Does anyone else pay pet insurance?

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Does anyone else pay pet insurance?
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Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Fri May 05, 06 6:41 pm Post subject:

we have the 2 dogs insured with pet plan, a total of about ï¿½40 each

i reckon in merlin's life so far we have claimed for about a grand in stitiches, lucy for about ï¿½300 for amystery viral illness and for merlin again last year, roughly ï¿½160 for removal of a broken tooth

the only time that pet plan quibbled was the tooth thing when they wouldn't pay for the cleaning of same and they wouldn't pay for the case of hills science diet chicken and rice that we had to give lucy......

i am very pleased that they are insured and will continue to keep them insured....

we also insure the 2 donkeys with NFU.....as yet haven't had to claim but would be very unwilling to stop their insurance...........

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Fri May 05, 06 7:49 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't part with my pet insurance - 18 quid a month for two dogs, and we've had two ops, emergency road accident and damage in someone elses house - more than we've paid out in insurance, but in my book its worth it for the peace of mind - I know I can take them anywhere (including abroad, which we often do) and the RSPCA will pay out for any problems or injuries. Plus any profits are going to an animal charity, not a great big fat insurance company. For a lot of dogs, its clearly economic to have your own 'insurance' bank account, but for a couple, I reckon its worth it.

Check the RSPCA - its a charity, and their quote was half what we were paying with tesco (same underwriter - clearly every little was helping them!)

mayhem

Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 40
Location: Crosby

Posted: Fri May 05, 06 7:58 pm Post subject:

Pet plan saved me about 2-3k in the last 5 years.

Had a spaniel who deleloped a uterous infection that would have been about ï¿½500 for the scans and op. Then a heart murmor which lasted 2 years until she passed away last year. She was on a concoction of drugs. In the end 4-5 types. I was more than happy with my yearly ï¿½50 excess and ï¿½14 a month.

My Jack Russel had a tumor removed from her foot, this was total about ï¿½350 saved.

pet plan don't like me. Hahahahaha!

bernie-woman

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7824
Location: shropshire

Posted: Sat May 06, 06 6:19 am Post subject:

I have pet insurance with pet plan as well and hate it but I have a cat who when only two and three cost us huge amounts of money - we didn't have insurance then and struggled to find the extra money at the time - so I insured bth our cats after that

So I am now hooked into the what if scenario..... I have thought recently that I ought to be disciplined and open a seperate savings account and direct debit the money straight into there - but of course the difficulty with that is the discipline

I have friends where this has been a life saving thing for them though - one has a young dog who has had to have specialist treatment in Bristol which has cost thousands

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Sat May 06, 06 8:08 pm Post subject:

We had Pet Plan, but have now switched to Marks & Spencers who did have a deal on at about 1/2 the price.
Do shop around - Pet Plan is about the most expensive, I think, and seems to have a "deal" of some sort with some vets who push it.

I've never had it before, but when we got a saluki x greyhound and saw him run, we thought we'd better get some cover

I've got very mixed feelings about it, but it's becoming an area where insurance has moved in, and I think prices seem to follow that and take a hike, once the vets get into thinking most people are insured and the insurance will cover it.

saffranne

Joined: 23 Aug 2005
Posts: 428

Posted: Sat May 06, 06 10:10 pm Post subject:

having six cats and three dogs plus my sons two bengals who does spend a lot of time with us,we were with pet plan but then change to e&l which is a lot cheaper,but the down fall is their policy is yearly which means if any animals suffer from the same thing the year after,they dont pay out

and with pet plan my german shep is now nine yrs old,one cat at eight and another at 17 and they wont insure any animals over 7yrs old,so really we had no choice but to change all of them to e&l

but my sons bengals are still with pet plan and their policy is life,you cant really win,once jacob and isaac gets to 7yrs old then,he will have to change insurance

marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Sun May 07, 06 8:01 am Post subject:

I've got my cat insured with Sainsbury's which is about ï¿½82 a year. Worth it for peace of mind. I couldn't afford a big bill and would hate to have to have her put down is she got run over or fox-mauled (an acquaintance was charged over ï¿½800 for emergency treatment for a cat that had been attacked by a fox).

It's a feature of the times we live in though - when I was a child most people wouldn't have thought twice about having an injured cat put down (or even just wringing it's neck themself "to put it out of it's misery"). It was just part of life's hard cheese, get over it, get another. Small animal veterinary was a luxury - now it's expected, affordable and we are able to be (and expected to be) more tenderhearted.

Unfortunately the availability of relatively cheap services also leads to ludicrous expenditure and prolonging of suffering animals lives, because we can't deal with loss and death. No easy answers.

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Sun May 07, 06 7:48 pm Post subject:

hedgewitch wrote:

I've never had it before, but when we got a saluki x greyhound and saw him run, we thought we'd better get some cover

not the "oh my god he is about to step into a hole and break a leg" type of thing?

i think sight hounds see where they want to get to but don't take into account the obstacles in between..........

so what if the laundry pole is in the way?

who cares if he takes his turning circle a bit tight....

all that matters is the finishing line if you are a greyhound

i'm there hedgewitch, i'm there..............

