As a pet insurance actuary and co-founder and CEO of Embrace Pet Insurance, I see a lot of interesting claims. And yes, often they are the kind of the Chinese proverb/curse "may you live in interesting times." Winter introduces health risks for your pets,so let me lay out some you might see this holiday season and beyond.  

Snow and Ice:

How can a dog hurt herself in the snow? Let me count the ways. Remember Bambi joyfully leaping around in the sunshine,or sliding his legs out on the ice on the frozen pond? Translate that situation to your dog, and instead of Disney moments, your dog might experience a cruciate ligament rupture instead. Cold ligaments not used to overextending in the snow or a knee sliding out on the ice certainly can tear unexpectedly, and that can set you back anywhere in the range of $2,000 to $4,000 for correction surgery.  

How about hidden dangers underneath that beautiful layer of snow? We have seen dogs treated for serious lacerations from stepping on garden implements left lying outside, hitting the buried landscape border, and running into buried branches. Treatment ranged from $300 to $900. Just like unknown waters, don't let your dog romp around in areas of unknown snow.

And finally, there's thin ice. We've all imagined walking the dog on the frozen pond, only for one of you, or both, to fall through. While awful, it is fairly rare, thank goodness. Most of us are pretty good at keeping our dogs close at hand and away from big areas of ice.  

The more subtle, but much more frequent danger, is the effects of frozen puddles of water. Several times, we have seen claims from dogs walking with their owners only to put one foot through a small area of thin ice. Going in did no damage, it was the pulling out of the foot where the jagged ice caused multiple lacerations and/or peeling back of the skin - shudder! If you do hike or walk where there are frequent patches of thin ice, dog boots might be a good idea if your dog will tolerate them.

Cold:

This is more for cats than dogs. Even in warmer parts of the country, winter brings relatively cooler temperatures and cats will seek out warm spots to cozy up on chilly days. One of the most awful claims I have seen was for a cat that snuggled up under the hood of a car and was very seriously wounded by getting caught up in the fan belt. The cat did live but there were multiple surgeries and various bits had to be removed and thousands of dollars spent. It was agony for the cat's family and particularly for the person who turned the engine key that day. Make sure to slap your car hood several times before starting up the engine.

On a related topic, make sure to clean up if you spill while topping up your car fluids. Ethylene glycol can be found in radiator fluid or windshield wiper fluid and is horribly poisonous to cats (and people) but has no smell, tastes somewhat sweet, and nosy cats sometimes can't help themselves but lick it up. I've seen treatment costs anywhere from $200 to $2,000, the higher costs being when the cats lived. The best solution by far is avoidance.  

Drowning:

You wouldn't imagine drowning to be a big winter risk but for those of you who cover your pool for the winter, think again. A friend of Embrace told me the story of one of his rescued greyhounds that was outside one evening to do her business. When he hadn't heard her asking to come back in, he went out only to find she had drowned in the collected rainwater in the tarp over his pool. She had slipped in and drowned when she couldn't climb back out. He still chokes up telling the story 6 years later. Nuff said on that one.

Winter Sports:

It's certainly fun to have our dogs participate in winter sports,but skiing? Strangely enough, we have had a couple of injuries from dogs getting cut by a ski by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. People and dogs can be more unpredictable in the snow, and that's an accident you just look back on and smack your forehead in disbelief. Another accident waiting to happen is taking your dog on the snowmobile. Just like you wouldn't take your dog on a motorcycle (you wouldn't, would you?), don't do it on a snow mobile. Just don't, it's asking for trouble.

Food:

And finally, back to the holiday risk that everyone has heard of but that bears repeating - ingesting food or other items pets should not. There's all that rich holiday food lying around just begging to be eaten. We've seen more than our fair share of claims for surgery removing the turkey bones from a dog's stomach and treating for pancreatitis from eating rich and fatty human foods like turkey meat and gravy. Tidbits on a very rare occasion are fine but sometimes, once the expectation is there, a little doggie thievery can go a long way - like all the way to the emergency clinic on a very expensive holiday.

Around the holidays, there are many more goodies like chocolate, raisins and sweets, including gum with Xylitol that are all toxic for dogs. Don't assume they won't eat them, even if they never have before. You don't want to ever experience the first time.

Laura Bennett is the CEO and Co-Founder of Embrace Pet Insurance and Chairman of the Board of NAPHIA, the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. She was the first pet insurance actuary in the US and spends her days immersed in pet health and wellness. She has three rescued cats, two young daughters, and one patient husband. Laura lives up to the title on her business card of Chief Embracer and actively engages with pet parents about pet insurance through all types of media, including twitter, Facebook and email. She has also been writing the Embrace Pet Insurance blog since 2004.  

Photo by Jason Riedy, Flickr