Greyhound Insurance... too pricey :(

[Forestshade]

We adopted a lovely lovely boy:). I have taken PetPlan for him ( he will be 5yrs in a month) and his life time cover came up to £60/ month and I took it.

I feel its too expensive but I am also concerned that I keep paying premiums and I cant claim when I need, so I took the 'popular' PetPlan hoping to claim easy.

What I want to know is.. have I done the right thing?. Is self insuring more economical?. Is my dog too young to start paying for ongoing conditions?. He is healthy now and active as he has raced a lot. One of my friends asked me to take just a cident cover until he is 7 and then go for life time... I am really lost.
Dog owners what do you think about all the insurance idea?
Thx :)

*accident cover

I wouldn’t be without lifetime cover and am with PetPlan as well. I have a 15 year old Lurcher and his cover is just over £60.00 a month, although at his age there is a bigger excess and we pay a percentage of each treatment as well. His most expensive course of treatment was when he was 8 and developed prostate and bladder issues, necessitating regular treatment, tests and then an operation.

Imo, self-insuring (I assume you mean setting aside an amount to save each month) is only a good idea if you already have a large amount in savings or access to large amounts at short notice. There is no way we could have self-insured enough to cover the cost of my last dog’s treatment.

He was a Lurcher that developed a serious auto-immune condition, age 5. Initial treatment - a week long intensive care inpatient stay at a specialist vet hospital - cost around £7,000. After that we had, initially fortnightly, then monthly, follow ups at the vet hospital at (£450 per visit, plus tests and meds) followed by monthly vet checks back at our own vet practice. His meds cost a fortune and after relapsing he was put on a medication that cost over £400 a fortnight (although I got this down by getting a prescription and buying online). He repeatedly relapsed and we lost him just after his 7th birthday, having spent over £20,000 in the previous 18 months on his care and treatment (and that’s without taking into extra costs, such as, food, supplements and equipment that didn’t come under veterinary care). PetPlan paid up every single claim within a week of the claim going in.

I’ve also had a dog that developed osteosarcoma whilst uninsured and the costs for tests to check for spread were massive and had to go on a credit card. Then before we got the test results she fractured her leg at the tumour site and had to be pts.

I will never be without the highest level of lifetime cover I can afford for my dogs these days and having tried other insurers over the years, I have had the most consistently best service from PetPlan, although I a hearing a lot of good things about Bought by Many recently.

You need to ask yourself the following.

Would you be able to access several thousands of pounds quickly if you self insure. People talk about how they wouldn't put their dog through lots of treatments but I find it is the diagnosis that costs a lot which you would have to go through before you decide that you didn't want to treat due to age etc.

An MRI here would set me back over £2000. Even a stint back and forth at the vets for severe D&V with admissions and treatment cost us more than that. When we were at a vet hospital due to an accident their price list for operations typically ran into the thousands and we were looking at over £5k if we had needed to operate (fortunately we didn't).

Oh and for age. My dog is 4 but we claimed for many accidents and illnesses in the first couple of years. It isn't only old dogs that get ill.

My hound was insured though Tesco bank and it was a damm good thing she was! Through her lifetime she had a bout of gastroenteritis which cost nearly £2,000 to put right and ripped off both dewclaws a year apart which took several rounds of painkillers and antibiotics plus numerous bandage changes. Without the insurance we would never have been able to pay the vet bills.

I have friends who've never had insurance, just a savings plan, and have got lucky and never had expensive vets' bills.

I on the other hand... A couple of months ago, I had a healthy young cat with (as I thought) years of happy life ahead of her. Aggressive lymphoma meant she had to be PTS, but not until after we'd had an emergency overnight at the vets, MRI to confirm the diagnosis, palliative chemo, numerous vets' visits.

We just about maxxed out the policy (nearly 4 grand).

I have to say, Pet Plan are incredible at settling claims promptly and efficiently and being decent and compassionate in doing so. Yes, it's expensive. But after my experience, I'll definitely be insuring future pets.

Is that the 7k policy? I've found with Petplan they are often more expensive at start but cheaper insurers will often catch up after a fee years, they also tend to hike premiums after claims/get shot once expensive or old dogs by making it unaffordable when as customer its when you need cover most. Tbh greyhounds are expensive to insure, while genetically healthier than many pedigrees they do have some conditions & are accident prone as they run fast into objects, trees, holes, barbed wire, impaled on branches & have paper thin skin so even a bit of rough & tumble can easily lead to stitches. Dentals & arthritis are common (petplan do cover dental if have yearly examination noted).

Thing is with pet insurance you have to declare anything you dog has seen the vet for not what's been claimed and they tend to group conditions so all lumps, one of mine had all bowel conditions excluded just due to bad case of diarrhoea, only needed some pro-kolin (novice owner). Then your stuck to get that policy when he's 7 as anything preexisting isn't covered.

My greyhound had 2 MRIs for different conditions in same policy year, they're £1.5-3k just to diagnose and then you may need specialist treatment/surgery on top.

Thank you all!..seems it all depends on your luck ;if the pet gets sick or would never get sick. I am not bravest of the lot so I would keep the insurance then. I would want Ddog to be healthy with all my heart but you never know whats around the corner!🤷🏻‍♀️

Just to add to my post. I know some people say they wouldn’t treat, but it really depends on the illness and prognosis. We could have opted not to treat, but the vast majority of dogs with his condition go into remission and never relapse, he was one of the unlucky few the treatment didn’t work for long-term. If we hadn’t chosen to treat, he would have lost out on over a year of living a happy, comfortable life being spoiled and loved. If we hadn’t had decent insurance we would have lost him at aged 5 instead of age 7.

My dog’s initial treatment saved his life, then the ongoing meds, which were £££’s every month meant he was healthy and happy up until the last three months. During lockdown he went downhill, developed pancreatitis (another inpatient stay) the other complications (one of which is unique to Greyhounds and their crosses) and didn’t recover.

We have had numerous dogs, over 30+ years and only three have had such serious, expensive conditions. One we lost to fibrosarcoma. He was insured and tests to confirm the type of cancer and decide how to treat it cost a fortune. One was the girl I mentioned before, who we lost to osteosarcoma whilst uninsured and the last one was the lovely boy we lost this year. Having been through all three experiences, I will always insure on the highest level of lifetime cover I can afford in future.

@moosemama... so sorry about your ddog:(. But you have done all you could for him :).
I am now positive on keeping the insurance as it would be a real mind-mess for me (like every pet owner I suppose!) to opt out of possible treatment due to financial reasons.

I am planning to get a greyhound and from everything I have read I would get lifetime insurance. I currently have an elderly sick cat. I have withdrawn treatment anyway as I think she is too old , but even the basics of keeping her comfortable have cost me £400 just this week . She is not insured as I didn’t have lifetime and had a years cover for each condition- then I cancelled it after I had used those as so pricey.

If she had been young, and had current issues (severe kidney infection), I don’t know what I would have done as inpatient treatment was easily going to reach £1k and I don’t have that. I never again want to be in a position where cost informs my decision.

So IMO for dogs lifetime insurance plus additional savings is essential and I am already working out my budget.