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Sun May 07, 06 8:30 pm Post subject:
or the fences your owner has erected to keep you out of the flowerbeds.... (they're not even greyhounds!) only thing which keeps the buggers out is the watering system, cos it makes a hissing noise, and occasionally squirts them, and as its banned this year, I do not anticipate many vegetables! Harumph!

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Sun May 07, 06 9:28 pm Post subject:

Nanny wrote:

hedgewitch wrote:

I've never had it before, but when we got a saluki x greyhound and saw him run, we thought we'd better get some cover

To be fair, he's a very clever runner... but they do make you see the world on a different scale... took then both on a new walk this morning. There's a river of a reasonable size, which I'd assumed would be an obsticle (hadn't really thought about, just registered it subliminally), and the saluki x was over it in 2 bounds

It was a safe place.... but I had to re-assess my landscape pretty quickly

Fortunately, he has good recall....

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Mon May 08, 06 7:28 pm Post subject:

Quote:

It was a safe place.... but I had to re-assess my landscape pretty quickly

Fortunately, he has good recall....

to be fair merlin is nobody's fool, he is actually very bright and to watch him and lucy work a field together as a team is something...

the one thing though that neither of them will cross is nettles

the only boundary in our garden on the ditch side is 2 rows of thin wire but they won't go through it because the other side is covered in nettles....if his toy goes in the nettles he won't go after it, just stands and barks at it till somebody gets it out for him

plant you boundary with nettles and your dog will never leave the garden

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon May 08, 06 8:20 pm Post subject:

Somehow, I can see that going very worng in the veg patch, although I guess we won't be short of nettle soup!

Don't think it would work with collies though - having spent the evening brushing them (we do this about twice a year, and I often do it at nesting time, so the birds are warm!) they are so furry, a few nettles aren't going to get a look in. guess greyhounds don't have quite the same defences though!

hedgewitch

Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Posts: 5834
Location: Daft wench GHQ

Posted: Mon May 08, 06 8:29 pm Post subject:

Quote:

plant you boundary with nettles and your dog will never leave the garden

Maybe this works best with the smooth-haired long dogs? It would definately work with both mine, but my old border terrier was never deterred by nettles... but then he was never deterred by anything

glenwine

Joined: 09 Jul 2005
Posts: 37

Posted: Tue May 09, 06 7:58 am Post subject:

My 13year old dog is half Yorkshire terrier and half something else, and we call him a scouser because he came from Liverpool. This breed like all other mixtures shows great hybrid vigour and has therefore been very fit and well. We have the annual vets bill for a check-up and there have been one or 2 accidents along the way (eg stick stuck in throat/ broken glass in foot), but nothing horrendously expensive- unlike my sister who keeps King Charles Cavaliers- lovely but terribly inbred and liable to all sorts of problems ( she definitely has insurance and needs it). We have never insured him and probably would not now he is getting older. Although we love him dearly we would be prepared to let nature take its course if something cropped up that was not reasonable to pay for or would have him put down humanely. He is certainly not getting cosmetic surgery for the non malignant wart on his back! Likewise i dont insure the dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, oven etc as separate items because a few years ago I realised that the total sum of insuring them all for one year was the replacement cost of one item, and surely not more than one will pack up on me per year! (Have i just tempted fate by writing all this, Oh Dear!)

fenwoman

Joined: 12 Dec 2005
Posts: 509
Location: Tydd St giles

Posted: Thu May 11, 06 8:51 pm Post subject: Re: Does anyone else pay pet insurance?

Mary-Jane wrote:

I was checking over our direct debits recently and realised with some horror that we're currently paying just over ï¿½40 per month in pet insurance for our 4 cats and 1 dog. Given that they're mainly on the young side (dog is barely out of puppyhood, 2 of the cats are around 18 months old and the other two are about 5-ish) I wondered whether anyone else thought that a) this was an awful lot of money to be paying; and/or b) thought we should/n't really bother; and/or c) had any other ideas.

Our pet insurance provider is Pet Plan who seem to be acknowledged to be about the best around. Our house and smallholding is insured with NFU Mutual, but they don't 'do' pets - only livestock.

Any thoughts or advice on this lovely sunny Friday?

Since you have to pay the first ï¿½50 or so of every vet visit and you cannot claim for innoculations, spaying and if the bill is less than ï¿½50, I would not bother. Put the ï¿½40 a month into a savings account to be used if and when any of them needs a vet visit. Unless the dog breed happens to be one with health problems like German shepherds and the like.
I have a lot of dogs and cats and don't have insurance. Even if I only had one or two, I would still not bother because I think it is a rip off and insurance is the cause of vet bills going sky high. If they know an unwell dog is insured, they start getting blood tests, exploratory surgery and the like. I heard recently of a Weimaraner having ï¿½1500 of veterinary treatment including skin biopsy allergy testing, blood tests. JKnow what was wrong with it?...........................It had a flea allergy!

I have a dog with a flea allergy. When I took her to the vet initially, the vet said "it looks like a flea allergy. Here is some frontline, use this and she'll be fine. If she's still scratching in a week, come back and we'll investigate further.But then, she wasn't insured.

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