VPI Hambone Award

Nominees Announced for Most Unusual Pet Health Claim

Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI) receives more than a million claims each year. While most of these claims are for common pet conditions or routine care, every now and then a claim comes by that reminds us all just how unexpected unexpected pet accidents can be.

Each month, VPI employees select and nominate one interesting claim in search of the most unusual claim of the year. All claims considered for the award are for pets that have made full recoveries and received insurance reimbursement for eligible expenses. VPI is encouraging the public to participate and vote now for the 2010 Hambone Award winner.

The top pick will receive VPI's second annual Hambone Award and designation as the most unusual claim of the year. The Hambone Award is named in honor of a VPI-insured dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him. The dog was eventually found, with a licked-clean ham bone and a mild case of hypothermia.

Following are the 2010 VPI Hambone Award nominees.

JUNE 2010 - Darci the West Highland White Terrier

Pets have one of two reactions to a noisy appliance: There are those that ignore it and those that react as though it’s a mortal enemy. Barbara Abell’s 2-year-old West Highland white terrier Darci falls into the latter camp. “Darci has always snapped at the vacuum, mower, and lawn edger,” the Belleville, Ill., resident explained. “She never actually touched them, but she would lunge at them.”

A few weeks back, Barbara’s husband was using a chainsaw to cut up a branch that had fallen off a tree in the family’s backyard. Shortly after letting Darci into the yard for a bathroom break, Barbara heard her granddaughter calling her name. “The next thing I know,” Barbara said, “my granddaughter is standing in the bedroom with Darci in her arms. She says, ‘Darci bit the chainsaw.’” Darci had indeed taken a bite at the running chainsaw as Barbara’s husband was slicing a log.

Barbara quickly wet a washcloth with cold water and pressed it to Darci’s bleeding muzzle. Upon closer examination, Barbara found that the saw had torn two holes in Darci’s right upper lip near her nose. With her regular veterinarian’s office closed for the weekend, Barbara rushed Darci to an emergency clinic 20 minutes away. The veterinarian on duty quickly evaluated the terrier’s condition and explained that Darci would need surgery to close her wounds.

Five hours and four stitches later, Darci was on her way home. “She was drowsy and just wanted to sleep,” Barbara said, “but by the next day, she was back to her feisty self.”

Barbara’s advice for fellow pet owners is not to assume their pets will keep their distance from dangerous equipment. “I would tell others to make sure that your pets are not close to you if you are using any type of tool,” Barbara concluded. “If your puppy is as inquisitive as mine, it just might cost it its nose!

Vote for Darci now!

MAY 2010 - Charlie the Tortoise

Tortoises aren’t the type of pet that offer their owners much in the way of surprises. For the most part, tortoises spend their days crawling slowly, eating, crawling slowly, sleeping, and crawling slowly. Emergency trips to the veterinarian don’t happen often – if they happen at all.

Brandie Keaveny of Ramona, Calif., however, found herself rushing her desert tortoise Charlie for emergency care last month. “I came home from work and was playing ball with my dog,” Brandie said. “Charlie was eating grass and came over to me when he saw me. As he got closer, I noticed there was something wrong with his head. His scalp skin was pulled forward like a sardine can, exposing bone and muscle, and skin was off his ear.”

Brandie realized immediately she’d need to get 50-year-old Charlie help fast, but with her regular veterinary office closed for the day and most after-hour emergency hospitals unwilling to treat an exotic pet, she had few options. “After an hour of calling around,” Brandie said, “I found an office that had hours until 9 p.m. and would see a tortoise. We got him in and the doctor agreed that this was the strangest thing he had ever seen with a tortoise.”

With no defensive wounds or tooth and claw puncture marks visible, the veterinarian on duty knew Charlie’s injuries had not been caused by an animal attack. Because the skin on Charlie’s scalp had been pulled forward, Brandie and the veterinarian theorized that the tortoise had been resting under a low hedge, had managed to get his head caught on a branch, and pulled his head too quickly into his shell, scraping the skin as he went.

