Pet insurance doesn’t look like it’s going to be enough..omg

[Autumnsoon]

Current situation with pup .
5 years old rescued mixed small breed
been vomiting since late April .
had blood tests £300 nothing showing .
vets gave antibiotics just in case and see how u go .
I thought I’d cracked it with lots of small meals throughout the day
but the vomiting is back
today he had a scan £120 and she thinks she’s found a mass

back on Thursday for £800 for X-ray and another scan .
she thinks it will lead to an operation at £2/£3 thousand.

but the vet then said ,the problem we have is if they find something that needs treatment,
we will of already used up the £4 thousand limit for pet insurance.
so if it’s cancer that needs treatment and they can’t remove it ,or it spreads ,what is the cost likely to be
any ideas ??

Sorry for huge gaps ,don’t know how I did that

Can't help with the cancer but in case you don't know any medication you get , you can pay for the prescription (around £20) then buy the medication on line at a significantly cheaper price. This might save some of your insurance budget

Good luck with everything 😘

This is the problem with pet insurance, to keep the premium down people go for low(ish) value polices and the money can soon run out.
Our Ddog had both cruciate ligaments done within the space of 11-months at a cost of £7k+ but luckily we had a very high value/lifetime policy so there was no danger of running out of money.

As the PP says with regards to buying your own medication, we now do this.
Stopped the old policy when Ddog got very old and the premiums went through the roof (2k/pa). Took out a new policy covering new conditions only and cover the cost of meds ourselves.
Vet charges £16 for a double prescription and we then buy (online) enough meds for 6-months at a fraction of what the vet would charge. This was suggested to us by the vet themselves and it works really well.

Honestly... We made the decision when we took out each policy that we'd limit what we put the animals through. We nearly maxed the policy limit when our girl went into sudden liver failure a few months ago and it was definitely a factor in the decision making around her quality of life. As it was, she deteriorated rapidly and wasn't going to recover so we had to put her to sleep.

As shit as it is, you can't spend money indefinitely. I've no idea of the costs of the care you're looking at, but get the scans done first and then you'll be able to work out your options.

I'm sorry, it's awful.

I agree about the problem with the cheapest premiums being for insurance limits that are not especially useful. It can come as such a shock to find out what some things cost.

Sadly, OP, the subsequrnt costs could be anything. We can often think ONLY the really serious or invasive things cost £££ and so it might be better to PTS if ever faced with that - but I've known some fairly every day conditions cost thousands to sort, the kind that the dog is otherwise young and healthy with lots of life to live.

All you can do, OP, is move forward and see what the result of the surgery is. In the meantime, it's worth checking how the limit on your policy works. Will it reset next year so - for example - if they remove the lump and it turns out it was cancer that comes back, you might have a fresh £4000k to spend because the year has reset?

Treatment for stuff like cancer is IME usually cheaper than diagnosing it to start with tbh.

Even if you opt for actual treatment over palliative care, it’s usually fairly conservative treatment because they’re always trying to balance quality of life with animals much more, as in people can make informed decisions about hard treatment that will make them unwell, animals can’t.

My friend's dog has just been through cancer treatment and I'm afraid it wasn't cheap. The dog also had to travel to a specialist treatment centre three hours away in Liverpool for treatment - they were there for a day a fortnight for about two months I think.

Ultimately you're going to need to balance money, treatment and quality of life - while chemotherapy is easier on dogs than it is on people, you still need to consider the benefits of treatment, what the outcomes might be etc.

Nobody can really give you any answers on cost - it depends on the type of cancer, how big the mass is and what the prognosis/treatment is.

Good luck and I'm really sorry that you're going through this

Thanks
I could kick myself I didn’t go for more than £4000 with insurance.I just went for middle of the road ,plus I had 3 dogs to pay for untill last year .
currently paying for 2.
what I don’t understand is how an op can cost £2/£3 thousand on a stomach when getting my dogs neutered cost hundreds and that’s an op on both as well

With respect I'm sure you do see the difference - it seems your dog may need highly specialised oncology surgery. A mass isn't like a tennis ball sitting in an abdomen, it'll be attached to something, possibly an organ, and will have blood vessels etc linked. It'll also be likely the anticipated costs will include the costs of lab work, overnight nursing care, post-surgical check ups, medication etc.

Spaying and neutering is routine day case surgery which is practically a conveyer belt in terms of how normal the work is for a vet (unless you're the same dog we lost whose spay was a medical marvel for which they've never seen the like apparently).

what I don’t understand is how an op can cost £2/£3 thousand on a stomach when getting my dogs neutered cost hundreds and that’s an op on both as well

Neutering is a very basic, straightforward, minor operation - particularly for male dogs. And even though female spays are more complicated, they're still very much routine procedures.

Removing a cancerous mass is a whole different ball game. It takes much longer (which costs more in itself), it requires a much more specialised technique and often requires an oncologist to make sure the entire mass is removed safely without causing any further issues to your dog.

Yes your both right ..
im not thinking straight

Is it at least a lifetime policy so that you are still covered after the year is up ?

Chemotherapy can cost thousands- my friends dog had it for Lymphoma. i think insurance paid 7k and he paid a similar amount on top. My 12 year old dog had an op for a small cancer on her paw a couple of months ago and it cost £1300 but obviously that's not the same as having to open a dog up for an abdominal cancer.

Consider carefully how your dog will react to chemotherapy, and also how your dog is with treatment / vets in general. Our last dog would have HATED being in the vets, and I would have PTS rather than let him suffer a treatment he wouldn't enjoy with a place/people he hated.

Very sensible advice, I agree 100%

So I've paid for one dogs cruciate ligament fix without insurance and it was about 1/10th of the price as my other dog when insurance was paying.
Try and find out what they would charge uninsured for operations etc.

Currently doing chemotherapy+xray afterward and it’s about £1000 a session.

I absolutely agree with this.

Some dogs really don't cope well with extended vet stays and long periods of rest - I know several people whose dogs are sadly quite traumatised after long periods of time in hospital or on enforced crate rest.

Have you spoken to the vet about your insurance limit and see what they suggest?

Agree.

Neutering is a loss leader so the practice doesn’t make much on it at all. A bitch spay takes about 30-45mins.
A major abdominal surgery to remove a tumour with a large blood supply possibly involving a major organ can take much, much longer, requiring longer anaesthetic, multiple surgical packs, iv fluids, active warming, and maybe an extra vet scrubbed in if it’s challenging. The two procedures are really, really different.

Practices are not allowed to have 2 prices for insured and not insured.
A higher price is usually when an expert at a referral centre is doing the procedure compared with a GP vet. Insured pets are more like to be referred.

Do you mind me asking where you're located? If you're in the right area, maybe speak to Animal Trust vets if they can help. They're a low cost vets but I don't beleive they require you to be in receipt of benefits and you can still claim on the insurance.

Realistically, would you want to put your DDog through cancer treatment, even if you could afford it?

Will I get a choice .
my last dog the vets refused to put down ,even though I was begging them.
I have a thread on here about that ,although it was ages ago and I change user name .
he had Alabama rot and cushings ,nothing could save him ,but still they kept him in the vets for week over night trying ,ran up £5000 on insurance,when that ran out they let me put him down …then said as doing it ,oh he’s half dead anyway..
this was supposed to be the best practice in town ..
im at a different vets now ,but I assumed if something can be done ,or the vets think something can be done ,they won’t put a dog down even if owners want them to