A Plea to New Dog Owners Pet Insurance Please
 

:exclaim: I am writing this as I am so very heart sick at all the threads over all the years, where owners are so distraught, because their puppy or their young dog has been diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, that needs surgery, or other huge medical expenses to get well.

THEY DONT HAVE THE FUNDS!!!!

There are a few plans in the USA that do cover genetic and congenital defects, please, please get your puppy enrolled in a insurance program that covers this.

The cost of surgery is well pretty expensive, easily $2,000 or more, and then add in the diagnostic testing etc you can easily go to $ 3,000 or more.

The earlier you enroll the cheaper the insurance is monthly. And also many plans won't cover pre-existing conditions that is wise once you do your first puppy wellness check, you immediately apply for insurance.

You can easily pick your carrier before you pick up your puppy!

I will say that paying $35 a month which equals $420 a year for three years would not even cover the cost of one LP surgery if you needed one and did not have insurance.

And just so you know up until now I have self insured, my next puppy will be insured with Trupanion here in Canada.

I have spent many many many thousands of dollars on my dogs and some thousands or so on my cat. And I have done this willingly and with a pretty big bank account behind me.

But I have done the math and I would have been ahead many thousands if I had not self insured.

And quite frankly if you get afford $35 a month, or don't want to spend that monthly, maybe dog ownership is not for you at this time.

I totally agree with you that it's a necessary cost of pet ownership! $35/month is a small cost when compared with other bills. There's a lot of options out there though, so why Trupanion? Looking to get Billi covered here soon...

Does insurance cover things like spay/tooth removal?

I am in Canada and Trupanion here is the only company that will cover genetic conditions. No life time limit, no specific disease limit, no dropping of you if your dog gets treated for an expensive condition.

Research in the USA we do have some Pet Insurance threads here that are more USA oriented, and also there is a stickey in the Library on Pet INsurance.

Some people don't seem to understand that even with pet insurance, you still need funds to pay for emergencies. They think their pet's insurance is just like their own health insurance, and you just show the card & get treated, not realizing that you have to pay for the health services & then get reimbursed through the insurance.

I was with ZoE at the ER vet a couple of week ago, and a woman was ranting at the desk about having insurance, so she wanted her dog treated and was yelling at the receptionist who was trying to explain that payment must be made at time of service, while the woman's yelling, "I have insurance, you getting your #^%$&^# money!!!" :eek:

For those that have pet insurance, could you make some recommendations on which companies are worth looking into?

You are correct. I am sorry I should have mentioned that in my post. It is another thing to check out with your insurer.

I do know here in Canada at many emergency hospitals the walk in "cost' so to speak is $2000. THat is you need to have credit available for a $2000 bill before you even see the emerg vet. And they swipe your card to insure that.

How-ever for my Canadian friends, once you go to an emergency hospital once, my experience has been that they are pretty leninent on that $2k swipe on credit card, if of course you have paid up well before when you bring in your next animal.

I have insurance on all 3 of mine. Unfortunately I have VPI. They don't cover hereditary, congenital or pre existing conditions. Now they are all too old to switch to a company that does. In the future I would only get insurance that covers these things like Gemy's.

Lately I have been thinking of dropping it as the 95.00 a month for all 3 is getting harder to afford. But then Pixie had UTI and Cali just had a growth removed and I am glad I have it. So I will continue paying the premiums. I also have Care Credit and savings so they will always get the vet care they need. It just would have been nice if it had covered Cali's 7,000+ bills for her MVD, Pixie's LP surgery and Dixie's (RIP) congenital kidney failure.
I think more pet insurance's are covering these conditions so be sure and shop around and get one that does.

I took the money that I would have spent on a pet insurance policy and put it in a savings account so I can spend that money anyway that I need to// I also have a care credit card

I have Trupanion for my 2 rescues due to their genetic conditions clause. I also have my girl from a breeder on Trupanion. I couldn't be happier with them. They're very quick to send reimbursements & they even cover the cost of the office visit. Many vets have a free 30-day trial that you can use to try it out. I would highly recommend Trupanion.

I have Trupanion. Been very happy with it. I've received well over the 6,000 mark in refunds. Very well worth it.

I too have Canada Trupanion for Enzo...I pay $48.50 a month. As I mentioned before on another thread, its like any other insurance we carry...house, car etc. I hope I never need to use it, but I sleep better at night knowing I do :)

Both my boys have Trupanion. After P-Nut had 2 hip surgeries for LCP in his first year, we decided all of our current and future dogs will have insurance. P-Nut made it cost effective fast. And we've always gotten reimbursement within a week. $35/mo per dog is cheap peace of mind. If something costly happens, we're good.

