[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.