pet insurance

not sure whether to get my dog insured or not. do people think its worth it. hate paying all differant types of insurance, dont think ive ever made a claim.

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  • yes - worth it

    dogs can get into all sorts of scrapes so the vet bills can mount up. we had ours insured for all her life and it saved us a few bob over the years. there's also the public liability cover which could come in handy if the dog causes say a car accident by running into the road - saves the car owner coming after you for compensation which they could do.

    insurance is never worth it if you don't claim but when you need it, it can be invaluable
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    My friend was VERY glad of it when her dog got sick.

    The bills were in hundreds of pounds - several times.

  • My daughter's lab puppy got diagnosed with a dodgy leg needing an operation the dog was less than 6 months old and the Operation would have cost thousands she was lucky she had taken it out.

  • we had a one over £1K Wilks - referral to the Royal Vet College for an issue and the RVC don't come cheap, it makes you cough a bit when you have to stump up and then claim back........
  • Mum had her collie insured. When she fell ill before she died, there were lots of tests and a couple of operations, I know the costs mounted up. Unfortunately, Mum still had to pay out lots of vet fees during the course of the collie's life, as she had a habit of biting neighbourhood dogs. image

    Then again, the scruffy but lovely mongrel we had as kids went to the vets once (not including his puppy jabs) during his life and then a final trip when he went to the great park in the sky.

  • Nick LNick L ✭✭✭

    ...there is nothing much cheaper than a hessian sack, a bit of string, some bricks and a canal bridge.

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    im JOKING!

    I dont have pets, my parents have insurance. Very pleased of it. 

    Friend of mine owns a vets...lots of 'customers' wish they had it......

  • yes worth it for all the reasons mentioned already. However do make sure you get the right cover. Some policies have limits on the amount per claim and only for a year - this is okay if you have a younger dog but once they suffer with arthritis this is something that will go on over a year and then you cant claim! No other insurance will take on a existing condition so you are stuck... Best to make sure you are covered for all claims and no time limit, it make cost more but worth it.

  • Deffo worth it, Madlot. Petplan was particularly good, though it's been a few years since I've needed it. Shortly after getting my rescue cat (I mean a cat that had been rehomed, not a cat with amazing superpowers image), he developed a UTI, then had to have an op on his bladder - the insurers paid out straight away.

    Likewise, my mum always had her dogs insured - it's only a couple of quid a month and it's definitely worth it. You never know when the little feckers are going to decide that elastic bands and nails are tasty.

  • I would recommend getting insurance. My collie staff cross is now nearly 8 years old. When she was a puppy, like most pups, decided to eat whatever was around, and ate some berries. Had to have a couple of nights stay at a vets on a drip. Without insurance - costly. Then 2 christmases ago developed pancreatitis and had to be rushed to the on call vets on a bank holiday. Had to have scans and treatment, drips etc, was kept in for over a week as this tends to kill 50% of dogs. She got lucky because of the treatment, which with after care came to over £1500. You still have to pay 25%, but saved us a lot of money. What it also means is that we are tied in to this company, as we can't switch because new companies won't insure for previous treatments or known ailments before signing up. It's a risk you take, but in my cases it is a worthwhile monthly expenditure.(She has also been to vets for cut paws and ear infections, so this is just a small listing of her mishaps !)
  • We lost our Westie a couple of years ago to liver desease/diabetes/and other ailments. Thankfully our vets claimed directly off our insurance so we didn't have to do the claim forms ourselves...I dread to think how much it all eventually cost till we had him put to sleep.

    FB...we too were asked by our vet for a referral to the RVC at Liverpool...we declined because the poor lad was suffering enough and we didn't want to be parted from him...the vet did not persist and acknowledged that our dog was fading quite fast and accepted our decision.  

  • just had a look on petplan, top cover was £35 a month! next down was £25.

    Now say the dog lives 15yrs, thats 45 hundred quid at best!

    Not cheap is it. its cheaper to insure my mrs in a merc!

    I do love im though, so i think i will. image

    need to shop about a bit i think, any ideas what a sensible level of cover would be? hes 4 months old and very fit image

  • M - you have to ask how much love is worth. image no doubt you;'ll get it back from him in spaded and that is priceless

    shop around - places like M&S, Tesco's etc offer pet insurance. or go visit the vets - they usually have some leaflets around and can advise in which maybe be better from their experiences of dealing with insurers.



  • oooh Madlot - things have clearly changed since 1998! Cats are cheaper, I think. Could you not dress your dog up and teach it to meow? image
  • MrsK8MrsK8 ✭✭✭

    I've just recently shopped around for pet insurance, you definitely can't beat having it there for when you need it.

    I went for Argos in the end as it seems like plenty of people were insured with them and had good things to say about them, plus they were reasonably priced. Some companies will charge crazy amounts, Petplan included.

    How old is the dog? Insurance companies won't pay out for pre-existing conditions just in case you weren't aware. Also bear that in mind for when choosing a company, pick one that you can stick with long term, as once you've made a claim for something you can't really move to someone else.

