Dog insurance costs and general costs

[Riverlee]

Considering getting a dog, possible a lab, but on not her thread,someone said their retriever monthly insurances was £60! I didn’t realise it was this much.

Can people give me ideas of what they pay, for what type/age of dog. Are there any other expenses I should be aware of

I pay just under £60 now a month for a 5 year old WCS. Still quids up though given the amount we have claimed since he was a puppy. Remember though even with insurance there is usually an excess so a lot of visits have been under that which we have just had to pay.

I also pay £16 a month for vet plan which covers vaccinations, flea, worming etc.

Around £20 a month for grooming.

Do you need daycare or dog walking? Or boarding for holidays as that can add up.

Then there are food and treats.

And occasional costs for toys, beds, leads, harness, brushes and clothes and boots for me to walk him.

At the beginning we also had the cost of training classes.

I pay £40 a month for my show cocker with Petplan. But he still costs a fortune with vets with reoccurring infections due to allergies that we are having trouble getting to the bottom of. He was referred to a specialist that sailed through £4000 trying to find the root cause. (We still don’t know!)

Then there is food costs/grooming/beds/leads/treats/boarder if you go away/if you work then may need a dog walker/if dog has any behavioural issues you might need a trainer.

Other people I know have dogs and don’t buy any insurance, is fed on the cheapest crap and their dog is fine but it’s a risk.

My 6-year-old lab crossbreed (a rescue) is about £33 a month with Petplan. Hasn’t had anything expensive happen until last year when she needed a fairly routine surgery. Vet’s pet health club (yearly vaccinations, free health check-up, discount off prescriptions etc) is £11 a month. Food again maybe £30 a month. Treats etc on top of that! As others say boarding, bedding etc. It’s not cheap when you add it all up. But worth it.

Other people I know have dogs and don’t buy any insurance, is fed on the cheapest crap and their dog is fine but it’s a risk.

And yes, know people who don’t insure or ‘self-insure’ by saving but I always said I didn’t want to be in a position where I have to choose because of cost at an emotional point. So we have the lifetime insurance (rather than cheaper yearly cap type). I’m sure I’ll pay much more overall in my dog’s lifetime but I’m happy to do that.

Ours was about £40 a month but needed a big operation and various follow up treatments and the premium has crept up and up so is now about £90 a month. Can't re-insure easily because of pre-existing condition with kidneys so we are stuck! Worth it though

I’ve had multiple dogs insured over the past few years but I’ve noticed a massive price hike recently!
I’ve currently got 2 leonbergers at roughly £80 each for a rubbish 3k cover with bought by many.
My German shepherd is roughly £35 for 4K with petplan.

For a lab I would probably think £60 would be about average.

Show cocker spaniel that’s nearly 11 and my monthly costs are:
£100 insurance - several claims, cruciate ligament, pancreatitis and surgery to correct entropion
£60 food (raw fed)
£18 vet plan for routine jabs, worming and flea treatment
£35 prescription eye drops
£15 treats & toys
£40 every 6 weeks for grooming

He’s bloody expensive!

Think our insurance is £24pm for a 4 year old staffy cross p. £14pm plan with vets for flea, worming, jabs, and any appointment costs including regularly doing her anal glands, poor sods! C£35pm for food. £10fibre supplement. We book a secure field once or twice a month for £8. We don’t usually need a Walker but she’s the same price for half an hour when required. I think that’s it, other than bones, toys, ridiculous jumpers…

We have an almost-four year old beagle (he'll be four in a month).

Insurance - £37 a month for Tesco's highest-level premium cover.
Food - £30 a month. He gets a mixture of Harringtons wet and dry.
Flea/worm treatment - around £100 a year on a plan with the vets.
Jabs - £30 or so a year.
Treats/chews - around £30 a month, but he gets a chew everyday - you certainly don't need to spend that much.

So on average he costs us £100 a month. I'm a dog walker so he comes to work with me when he can, or my in-laws have him for free so we don't have to pay for sitters or daycare.

To give you an idea of walker costs, I charge £10 an hour for a group walk, or £10 for a 45 minute solo walk. Daycare around here is £30ish per day which includes two walks. Kennels are cheaper - £15 a day, and then overnight care is pricier still. £18 per night at Kennels, £35 for a sitter in your home and around the same for home boarding too.

