Insurance for piggies - Do or Don't?

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Well 3 out of my 5 piggies are now covered with exotic direct. Adding Maple and Pecan once they have been signed off by the vets
 
After my £175 surprise vet bill a couple of weeks ago, I was seriously considering this but after seeing the monthly payments, I thought it was maybe better to just have a savings account set aside for the guinea pigs just in case.
 
Mine arent insured nor are my rabbits. I have a savings account and a credit card.
 
Insurance is something id love to have but it isnt feasible with all my pigs. I only have 3 over 1 year then I have 10 all under 1. I think I will just carry on putting away money when I can into an account for them.
 
I've been looking for insurance for my piggies, so was reading this thread with interest! I've just tried exotic direct and they quoted me £47.50 per month for my 2 young guinea pigs, which seems high compared to others! Orchard pets has a local branch to me but it says they only insure cats, dogs and rabbits which is annoying.
 
i regret not insuring my other pets so i think i always will now, as we can't save much/anything and don't have a credit card or anything. so eddie is insured now. it was £9.64 a month with exotic direct, but just got the next years forms through and it's gone to £13.52 a month, even though we haven't used it and eddie isn't even two yet. think the first year might have had a special discount offer but can't remember lol.
 
PiggyOinkOink said:
I was wondering whether you managed to get insurance with Orchard Vets for your piggies? I live in London and the nearest one is in Brentwood, Essex but on their site they do not list a Healthy Paws plan for piggies..perhaps it is up to the branch to decide. I have emailed them for confirmation as I have 4 piggies and at £4.95 for £3k cover (each?) it would be a steal!

I wanted to ask in general, if you know someone on benefits so you can access the RSPCA branch/hospital vet services, how much do you have to pay for treatment/do you have to at all aside from the initial consultation fee?
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I did! And I wouldn't go to anyone else for cover, the only thing that worries me with orchard vets is the out of hours excess fee which is £150 :| but if I went with ED I'd be paying the £50 ( from what I can remember of the policies) each time I filled in a claims form. And they do it for guinea pigs I phoned my local one so I shouldn't see why not in the one you are looking at. Also 4.95 is for the first piggy or pet my second piggy was 2.95 as that's the deal they offer so maybe your next two piggies would be 2.95 so that's even more money saved (bare in mind though I think this would be more for 3000 cover, mine are on 2000). You'd have to confirm that with that branch though to be sure but Orchard are fantastic for me.
 
rachel491 said:
I've been looking for insurance for my piggies, so was reading this thread with interest! I've just tried exotic direct and they quoted me £47.50 per month for my 2 young guinea pigs, which seems high compared to others! Orchard pets has a local branch to me but it says they only insure cats, dogs and rabbits which is annoying.
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Have you phoned them up and asked? :S My local orchard vets have insured my two piggies :S they didn't say it on their site either I was shocked to find out they do.
 
I wanted to ask in general, if you know someone on benefits so you can access the RSPCA branch/hospital vet services, how much do you have to pay for treatment/do you have to at all aside from the initial consultation fee?[/quote]

I don't know about the RSPCA,only the PDSA

If you personally are in receipt of housing and council tax benefits you qualify for 1 guinea pig or 1 animal to be covered under the PDSA if you have a PDSA vet near you and you live in the post code area that the PDSA practice is associated with - you have to provide proof with documents from the council & pay the vets a postal order for £7.50 made payable to the PDSA, which they then forward on - which puts you on the scheme - you are expected to still make a donation of approx. 20% of the vets bill - there is usually information on the vets website about this if they do PDSA work,and the practice manager will give you full details over the phone before you go in for your interview and fill out your forms - you wouldn't be able to use a friends account / details though.
 
Squeaky_Ewok said:
I did! And I wouldn't go to anyone else for cover, the only thing that worries me with orchard vets is the out of hours excess fee which is £150 :| but if I went with ED I'd be paying the £50 ( from what I can remember of the policies) each time I filled in a claims form. And they do it for guinea pigs I phoned my local one so I shouldn't see why not in the one you are looking at. Also 4.95 is for the first piggy or pet my second piggy was 2.95 as that's the deal they offer so maybe your next two piggies would be 2.95 so that's even more money saved (bare in mind though I think this would be more for 3000 cover, mine are on 2000). You'd have to confirm that with that branch though to be sure but Orchard are fantastic for me.
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Wow! Sounds even better a deal! Perhaps it's just a deal they offer in the W Midlands branches..I am still waiting on an email response from them to confirm if they offer it.

