insuring my dog - worth it?

[yogabird]

I have had my lovely lurcher for 12 months and his insurance is up for renewal. He's 4 years old (ish) he was rescued. It's with Petplan and is going up from £12 ish to £14 ish a month. I have never claimed. Is it worth carrying on? If so, where does a good deal for a standard package?

Petplan's usually the most expensive - M&S give similar cover (the lifetime element is quite important when you choose insurance, I think) but cheaper. Most of the other big names do varying levels of cover.
I read somewhere that you should insure dogs up to 2 years old and over 7, as that's when you're most likely to claim. I've never insured my cats or dogs and have definitely saved money, even with a few large-ish vets bills along the way, but my friend's dog recently swallowed something he shouldn't have and ran up a £5k bill, which made me sit up and think. I guess it comes down to how much of a risk you think your dog is - I've insured my new puppy but my older (sane, sedate!) dog isn't.

I always insure my dog as I couldn't bear to be in a situation where she needed thousands of pounds of treatment (unlikely but it does happen).

I would. Our dogs seem to always get some sort of issue that costs hundreds of pounds in vet bills. If your dog is ever hospitalised, it can be a fortune. Three nights once cost us £900. We were very glad we had the insurance. And, having the insurance may mean you decide to give more treatment to you dog, should they get sick or injured, rather than have to put them down because you can't afford vet bills.

thanks all. Have just insured for £9.04 per month and am feeling very pleased with saving cash

Pet insurance also covers you if your pet causes an accident. For example, if your dog runs into the road and causes an accident, you may be liable for damages. Also, if your pet bites someone and they then sue you!

Hopefully, this will not happen but nice to know you are covered if it does!

Definitely!
my CS was seriously ill when she was a puppy, some sort of non specific viral meningitis, anyway, she was in the vets for weeks in a coma.
Anway, when her puppy cover ran out we took out a policy with pet plan. Unfortunately she fell ill in the crossover period and WASN"T covered. It cost more than £3000 and it looked like we were going to have to put her down as we had no more money to spend on her!

I myself was in 2 minds as to whether or not to insure Buddy - however theres a lady on here whose puppy whilst jumping up t the window broke a bone in its foot and i think they were quoted almost a £1000 in vets fees fortuntely she was insured ....but that settled it for me.

I insured Buddy through tesco and my monthly premium is less than £7 + extra clubcard points and for peace of mind its definitely worth it.

Absolutely, definitely do it!

One of my cats was diagnosed with heart failure and the insurance meant that he could have treatment for the 7 months before he died (now feel a bit weepy remembering ). Petplan paid out well over £1000 in vets' bills.

We have always insured our cats as we never wanted to be in a position where we couldn't afford to pay to treat something treatable and so had to euthanase instead.

So worth it.
Mine is with Tescos this year.

Definitely insure. We'd be bankrupt by now if we hadn't insured our Otterhound. He's had lumps removed, been hospitalised after a road accident, had xrays related to hip displasia, been treated for suspected sarcoptic mange etc etc I don't think we'd have managed to pay for all of those things if we hadn't had Pet Plan to pick up the bill.

Agree lifetime cover is vital

my dog is four she has just developed epilipsy. her blood tests are £65 each her tablets reasonable at about £8 per month and consultation fee is £35. so yes definately worth re insuring. we are with healthy pets who are really cheap.

Argos pet insurance is fairly cheap. We've insured our rescue dog with them, it's about £10 per month.

We're with Healthy pets too for our two dogs.
We did have M&S because of their no excess policy but they chnaged it to £50 excess and increased the premium so we swapped.

We have always had it and had to use it quite alot.
One of our dogs has had a few eye infections and after all the consultations, tests and medication, its cost just over £200.
So well worth it IMO.

I always read through the policies too. Dh thinks I'm mad for doing it but they vary so much and you never ever know when you will need certain amounts of cover.

My BIL has 4 dogs and a few months ago his PIL's were staying with them.
They were told to leave the dogs in their crates whilst BIL and SIL were at work and if they were let out, to do it 2 at a time as the 2 male dogs will fight if BIL is not there.
So of course they let them all out, the 2 male dogs started fighting and the PIL's ended up opening the front door.
Cue all the dogs running off in all directions.
3 came back but one of the male dogs ended up going onto the main road, got clipped by a lorry, caused a standstill in the road and went and sat on top of one of the cars in the queue
But as he jumped on the car, he caused scratches to the paintwork and because of that, they had to claim on insurance.
Had they not got enoguh third party cover, they would have had to fork out themselves.

Sorry for babbling, but I think its very important to have insurance, for lots of reasons.