So costs will vary depending on what you need. If you're home all day and will never need a walker or sitter and plan to take your dog on holiday with you, it won't cost you much. But if you work 8+ hours a day you'll need to pay for daily care and it's not cheap.

We pay £50pm for our 5year old dog. Started at £18 and has risen each year.
Once we max out the cover we will cancel it and take out cheaper insurance to cover just accidental injury such as being hit by a car.

We have 8k per illness cover which is much more than the monthly premium for the lifetime of the dog.

We have claimed probably 2k back so far as she has a health condition.

Without insurance would you make the right decision for your dogs health, or would you always be thinking in a financial sense?
If your dog got cancer for example, could you afford 8k in treatment?

It should be a legal requirement to ensure your dog IMO.

We pay 33 a month for our lab with Bought By Many - that's for 15k per year cover. Only our first year so aware it could go up year on year.

I've just done our renewal and paid £280 for the year (approx £24 a month) for our staffie with Bought by Many. He's only 2 though and no health issues etc so this will get more as he gets older.
Our older dog will be 9 this year but not sure how much his is as my partner pays it but I'm sure once he turns 9 we also need to pay a percentage of the claim.

For their food we're about £130 a month, that's for two on a raw diet.

We also have a dog walker for the two days a week I can't take them a long walk which is £25 a day so they're £200 a month for the walker too

Might've been me regarding the insurance. That isn't even the half of it.

Food, £60 minimum per month for decent quality. We spend about £80. Labs and goldens eat a huge amount, particularly as puppies.
Training.. classes were £160 for 6 weeks. They were crap so we then got a private trainer who is £50 per hour after the initial assessment session of 2.5 hours.
Chews and treats: about £5-7 per week unless you are very creative or don't mind your furniture taking a good old chewing.
Routine vet care not covered on insurance for prescription wormer and flea treatments... Dunno maybe about £7 pcm.

Puppy sitting is the same price as babysitting round here.

Toys and enrichment... Whatever you want to spend. I don't buy too many of these but some people do.

If you need daycare it can be anywhere between £20 and £45 per day but that is the south east.

All I can say is that I massively underestimated the cost of my dog. Love her dearly but sweet Jesus.

We pay about £240 a month for a 5yr old Boston terrier.
Insurance £40
Worm and Flea vet plan £15
Food £50
Chews £30
Walks (2 x 1hrs a week) £100
Then costs of leads, dog beds, toys, coat, shampoo etc. Maybe another £150 a year? Worth every penny!

Thanks for all your replies. I knew about food, initial costs (pets at Home, here I come!) and dog training classes. Didn’t realise insurance was quite so much, plus worming fees etc

Good luck on your pup adventure OP. It is worth it, we wouldn't be without ours, it's just been a massive financial and practical adustment.

Pet plan lifetime insurance for my lab is £50ish per month
£64 every 2 weeks for Butternut Box food
Chews/treats extortionate - bigger the dog higher the cost! Particularly as you need a lot of treats for training.
Vet plan £16 per month which includes flea/worm, nails, 6 monthly check ups and yearly vaccinations
Supplements for joints as a preventative
We did puppy classes (£160) and we did a few 1-2-1s as it was our first puppy

We also use to do doggy daycare (£30 per day)

More expensive than I realised but worth it!

We pay £12/month with Animal Friends for our 4yo rescue mongrel. They have been fab as she's had more issues than I would have believed with an ongoing allergy and a couple of accidents (splinter in her eye bounding through undergrowth, ripped her toenail off trying to dig through the patio 🙄). We also pay £13.50/month for VIP Club at our vet, which gives us her worming tablets, vaccines and a yearly checkup. Worth it for the worming tablets alone which would be about £20/month otherwise. We pay £63 for a 14kg bag of hypoallergenic food which lasts about 5 weeks. She doesn't need professional grooming as she's very short haired, and currently no walker as we're both wfh and can take her out. Looking at some of the costs on this thread I think we've got off lightly!

Cocker spaniel.

