Adolescent Dog Survival Thread - welcome to the teenage wasteland

[Bupster]

Buckled (under instruction 😄)

@VanGoSunflowers I'd rather get a pushchair than a man. 😂

That’s too adorable for words and yes, I am totally with you on that 👌😂

Still 30 degrees so we've opted for pup cups and air con

@tizwozliz thats exactly what Pablo and I did yesterday in our local, air-conditioned to beautiful arctic conditions, Starbucks 👌

Is pupsy the only dog in the world never to have had a pup cup? I am so neglectful.

None of mine have had a pup cup.
They have all had doggy ice cream though. 😁

Nope. None of mine have ever been near a coffee shop or cafe. Mind you, I haven't either, come to think of it...🤔

Mine don't like doggy ice cream which is often ££ but pup cups are free.

@SpanielsGalore I went to the super massive dog food shop today as we were out of raw and couldn't resist buying a couple of tubs of ice cream so I do hope she likes them! And some kangaroo raw food which I'd never seen before. Truly that has been the highlight of this very sticky day.

We don't do pupcups in my house either...but every birthday the dogs get an Ostrich steak 😁Kangaroo is a new one though @brushingboots - did you buy it?!

@LandSharksAnonymous I did! We have kangaroo pate in routinely and I think we've had some kangaroo chews in the past but I'd never seen it in raw form before. It's from a brand we use as the 'fancy' brand – Naked Dog – so I thought sod it!

It had dropped to 23 at 9 so pups had a quick run around on skellingthorpe recreation ground and found a ditch to dip in before driving home. A whole field of rabbits the other side of the ditch so turned them round sharpish

Can't fault PetPlan. On Tuesday, I put a claim in for P that I thought they might separate into two conditions. Today they have settled it as one claim, so I only have to pay one excess.
Between this claim and K's, I have now claimed enough to have had K insured for free for the year.

@SpanielsGalore I got Pablo insured through Petplan so that’s reassuring.
I had a lot of people telling me not to bother with insurance, that I should save the premiums each month in to a separate pot. Totally get and respect people’s decision to decide to do so of course, and I’m sure I could raise the funds if I was landed with a very expensive vet bill but I think for me personally, I’d rather pay £70 a month and not have to worry. I heard too many stories of people’s Lab pups needing to have their stomach’s pumped after eating something they shouldn’t!

Hope P is ok - I may have missed what the claim was for x

That's good to know @SpanielsGalore . We're with PetPlan also.

@VanGoSunflowers You pay £70 a month?! 😱 K is only £22 and P is £31.

P had an operation for a luxating patella and now has arthritis in her right leg, so is on long term pain relief. She has to have yearly blood tests to check the pain relief isn't damaging her kidneys. I thought PetPlan might argue the kidneys was a separate condition, but they haven't.

Insurance is another luck of the draw thing.
My first two dogs were relatively healthy and didn't have any big vet bills. A savings account would have worked for them.
My 3rd dog had lots of health issues and I claimed between £2k and £6k a year for him.
I have also claimed £1000s for P each year so far. An MRI scan at 5 months old cost £1500. Last year we exceeded the £7k limit with scans, x-rays and operations on her knee. If we get through the next three months without incident, this will be the first year that I haven't claimed more than I have paid out.

Brie was £54 monthly for the first year, it's just gone up to £65 on renewal. No claims yet.

I wonder if it's a size thing?

Retrievers tend to be quite expensive from what I have seen. Goldie insurance is bloody awful. Twatdog is £75 a month for £15K worth of cover - but he's had a few claims (for allergic reactions that have required emergency OOH vet trips). Hen is £140 a month now for £15K cover.

All mine are with PetPlan. I have to say I think their customer service is excellent.

@VanGoSunflowers I think you've done the right thing with insurance. The thing is, it's easy to say 'well save the money and you'll be okay.' I know someone whose puppy broke their leg and it was something insane like £8K worth of bills because of the type of break - it wasn't clean and they had to travel hours away to find a surgeon capable of fixing it. Puppy was about 8 months old when it happened, so going off people's 'save the money' logic...they'd be about £7.5K out of pocket if it happened to them.

@SpanielsGalore - I may have over-thunk it and went for the most expensive one. Just looked and it’s £67 a month.
Although I am a bit of a rebel in most areas of my life I have a strangely low tolerance to risk when it comes to insurance and probably over insure everything 🤦‍♀️
It has a £12k limit and the ‘covered for life’ one?

Sorry, I do remember you saying that now about P. I’m so glad they haven’t messed you around, it’s got to be stressful enough as it is!
I know the vet we are registered at require direct payment and you have to have your pet insurance reimburse you so it’s relieving to know they have paid out and not charged you two lots of excess!

@LandSharksAnonymous could be, or maybe breeds known for eating everything in sight are statistically more likely to need emergency treatment! I wonder if there are stats about on breeds vs vet visits. I might geek out on that later.

Exactly! Someone at work told me a story about their lab puppy managing to get hold of a bottle of children’s liquid nurofen and down the lot - as well as finding a package of cannabis under a bush (presumably left by county lines!!) and eating all of that too. Two lots of needing their stomach pumped at £3k a pop. At £67 a month you’ll have only saved just over £800 in the first year. It’s got to be stressful enough to have to take your pup for emergency treatment without adding in the worry of cost as well.

@LandSharksAnonymous It's breed, location and neutred/entire specific. As a generalisation, pedigree entire males living in Surrey are more expensive to insure than a female neutered crossbreed living in North Scotland. Obviously specific breeds with known behavioural or health issues are a factor too.
My spocker, as a cross breed, was cheaper to insure than my cocker spaniel.
When I first insured P, she was £17 a month. I changed the online quote to make her a lurcher living in central England for a comparison and it jumped to £45.

@VanGoSunflowers I insured for £7k as I thought it would be enough. Fortunately, most years it has been and when we went over, it was only by a couple of hundred. I can't increase P's policy now as it would be classed as a new policy and her legs would be classed as pre - existing conditions. I could cover the cost of the pain meds she is on, but not the cost of an operation if her left knee needs operating on in the future. So you are wise to insure for as much as you can afford. Better to have it and not need it than vice versa.
Are you sure your vets won't claim direct from PetPlan? Most vets will deal with them even if they won't deal with other companies. At least that's been my experience with the 5 different vets and specialists we have seen. My vets were really good this time. I haven't paid anything yet. They were happy to see how much PetPlan paid out and for me to settle the balance afterwards.

Costs do seem to vary a lot, even when you consider similar breeds so it must be location specific as well. We have a joint policy for 15k lifetime cover each for ours which is 70 a month.

We've claimed twice for the older one (two incidents of eating what she shouldn't) which was in the same insurance year and Many pets only charge you excess once per year not per claim so that only cost £99

I pay about £40 I think for Bill and we had one emergency vet trip which basically almost made up for the price of the cover, and one set of antibiotics and tests which easily made up the rest. I did think about saving up - I know someone with a rescue Great Dane where the premiums were so insane it was easier to bung it in a pot - but I did the maths and it didn't really add up unless I was doing it on top of the premiums. Having said that my sister and her husband had a scare with their dog where the operation could have cost more than £13,000 - I have savings but neither that pot nor my cover would have stretched for that. I didn't get my act together in time this year but next year I'm going to increase his cover even if the premium gets very heavy.

We've been for a dip and now camped out in front of the fan

A girl and her cat, both struggling to keep cool. They've been lying together all afternoon.