Importance of pet insurance

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Teresa J

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My previous dog, a black labrador named Desmond, was never insured and was plagued with illness of one kind or another all his life :( By the time he passed away at the age of 11 1/2 he'd cost an absolute fortune in vets fees, medication and treatments etc.

When we acquired Rusty, the labrador and Stanley, the basset - both rescued dogs - I insured them both immediately. To date Stanley has managed to run up a vets bill of around £2000 - he has allergy issues and suffers really badly with skin problems. He's had loads of testing and has regular visits to a specialist - everything is relatively under control now but he still has visits to the specialist and is on varoius medication.

Rusty has now deveoped arthritis - to be expected really as he's now 12 1/2years old. Treatment and bloodtests etc this week have amounted to £356 and he's now going to need xrays etc and continued medication.

I know times are hard but I urge everyone with insurable animals to seriously consider getting some insurance for them. Premiums I know are expensive but had my boys not been insured I realy dont know where I would have managed to find these fairly substantial sums of money for their treatment..........

Teresa xx
 
Hi - I couldn't agree with you more. My previous dog was a yorkshire terrier, but we never insured him and luckily, he didn't have many visits to the vet. However, when we had another yorkie, Ozzy (8 yrs), we insured him straight away with Pet Plan. It costs me £26 p/m, but he has a skin condition and only in May had to run tests and all sorts of procedures for Lymphoma, as all his glands were swollen for weeks and never went down.

Thankfully, after testing twice to make sure all was well, he had the all clear, but the fees were very expensive indeed.

I'm so glad we insured him, as the cost would have been a lot to shed out. Pet Plan is a little steep, but the benefits are worth it. :)
 
I personally wouldn't get a rabbit insured, as I think there are just far too many get out clauses, but if I had a dog or a cat, I definitely would. The costs can build up so quickly!
 
I don't have my pets insured because I have so many and it'd cost way too much. Luckily none of them have ever had any illnesses really, well never anything that cost over €90 and would be worth claiming for.

But a girl I know has a 1 year old basset hound, who has all kinds of health problems (hip dysplasia, etc.) and thank god she has pet insurance, because he's needed thousands of euros of vet treatment. :( Poor dog
 
we have all 3 of our dogs insured - one cost us £700 last year as she ate a fishing hook! i also have my chinchilla insured as well, but not the bunnies or piggies, though the piggies have cost me the most with various vet visits and operations, but i couldn't afford insurance for all 12 a month.
 
My four pigs are insured. It costs me about £35 per pig per year and to me it's a nice security.

It doesn't cover teeth problems or neutering but it does cover things like eye injuries, abcesses, tumours, ovarian cysts, UTI, URI and stones which I have thankfully not had to deal with (Frejas tumour was sadly inoperable...).

The deductible ammount is £50+20% of the total cost so while it may not be worth claiming a simple consultation to get antibiotics for a UTI it would make a big difference to a bladder stone or ovarian cyst operation. I don't ever want to need to consider the cost issues if a pig falls ill...
 
I didn't think you could get piggy insurance? We have our cats and the bunny insured however it is very expensive and with my OH not working we have considered cancelling it. What has put me off doing that is the thougth that as soon as I cancel one of them will get ill!
 
My four pigs are insured. It costs me about £35 per pig per year and to me it's a nice security.

It doesn't cover teeth problems or neutering but it does cover things like eye injuries, abcesses, tumours, ovarian cysts, UTI, URI and stones which I have thankfully not had to deal with (Frejas tumour was sadly inoperable...).

The deductible ammount is £50+20% of the total cost so while it may not be worth claiming a simple consultation to get antibiotics for a UTI it would make a big difference to a bladder stone or ovarian cyst operation. I don't ever want to need to consider the cost issues if a pig falls ill...

I have spent 3 months trying to find pet insurance for my guineas, and the only one I found wanted to charge me £200 for 3 pigs, per year, oh and that only covered them until they were 3. Bloody joke.

Who is this insurance with matey?

-Carma
 
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Mind you guys, I can say this now, my last guinea, Maguai, had 1 operation to remove one of her ovaries, 2 Bladder Stone operations, and one further operation because the moo pulled all her stitches out.

And this cost me £600 in her lifetime, so I am not sure insurance on Piggies is really worth it.

-Carma
 
I live in Sweden, Carma Violet...

With my policy pigs of any age can be insured but it doesn't cover pre-existing conditions. I wonder what is so different between the UK and Sweden to motivate those huge differences?
 
I wish I had known the importance of insuring an animal, because my dog over the past few months has been suffering with a skin problem. The vet says she will most likely have it for life and she is not insured, so she'll cost us a fortune. It all adds up.
 
Yes insurance is worth it for peace of mind,

although, I dread to think the amount I've paid for my dog in ten years in insurance but I've never claimed as apart for routine injections she's only been to the vet once and that cost £60.
 
