Nestle Purina announced today that it is getting into the pet insurance business -- at least, in Canada.

The launch of PurinaCare(tm) Pet Health Insurance (underwritten by SecuriCan General Insurance Company) is the first such move by a mass-market pet company in Canada.

Can a U.S. PurinaCare be far behind? Stay tuned...

Just read a great article by a dog columnist for a New England newspaper.

This woman is a columnist on pets (specializing in dogs) for the Sun Chronicle up in Massachsetts. She comments that she typically wouldn't "give a second smell" to such a "preposterous" idea as pet insurance.

Then she heard about a dog lover who was spending $500 per month in cancer medication for her 17 year old pit bull.

Taking a closer look at her own new puppy and aging (11-year-old) dog, she realized how much she was spending on vet bills, and the ways she could better spend that money on her pets.

The piece covers some of the gotchas and limitations of pet insurance policies -- it always pays to do your homework -- and at the end, she opted for a new policy covering both pooches.

Good for her!

We all know intuitively that pets are good for us. They fill our hearts with joy, and their quiet companionship fills the coldest nights with the warmth of unconditional love.

Still, it's nice to know that our intuitions are grounded in rock-solid scientific fact.

We all know that walking our pets helps to calm us down and re-center us. Studies around the world have demonstrated that the impact of a stressful situation is less on pet owners than on non-pet-owners (e.g., Josephine M. Wills, Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition, United Kingdom; The Healing Power of Pets by Marty Becker, etc.). Research by Dr. Karen Allen of SUNY (Buffalo) found that pet owners' blood pressure was lower at resting (baseline) than non-pet owners, as was their reactivity (increase in hear rate and blood pressure reacting to stress). -- and was even better when in the presence of their pets!

It gets better: twenty years ago, the National Institutes of Health found that pet ownership impacts greater mental and social stability for pet owners, and this mental shield can offer a measure of protection from heart disease. They also found pet ownership to correlate with frequency of doctor's-office visits (pet owners had fewer -- whether because they are actually sick less, or because they already  have a sympathetic ear whenever they want it has yet to be determined).

The benefits of pets in fighting depression have also been broadly covered. Pets offer opportunities for exercise, establish responsibility and a routine, allow anyone to express affection, and of course, they come with that good ol' unconditional love.

Since pets offer us so many benefits to our own health, we owe it to them to ensure them a long and healthy life themselves. Regular checkups with the veterinarian will keep your favored pet in the peak of health, and ensure they're around a good long time -- so you can be too!

Canine constipation. Sounds like a joke, doesn't it? But it can lead to some very serious health consequences for your dog. So if Bowser's bound up, make sure you take note, and take action. 

The FDA has published a summary of the issues relating to last month's recall of dozens of brands of pet food.

According to the summary, there have been more than 12,000 reports of affected pets since the recall was announced in mid-March.

The issues were traced back to contaminated wheat gluten from China, distributed in the U.S. by ChemNutra of Las Vegas, NV.

According to the FDA, several major pet food manufacturers have been impacted by this contaminted gluten:

To date, voluntary recalls of pet food products have been conducted by Del Monte Pet Products, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Menu Foods, Nestle Purina PetCare Company, P&G Pet Care, and Sunshine Mills. On April 5, Sunshine Mills, Inc., of Red Bay, Alabama, voluntarily recalled a portion of its branded dog biscuits made at its Red Bay, Alabama biscuit plant during part of March 2007. In addition, Menu Foods, Inc., voluntarily expanded its pet food recall for selected “cuts and gravy” pet food products, manufactured back to November 8, 2006. Both firms issued press releases which are accessible on the FDA website.

UPDATE: The FDA has produced another progress report on their activities relating this this recall as of April 23. Looks like melamine (used to make kitchen utensils and to coat some types of building supplies) was the contaminant to blame for this outbreak.

Watch out folks, there's a fairly large recall of tainted pet food just announced by the FDA.

The tainted pet food was causing pets to sicken and also caused some fatalities, so be very careful!

The recall affects both dry and wet foods, and includes many well-known brands such as ALPO, Iams, Nutro, and Gravy Train, but also spans store brands from Winn Dixie, Stater Brothers (in California), Costco (Kirkland), and Dollar General.

You can search all of the affected brands at the FDA's web page.