Pet insurance

You get what you pay for. Those prices wouldn’t get you much. Unless that’s monthly? 

Nora

After much thought we have not renewed our insurance for the dogs this time. We have two much loved dogs, aged 2 and 4 and have never claimed, nor did we claim for the dog we had previously for 10+ years. They both are part of the local vet programme, and by joining Dogs Trust for £12.50 pa we have public liability insurance for them both. We also have a cleared credit card put aside to pay immediately any urgent bills. We simply could not see the point of paying £30 - £40 a month for something we would never use. Having said all of that it took some real heart searching, you just keep thinking but what if??!!

We insured our first dog with Pet Plan  for £7000 cover when she was 4 months old. At two and a half years she developed Lymphoma.  After 6 months of treatment she was sadly put to sleep a year a go. The treatment in total came to £12,000 of which the £7000 was covered by the insurance company. They were exceptional. The hospital submitted their invoices and were paid direct. This was invaluable to us as we were so upset and devastated I dont think we could have coped with the added stress if this had not happened. The monthly premiums were worth every penny and more. Would highly recommend Pet Plan 

I too would recommend Pet Plan.  They are more expensive than most other policies but the level of cover is excellent.  Many companies that deal with pet insurance do not offer cover for life.  Cover for life means that if you have claimed for a particular condition, you can claim for the same condition in a future year.  If you dont have this, it means if you claim for a particular condition, you will never be a&e to claim for the same condition again in a future year, even if you change insurance company.  

David 

We have never insured ours. Seven dogs over forty years plus. Only one has had a couple of large bills and she is a little terrier, still with us aged 15, tottering on...

Instead of paying £30 - £40 each month, we have put £50 per month  into a 5% regular savings account, renewed each year. It soon mounts up....

As veterinary care has developed, the costs have risen greatly over the years. I never begrudge a vet anything, they are miracle workers, but there is no doubt that treating a pet for anything other than routine minor ailments is now very expensive. Like others, we put the money aside. Petplan used to be good, years ago, but now we find just the best of a bad deal really. Pets are classed as aged at 8, so you don't get the full payout, or they are no longer insured for certain illnesses. If you take out a for life policy, then you can't shop around as you would do with other insurance policies, and the premiums get higher and higher every year.

One thing we have learned. If your pet is on long term medication, say for pain relief or a heart condition, then check out the price of drugs from a reputable online company. Our dogs use Metacam. A 100ml bottle from our vets costs over £50. We use a written vet prescription, which gives 2 repeats and costs £15 each time. We then buy the Metacam from an online company, and with postage, it costs us £12. So that is £17 per bottle. Quite a saving!

Edit: I meant to add that we have used the online company for over 10 years, never had any problems. It pays to research carefully though. Happy to pass on company name if others need it, flea treatments and workers are a lot cheaper as well.

Do you have to take your dog in to your Vet when getting the prescription? we have to pay for a health check every 3 months before they will issue the medicine. So in our case it would be pay the Vet for a health check plus a prescription as they won't give this without seeing the dog, which makes sense. Meaning there won't be a lot of saving to be made.

We also get a prescription from the vet cost£16.  We also get Metacam 180 ml bottle costing £18, we were paying £50 with the vet.  We also get Apoquel tablets for her allergies and we pay about £63 for 45 tablets, can't remember what we were pay with the vet but it is a lot less.

We are using Animed direct and are really good.  We used to be able to send the prescription but now the vet has to do it.

Lynne

Metheven

we pay a monthly fee to the vet about 12.99 which covers her yearly injection, all flee stuff and worming tablets, we also get one free consultation a year.

we have a free 6 month check up so may be this covers us for getting the prescription.

lynne