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 ??

Yes they sure can, they really should do something about it IMO, they charge far too much & seemingly, whatever they want.
I hope your pooch is ok x

@lampformyfeet Not in my vet surgery. It is the first thing they ask.
@Leo227 I am with you on this. I never get pet insurance. My vet bills have been much more reasonable than people who do. The vet is fully aware. He would not suggest any pointless tests.

The reason for asking isn’t to make as much money. It’s to have an understanding of what client expectations are, if they might want referral, if they would need a direct claim processing etc. Also some insurance requires preauthorisation before surgery goes ahead, or in some cases a claim has to be opened within a certain time of presentation so it’s important to know.

Yes, exactly this.

It shows that the vets do treat the animals differently if they have insurance or not.

No - they treat animals differently based on what owners are able to afford. The insurance is just a means to be able to afford expensive treatment that may otherwise be out of reach to many.

We have a 15k annual limit for our dog on a lifetime policy. If we didn't have insurance and only had access to 3k in savings, the treatment options available to us would be very different.

So what should happen then? There’s no NHS for pets, and owning one is a luxury.
Take a fractured tooth for example. Those who are insured are more likely to opt for referral for root canal, those without are more likely to opt for extraction. The two outcomes are fine, they’re just different. It’s not right to suggest someone gets into debt to go for the more expensive treatment if they can’t afford it. It’s about working with the client to have the best outcome with the budget available.

Us too
cats hate vet visits
stopped paying monthly
Have saved £760 so far against minor costs

In future I mean
Nothing so far

My dog was very ill on NYD and the NY BH and went to the OOH vets both days so that was £600 . He then went to our vets numerous times for various investigations because he had a high BP but they wanted to find the cause as dogs generally don’t get primary hypertension . He eventually ran up a bill of about £3,750 , none of it was pointless tests , it was all necessary ruling things out . I suppose if I didn’t want to spend the money I could have just said put him on the pills and I don’t care what’s causing it but I wouldn’t do that for my own health so why would I do it for my dog , who is a member of my family .

Agree with other posters. Owning a pet is a luxury.

My vet in SE London is great. He is against any pointless test if the treatment is the same.
Some owners feel better if the vet runs more tests on the dog purely to rule things out.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unnecessary-tests-and-treatment-explain-why-health-care-costs-so-much/
Running unnecessary tests and treatment is the main reason the American healthcare system is so expensive. They are all private; people get health insurance, and healthcare providers try their best to max out the insurance limit. It is a vicious cycle. The tests and treatments can be invasive. I don't want to put my pets through unnecessary tests or treatments.

Pet insurance is one of the worst financial products if you can afford the vet bills comfortably up front. Your vet is unlikely to take you for a ride for one. You can set aside £10k for your pooches.
Pet insurance attracts a 12% insurance premium tax, commission to the salesperson, overheads and profit margin to the insurance company.
Insurance is only worth it if you are insuring against events that are unlikely to happen with consequences you cannot bear financially. A pet's lifespan is not as long as a human's. They are bound to get ill.

“Pet insurance is one of the worst financial products if you can afford the vet bills comfortably up front. Your vet is unlikely to take you for a ride for one. You can set aside £10k for your pooches. “

The problem is, most people don’t have a spare 10k per pet to put away in case of emergencies.

What you’re paying for with insurance is not a financial benefit, it’s the benefit of knowing you can decide what treatment option is best for your pet, not just the ones you can afford.

2 of my 3 pets wouldn’t get invasive treatment for anything, one is a 12 yr old cat, at her age my priority would definitely be quality of life over length. One of my dog has some behavioural issues and is very anxious, he wouldn’t cope mentally with things like operations or extended vet stays.

But they’re still insured because if/when I have to make decisions about their health I want to be able to do that without working out how much money I have available.

It’s important to consider “If we do this test will the results mean we might change what we do next?”
If the answer is no then we should ask why we are doing the test. Is it for baseline to see if future results are different? Is it for information? Eg did we manage to remove all of that cancerous growth? Some people really want to know as it helps plan for the future, whilst others prefer to adopt a watch and wait policy and both of those are fine.

