Dog Insurance

[CharlottesComplicatedWeb]

Does everyone have it?

I’ve always had pet insurance for the cats and dog. The dog is 5. A golden retriever. She’s never been ill.

Last week she had haemorrhagic gastro-enteritis. The vet said she’d probably eaten “something” on one of her wild walks and it hadn’t agreed with her, big time. She stayed overnight at the vets and had IV antibiotics with an antacid. The bill came to £788. I was very relieved to have the insurance.

However, our dog insurance is expensive. £62 per month. I can’t afford it. It’s gone up from £544 to £788 in a year BEFORE this illness. God knows what it’ll be next year.

I wonder whether to do what my sister and neighbour do. They put the money aside each month. Does anyone else do this?

[CalledYouLastNightFromWaitrose]

@CharlottesComplicatedWeb gorgeous dog. We have a chocolate Labrador but hope to add a golden retriever in a couple of years.

My pet insurance googlings suggested petplan highly rated for paying out directly, bought by many more competitive and more insurance options. Tesco great introductory rate but shoots up.

[LittleGungHo]

We decided to not have our dog insured. She had surgery in January after eating the leg of a chest of draws. It cost £2500.
I believe she got the right care however the vet knew we were not insured so directed us to the human paracetamol rather than them write a prescription.
I am not saying that vets 'milk' the insurance however the insurance industry wants to make you feel like it is worth paying the premium.
We have the money saved for an emergency. My only concern is if our dog needs long term medication, that can get costly!

[CharlottesComplicatedWeb]

@CalledYouLastNightFromWaitrose... thanks so much. Will have a look at that one.

[CharlottesComplicatedWeb]

Oooh... and Denplan 😊

[maverickallthetime]

@CalledYouLastNightFromWaitrose petplan came out cheaper than bought by many for me. I think we are going to go with them as I know they are reliable

[CharlottesComplicatedWeb]

PetPlan were excellent for my cat eye surgery.

[GCAcademic]

I had one of those dogs that eat everything. In his first year I had a £2k bill as he had to have his stomach and intensive cut open to remove a foreign body. When he was older, he ate something toxic and nearly died. He was in a specialist hospital for over a week and the bill came to £9.5k. I was pretty glad to have the insurance then. A few weeks prior to that I had actually thought about cancelling it and putting money aside every month.

Incidentally, we had PetPlan, and they never hiked the fees at renewal. There is one point, I think when the animal turns a certain age, that they do increase the premium by quite a bit, but yours in the first incidence I’ve heard of, OP, of them hiking the fee after a claim.

[Pipandmum]

I got insurance on one of my dogs, but when he was about 5 his premiums, having never claimed, were £70/month. I stopped it. He's 11 now and all he's had done is teeth descaled which cost about £300. I do now pay a vet plan which is £14/ month which pays for annual vaccinations, flea and worming and 10% off any procedures (like teeth thing).

[Moondust001]

I had Pet Plan but it actually jumped enormously in price (for a young and healthy dog) so I went to Tesco - who actually have better cover on my current plan! I have now been with the for three years because I have found that each year they hike the price enormously, so I do a price comparison, phone them to cancel and then they match the price I was offered! Pet insurance takes the proverbial and depends on people not being willing to tell them to take a hike. No other service acts like that - and if you push back, neither, it seems do pet insurers.

[Moondust001]

@GCAcademic

I had one of those dogs that eat everything. In his first year I had a £2k bill as he had to have his stomach and intensive cut open to remove a foreign body. When he was older, he ate something toxic and nearly died. He was in a specialist hospital for over a week and the bill came to £9.5k. I was pretty glad to have the insurance then. A few weeks prior to that I had actually thought about cancelling it and putting money aside every month.

Incidentally, we had PetPlan, and they never hiked the fees at renewal. There is one point, I think when the animal turns a certain age, that they do increase the premium by quite a bit, but yours in the first incidence I’ve heard of, OP, of them hiking the fee after a claim.

PetPlan hiked my policy price from £23 to £57 for a one year old beyond healthy, robust breed. This was 4 years ago. I shopped around and actually got better cover from Tesco for less than £23! Petplan is massively overrated I believe.

[FAQs]

Our dog is on Petplan because they deal direct with the vet I’ve only had to pay the excess.

The cats are with Animal Friends but the one time I had to claim it was a long process and the vet was chasing me for the bill and I was chasing Animal Friend who disagreed with the Vets treatment. It was sorted in the end.

[GCAcademic]

PetPlan hiked my policy price from £23 to £57 for a one year old beyond healthy, robust breed. This was 4 years ago. I shopped around and actually got better cover from Tesco for less than £23! Petplan is massively overrated I believe.

Are you just comparing the premiums, though, or are you including how they handle claims? Because, in my experience, PetPlan are beyond reproach in that regard.

