[pheonix]

our terrier has pulled a muscle in his leg and is currently covered by petplan's free 4 week insurance as he was microchipped 3 weeks ago. although it was a cheap vet bill, it was nice to know he was insured!
i think i will continue to insure him as he may need an xray if he doesnt improve in the next week., and incase he turns out to be an accident prone dog.
i foned up petplan to get a quote insure him for the next year...blimey ...i just couldnt get off the fone...so much pressure to commit there and then. the guy on the fone must be on commission as he was desperate for me to sign up with them . i just wanted terms via post or email to read through and i would fone back the next day but he wouldnt take no for an answer.
in the end i just had to rudely hang-up.

does £25 per month seem reasonable for £4k vet bills per year?
i definitely want 3rd party incase he bites anyone as we are on a farm and have customers coming up and strangers/dogwalkers wandering around BUT petplan wont cover 3rd party if i work from home, which i do as i live on a farm. seems a bit odd. i do have business insurance but this doesnt cover dog (bites) either.
can anyone recommend an insurance company that will give 3rd party for farm dogs and be reliable for covering vet bills?

thans

[Pebbles]

How old is your dog? We took out insurance on our dog ten years ago...it started at £8 per month and has gone up and up each year....this year (she's now 11) its £38 per month!!!! A big expense but in our case it did cover a £1200 medical bill two years ago.


Shopping round for a quote for our 1 year old dog now but they all seem to be around the same amount.


 

[jaykay]

What about talking to NFU about farm insurance for the third party bit and just putting £20 or whatever a month into a 'vet bills' saving account.

[Mammyshaz]

Pet plan are great for paying your vets without any questioning as are the kennel club insurance. There have been problems in the past with NFU refusing to pay up and owners having to pay up front then try to claim it back ( very difficult in some instances ). Shop around asking them all to send out leaflets then push one to the other for a cheaper quote for a similar package. Be firm, you just want information sent out. I rang around several and back around the best quotes again until I got a good deal.

[Bionic]

I am with Animal Friends. I have the lowest cover and I think its £6.85 per month.
My dog needed some diagnostic work that cost £350 and they paid out very quickly with no quibble.

[Greenerlife]

I pay about £12 a month I ink for my 4 year old JRT.  Needed to claim once before, and now having to do t again     So glad I have cover - £300 for x rays!   Am with More than and they have given me the best customer service I have ever had with any insurance company.

[Rosemary]

We've just uninsured our dogs and cats - we now pay the same amount into a savings account. We were paying £70 a month for two dogs and two cats. Because the dogs and one of the cats are elderly, no new insurer would take them on.

However, our dogs are 12 but in good health. IF either of them needed some major invasive surgery or something, we'd have to make a call.

Our house insurance covers third party liability for pets.

On the other hand, Tess ruptured both cruciate ligaments (each a year apart) and the ops cost £2500 each - covered, of course, by insurance.

Is it a coincidence that the operation cost the same as the insurance limit?

[pheonix]

the dog is 4 mths old. petplan will insure for life so if he injures himself in the same place repeatedly he wont be excluded.
i insured my other dog for 8 yrs with e&l without claiming - mainly for 3rd party as she was terrible at running away and chasing cars, but now shes has finally stopped (touch wood) as old age has caught up so its cancelled.
my friends dog is 4 and has cancer, but luckily shes insured and is having chemo - anyone following emmerdale?

[in the hills]

Our insurance is about £25 per month for our 7 year old Flattie. We took on the previous owners cat when we moved here (he moved 4 miles away but didn't keep her in so she kept returning) and she is not insured. Now we have another pup, we are thinking of doing the same as Rosemary and stopping the insurance and saving the money in a "pet vet bill" account instead.


My sister uses a vets that has its own insurance scheme. £15 per month which covers any treatment needed at the surgery but not at any external specialist centres. It also covers boosters and wormers.


My sisters 12 month old Flattie had cancer. She wasn't insured but paid for chemo. Poor girl was very ill during it and died anyway  . Sister wished afterwards that she hadn't had the treatment. Is it very successful in dogs  .

[happygolucky]

Although we do not insure our dogs I did think the best way is to make an "insurance" bank account that you do not touch (bit like me saying I will stock up on wine) That way the money is always  yours...find one with a good interest rate, and change it if there is a better deal. I think insurance is great unless you have more than one pet!!

[kumquat]

When we had our 1st border, we insured him through petplan and the premiums slowly increased until it was over £300. with an excess of about £75
A couple of years ago we decided not to renew and now that we have two dogs we have a dog fund, should we ever need to have any major treatment.


Luckily we have found a really good vets and they aren't too pricey. fingers crossed its the right decision

[pheonix]

the 4 weeks free insurance has a £75 excess and the yearly quote has a £100 excess. the vet bill yesterday was £28.

my friends dog had swollen neck glands and was given 4 weeks to live, she started chemo 2 weeks ago and so far so good, the lumps have reduced. she is only 4, so a big shame.

we have 3 middle-aged dogs aswell who luckily have been healthy and sensible.

[Herdygirl]

Some years ago the lovely vet we used to have allowed us to pay him a fixed sum every month.  We had horses,dogs and cats.  The fund built up and went down as various treatments became necessary.  If more vets did this then the parasites called 'insurance companies' would go out of business. Any interest made on the money held by the vet would be a perk for him/her.

I recently lost my little dog after 12 years.  He was the healthiest little thing apart from the end when his heart packed in.  My bill was £75.  If i had paid for pet insurance they would have had over £3000!! and i would have still had to pay the final costs.

We just put away a fixed sum every month now equal to the premium of one horse/dog.  After all if you are handing it over as a direct debit you can put it into a savings account.

[doganjo]

That's an awful lot for a youngster, but be careful - he now has a recorded ongoing condition and you may find if you change insurers they won't cover that leg.

[SallyintNorth]

Is it a coincidence that the operation cost the same as the insurance limit?

Absolutely not.

I have mixed feelings about the pet vet insurance.  For sure, since everyone started insuring their pets, vet bills have gone up exponentially. 

In the 80s I worked out that my average veterinary expenditure, excluding vaccinations and wormers, was £50 per annum per pet - so I put that amount in a fund each year.  I had a major op done on a run over cat, with several days hospitalisation and quite a bit of extraordinary care, done for under £200.  More recently, it cost me over £200 for a night callout to the surgery, emergency treatment - not an op - overnight care and some meds.   And when Skip broke the tiny bone in his elbow, I was quoted over £1200 just for the operation - admitedly a 'bionic' one.  A cheaper and much more practical operation was suggested when I said no.

So as an owner who doesn't insure for veterinary fees, my feeling is that my costs have gone up enormously. to the point where I do consider having veterinary insurance as I could well be faced with a truly agonising decision one day.

However, I suspect that without the insurance companies, much of the treatment that is now available to pets would never have become widespread, because many many owners would have made the alternative decision and it would not have been financially viable to develop the drugs and operations.

So it's a double-edged sword.