Insurance?

[tats]

I recently got a pup and I've been told that I have to get insurance by some and others say it's a con. Any views?

[MrsRottie]

My opinion - do it.

You may well pay £15 a month for the dogs life and never have to use it. That, therefore would be a 'waste' of money.

However, God forbid, your dog is knocked down, which trashes the car, say £1000 damage (paid for by insurance), gets hurt and needs an op - approx £400? (paid for by insurance), bites an innocent bystander out of fright OMG you've just been sued - pick a number and multiply by 10...(again covered by insurance) and you'll have paid the first £60.... - It then becomes very much worth it!

Certain things aren't covered like diabetes etc, but on the whole my view is it's worth it.

[Aurora]

I don't have insurence because the way I see it is like this:

1.) It costs a fortune each month which over a year can add up to an awful lot of money which you may never need to use.

2.) You can't use it to pay for anything routine or precautionary or to do with whelping (vaccinations, spaying/neutering, cesearean etc)

3.) All claims have to have an exess payment and if the costs come under the excess you have to pay yourself anyway and if it only just goes over access you've payed the most expensive part.

4.) With some policy's you have to pay out for everything first and they re-imburse you at a later date, so you still have to find the money from some where at the time (not all companies pay direct to the vet).

5.) A lot of large or specialist breeds aren't covered after 5 years of age unless they develop a life long illness before that age and you are covered on a for life policy, which a lot of policys don't they only cover for the first 12 months of an illness.

6.) Finally: Should anything extreamly serious happen to any of my dogs (which is where things start running into thousands of pounds) I would not put them through extensive pain and major or repeated operations and long recovery periods which could be uncomfortable and traumatic for the dog, I think it would be kinder to have the animal put to sleep. Sorry if that sounds harsh but I wouldn't want to put an animal through more suffering than is nessisary (just my opinion).

What ever you decide just make sure you read all the fine print.

[keeks62]

i thought about the same thing when i got my dog. my vet has a plan- not quite insurance- I pay $15 a month and it covers all vet visits and routine vaccines for my dog. I also get a discount off medicine. It has saved me a TON of money!!

[Aurora]

That sounds really good.

[MrsRottie]

Aurora - I can totally see your points about the insurance, that's why I use PetPlan. Excess' are low, fee's are paid direct to vet and my rottie is covered for life.
So far, we pay about £20 a month and have had over £3000 vets fees paid by it - Oscar is 3 next month. None of which were major traumatic surgery which was harsh to put the dog through, none of which would have been kinder to put the dog down. 2 emergency bitten paws (post fighting) and the other was a massive ED/HD investigation.
I'm also going to have his eyes investigated - because it's a new claim it will cost me £80. Oscar has severe eye problems and is virtually blind. At least this way if there is any chance of him regaining his sight via laser treatment for instance, I would be able to have it done. Without insurance there's no way I could.

At the end of the day it's personal choice. I have dreadful luck at the best of times so I like to be covered for all eventualities - they'll happen at some point :rolleyes:

[smallangel1]

I'm debating about the issue myself too.
Unfortunately the insurance coverage I been looking at doesn't cover those early visit. So I figure that if i save $20 a month myself and set aside it'll be enough to cover any accident when my dog gets old.

[Lynn]

I've been looking into pet insurance for all my animals...cat, dog and sugar gliders. I've done a lot of checking and the one thing that really gets to me is the "per incident" deductible. I can't remember the name of the company off the top of my head, but I found ONE that had just an annual deductible (regardless of how many incidents) of $100 and they even covered things like regular checkups and shots and you can use your own vet. I'll have to check and see if I can find the name of it again. The only thing is they cap at $7000 I believe in total costs to themselves...

[3 goldens]

I h ave heard both good and bad about it. Some have found that when their dog developed a condition that is common to that breed (luxating patellas in certain small breeds, hip problems in retrievers and labs, back problems in doxies, Bassettes, etc,) the insurance wouldn't pay for the surgery, etc. There are some that pay pretty hefty premiums and their dogs are covered better.

[lassie]

My puppy bitch had a leg problem and they wouldnt pay out. even tho i had to wait 9mths for her to stop growing before surgery.:(

i prefer to have a doggy savings account!

[Jake2006]

I must have been really unlucky in the past. My last two (minature & toy) poodles were insured - just we well. The toy had two spinal surgeries, allergies, cushings disease and diabeties. The minature had IMT - oh that's a nasty one - its immune mediated thrombocytopenia (1 in 20,000 dogs) he bled internally, we got him to Cambridge Veterinary Hospital and two days later he had a stroke. He was in intensive care for one week and stayed at Cambridge for 3 weeks in total. As far as I know he's was one of the few dogs to survive IMT. He suffered nerve damage and we had to teach him to walk again when we brought him home - he regained 90% of his motor function. He had to take immune suppresant drugs and they would have cost me thousands had I not been insured. Sadly he died of old age after surviving IMT by 5 years.
So for me insurance is a must as the above would have cost well in excess of £10,000. One lived until he was 14 and the other 16.
I'm hoping and praying that Jake my rescue dog doesn't have similar problems but I've taken out insurance (just in case)!
I hope that we and ;) all our dogs have happy and long lives and wish your dogs the best of health.
100
Carole - Jake's Mom
xx

[Borzoi mad]

I was reading on another forum about pet insurance and it camer to light that thwe best one at least for folks here in Britain ...and I notice you are from London... is Marks and Spencers pet Insurance. I think it is the only pet Insurance which gives toy the option of noexcess and appears to be the best value for money. I have just insured my two boys trhrough M and S . As I have just signed up with them I obviously personally cannot comment on what happens when you have to claim but from the comments from on the dog site I read about M & S pEet Insurance it would appear that other shave had no problems when they claimed. My computer crashed during a storm a few weeks ago so I have no record of which site I read this on and I cannot remember which one, but if you go on line to M & S Pet Insurance you can get a quote and see all the details there.

Alternatively as "Lassie " said a Saving Plan is also a good idea, but I personally would not keep this up so I find that it is better to pay for insurance rather than to find if anything happens to to your dog you discover you have not saved enough and with the cost of treatment these days it would have to be a really high amount you were putting away each week to cover this.

[Jake2006]

Hi
Yes, we've insured with M & S although we were with Petshield for our previous two boys. The reason I've gone to M & S is that my daughter did all the research and she's insured her great dane with M & S.
I had no complaints with Petshield but they were £100 more than M & S for what seems to be the same insurance.
Carole & Jake

[lassie]

It is a difficult situation. I dont use insurance purely because i have bred my dogs so they are as clear health wise as can be. All my rough collie's have been low maintenance health wise. Years ago i had a double cruciate on one male, but other than that , no major problems. The only one that i did insure , was one i bought in, she turn out to have luxation of the ulna, and because sh'ed only been insured a month before i first went to my vet for initail investigations, the insurance company wouldn;t pay out. despite the fact she could not have an op until she wes over a year old and had stopped growing. That cost me £660. Why is it when you sit in the vets surgery everbody that comes in is asked " is your dog insured"????

[dogdaze]

I have health insurance for my dogs and have not needed to use it - and hopefully won't need to. Still, it's $24 per month for both. You can skip a pizza delivery one night a month and never missit!