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

£38 per month with ASDA lifetime 6k cover (simply couldn't afford petplan was about £90), 7yr old rescue dog.

We've never insured any of our dogs. We have enough in savings to cover e.g. a complex fracture and ongoing treatment. And so far, at 34 dog-years of ownership (iyswim - we've had at least one dog, sometimes 3, for nearly 20 years) we've saved an absolute packet. The JRT cost a bit to work out how to treat an unknown allergy (couple of hundred quid, settled on Piriton and a different diet) and an emetic (which might have come in under the minimum spend for insurance tbh), the gundog cross managed a cut pad, one more complex injury (about a grand dealing with that) and a couple of ops to remove lipomas, and the current two have so far cost nothing more than routine stuff and a visit for a sprain.

Admittedly we're fairly organised and treat quite a lot of stuff at home - skinned pads, that kind of thing. But if you have savings you're willing to use on your dog, insurance isn't essential. You will probably find that you have third party (if your dog causes an accident) with your home insurance.

Other costs - about £60 pcm on food for two, £35 pcm for vet plan for wormer etc, bloody fortune on training and associated kit (I'm quite into it), and the occasional outlay on leads, bedding, grille in the car and so on. And cheap shampoo from Poundland for when they roll in the inevitable...

Insurance price also depends on your area - if you're in an affluent area it will be more.
I won't be getting another dog because of the costs.

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'm with BBM and my premium actually went down slightly the second year without asking!

The thing with saving is when it comes down to life or death matter.

My neighbour was OK to accept that her dog be pts when it was diagnosed with cancer. She'd always accepted that when her dog was diagnosed with something nasty, it would be the end.

I couldn't do that. I would want treatment to be tried u less told it was a complete waste of time, so insurance is essential.

@vivainsomnia

The thing with saving is when it comes down to life or death matter.

My neighbour was OK to accept that her dog be pts when it was diagnosed with cancer. She'd always accepted that when her dog was diagnosed with something nasty, it would be the end.

I couldn't do that. I would want treatment to be tried u less told it was a complete waste of time, so insurance is essential.

The trouble with your neighbours approach is that getting to a diagnosis could cost thousands. At what point do you make the decision? There was no clear point at which we could have put our 9 month old puppy to sleep - he wasn't eating and was clearly in discomfort, but this was manageable with IV fluids and pain relief. All the investigations (numerous blood tests, ultrasound, xrays etc) were coming back clean. It wasn't until he was seen by a specialist who performed joint taps that we were able to get a diagnosis (immune mediated polyarthitis).

@Grumpyosaurus.totally agree with you.I also would never ever put an over 10 year old dog through chemotherapy.I would even think twice with a younger dog.Most, if not all dogs will die (within 3-6 months)with or without chemotherapy when they are diagnosed with cancer.For me, it is ALWAYS quality and not quantity of life for my dogs.

The trouble with your neighbours approach is that getting to a diagnosis could cost thousands. At what point do you make the decision?
Exactly. Her dog lived trouble free until she was 14. What if she'd been diagnosed with a life threatening condition at 5? 8?10? When do you decide it has a good life?

Also, I wouldn't want to justify the decision to children. Its hard enough when you've tried everything.

@vivainsomnia

The trouble with your neighbours approach is that getting to a diagnosis could cost thousands. At what point do you make the decision? Exactly. Her dog lived trouble free until she was 14. What if she'd been diagnosed with a life threatening condition at 5? 8?10? When do you decide it has a good life?

Also, I wouldn't want to justify the decision to children. Its hard enough when you've tried everything.

My dog was diagnosed with a serious auto-immune condition at the age of 5. The initial presentation was sudden, life-threatening and involved a week of ITU care in a specialist hospital. Prognosis was, if he got through the initial acute phase, most dogs go on to be well-managed or even fully recover.

