Insuring an anxious dog

[hereismydog]

Hi all. My dog needs to have a toe amputated due to a recurrent injury. His insurer has indicated they won’t pay out for the surgery because he has been diagnosed with anxiety by his vet, even though it isn’t related to the toe I asked them if they meant he wouldn’t be covered for anything as a result of his anxiety diagnosis, and the answer seemed to be that they would reject any claim I ever made for him based on that as they consider it to be a behavioural problem.

I don’t really want to continue to throw £70pcm down the drain to an insurer that will never offer any remuneration in the event of a claim, so I’m after some recommendations for an insurer that will assess a claim based on the actual problem rather than completely unrelated medical history please! I’m aware no new insurer would cover the toe as it’s now an existing problem so we will just have to suck up the £750 for the surgery, but I’m concerned we won’t be able to find insurance to cover him in case we ever need to make any other claims!

That's outrageous, I'd stop paying them immediately. Have you checked the terms and conditions because I can't see how a behavioural problem and a toe amputation can possibly be related to each other?

I would be inclined to query that. It makes no sense.

Who is your insurer?

Who are you with?

I am with PetPlan and recently received an email from their underwriters querying my dog's anxiety and aggression whilst at the vets. I had to answer lots of questions about my dog's anxiety and displays of aggression in public. But the email said they would no longer be ble to cover me for public liability, not all treatments.
I sent a strongly worded reply and haven't heard anything since. And they have settled both of the claims I had going through.

This was based on a comment in my dog's medical records saying "Dog is reactive to noise". By which I meant, when the dustbin men come round, she hides in a corner trembling. There was never any mention of aggression.
Interestingly, I was at the vets this morning and they said they've had a few inquiries from insurers recently about dogs that have been described as anxious. The companies are now equating anxious to mean aggressive. The insurers have suggested the vets use the word 'nervous' instead as that isn't flagged up by their systems.

We're with Petplan and my dog has anxiety, but we've had no problem claiming for a host of other things. Including close to 7k for scans and operations to trace and remove suspected grass seeds and the lumps on her side caused by them when she was young (she's a bonkers golden retriever who gets herself into trouble racing through the fields)!

However, the premiums are hefty (now £92 per month at age 6), though they don't increase more due to claims we make, just by breed and age.

ETA: I'll wait for the public liability email from them! Thanks for the info.

“The companies are now equating anxious to mean aggressive”

But is that maybe reactive on their part eg people insisting that their dog isn’t aggressive but is just anxious and therefore lashes out in fear. I’m not saying that’s the case for all anxious dogs, I’m just wondering if they’ve seen an increase in claims involving aggression (eg a bite) where the owners have insisted that their dog doesn’t have an aggressive bone in his body and is just anxious. I mean, anytime someone posts on here about their dog biting or trying to bite someone, there’s loads of posts about how they dog was probably just nervous and isn’t aggressive.

I'd go through their complaints procedure and then to the ombudsman if necessary, that is completely outrageous.

@ShesTheAlbatross Maybe. But then they should have emailed asking me about my dog's anxiety and how it manifests, instead of jumping to the conclusion she is aggressive.

@Skybyrd My dog is 4 and I have claimed £1000s every year as she has luxating patellas. This was a new claim for pancreatitis, so they requested a full medical history and picked up on my comment from 2 years ago. Despite the next entry in the records saying "Reactive behaviours have stopped whilst on a pain trial."