Pet Insurance Advise - Dog

[shiftin_gear98]

Hello Org Folk.

As I am about to get my first dog at the weekend. I need a little advise from the mighty collective.
I have never owned a pet that I needed to insure so I am a little at a loss.
We had a Lab when I was a kid, but I obviously didn't get involved in this kinda thing, hell we are talking years ago. I don't think insurance for dogs was a thing.
Through the powers of Google-foo I have found several money grabbing barsteward companies who are happy to fleece me on a monthly basis.

But who are the good ones? This is where I need you org.

So far Bought by Many look like a good thing but are a little steep at £41.66 a month. More Than are a more reasonable £32.07.
But don't have quite the same yearly limits.
However I have no idea if £7000 a year is good, bad or indifferent. Bought by Many has a £15,000 yearly limit making £7000 look a little measly.
I obviously want to cover everything as I can't afford to pay a vet thousands if something was to happen. Yet £500.00 a year to insure it seems a little steep.
But I now this cost will probably go up every year as all insurance seems to.

Please shed a little light if you can. Ta.

[Biker Biggles]

It does go up as the dog gets older and it can vary according to the breed.Also,there will likely be a substantial excess where you pay the first wad of any claim plus a limit on repeat treatments for the same problem. Dare I suggest an alternative------Start a dog fund savings plan and put the £40 a month in that. Younger dogs rarely get sick unless it is serious enough to be terminal so you should be able to build up a fair bit in the fund for those older dog issues. Its a bit of a gamble but Ive tried it and Ive tried insurance and I have probably come out evens. Other considerations-----Get the right sort of dog, a small cross breed terrier type mutt which is likely to be robust and relatively cheap to repair if needed. Avoid large pedigree dogs which are prone to design faults and expensive trouble.

[Adam Ef]

We use Pet Plan as it's integrated into the Vets that we use and they deal with all payments and claims if needed. We pay for it as part of a local Vets membership scheme which gives us the flea and worming tablets and yearly booster / checkup and the initial vaccinations as part of it. Seems quite expensive, but then all the extras with the Vet would wet us back a bit each month / year.
We have also had to claim for thousands of £ of treatment in the first few years we had our dog. She had a very rare dog version of meningitis, which was more an extreme immune response to nothing, but the same symptoms as meningitis. She was on steroids for the first 3 years. Very glad we had insurance or it would have been a very brutal life lesson for our kids.
I'd say work out what Vet you might use and then work out what will work best with them or what they recommend.

[shiftin_gear98]

"Avoid large pedigree dogs which are prone to design faults and expensive trouble" - Yeah maybe I should have said it's a Fox Red Lab. So big, pedigree and design faults. Ticked all three.

I did think about doing exactly what you suggest about putting the money aside. My brother in law has a Labradoodle - stupid fugly dog - I don't like Poodles.
He is stupid because it ate something it shouldn't have. Leading to all sorts of nightmare complications - £4000.00 vet bill.
He is insured, but would have been buggered otherwise. That would be 8 and a bit years of putting £40.00 away. The dog isn't two yet.

But thank you for your comment. I do like the idea, as I hate paying insurance.
But not sure I can afford not too.

[shiftin_gear98]

Adam, I did see our local vet offered such a scheme, maybe I'd better give it a better look. Thanks.
Yeah you kinda nailed it on the head, I don't really fancy having to tell my kids the dog is done for, just because I can't afford to save it.

[garynortheast]

We use Pet Plan........
We have also had to claim for thousands of £ of treatment in the first few years we had our dog. She had a very rare dog version of meningitis, which was more an extreme immune response to nothing, but the same symptoms as meningitis. She was on steroids for the first 3 years. Very glad we had insurance or it would have been a very brutal life lesson for our kids.


PetPlan for Mabel too, it was the outfit the rescue centre use, so Mabel had cover when we collected her at 14 weeks.
Strangely enough, I had the same experience as Adam - Mabel went down with a form of Meningitis at 13 months old. It involved a trip to a very up to date, high tech veterinary centre in Solihull at a cost of £2400. The total vets bill including our local vet's fees came to just under £3000. I paid the excess which was around £270. very glad we had the insurance!