You know the thing of it is, that all you need is one serious illness or accident, and the insurance pays for itself.

One could get lucky, and have no health issues with their dog(s), but how realistic is that really? Over the life time of your pet? As all dogs age the likelihood of needing to treat something with a senior dog is quite high.

GREAT POST, Gemy.

I used to be a non-believer in insurance, and now? All 3 of mine are on it and I wouldn't be without it. It is VERY worth it.

One more thing Trupanion here in Canada will cover dogs that are used for breeding, and service and working dogs. Not many insurers do.

Thanks for the info. Good to know.

I'm happy we have it for Enzo. The problem with saving the premium and putting it into an account is that if something goes wrong early into the saving process, there really isn't enough money saved. IE: If I save $50. a month instead of buying insurance and Enzo gets sick 4 months into the term, I have $200. saved - Just something to think about :)

I agree getting insurance for Buster early saved me a lot of money. When I first got him he had a lot of health issues so I decided the best thing would be to get pet insurance. I did my research and thought the two best companies for me were Trupanion and and Pet Plan as they both covered hereditary defects. I went with Pet Plan as they also covered alternative care. I was lucky as we had made about 3 months of payments when Buster was diagnosed with LP and it was great to get partially refunded on his 4,000 bill. Two things to remember one you still have to pay upfront so have a emergency fund in place and the other thing to look into is the cap per incident/illness. Some companies will put a cap = limit on the amount you can receive per incident/illness. If the cap applies to the incident/illness and it is a reoccurring problem you could go through your limit the first year. Make sure the cap resets each year.

I just bought some. I went with a catastrophic type plan/payout and wellness package through embrace. It will cover something major at a low premium $95/year each for two dogs for insurance (excluding wellness). Since my pups are not babies, I'm having my vet do the ortho exam and submitting it now to avoid a longer waiting period and am having a medical review requested to see what will be considered pre existing. I have 30 days to change my mind but I was pretty strategic in how I set it up for what I wanted out of it. I definitely think anyone with a new puppy should insure and I think if the dogs are older you have up really think about it and add up all the costs.

I used to believe in just putting money aside. But here we are with two sick dogs. The second is insured, thankfully.

You have to be really careful in choosing the plan and prices do go up yearly. A very large number of pets are euthanized at the ER because of lack of funds and it is heartbreaking. I will hever have a dog without insurance now.

Thanks for the post Gemy. I am going to get it fur Wallee too. Since I knew not a lot about backyard breeders and yorkie health issues before getting Wallee and coming here, I have no idea what to expect for Wallee' a health. His mommy was adapted up the street from me after being retired from breeding and the new owner has all her IBC information but I know nothing about his daddy. Since I saw both parents and they were both 6lbs and Wallee is now 12, I am sure he has some genetic traits from a previous generation. I love him to death and pray he remains healthy but in future I would do my research better.

That sounds interesting. Catastrophic what is the definition per the policy? Would cancer count? Or do they mean things like car accidents or some such?

You can get a quote on line. Has Wallee been ddx'd with any specific condition at this point?

Catastrophic meaning that I won't use it for most things. I chose a $1,000 annual deductible, 80% reimbursement, $5,000 annual policy limit and no drug coverage (drugs administered in hospital are still covered though). The cost of the plan is essentially paid for with the gain I'll have on the wellness package. So the $95/ year per dog drops to $89 for two dogs this year and then next year it will pay for itself when i choose the wellness plus. I have savings and access to credit, and really wanted it for bills over $1,000 a year. I'm using the term catastrophic but the policy covers genetic and breed issues, illness, accidents unless pre-existing condition. This means most things are out for teddy like epilepsy or his ortho issues but Winston will only have a patellar luxation which is a grade 1 anyway and unlikely to ever need surgery.

Thanks Kathy.

Dear Gemy,
I am writing to let you know that because of this post, we now have insurance on Princess Sophie. I have thought about it for a very long time and even did a comparison with several different types (spreadsheet and all) and almost hit that button to sign up - when the DH said, "no, we can self insure", I closed out the site. I was afraid of committing to the insurance and really wanted to believe what my DH was saying, however your post really made so much sense and it's obvious that you really believe in having your pet insured. I feel so much relief knowing that should anything catastrophic happen, I don't have to have Sophie put down because we can't afford it, or worse, the DH doesn't want to pay. It's done, we have Trupanion and I feel a huge relief. Thank you for your impassioned plea with those of us who do/did not have insurance or really understand why it was so important. Now I do. I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! You may have saved Sophie's life. Bless you!

I am happy that you got some insurance for your precious gal. I had nothing to with saving a life; it is you and pet owners like you, that will save their companions life.

ANd you are most welcome.