    Some people don't go for insurance, instead just put money aside. Treatments can go into the thousands so it's not worth the risk.

    Also go for lifetime cover. If your dog gets a long term condition you want to make sure the insurers will pay out for continous treatment.

  • Fine when younger, but it can get very expensive as they get older, even if they have no history of illness. Last renewal Tescos wanted over £60 a month for our cat and dog, despite both having been insured for at least 9 years without claim, and with a £250 excess. I cancelled the cat's insurance as we'd already decided that we won't be putting her through anything serious because she's so old. And no point getting other quotes when they're old - the quotes were no cheaper from other companies as they simply don't want to insure old animals.

    In retrospect if we'd put all the premiums we've paid into the bank we'd have had quite a decent fund to treat them both with in their old age.

  • We went with Tesco - about £10 per month for our Jack Russell. Made the error though of the cheaper option that was the one year per ailment. He became ill about 6 weeks after we took the policy (and they don't cover anything for the first 4 weeks). Tests and diagnosis came to around £700 - he had an enlarged heart. After that we were at the vets at least once a week and buying huge amounts of pills. In the last week or so he was getting through around 35 pills a day! We had about £2.5k from the lovely Mr Tesco then we were on our own. And when we got him he seemed as fit as the proverbial meat vendors four legged friend. So yes, I'd say insurance was absolutely vital!
  • we had it for our new puppy then decided to cancel as she was so healthy (hubbies decision not mine) Dog promptly had mystery illness requiring an MRI at approx £2000 followed by investigatory surgery at roughly £2000.

    personally I am a heartless bitch so declined to shell out 4k on vets whim. Went to another vet for second opinion who did heaps more diagnostic tests and sorted out the dog.

    My opinion is that in our area most poeple have insurance and the local vet has got lazy. It is too easy just to send the pet off for an expensive test when it's all paid for by insurance.


    Having said that we have now re-insured the dog and our new puppy. £12 a month with sainsburys.
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    kittenkat wrote (see)

    When we lost our last dog, they wouldn't pay the full price for her death as we had got her spayed. They argued that she was worth less because of that. FFS, how stupid and insensitive.

    You had insurance that paid out on the death of your pet?

  • You could always self insure and put £20 a month into an account .. if you have a relatively young and healthy dog it may be worth it once you have done a bit of risk evaluation?
  • Yep, I seen that today.
    I've been go comparing!
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    kittenkat wrote (see)
    Wilkie wrote (see)
    kittenkat wrote (see)

    When we lost our last dog, they wouldn't pay the full price for her death as we had got her spayed. They argued that she was worth less because of that. FFS, how stupid and insensitive.

    You had insurance that paid out on the death of your pet?

    For accidental death yes, not old age...


    I've never had a pet that needed insuring, so no experience of this, but it seems a strange idea to me that you would get a pay-out for the death of your pet.

  • I have never bothered with pet insurance.    Yes that means I have been stung a few times with relatively big bills - last and biggest one was £500 when our Staffy had to be put to sleep before Christmas (had a few tests etc first and he was ill on Sunday night so it's £100 just to walk through the door).   That said he was coming on for 16 years old and that was the only medical treatment he'd had apart from puppy vaccinations - to have had him insured all his life would have cost over 4 grand at today's rates.   

    As we had two staffies up until a couple of years ago that's 8 grand  over 16 years - we haven't spent a quarter of that in vets bills and to be honest if they had had conditions costing 8k to cure/alleviate I could have lived with myself  having them put to sleep.  

    My advice would be if you want the security of knowing you can cover it stick the money in some kind of savings account and 99% of the time you will end up well in profit.   Otherwise you just have to live with the fact that if your pet gets a conditiont that would cost more than you were willing to pay then you would lose it - I think it's more important that you give your pets a good happy life than have the means to keep them alive at all costs.  

  • We're in the 'monthly savings scheme' camp too with ours .. although part of the reason for this is that quite a few companies won't insure my little babies due to their 'unknown native bloodlines' and those that will, jack up the premium just because they are big wolfy looking dogs, and are therefore obviously destined to go on a crazed killing spree at some point. (for a small fee I could ask them to do targetted requests when the inevitable rampage happens .. just send photo and current whereabouts of target image  ).

    We've also been hit by the big vet bill (see other thread) but it just meant we covered it however necessary (no holiday that year!!!).

    Also I tend to find that most policies are so wrapped up with caveats and get out clauses that they actually cover very little except for the most serious of cases.

  • I weigh up insurance by saying "If the worst happens, can I afford it?". Consequently I don't bother with boiler cover etc.

    Could I afford the bill if my dog ran out into the road causing a lorry to swerve into a house? Probably not, hence I get insurance.

  • Chubby I think some house insurance policies offer 3rd party liability for pets - not sure if this is universal or not but it wouldn't be worth getting pet insurance just for that eventuality when you could effectively get it for nothing or next to nothing when bundled in with an insurance you may already have.   This came up last year as the Labour govt was talking about making 3rd party insurance for dogs compulsory.

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