To insure my dog today and claim this week?

[Swerab]

My dog has hurt his paw . I can't see anything immediately wrong with it but its clearly hurting him.

He's not insured. If I take out insurance today can I claim straight away?

I don't touch petplan with a barge pole since they decided I had a 'break in cover' and wouldn't pay out for a £600 operation on my dog.

The 'break in cover' was upgrading the free standard cover the breeder had started for him to a higher package and putting it in my name when we bought him

I now pay £55 a month for 2 labs, both 8 years old, no co-pay but £100 excess.

My perspective on what I would do for my pets has entirely changed.

I regret treating my adored cat for cancer. He had two operations to remove part of his foot that had cancerous growths (at an insured cost of £3800). He was still dead of the cancer in 6 weeks and two of those weeks he was in hospital after the ops. The operations did nothing. Next time it's biopsys then put to sleep.

Same story with my dog. £1300 in diagnostic tests to ascertain riddled with cancer (mri scan). Vet suggested chemo/radio/surgery at a cost of £12000 but he had 20 cysts all over his liver/kidneys/every organ and he was 13 years old. It would have made no difference as it killed him in a month. Again I would put to sleep quicker.

Unless it's an accident and the pet has quality of life to come I am never having diagnostic tests or cancer treatment for them. Instead I will put them to sleep much quicker rather than put them through it.

Bishop did you email and address to a manager at the time? Only asking because I once called to downgrade because it was too expensive - woman at other end said not possible and I would have to wait a year as I had just renewed - a year later I called and spoke to a man and when I mentioned what she had said, was told I could have downgraded any time but not upgrade - ended up writing to head office and got the whole years extra money back that I'd ended up paying ... may be worth speaking to someone higher up

You're pretty irresponsible to not have insurance in the first place!

Anyone who pays £5 a month for insurance is getting an inadequate policy. I would always go for a lifetime policy which is considerably more than that.

My previous dog wasn't insured, but we could afford to pay for any treatment and I would rather it was in my savings account than the pockets of an insurance company we might not recoup our money with. That said, our current dog is insured for a silly reason really...because our previous dog died quite young (7) of an infection, I still feel guilty so I vowed to do the very best by this one.

Crikey! Some of you pay a lot for your policies. I was paying £22 for 2 jack russells which has just gone up to £30 after one of my dogs was found to have cancer but I am happy with the increase, as Ddog is now fit and well and the policy was paid out with no quibbles. You can't take out a policy after an incident and try and retrospectively claim, it's fraud and if you are found out you risk breaching all of your policies. It might not be Ddogs paw, it might be a shoulder injury. Has ddog been jumping around or taking any tumbles? Or even dropped? A check up should be fairly low cost (under 50 quid) or free at the PDSA? Get well soon DDog.

Unfortunately £400 of the £650 has had to go on having a big cyst removed but we are still well up when you take into account the excess
I hope that it never happens to you but if your dog gets cancer, even one that is relatively easy to treat, you could find yourself really out of pocket.

My pets are insured through Animal Friends for something like £20 for the both of them! (dog and cat)

I don't insure my dogs, or cats, or horses. So I'm a really bad owner in some people's eyes! I stopped when I realised that I'd paid over £10,000 just in premiums in the past nine years and claimed nothing ever! I now save a hundred a month and have a backup empty credit card with a £8k Max if need be. I just don't need them all getting hurt badly at once.

Naturally two animals broke within the first year of me cancelling. One horse and one lab. Both required investigations and X-rays, but even so the bills came to less than what my premiums would have that year.. I'm lucky that I have two very sensible vets, especially the small animal vet. He won't do things that he thinks are un necessary. The dog injured her crucuate ligament. We didn't operate, he said she had a lot of arthiritis and was getting on, so it wasn't worth it. Just rest and pain killers fixed her. She is now running about quite happily. My horse vet is quite different now they're not insured. He says "if he were insured we'd just send it off and scan it, but as he's not we will try X y and z first. X y and z worked fine. Treatment was hundreds rather than thousands. I do think some vets milk insurance policies, and push for treatments or prolong them.

Ps, one of our labs had sore pads, we were told about mushers paw wax, it was superb (but it was dry paws with our dog, not injury). If my dog came in like yours I'd rest and poultice for a day or so.

Why do people immediately rush their dogs to the vet? If I had a sore foot I wouldn't rush to the doctor. Waiting a few days is fine. Soak it. Clean it and wack some sudocrem on it.

My insurance is £32 a month on a healthy 7 year old dog. Cheapest we could find. So far we have claimed £600 this year on chewing gum eating and a very close to death unexplained illness.

