Pet insurance

[WilmaFlintstone1]

Just need advice here. My parents have a 6yr old dog who is insured by Sainsbury’s pet insurance. No issues to date and they paid out when it was discovered he had a hip problem.

Four days ago he started vomiting and this has continued. He saw the vet on Monday who gave medication which he has been unable to keep down. He deteriorated further and so my Mum took him back yesterday to their vet. They wanted to admit him as they said he was very dehydrated.

However they wanted £500 up front to do this which my elderly parents just did not have so they had to take him home again.

When I found out I offered to put the money on a credit card so that his treatment could be started . I got him booked in with my vet who took blood and agreed he needed admission, a drip etc and they are querying Addisons Disease. They may need to do more bloods and the overall bill so far is £2100. My vet (bless him) said I did not need to pay anything up front as he knows me and knows I will pay but I did pay 50% on a credit card which only has a £1200 limit.

I was happy to do this to show commitment to the bill and am hoping the insurance company will now take over. Mum is calling them today.

Thing is that people take out insurance because they generally don’t have such large sums up front. So why bother with insurance if the vets still want huge amounts up front,

btw I am absolutely not blaming vets here but the selfish bastards who get their payout from the insurance company and disappear without paying their vet bill. Probably answered my own question there!

Am awaiting hopefully good news this morning and that the issue is a highly treatable problem and nothing more sinister. My parents lost a dog to liver cancer before they got this dog and I don’t think their emotions will cope with another loss.

While that does happen usually the vets submit the insurance forms so make sure the pay vet direct box is ticked. It's more common that some insurers are slow or try to wriggle out of paying at all and the vets are then the ones sat with the debt and staff time cost of chasing payment, but their contract is with pet owners (who probably don't have the funds to settle in full) not insurer.

My dogs with Petplan I've never had to pay upfront at own vet or specialist referrals only the excess as they've a good reputation for settling usually within a week. So I think it's partially making sure you choose your insurer well from the start.

I hope your parents dog makes a swift recovery and has just picked up a bad stomach bug.

Thanks both, vet has said he is a bit better today and has actually eaten something this morning and kept it down. He is having another lot of bloods today and possibly an USS. However will definitely be home later today which is a relief.

Mum has submitted the claim now and Sainsbury’s generally pay out within five days so hoping all will be well now.

Hope pup is ok.

Our vet stopped dealing direct with the insurers we use as they take 6 months to pay. We can cover bills short term so currently carry on with them as we get it back eventually but this is why. Like you our vets know us as we’ve used them for our motley crew of rescues for 20 years and are happy to wait a few weeks but they shouldn’t have to. If we didn’t have the money short term then there are insurers who will deal direct with vets. You do tend to pay higher premiums though.