good reminder of how unpredictable pet health can be and the importance of being ready for anything.”

Petplan found that treatments for periodontal disease peaked in February, perhaps due to an increase in screenings thanks to the success of National Pet Dental Health Month awareness campaigns. The data also revealed that vet offices saw a surge of bite wound cases in May, possibly because of temperate weather drawing more pets and their people to dog parks.

“It’s always fun to dive into pet insurance data to see different trends in pet health,” says Petplan co-founder and co-CEO Natasha Ashton. “Our ‘Calendar of Catastrophes’ only tracked patterns across one year, but it still raises some interesting questions. Are ear infections in October the byproduct of seasonal allergies? Do April showers contribute to foreign body ingestions because cooped up pets can become destructive? While we may not know for sure why certain pet health problems happen when they do, these correlations help inform the advice we give to pet parents to help them take better care of their pets.”

For info about Petplan and more fetching pet facts, point your paws to www.gopetplan.com.