I'd also go with the recommendation of a crossbreed/mongrel. Mabel is a lurcher so by definition, a mongrel, albeit of a particular type. Mongrels tend to be temperamentally and physically much more stable than single breeds with all the inbreeding and congenital defects. Dogs coming from a hound base (greyhound, whippet, deerhound, Bedlingtons, Saluki etc) generally have very good nature and temperament. Beware of anything with too much border collie. Lovely dogs but total headcases!

[Adam Ef]

Beware of anything with too much border collie. Lovely dogs but total headcases!


That's our Winnie! Nutter. But loveable.

[Biker Biggles]

I have had a few dogs over the years and it went like this. Fox terrier lived 16years last 9 with me. Golden retriever lived 8 years cancer. Both insured. Cocker spaniel lived 13 years cancer. Jack Russell mix mutt lived 18 years. A couple of sprockers one died 12 years cancer and the other still going strong. I had the full cancer treatment for the retriever on the insurance and I wouldn’t put another dog through that again. Palliative care for the recent dog was much better and he had a good quality of life until the last day. Good luck with your new dog

[Luckypants]

I would vote PetPlan here too. My daughter in law is a vet and PetPlan pay up promptly and with least problems - she likes them because they respect her opinion. With our little staffie we made the mistake of going with Animal Friends who have paid up OK but then immediately exclude whatever condition they paid up on from future claims. So our little staffie is no longer covered for orthopaedic conditions. Remember once your pet has a major issue, the other insurers will exclude it or refuse insurance, so you cannot change insurers later.

Look very carefully at limits to treatment costs, £10k per annum might seem reasonable but there may also be limits on cost per condition. Animal Friends have a limit of £2500 per condition, which won't cover a broken leg if it needs plating for instance.

Always get a lifetime policy. That way, a chronic condition will be covered for the lifetime of the pet, not just the life of the policy (one year). You can be sure an annual policy will have the chronic condition excluded come renewal. This is key.

Once your pet gets older, the insurance costs go up. Eventually the cost of insuring is too much and you probably won't put an old pet through extensive treatment such as a major operation or cancer treatment. (see above) With my previous dogs, I have stopped the insurance and saved the premiums to cover costs of any non-major treatment they needed until they passed away. (suggested above as well) If you do this, make sure your household insurance covers you for the dog biting someone, worrying livestock, causing an accident etc. My little staffie is approaching this point now. The younger one is healthy and has no claims yet, so will be insured for several years yet.

[shiftin_gear98]

Thanks for all the comments.

Looking at my local Vet's website they don't seem to be linked to any insurance. But I will ask them as I need to get pup booked in with them for his jabs etc.
They do a PHP Pet Health Plan, @ £15.00 a month to cover the yearly cost of jabs worms etc. But again I have no idea if this is worth it or not.

I did look at PetPlan last night, they however seem to be quite expensive, £44.01 for basic cover and £71.29 for similar cover to Bought by Many. I will have to study the wording for both companies policy's.

Having looked at reviews for More Than this morning I'm not gonna give them a second thought.
The amount of 1 star reviews were way too high. Not worth the risk in paying if they will not pay out.

[Dave20046]

Vets say Petplan are good but they ripped me off a bit once so I avoid.


Dog surgery can be expensive so not sure the self insure route will be best but it's probably quite a close thing. I think for the first 5 years premiums were about £14 a month, I'm on year 10 now at £23 per month so roughly spent a little over £3k on insurance. The excesses have been prohibitive of claiming on little stuff but we did once decide a watch looked tasty and ate that so surgery then was about £1200. I just need something slightly bigger to be surgically removed before death and I reckon I'll be quids in, perhaps a large pocket watch or a small alarm clock.

[Dave20046]

Thanks for all the comments.

Looking at my local Vet's website they don't seem to be linked to any insurance. But I will ask them as I need to get pup booked in with them for his jabs etc.
They do a PHP Pet Health Plan, @ £15.00 a month to cover the yearly cost of jabs worms etc. But again I have no idea if this is worth it or not.

I did look at PetPlan last night, they however seem to be quite expensive, £44.01 for basic cover and £71.29 for similar cover to Bought by Many. I will have to study the wording for both companies policy's.

