Hope this will provide everyone with a quick checklist for furkid health problems. Some
interesting comments about what's moved up or down the list and costs, too, in the
article:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/veterinary-pet-insurance-reveals-top,435890.shtml

Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI), the nation's oldest and largest provider of pet health
insurance, recently analyzed its medical claims received in 2007 to determine
the top 10 most commonly claimed conditions for dogs and cats. For both
canines and felines, the top 10 conditions accounted for about 25 percent of
all medical claims received last year.

   Canine                                  Feline
1.  Ear Infections                       1.  Urinary Tract Infections
2.  Skin Allergies                        2.  Gastritis/Vomiting
3.  Pyoderma/Hot Spots              3.  Chronic Renal Failure
4.  Gastritis/Vomiting                  4.  Enteritis/Diarrhea
5.  Enteritis/Diarrhea                  5.  Diabetes Mellitus
6.  Urinary Tract Infections         6.  Skin Allergies
7.  Benign Skin Tumors               7.  Colitis/Constipation
8.  Eye Inflammation                  8.  Ear Infections
9.  Osteoarthritis                      9.  Respiratory Infections
10. Hypothyroidism                  10. Hyperthyroidism

How soooooooo very, very interesting.

Allow me to do an off-the-cuff prognostication: as of today, we (cat furkid parents) start feeding mouse to those kids....next year's top ten will see numbers 1,2,4.5.6.7 gone off the radar!!!!!! Too bad the insurance companies aren't larger than the PFI crowd...because, if they were, that would be the reality.

and all those conditions are food/diet related, methinks 

Andycat - I think my cats will shortly joined your cats to form a mouse-hunting pack

Does your pet have to be "up to date" with vaccinations before you can get pet insurance?  That's my one burning question at the moment about pet insurance.

That's an excellent question, considering how little consensus exists about what constitutes 'up to date'. Jess gets the 3 yr rabies, which is not accepted in all states. (We get them in MA although we live in NJ.) We no longer do the bordatella as she cannot be boarded nor around other dogs. Some states might consider Lyme to be important, some would not, etc.