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]

Originally Posted by Adam Ef

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]

Originally Posted by garynortheast

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.