I can access the RSPCA one if I need to as my friend is on housing benefit and they seem to be much cheaper than a vet if you need them. I imagine you have to pay for the meds but I guess they wouldn't make them too expensive to people on a low income, and I don't know if they have the same rules as the PDSA so will only cover 1 animal..Also, if I took in all 4 of my piggies would they charge just 1 consultation or 4? I guess I can ring them to find out.
 
exotic direct is £13.52 over ten months now for eddie. i thought the increase was steep but it would be less over 12 months but apparently they recently changed it to over ten months.
 
Squeaky_Ewok said:
I did! And I wouldn't go to anyone else for cover, the only thing that worries me with orchard vets is the out of hours excess fee which is £150 :| but if I went with ED I'd be paying the £50 ( from what I can remember of the policies) each time I filled in a claims form. And they do it for guinea pigs I phoned my local one so I shouldn't see why not in the one you are looking at. Also 4.95 is for the first piggy or pet my second piggy was 2.95 as that's the deal they offer so maybe your next two piggies would be 2.95 so that's even more money saved (bare in mind though I think this would be more for 3000 cover, mine are on 2000). You'd have to confirm that with that branch though to be sure but Orchard are fantastic for me.
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This is the email I received today:

Unfortunately the healthy Paws scheme (if this is what you mean) is not available for guinea pigs as the scheme covers the costs of flea/worming and annual vaccines, therefore is only available for cats/ dogs and rabbits as these are the only animals which regularly receive this treatments. We do not provide pet insurance for guinea pigs this is a separate service that you may wish to sign up with.
We do regualarly treat guinea pigs, we are part of the Best Friends group which do have several branches around the London area however you would need to check with the individual practice as to where they would be happy to treat guinea pigs at the surgery.
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Could you please tell me what branch of Orchid Vets you managed to get the insurance uin? I would like to ring them and ask more details. Perhaps it is something that particular vet does and it is not something standard across all Orchid branches.
 
PiggyOinkOink said:
This is the email I received today:



Could you please tell me what branch of Orchid Vets you managed to get the insurance uin? I would like to ring them and ask more details. Perhaps it is something that particular vet does and it is not something standard across all Orchid branches.
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This is the vets I use not Orchid sorry!
https://www.orchardvets.co.uk/
I only know of the three branches they have :/ Is there any close to you? I've never heard of Orchid vets and it's a shame they don't do insurance for guineas pigs at every vets. Just think it's unfair :/
 
Hmm, we have been debating this too. Seriously considering this now...
 
I had a think and I still wont be insuring my piggies, Peppa is too old anyway my vet bill pot is building up. Been saving £50 a month for years and only spent less than £500 in total on my own animals so its quite hefty now :-) I wont be insuring my house rabbits as there should be no reason for them to become so injured indoors I cannot afford it cash, dentals arent covered anyway, though I'm still debating it.
 
If you can afford it easily then yes however if you can't then read on. I don't think it's necessary but just keep a little savings jar and just put some money in now and then so if you have an unexpected vet trip you don't have a unexpected vet bill
 
Squeaky_Ewok said:
This is the vets I use not Orchid sorry!
https://www.orchardvets.co.uk/
I only know of the three branches they have :/ Is there any close to you? I've never heard of Orchid vets and it's a shame they don't do insurance for guineas pigs at every vets. Just think it's unfair :/
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Ah, my mistake..unfortunately they seem to only have 3 branches in the West Mids :(
I went to my local pet shop and he told me that £10 for 1 guinea pig a month is outrageous and 'not to be unkind', but that you can buy another piggy to replace that one 10x over lol I thought it was a little odd that an animal person would say that since he should know people get attached to their pets but I guess that is the reality. I told him about the Orchard Vets plans and he said that is reasonable and what it should be for an animal like that. I think that Exotic Pets are aware that they are the only Pet insurance company that will insure piggies, and since they don't have any competition then they can charge what they like.

What I don't understand is WHY does Cat/Dog insurance cost way less than a piggys since a piggy will spend most of it's time in a cage/hutch but a cat/dog can get in a fight/run over/injured much much easier..Anyways, I have to agree with the pet shop guy that Exotic Pets are charging an outrageous price for such a small animal.
 
PiggyOinkOink said:
What I don't understand is WHY does Cat/Dog insurance cost way less than a piggys since a piggy will spend most of it's time in a cage/hutch but a cat/dog can get in a fight/run over/injured much much easier..Anyways, I have to agree with the pet shop guy that Exotic Pets are charging an outrageous price for such a small animal.
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Ditto that! One of the reasons I dont have insurance is the extortionate prices for it.
 
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