Without insurance we would have ended up with over £7,000 on a credit card just for the first week and over the next 18 months, with tests and treatment, the costs reached over £20,000. During 17 of those months he lived a normal, happy life, well managed on eye-wateringly expensive meds. Sadly he then relapsed and we lost him, but he had 18 months of being happy with a good quality of life that he wouldn’t have had if we hadn’t had insurance.

My boy’s insurance with PetPlan is now £75 a month, but he is a large crossbreed and over 16 and it started off at about £35, so not a massive increase considering the length of time he’s been insured.

I wouldn’t put him through any complex/invasive tests or treatment at this stage but, as it stands, we are still better off with insurance than without, due to monthly medication and regular monitoring. I put in a claim twice a year for his meds and consultations and that’s all done digitally by my vet.

Vet’s monthly healthcare plan: £15.00
Food: £35.00
Supplements: £100 (he’s on a fair bit, due to age and age related health issues)

By contrast, the PetPlan quote I just got for my next breed (toy breed) is £35 per month for the highest lifetime cover and the vet healthcare plan is a pound cheaper at £14.00 a month.

Exactly. Her dog lived trouble free until she was 14. What if she'd been diagnosed with a life threatening condition at 5? 8?10? When do you decide it has a good life?

Exactly.

It's easy to say "My dog was diagnosed with cancer at 14 and so it was natural to have her PTS instead of putting her through treatment" but would you really be able to do that to an 18mo? A 4yo? I doubt it.

In some ways, insurance is an easier thing to drop when they are older - imo anyway.

By that time, even the least invasive treatments can seem like a high welfare cost vs benefit to the dog. So you might realistically take the view that it will only be fairly small (cheaper) treatments from then on.

But mine was a 2 year old dog with all his life ahead of him and the £10,000 was for an ear infection. No way would I have wanted to pts for an ear infection in such a young dog. Each of us must decide what's best for us and our dogs so I am only stressing this because it's easy to think the really expensive bills will only come with a catastrophic illness. IME that's not the case. They also come with the mundane...

I save an amount every month into a savings account to cover a lot of eventualities. I appreciate it won't cover major surgery or chemo but I adopted an older dog (small breed, no history, rescue) who, when the quotes came in, would have cost me a bloody outrageous fortune - they were averaging £130 PER MONTH. Having had a dog where an insurance payout was refused many years ago, I don't trust the pet insurers. At least if I don't have anything to pay out, I get to keep the cash myself in the dog account

@MankyDogEar

In some ways, insurance is an easier thing to drop when they are older - imo anyway.

By that time, even the least invasive treatments can seem like a high welfare cost vs benefit to the dog. So you might realistically take the view that it will only be fairly small (cheaper) treatments from then on.

But mine was a 2 year old dog with all his life ahead of him and the £10,000 was for an ear infection. No way would I have wanted to pts for an ear infection in such a young dog. Each of us must decide what's best for us and our dogs so I am only stressing this because it's easy to think the really expensive bills will only come with a catastrophic illness. IME that's not the case. They also come with the mundane...

Yeah, I think this is a really good point.

Once a dog hits 10/11/12+, it's easier to accept that you don't want to put them through invasive treatments, so you may opt for painkillers and palliative care for the remaining year or two of their lives.

But that's VERY different to being unable to treat a 2-3 year old dog and having to have them PTS because you can't afford the care they need.

I insure for the first three years of life and then self insure. I bet on any developmental problems to have shown signs by then and then am happy to take the risk on myself.
For reference though I also do this with contents and health insurance, it’s not for everyone…

My rescue dog is 9 years old and costs £30 a month for insurance.
She recently ruptured a disc in her back and had to have spinal surgery at the TV vets place, Fitzpatrick's. It cost £6k, the insurance covered half.
No Idea how much her insurance will be when it's due for renewal???

10 year old greyhound, £111/month for the best PetPlan scheme.
Have had dogs for decades, went through a period of self insurance (during which year we paid enough vet fees to buy a good second hand hatchback) and decided we preferred to insure.