The veterinarian prescribed a month’s worth of antibiotic for Charlie, and he wore his stitches for several weeks. Fortunately, the experience appears not to have been too traumatic for the quinquagenarian tortoise. “He acts like nothing has happened and is doing really well,” Brandie concluded.

Vote for Charlie now!

APRIL 2010 - Ellie the Labrador Retriever

Robert Coe and his wife Sandra of Santee, Calif., thought they had seen the last of the bees buzzing around their home after exterminators sprayed a hive in their yard. That is until later that night when Sandra noticed the family’s 1-year-old Labrador retriever wasn’t acting like herself.

“My wife saw Ellie throw up several times,” said Robert. “There were hundreds of dead bees in each pile.”

Unbeknownst to the Coes, Ellie had discovered and eaten the beehive after the exterminators had left. Frightened by the volume of dead bees Ellie was vomiting, Sandra decided the dog needed to go to the veterinary hospital.

The emergency veterinarian on duty examined Ellie and determined she had most likely only ingested dead bees and hadn’t been stung. Additionally, Poison Control indicated the pesticide did not pose a significant risk of toxicity. After a dose of anti-nausea medication and a few hours of observation, Ellie was on her way back home.

For the next week, the Coes administered over-the-counter antacid tablets and put Ellie on a diet of plain white rice and chicken. “She was eating better than we were,” joked Robert. “She acted just fine that week, really, but every time she went to the bathroom, she pooped bees. Thousands of bees. I don’t know where they all came from – the hive wasn’t that large.”

Vote for Ellie now!

MARCH 2010 - Rock the Labrador Retriever

“We had bought one of those bulk size boxes of instant breakfast shake mix at the store,” Michelle Juen of Maplewood, Minn., explained. “We put it way back on the counter before we left the house again that evening thinking, ‘Oh, Rock can’t get to it back there.’”

Upon returning home that night, Michelle and Don discovered that not only had Rock reached the box on the counter, he had broken into it and eaten much of its contents. “There was brown, sticky powder all over the floor,” Michelle said. “It was a mess.” As Michelle was cleaning up, she realized that not all of the packages were accounted for. “I thought, ‘Wait a minute… There are a lot of packages missing.”

With Rock’s regular veterinary office closed for the day, the Juens took their very full dog to an emergency hospital. Vomiting was induced, and the missing 23 packages of instant breakfast were found. “The veterinarian told us that that was the biggest pile of packaging he had seen come out of a dog in his life!”

Fortunately for the Juens, Rock suffered no long-term ill effects from the incident. Within minutes of bringing Rock back to their home, the retriever was “bouncing around like a mental case,” Michelle said with a mix of laughter and exasperation.

The Juens are thankful that Rock recovered so quickly and that pet insurance covered much of the costs. “It was after eating the chicken carcass when he was younger that we first asked our veterinarian about pet insurance,” Michelle remembered. “He said, ‘Rock’s only nine months old, and he’s already gotten a staph infection from swimming in a polluted lake and eaten this chicken. I’d say he’s a good candidate for insurance.”

What advice does Michelle have for owners with similarly ravenous pets? “Don’t leave anything on the counter!”

Vote for Rock now!

FEBRUARY 2010 - Ranger the Westie/Poodle Mix

“My wife had taken Ranger to the beach that day and was playing fetch with him,” recalled Brace Rohrer of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “Ranger ran out to get the ball, but a man o’ war” – a venomous invertebrate similar to a jellyfish – “was lying next to it. Ranger pounced on the man o’ war instead of the ball and got stung on his right front paw.”

At his veterinarian’s office, Ranger received a dose of anti-inflammatory medication, an antihistamine, and a shot of pain reliever. Ranger was also fitted with a soft Elizabethan collar to prevent him from licking the affected area. “Ranger was pretty sleepy and laid around at first when we brought him home and didn’t want to move,” Rohrer recalled. “But he was himself again after a few hours – and the soft cone was no obstacle.”

Ranger was lucky. Aside from being extremely painful, a Portuguese man o’ war’s sting can cause fever, shock, circulatory and respiratory distress.

“We’re going to have to take him farther up on the beach,” Rohrer said, “and keep him away from the water. He’d probably still jump on another one if he saw it."

