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I am considering getting pet insurance for my dog. Not sure which one is best as there are so many. Has anyone used pet insurance and would you recommend it as being worthwhile?
Cheers

I have had many dogs over the years and fortunately I did not have many vet bills until my last dog which was a Rotti. Up until he was approximately 3 years old the vet bills were average. After that he had quite a few visits to the vet each year, on two occasions the bill was in the thousands. I did not have pet insurance.
If I had had pet insurance the cost would have been mostly covered. After 5 years with out a dog I have finally got a 6 month old pup. The first thing I did was to research pet insurance. There are many different levels of,insurance and obviously costs. There is a comparative chart on this website, I suggest you check this out.

There are no cons only pros in having pet insurance in my book.

Do your research and decide what level of cover you will need.

Pet insurance is a must have for most people. Everyone wants to be able to have their pets treated when sick but when dogs get a major illness like cancer it is expensive to get them treated properly. Many people just cant afford the high costs and without pet insurance often the choice is very limited.

Its always best to get insurance as soon as you get a dog prior to it getting conditions that will be excluded once they are pre-existing. I have to have two different insurance companies because I changed two dogs to another one who initially told me they would take Frodo I wanted all three dogs with the same company. When it came to it they said no due to his previous cancer. The bit that really got me on that was the person in charge of deciding if he was insurable thought she knew more about his cancer than his oncologist. I had a supporting letter from Frodos oncologist at the two year mark as to the likelihood of recurrence I tried on several occasions to get it reassessed with no luck.

Interestingly with this same insurance company both of my two dogs have been excluded for dog attacks. The thing with this was I have rescue dogs and a biffo happened between one of mine and the rescue dog and vet attention was required. Not major. This incident happened prior to me changing companies. Somehow the vet messed up put it down as a fight between my two on the records instead of one of mine and a rescue who was only there a short time. Result of this there is a total ban on any dog attack injury on either of my two dogs. This means if I walk down the street a dog charges out of the yard and attacks either of the ones with the exclusion they wont be covered by insurance because they have this exclusion for dog attacks.

Whilst I can appreciate an insurer has to assess the risk, I do have issues with the people making decisions with complete disregard to the people that know best. I am wondering how many years vet study, oncology in particular she took in regards to Frodo?? One in three dogs are at risk of cancer so why not just exclude cancer from the policies. Perhaps they should look at investing in cancer research to save money in the future?

One other minor detail. Other than Frodos cancer and associated treatments his other history is a bladder infection four months after he finished chemo thats it. Wonder if that is any more or less than than claims of other dogs.

The moral is to get pet insurance early, choose the right company from the start as changing can be a nightmare with all the exclusions you have claimed from the previous company.

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1. Sending tumours to the lab saves lives
2. Pet insurance allows you to give your dog the best treatments available
3. Using an oncologist gives your dog the best chance of survival.

Has anyone had experiences good or bad once you lodge a claim? Who would you best recommend in this area. It does make it hard if you have to stay with the same one all the time. Other insurances you can hunt around when the renewal comes in. My dog is 3 and I have never had him insured.

Hi I have pet insurance for the dog that I have now unfortunately I did not have this when I have my Golden Retrevior and it cost me a lot of money over the time I would recommend anyone getting pet insurance as soon as you get your animal as cats can be insured as far as I know I had to have tests done on my current dog and I only had to pay the excess and the rest was covered wish I had done this on my previous dogs

You dont have to stay with the same one. You just need to be aware if you have previously had a claim with your pet insurance and move to another company, you may get an exclusion on your policy for the previous sickness and it could be classed as a pre-existing condition. It is best to find out what is excluded before you cancel the old policy. If you go to another company prior to cancelling the old one make sure you send in the medical records so they can put any exclusions on your policy so you are aware of them. You dont want to wait until you claim to find out the condition was excluded.

As for the claims. The company that still does Frodo paid everything they should have, but were slower in paying out the claim than what you would expect. Four years ago though. The company that has my other two dogs was a bit of a nightmare in terms of history when I made my only claim. They made it sound like there must be more when they got the vet records. It was a slow process with the back and forth wanting more info when there was nothing more I could give them. I did get paid in the end. They may well perform better now, but I have not had any sort of claim in 3.5 years

Unless you can afford vet bills that potentially (for something like cancer) could run into thousands of dollars, pet insurance is a must. Part of responsible dog ownership is to be able to afford vet treatments. For the small amount each week it costs it is well worth it.

_________________
1. Sending tumours to the lab saves lives
2. Pet insurance allows you to give your dog the best treatments available
3. Using an oncologist gives your dog the best chance of survival.

someone told me that you can't continue pet insurance once a dog reaches a certain age Is that true? I've always had little poodles who live a long time (my last dog died last year age 17 years 5 months)

I have not heard that before. I do know most companies have a cut off point to first get insurance. Usually around 8 or 9. I have one dog who is 11 and he has ongoing insurance. My other two are 8.5 and their policies get renewed each year. Two small claims (Less than $1000 and one was accident) on one and one on the other.

I have two different companies as the one that two of my dogs are with refused to take Frodo due to his pre existing cancer. Originally they said they would until push came to shove and the other two were signed up. The underwriters had obviously studied and knew more about Frodos cancer than Dr Wyatt as his medical opinion meant nothing to them as they knew more. I guess with their experience on the subject perhaps Dr Ken could employ them when his next vacancy comes up or if he takes holidays Funnily enough the only claim other than the cancer in 7 yrs of having the policy was a bladder infection. At a guess I would say total cost a lot less than many other dogs over that many years of the same age.

_________________
1. Sending tumours to the lab saves lives
2. Pet insurance allows you to give your dog the best treatments available
3. Using an oncologist gives your dog the best chance of survival.

I will be looking at the policy very carefully now that I have retired I will be looking for a policy that keeps in mind that pensioners have a limited income and still would like to do the best for their pets so when I get my renewal I will be checking this carefully do that I can decide if I want to continue with the plan I have or change as my dog has not had any pre-consistency history to date but the age is coming up to the limit I an change without it being a problem

If you are looking at pet insurance best you read the review I have done on Petplan so you know what your getting there

_________________
1. Sending tumours to the lab saves lives
2. Pet insurance allows you to give your dog the best treatments available
3. Using an oncologist gives your dog the best chance of survival.