Fixed for Life (so price never increases) with Bought By Many, about £45/m (not entirely certain as its a joint policy with the cat so I make one payment for both of them). Maximum of £20k over their lifetime, which felt like plenty... until we burned through over £6k in 6 months when he developed IMPA. One of his medications is over £200 pcm.

Food is around £50/m but he's a big chewer so I probably spend that again on chews & replacement toys each month.

Can't vaccinate due to his condition so no daycare or kennels, we'd take him on holiday with us and many places charge extra for a dog (although not much).

We also spend extra on petrol & parking (we walk locally too but have to drive to get to the woods for a good walk).

Flea & worm probably averages around £15/m (I buy 6 months at a time though).

Equipment can be pricey - equafleece for example, absolutely brilliant for reducing mud & baths but was around £40. PerfectFit harness was similar. He destroyed several beds in adolescence.

Not much really. We don't insure. I think it is a false economy. We have the money to cover vet bills and would rather keep it or spend it on vet bills instead of giving it to the insurance company.
We spend roughly £15 a month on food (small dog, doesn't eat much, a 15kg bag lasts 3 months) and £20 on treats. £10 a month on vaccinations, wormer and defleaer, £10 on toys, leads etc.
Someone is always home so no dog walker. He comes on holidays with us so no boarding. No grooming needed.
So roughly £55 a month plus vet fees.

I would self insure,as most if not all insurances only pay some,but not all the cost of treatment.But you need some savings too,just in case.Every insurance needs to make a profit and you pay for their profit.So it is more economical for you to self insure.you have to be very disciplined and set up a special dog account and never never dip into that money,unless it is for treatment for your dog.Most people dont have that discipline and therefore it is safer for them to have an insurance.Having a dog is expensive,even a healthy one!

We pay £45 a month for our 3 year old with bought by many. I've often thought of self insuring but after seeing my parents I've decided against it. One of their dogs in particular was diagnosed with a heart condition and has literally cost them ££££. Interesting they decided to insure their new pup.

I would say insurance and daycare are the biggest costs but the rest does mount up.

£45 food
£10 tick treatment
£3 worming
£45 insurance
£10 treats

These are the regular monthly costs. There are a few incidental purchases throughout the year like shampoo etc. I expect insurance to keep going up too year on year. Our dog is smaller than a lab but larger than a springer.

Every insurance needs to make a profit and you pay for their profit.So it is more economical for you to self insure

Thats not quite right; they make a profit overall on the 1000s of dogs insured - but not on each individual dog.
One way of looking at it is you are betting whether or not your dog will become unwell and need treatment.
Insurance covers the bigger things - you probably wouldn't claim for a check up and antibiotics as it'd likely be under your excess - but for injuries or serious or ongoing illness it is brilliant.
If I'd self-insured my dog, who got seriously ill at 9 months, there's no way I would have had over £6,000 saved up by then - and if I'd used the backup credit card, I'd be repaying that alongside his ongoing medical costs (one medication is over £200 a month, plus he needs check ups and blood tests every couple of months).
We would have been in a difficult position after the initial £2,000 or so, as the regular vets couldn't give a diagnosis and he needed to see a specialist. Insurance enabled us to get a diagnosis and choose the treatment with the best chance of full recovery, rather than just managing symptoms with steroids (cheaper but awful side effects that really impacted his quality of life).

£35 for our 3y.o whippet with Petplan.
We have had 1 claim of £700.
When we opened it it was £28.

Current dog is a springer, issured for highest lifetime allowance. At four years old, this costs me £37 per month but realistically this is going to go up to about £100 by the time he is older AND I'll have to pay 20% of bills + excess if I claim for him.

Adding up all the payments I've made minus all the money they've paid out and I am currently just over £9k better off for insuring him than I would be if I self insured. If I never claimed again for him and my premiums went up to the full £100 tomorrow, I am still going to come out of this deal better off. And he hasn't really had anything 'seriously' wrong with him that you COULD debate it might have been kinder to PTS. He had an ear infection. Just an ear infection. It lasted for almost a year and cost the insurance company £10,000.

Because of this I am eternally grateful I went for top tier insurance and would always do so from now on.