"You can set aside £10k for your pooches."

Setting aside money is fine, the problem is that it can be spent in the blink of an eye if your pet has an accident or illness that needs specialist treatment. If that gets spent, how quickly can you rebuild that savings pot again?

If your dog is diagnosed with Immune Mediated Thrombocytopoenia, with treatment costing £5000, then six months later ruptures his cruciate ligaments, costing £3000 per leg, do you still have money available for his operation to remove the kebab skewer he ate when only the out of hours vets are open?

Insurance doesn't cover everything. But its a relief to know it's there to take the stress out of the huge unexpected bills.

£10k is an arbitrary number. Let's call it £100k then.

For people who can afford to pay upfront, pet insurance does not make any financial sense.
The same theory goes for breakdown, white goods and boiler insurance. You get quicker service, cheaper in the long run and have access to more service providers if you pay cash.

So to update
pup is still poorly
3 lots of meds given for 4 days ,
then 2 removed by one vet
pup goes downhill quickly
a different vet gives another 4 days of the tablets
then emergency vet dash ,as he couldn’t catch his breath ,turned out he was trying to be sick and they did more blood tests while he was there .
vets are saying the megasopagus is a cause of an underlying problem that we need to get to the bottom of.
so they are contacting specialists vets to see what to do next .
pup is only eating tiny bits of hand fed chicken and being held upright for 15 minutes after ,
but once they stop the other 2 meds he can’t stay on long term ,he will go back to being sick like before .
praying the blood tests show up something
next steps are a camera down in to stomach at specialist vets ,which at £2 thousand will wipe out remaining pet insurance left ..we have £4 thousand per issue

You live and learn …
I can’t belive I thought a £4000 limit per illness was enough
once this is sorted out I’m going to change the policies to a higher amount

Oh poor you & your poor pup. Poorly pets is so hard as you can’t explain what is happening to them.

Please don't blame yourself, lots of people have no idea about how quickly vet treatment can rack up.

I made the mistake if not insuring my first two indoor cats as I thought "well, how much can it cost to fix a cat?" - turns out, quite a lot - I spent almost 2k in six weeks between them and that was a decade ago. They were only young too.

All my animals are insured for the maximum amount now

hope Pup is better soon, what a very stressful time for you, most people don’t realise how much medical tests cost, due to the NHS. We have private medical cover, and we used to have to pay then reclaim, it’s all handled centrally now, but the costs of MRI is very expensive and other tests are very expensive particularly blood tests. Just be aware that once pup is better any policy you take out may well exclude that condition and any condition relating to it. So make sure you answer all the questions, to the best of your knowledge, otherwise claims may be denied in future. Good luck OP.

Thankyou for the kind messages above .

Hope your dog gets better soon.

Don't beat yourself up as I too have that limit per year but when I took it out almost 7 years ago I thought it would be fine. I did try and up it a few years back but they said they would have to get all the history and send it to the underwriters to review so we didn't bother as he has an ongoing list of issues I knew it would be pointless.

Oh gosh ,so they might not let me increase it as they didn’t let you bitey shark

Hope your pup is feeling better soon, I can imagine it's an upsetting time for yourself.

Just on the back of your comment about getting a higher policy cover, just be aware that if you take out the higher policy online with the same company for example, it will be classed as a brand new policy and the current condition won't be covered if any treatment is needed after the renewal. The insurance company you're with will possibly be able to increase your policy at renewal for any new condition without excluding the current condition (assuming you have a lifetime policy) if you give them a call.

Sorry if this is something you already know, I've worked in the industry and its something I've often seen that people don't realise! 😊

They didn't say no but said I would have to ask at renewal and they would have to get another full vet history and refer to the underwriters to see if they would increase the amount given the vet history. At the time we had numerous claims and we had recently been about a lump I didn't bother.