I would love to be able to insure my 4 pigs but its so hard to find a good deal, Freddie cost me nearly £300 in april with his limpy leg and Sandy £100 for his skin treatments :(
 
I have dog insurance for my dogs. Iffy has a condition called S.A.R.D.S, she had to have many tests on her eyes before it was diagnosed. Shes insured for life, and to have my second dog insured with the same company was cheaper as we already had Iffy insured.

I have a seperate savings account to help pay for my piggies, and other little critters. Although our vets are so great, we sometimes put it on our account and pay it off in installments.
 
I would love to be able to insure my 4 pigs but its so hard to find a good deal, Freddie cost me nearly £300 in april with his limpy leg and Sandy £100 for his skin treatments :(
 
I have my 2 dogs insured (but nothing else). One is 12 and one is 10.

The 12 year old was healthy and had no claims until 2007 when he developed a heart problem. He's on a LOT of medication and costs a fortune and its great that he is insured.... the only problem is every year the premiums go up a lot because I've claimed for him and keep claiming and the excess goes up too - which is per year per condition ... and they now only pay (after the excess) 75% of the bill..... So while I am glad he is insured they've got me in a position they can change the rules every year - charge me more, change my excess and even with all these claims when I add up the healthy years premiums the insurance company is still the winner.....

My 10 year old was healthy until she developed a mast cell tumour in 2008 - after several operations and chemotherapy she's been okay for a while but its fully expected to return (in the same spot as they never got it all out) ... and needless to say her premiums etc rose too and so far the insurance company is still the winner for her too....

I will keep mine insured as long as I can afford it and am glad I invested for all the previous healthy years but know if I had just put the money aside each month I would be better off - but the security of knowing they are covered means a lot...
 
Hmmm I almost did not buy pet insurance for our golden retriever Prince, but glad I did after he needed surgery on his hips. I don't have Bee insured but perhaps I should? I think my Pet insurance company Healthy pets does cover pigs... will have to look into it.
 
You definitely can get exotic pet insurance (I found a company once - no idea what it was though!) It worked out so much cheaper just to save money and be ready for the bills that way though. Plus they don't insure older pets at all.

My old vets used to do a great scheme for rabbits, where you paid a little every month, and got 20% off all consultation charges and neutering, free vaccinations etc. This worked out really well for me, as my bunnies were often at the vets, plus with the vaccinations etc being free. I don't think even a scheme like that would work well with piggies though, as they don't need vaccinations, and neutering isn't so routine.
 
I have had 4 of mine insured in the last 18 months, it does cost about £32 a month but so far they have had 2 bladder stone ops and 2 large cysts removed and I am in profit, not the insurance company (if you can call it profit!).

2 years ago I had a guinea which was'nt insured. She had a very complicated bladder op that lasted nearly 3 hours (still not sure how she came through it) then a follow up op a few weeks later. All in all, after the whole saga (start to finish) cost me £1500. She was not insured and I had to dig deep in my pockets for that one (but it was well worth it and she is still with us today and just the most wonderful, brave little girl!).

I would not consider not insuring now.
 
Reading this thread has made me realise I really need to get my pets insured too. So far I have been lucky with them but I have been thinking I really should get them insured.

I have a guinea pig, cat and a cockatiel. What insurance would you recommend me to buy for them? x
 
Hi,

I have my large dog insured, but not the other animals. I have paid out myself for the guinea pigs and their treatment hascome to less than the price of the excess with the insurance.

I would definately recommend insurance for dogs and cats as for large dogs th vet bills are ridiculous! It cost us £408 overall for a prolonged ear infection for Dexter our dog luckily the insurance paid out!

We pay £15 a month which is good
 
Reading this thread has made me realise I really need to get my pets insured too. So far I have been lucky with them but I have been thinking I really should get them insured.

I have a guinea pig, cat and a cockatiel. What insurance would you recommend me to buy for them? x



These are the people I use. They have been brillliant so far and pay up very quickly, no quibbles...
http://www.exoticdirect.co.uk/
 
We used to have both our dogs insured.
When Dyzni (golden retriever) was a pup she had to have £3000+ of surgery on her back legs which meant she was on medication for life costing approx £170 a time. The premiums gradually went up every year but it was still cheaper for us than paying full price for the medication (including the excess payment). She reached 9yrs of age and the premium shot up by another 30%. Then she reach 10yrs they put it up 91.5%! This made the premium almost £600 plus the excess rose to £70 per condition. We found her medication could be bought on the internet for a fraction of the price so we decided not to renew the policy.
Harley (rhodesian ridgebak) is still insured but he's only 4, not sure how much his premuim is as hubby pays it.

I would certainly recommend insurance. Our policies also covered public liabilty in case the dogs caused an accident.
 
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