Dog insurance - is it worth it?

[betterwhenthesunshines]

Obviously the third party accident is essential, but what about the rest as they get older? We have a four year old miniature schnauzer, the first year insurance was £163, I have just been sent the renewal quote and it is £390. When I called to push them it was dropped to £354.

We have had one £500 claim in her first year when she ate something that disagreed with her and was at the vets for 3 days, no problems since.

If we had a largevet bill, we would be able to cover it financially so I'm wondering if the insurance cost will just increase and increase until it is prohibitive. The risk is anything that would require ongoing monthly treatment - does anyone else have anything that needs treating this way and how much does it / would it cost you?

Obviously a a slightly "how long is a piece of string" question, I'm just interested in how others decide?

It's difficult to give a specific answer, as so much depends on what you call a "large" bill. Bear in mind that something like a road accident with maybe a broken leg, X rays, inpatient stay, maybe an orthopaedic consult or involvement, could easily take you into the £5 - 10 K category very quickly indeed. If you're sufficiently comfortable for this to be easily absorbed into your spending, then you're fine.

Some policies will give you lifetime cover; look at your particular breed -are there conditions which they are prone to?

Absolutely - we moved here with a young cat, who just out of quarantine, went into heart failure...the vet bills were huge....wish I had organised insurance.

This is from the perspective of a family that would be considered very well off, but vet fees in this country are the most (*relative to income) I have seen in the 4 diff countries I have lived in.

The only caveat is that you need to make sure its lifetime cover - that they can't refuse to re-new after your pet has developed a health condition, or once it has got old.

Our spaniels insurance doubled as we had a £1500 bill one year due to knee surgery. I would check out the price comparison sites, as we found one much cheaper than the renewal. If your dog has a habit of big vets bills often like my spaniels then insurance is a must.

You could consider self insuring - put the money you would pay in a separate account and use it only for vet bills. I would have money left over if I had done this - my dog has had chemo, two operations and a necessary neutering due to undescended testicles. My insurance is more than my car insurance - he's 11 now and I have to pay 20% of any bills plus first £65. That's with Petplan. It started at £15 per month and is over £40 per month now.

We're lucky enough to be a position where we can self insure and we choose to do that rather than pay for normal insurance.

The most major expenses we've had (£5000 for cataract surgery and ongoing costs, currently standing at about £3000 for heart and arthritis medication) would not have been covered even if we'd had insurance as they were both technically pre-existing

The big bills have (ironically) been for both our rescue mongrels, so much for healthy and hardy!! We also have two pedigrees but they are a generally very healthy breed with few known health issues within the breed as a whole so we are comfortable with self insuring. If we had a breed prone to health issues such as cancers, HD/ED and such like then insurance would probably be much more appealing.

Thanks all - have cancelled the pet insurance. Third party is covered with our house insurance and as Princess says once you take into account the excess, the 10% you cover anyway and the annual cost of the insurance; If we have a £1000 vet bill it would cost us £558 anyway!

Also, talking with the insurance company yesterday they said that any recurrance of the stomach condition wouldn't be covered anyway as it would be considered pre-existing. Also spoke with vet about expected costs in the case of breed issues - more prone to pancreatitis - but they said it's only an increased risk, 15% instead of 10% chance. Too many weaselly loop holes with insurance small print!

Now saving a regular amount into a savings account.

My friends Lab has been in recently - their insurance covers the first £3000 of treatment.

They reached that in less than a week, total bill is around £7000 at the moment.

It is worth it I think, it'd be hard enough to cover the £4k that the insurance didn't let alone the whole £7k....

What is the treatment for?

We took on RottDog when she was 2 years old - Fully fit, lovely dog, if a little crazy. 2 years later she developed Bone Cancer. By the time we lost her (less than 12 weeks from diagnosis) her treatment had 'cost' £8K.

My friends large dog slipped a disc at the start of Nov. By the time he was put to sleep in Jan, having had an op to try and stabilise him, he had cost them over £10K. She then took on a rescue Rott that previous owners had taken to the vets to be PTS because they were complete and utter wankers. 6 months later the dog developed MML - and as a result of brain damage and steroid treatment had to be PTS. Again, that bill was around £2K

We have a lovely Cocker in the office that over the last 2 years has been treated for Liver Failure - simply down to her diet and age. The drugs she is on cost around £200 a month, and she could live another 3-5 years yet.

Personally I think you are crazy to cancel your insurance. You don't know what is round the corner, and could you really afford to give your dog ALL the treatment needed if the worst happened - or would you simply PTS.

I think you have been irresponsible, sorry.

My friends lab had got something in its paw. The whole leg swelled up & they had several operations to try & flush whatever it was out. Those, combined with the resulting overnight stays & the xrays whacked the cost right up.

Personally I'd have told them to put the dog down once it hit the £3 or £4k mark - there's no way I'd go into massive debt for a dog, no matter how much we loved it...

I work at a specialists where some bills get very high. Bills of £7k are not uncommon. If you have this sort of money spare then great. If you don't then you may have to make some tough decisions. Insurance is essential for me.

I wouldn't be without insurance personally. Emergency treatment can cost a fortune. Our dog scoffed chocolate 2 days before Christmas last year. It cost nearly £700 for us to see the emergency vet and have him treated. Our insurance not only paid up without hesitation, they also dealt with the vet directly. It only cost us the £80 excess.

You can't self insure for the price of insurance - the Math's doesn't add up..... For me I would only put aside just under £900 a year, for a giant breed. From my experience of vet bills that covers very little.

The thing that makes insurance profitable for insurance company is the assessment if risk, and the sheer number of people that they insure. I doubt you have enough animals to be able to spread the risk, to make true self insure work.

What you are actually doing is gambling that your animal, will not get sick or develope any illness's during its lifetime, and may have a short and relatively inexpensive illness, before it departs to rainbow bridge......

I hope for your pets sake you'd gamble pays off.

They only way I