[GCAcademic]

Also, when you are “shopping around” with pet insurance, you’re not necessarily comparing like with like because the new policy would exclude any “pre-existing” conditions, and that can often be very broadly defined (e.g. if a dog ate a sock once, they may exclude all gastro-intestinal issues from the policy).

[Panicmode1]

I have a goldie who will turn 6 is October. My insurance rocketed to 1200 a year this year, and so I'm paying £100 a month.

She has had a mast cell tumour in her eyelid and was on chemo for 18 months, but in the previous 12 months I hadn't claimed anything, even though the year before it was probably 5k. I complained. They said that she is ageing and so the risk profile has increased and vets bills and diagnostic test costs are now v expensive.

I knew that I would have to pay a higher premium given her history, but when I did a comparative quote, it was around 40 a month, so I am cross that I'm paying a huge amount more because of her risk. I looked at moving to Bought By Many but they excluded any future cancers.

I will carry on paying but know that the costs will rise exponentially from here on in, but I'm not prepared to put down a relatively healthy dog because I didn't have insurance and I don't have huge cash reserves to draw on for tests and treatment.....

[Moondust001]

@GCAcademic

PetPlan hiked my policy price from £23 to £57 for a one year old beyond healthy, robust breed. This was 4 years ago. I shopped around and actually got better cover from Tesco for less than £23! Petplan is massively overrated I believe.

Are you just comparing the premiums, though, or are you including how they handle claims? Because, in my experience, PetPlan are beyond reproach in that regard.

I've only had to claim once, and Tesco paid within five days of the claim going in. So I can't complain. And I wasn't just comparing premiums - I was comparing cover too. My cover is currently better than I had previously on PetPlan. Both the top level of cover.

[Moondust001]

@GCAcademic

Also, when you are “shopping around” with pet insurance, you’re not necessarily comparing like with like because the new policy would exclude any “pre-existing” conditions, and that can often be very broadly defined (e.g. if a dog ate a sock once, they may exclude all gastro-intestinal issues from the policy).

That's an assumption. I am quite capable of comparing like with like. So are most people. And it is particularly easy anyway when there are no pre-existing conditions anyhow! Nor does that explain how my insurers are suddenly, every year, able to reduce the quoted premium to continue when faced with me leaving. I "shop around" for everything - loyalty has no value these days.

[Panicmode1]

I'm with Tesco and have been very happy with them until this year - the level of cover and service have been brilliant, but I've had huge problems with them since lockdown. I'm still waiting for a response on a (small) claim which I submitted in mid July.....I've chased twice and no response. But, I'm stuck with them because of her history.

[IrmaFayLear]

I agree with GCAcademic. My gr was stung on the ear by a wasp and had to have it (the flappy bit) drained as it swelled up. Next year all ear conditions were excluded, even though he hadn’t had an ear as such problem, more of a reaction to a sting.

I have posted many times about my poor dog’s escapades. He practically had a reserved seat at the vet’s. He ate all manner of stupid things, and had numerous stomach pumps. What immediately springs to mind is the 2x£2 coins, pants, whole bowl of spicy dip, box of M&S Extremely Chocolatey biscuits...

On one hair-raising occasion I thought he’d eaten some paracetamol (I found the packet hidden under his bed) so I rushed to the vet’s. He hadn’t eaten any paracetamol, but they did find a sock, a sparkly Christmas decoration and “various bits and bobs”.

I miss that scamp

[CockCarousel]

I didn't plan to insure my dog because my 2 cats have it, and I've not once claimed in 10 years. However, within a few weeks of me adopting him, he shot off after a deer and got run over. Thankfully he only suffered a broken rib, but needed a night in hospital so it cost well over a grand with the x-rays and scans. Insuring seemed like a good idea after that...

I just looked at his insurance, (he's a 2y terrier) it's £23 pm and around £60 for 2 middle aged kitties, and they give me a little discount for multiple pets. That's with Petplan, I use them because they have a good reputation for paying out. I may investigate BBM, do they have a "cover for life" (will pay out year after year for an ongoing condition) like Petplan?

[IrmaFayLear]

Pet insurance, like any insurance, is a gamble.

But if your roof falls in you can opt to leave it if you have no insurance, but if your beloved pet needs care then 99% of people would crawl on hot coals to Supervet with all their worldly wealth in a sack in order to help their pet.

Aside from various small mishaps, my dog became very ill and treatment came to over £5k. Overall we “made” on the insurance - although really I wish we hadn’t.

[CharlottesComplicatedWeb]

@IrmaFayLear... 😐

I guess, I’m just thinking that an exclusion for life with D&V is a bit steep. There’s no physical illness... she ate something (she’s partial to dead swollen putrefying things). As I say, usually, she sicks up/has an off gut for 24hrs then gets better.

I’m still waiting for The Kennel Club to pay, ten days on. Hoping they’re not going to quibble it as it’s the first claim we’ve ever put in.