WorldsSmallestPatio you really have been through it with your pets! But I think your conclusions are right. I have two friends whose dogs have had cancer in the last six months. Both terminal. One gave the dogs a month of treats and good times, then PTS when it started getting sore, the other has had every treatment possible to give her longer with the dog. It wears jackets to numb the pain, has special treatments at the vets every week. It's just dragging on and on. I admire one of my friends, I want to shake e other.

Op A really common (but hard to detect unless you know what you are looking for) injury in dogs is where they crack the nail off the quick. Have a feel around the top of all the claws where they emerge from the foot for any roughness/cracks. Do it gently as the quick is so pain sensitive but this is a common injury that is hard to see but it hurts the poor dog like hell as you can imagine. I am a Vet Nurse and sometimes it's so sore the dog has to be sedated/gassed a bit to be able to pull the broken section off. Usually it can be done by spraying the claw with local anaesthetic, giving it a minute or two for it to work and then pulling the torn section off quickly. The new hard layer grows down in a matter of weeks. HTH

elephant Yes that is a good point about renewing each year but should have mentioned my dog is only 2 and never actually had to use his insurance. I always take the lifetime one so should I have to use it for any condition I would then stick with that insurer. Currently I have the luxury of being able to shop around buthe is a clumsy sod so I imagine that will change at some point

We have 2 dogs and a giant rabbit, insurance would cost us a fortune and they may never need it (dog 1 is 10 now) so I put £100 a month in an account for them instead. The way i see it is it's their money so if it's needed I have no issue using it but if they don't ever need it then Iv not lined some insurance companies pocket and we have it to go towards the next animal

Animalfriends insurance www.animalfriends.co.uk much cheaper ranging to more expensive options, but much cheaper than £30 a month..nearer £5.

Animalfriends insurance www.animalfriends.co.uk much cheaper ranging to more expensive options, but much cheaper than £30 a month..nearer £5.

But unfortunately notorious for wriggling out of paying ...

A £5/month Animal Friends insurance policy is not worth the paper it is written on (I say that as veterinary admin staff, I process dozens of forms a day).

Argh my cat is insured with animal friends. Better recommendations?

There are a few insurance companies that are notorious for not paying up in a timely manner or at all. Vet practice staff are not allowed to promote or otherwise any insurance company unless they are registered with the FSA (so none of them then I would imagine). They hopefully prominently display application forms for the ones that tend to pay up quickly and in full and do not display leaflets for the others maybe? Each individual condition is seen as a separate issue and will need separate excess paying for. A lot of policies get exclusions slapped on, so a dog with chronic ear issues for example may, at renewal, have an exclusion for ears. It's a rolling gamble as you go along as to whether it's worth it or not. I have dealt with clients that are really glad they insured and others that put the equivalent to the premiums in a separate account and hope for the best and get to keep the money in their name if the worst never happens.

Have you tried checking that none of his toes are crossed?? Sounds silly but ... one of our cats came in limping and couldn't weight bear on one paw. I took it and had a look - two toes were crossed over and he clearly couldn't uncross them.

I did and he was fine. Otherwise it could be a thorn/piece of glass/something else sharp embedded in there. Could you try washing it in warm water?

We didn't have any of our animals insured. After I spent god knows how much on insurance for a previous cat, who survived 12 years. One of my cast came in after being hit by a car. Vet's solution was if you don't have the money put him down. We had a fund, which got wiped out by the vets bills.

Mainly the emergency vets, which was so high it still makes my eyes water.

Now they are all back to being insured, and while nothing is probably going to happen now. At least we won't have to miss out and borrow if it does.

A year later, the cat is still an amazing hunter, although more of a home body now.

I don't touch petplan with a barge pole since they decided I had a 'break in cover' and wouldn't pay out for a £600 operation on my dog. The 'break in cover' was upgrading the free standard cover the breeder had started for him to a higher package and putting it in my name when we bought him
Do you mind me asking - how long was the break-in cover and how long after it did your dog need the operation?

Lol you can spot the horse owners a mile away! Tub it, poultice, box rest, trot it up in the morning!! I'm very amused with the idea that PetPlan would ever be only charging a fiver They're eye wateringly expensive but worth it. Cheap pet insurance is a huge gamble.

Persian no break, phones week before breeder's free cover expired and went for higher level of cover to start same day. Dog needed op (for cryprorchidism) 8 months later.

Persian no break, phones week before breeder's free cover expired and went for higher level of cover to start same day. Dog needed op (for cryprorchidism) 8 months later
I am really shocked by that Petplan are usually fantastic.

Did you complain because it sounds like someone completely messed up in your case?