Vote for Ranger now!

JANUARY 2010 - Phoenix the Labrador Retriever

Sometimes you get the stick, and sometimes the stick gets you. That’s what Kirsten Myers of Menlo Park, Calif., learned late last year during a game of fetch with her 6-year-old Labrador retriever Phoenix.

"It was a freak incident,” said Myers. “My brother and I were at a park playing fetch with Phoenix. I threw a stick for Phoenix to catch. The stick landed, lodged in the ground, and essentially impaled him under his tongue when he ran into it at full speed. The stick pierced about two inches into the fleshy part underneath his tongue.” Although the stick came free on its own, Phoenix had a two-inch deep wound under his tongue that required a trip to his veterinarian for cleaning and stitches. “I was with Phoenix when the veterinarian was working on him and almost passed out.” Myers said. “I literally had to take myself out of the room.”

That night, Phoenix was in a lot of pain. He shook, curled up into a ball, and wanted to be in Myers’ lap. After a good night’s sleep, however, Phoenix began acting like his perky self. “The very next day, he was gung-ho to play fetch again.” Myers said. “But no more sticks.” A few days later, Phoenix was off his prescribed pain medication and antibiotics, eating solid foods again, and the stitches in his tongue had dissolved.

“He’s perfectly healed now,” Myers concluded. “It was just one of those bizarre things. It could just never, ever happen again.”

Vote for Phoenix now!

DECEMBER 2009 - Jack the Jack Russell Terrier

When Jacquelin and Lance Throneberry moved to Australia last year on a two-year business assignment, the couple feared their Jack Russell terriers might have violent encounters with some of the region’s poisonous snakes and cane toads. Until recently, carnivorous lizards did not top their list of pet health concerns.

“I took the dogs for a hike one morning and they ran ahead of me to investigate something,” said Jacquelin Throneberry of Denver, Colo. “Before I know it, I see Jack in the distance running down the hill violently shaking what looked like a big lizard. I first thought, ‘Oh no, he’s probably killed that poor lizard,’ but it soon sounded like he was fighting with it. As I got closer, I saw the lizard running up a tree alive and well. Jack was sitting further down the hill panting from exhaustion with his legs covered in blood. He was just a bunch of cuts all over—bites and claw marks.”

The lacerations on Jack’s front and hind legs required multiple stitches, several staples and treatment with a series of antibiotics. While her 10-year-old Jack Russell terrier recovered at the clinic, Throneberry, still unfamiliar with some of the local fauna, went online to identify the animal that had injured Jack. The reptile matched pictures and descriptions of goannas, large predatory lizards native to Australia.

“He’s healed up completely,” said Throneberry. “He’s a lucky dog. It could have been much worse. He gets himself in trouble because of his strong prey drive and lack of fear. When he was a puppy, he broke a leg jumping off a balcony to get a squirrel. He’s hunted snakes and has chased a variety of wildlife in Colorado including deer and a coyote. He tries to go after the geckos and water dragons here, so I think that was the context he had for attacking the goanna. Obviously, he bit off more than he could chew.”

Vote for Jack now!

NOVEMBER 2009 - Roscoe the Poodle

Put pets and small children under one roof and the question becomes when, not if, someone is going to eat something they shouldn’t. In Jaime Springer’s case, that someone was Roscoe, a 3-year-old standard poodle who ingested two plastic baby bottles and a wet diaper.

“We came home from shopping one afternoon to find chewed up bits of plastic and pieces of diaper all over the house,” said Springer of Great Falls, Mont. “Roscoe is huge—about 93 pounds—so it wasn’t exactly a challenge for him to pull the bottles out of the sink, but we’re still not exactly sure how he got the diaper. We have a trash can for diapers and the rotating lid is designed to seal the diapers off in a trash bag. Sometimes, if it gets too full, a used diaper will pop out when you turn the lid. That must have been what happened.”

Roscoe seemed fine at first, but his loss of appetite, followed by severe coughing and vomiting motivated Springer to bring him to the veterinarian. An X-ray revealed severe irritation in Roscoe’s stomach, but no outstanding pieces of plastic or diaper in his gastrointestinal tract. The veterinarian prescribed an antibiotic and some medication to soothe Roscoe’s stomach. In just a few days, the young poodle started showing signs of improvement.