Having looked at reviews for More Than this morning I'm not gonna give them a second thought.
The amount of 1 star reviews were way too high. Not worth the risk in paying if they will not pay out.

On companies I've had Petplan, Animal Friends (didn't have an issue and I think they got lumped with the surgery but the Vet strongly warned me to leave them), Direct line and now with Sainsburies. Haven't tested sainsburies yet.

If it hasn't already been said; your best bet is to get one decent provider go for lifetime cover and stick with them. It's actually how Petplan stung me, I bought Lifetime cover and they said 'you get a free 8 week trial first' which I obviously accepted, I actually had to make a claim 4 weeks in which went ok but then the complaint reoccurred on week 9 and they denied it because the trial they gave me wasn't Lifetime cover plan so they treated it as a pre-existing complaint even though I'd actually bought Lifetime cover on the policy I subscribed to. Sneaky ****s.

[shiftin_gear98]

Dave, Fingers crossed it doesn't eat anything else.

What dog do you have, £23.00 a month for a 10 year old seems a bargain.
I'm being quote £40+ for a pup. Bloody pedigree mutt.
I'm beginning to wonder what pitful's owning a lab is going to bring.

[shiftin_gear98]

On companies I've had Petplan, Animal Friends (didn't have an issue and I think they got lumped with the surgery but the Vet strongly warned me to leave them), Direct line and now with Sainsburies. Haven't tested sainsburies yet.

If it hasn't already been said; your best bet is to get one decent provider go for lifetime cover and stick with them. It's actually how Petplan stung me, I bought Lifetime cover and they said 'you get a free 8 week trial first' which I obviously accepted, I actually had to make a claim 4 weeks in which went ok but then the complaint reoccurred on week 9 and they denied it because the trial they gave me wasn't Lifetime cover plan so they treated it as a pre-existing complaint even though I'd actually bought Lifetime cover on the policy I subscribed to. Sneaky ****s.

That is a bit of a **** take.
Do you do yearly plans now?

[shiftin_gear98]

Has anybody done the Vet monthly health plan thing?
I have no idea if £15.00 a month is good or not, compared to just paying for what you need as and when.
My vet doesn't seem to advertise pricing.

[Dave20046]

Dave, Fingers crossed it doesn't eat anything else.

What dog do you have, £23.00 a month for a 10 year old seems a bargain.
I'm being quote £40+ for a pup. Bloody pedigree mutt.
I'm beginning to wonder what pitful's owning a lab is going to bring.

Haha I was trying to save my self from the shame... it's a cat that thinks it's a dog!

That premium makes self insure a bit more attractive but then again I know two people who bought pedigree puppies and thought 'I'll arrange insurance later' - number one ate something it shouldn't have that cost £2k and number 2 found the puppy had some complex defect that took a lot of blood transfusions etc. the total was about £6k of debt for the owner

[Dave20046]

That is a bit of a **** take.
Do you do yearly plans now?

Yeah it was a shyster mov, they must have figured most problems rear their heads in the infant stages so commercially they can dodge the long term responsibility of those complaints if they offer a 'free trial' in those first 2 months.

I go for a yearly lifetime cover now.
You will also learn, Vets profit from pretty much every little aspect. From the food they sell to subscriptions. I started off at a big chain vets who tried to refuse treatmeant because I wasn't buying their overpriced food claiming that the kitten may have had IBS which needed ruling out, took it to a little independent and they gave him antibiotics quite cheaply and all was good forever more.

[shiftin_gear98]

Yeah I think it'll be a steep learning curve. My vet is a local independent. So hopefully they are good.
No shame in it being a cat, any feedback and advice welcomed. Thanks.

And yeah I think the chances of something happening when they are young and dumb. Is quite high.

[Biker Biggles]

One other consideration. Im told that people are paying seriously silly money to buy their dogs these days and that cost needs to be factored in. Not doing so gives my self insurance fund a nice start in life. I would certainly baulk at paying a grand or even more for a new dog when there are plenty of very nice ones available for a niminal amount from rescue centres.

[shiftin_gear98]

You'd have kittens if you knew how much this damn dog is costing already.

[Biker Biggles]

I think Id best shut up:)