Vote for Roscoe now!

OCTOBER 2009 - Pal the Vizsla

Pal, the 3-year-old Vizsla, loves to roam the many acres of undeveloped land next to his home. The sporting dog tracks and hunts anything that moves: small animals, insects and, unfortunately, golf carts.

“He loves to cut around our golf cart tracking the different scents,” said Lori Myers of West Palm Beach, Fla. “My son and I were driving the cart slowly, talking and enjoying the sunset, when Pal ran right in front of us. The cart hit him from behind and knocked him off balance. When he fell over, the cart rolled over his back leg.”

Pal howled in pain and stood startled with his injured leg in the air. Myers quickly drove back home with Pal in the cart and rushed him to the veterinarian’s office. Pal’s veterinarian inspected the leg and determined that, besides some minor road rash, Pal would likely be all right. The veterinarian told Myers to monitor Pal’s use of the injured leg and, on the discharge instructions, recommended “no golf for Pal for at least one week.”

Vote for Pal now!

SEPTEMBER 2009 - Aubie the Border Collie

Most dogs are content to simply bark at the mailman, but not Aubie. Upon delivery of his owner’s mail, the 1-year-old Border collie chose to make his presence known by running full-speed into and through a closed window.

“Aubie’s never been enamored with the mailman,” said Sharman Martin of Birmingham, Ala. “When he heard the mailman at the door, he went tearing from the back room, jumped up to the front window and shattered a pane with his left leg. I was still in the back when I heard the glass shatter, but I knew it was him. When I ran in, it looked like a crime scene: shattered glass and blood everywhere.”

Martin wrapped Aubie’s leg in a towel and rushed him to the veterinarian’s office. The veterinarian began surgery immediately, suturing a ligament and stitching four separate gashes on Aubie’s left leg. About two and a half hours later, Aubie emerged from surgery with 40 stitches and an Elizabethan collar.

Vote for Aubie now!

AUGUST 2009 - Sandy the Abysinnian

While most cats hate water, Sandy the Abysinnian would probably agree that wetter is better than being stuck in a dryer.

“Sandy’s not afraid of anything,” said Brandan Vanderpool of Irvine, Calif. “She’ll come right up to dogs and she won’t back down. She’s really curious and she wants to know about everything. So it was no surprise that she found the dryer inviting—it’s a dark place and she had to sneak in. She knew she wasn’t supposed to go in there and she knew we weren’t watching.”

Seconds after turning on the loaded dryer, Vanderpool and his wife heard a loud repetitive thumping noise and knew something was wrong. They immediately stopped the dryer and opened it to find a frightened Sandy.

“We went to urgent care, where they took X-rays and did a full check up,” said Vanderpool. “They only found a couple of bruises and one broken rib. We were lucky that we caught it right away. They kept her overnight to make sure that she didn’t have any bruising on the brain. That was the part that scared me, but it turned out she was fine and we were able to take her home the next day. She was just fine, as if nothing happened. The only difference is that she now stays away from the dryer.”

Vote for Sandy now!

JULY 2009 - Jojo the Boxer

While it may not be the safest practice, car chasing is a hobby many dogs, including 3-year-old boxer Jojo, seem to enjoy. Catching a car, however, is pretty much never a pleasant experience for a dog, especially when that car is a several ton delivery truck.

““I don’t know what Jojo was thinking when he bit that tire,” said Rebekah Hodges of Jacksonville, Fla. “The delivery truck wasn’t moving fast, just pulling out of the driveway, but I guess it doesn’t take much to tear out a tooth... It looked like the front of the tooth was still attached, but the back was torn out and you could see a hole in his jaw.”

Rebekah rushed Jojo to the veterinarian. Amazingly, he suffered no other injuries in the accident and was able to keep his tooth. He has made a full recovery, but Rebekah reports that he has ceased chewing on tires, whether they are moving or not.

Vote for Jojo now!

Vote now the 2010 Hambone Award winner!

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