Who insures their animals?

listerofsmeg_2

The only thing I hate is how 99% of Vets demand you pay them first, even if you can prove you've paid the Insurance Premiums & even if the Insurers do the Pre-Authorisation forms & agree to pay before. My Dog needs an Op & I might have to put it back a few weeks as I can't just find £400 & the Cats Op tomorrow (Over £200) just like that. If the Insurers are going to pay up within 1-2 weeks I dunno why they won't go direct for big bills in these cases!

My vet wants payment for small things, but for the big £2000 bill I got, they were very nice about it and asked for a 'token' payment (we gave them £100) and then they waited for the insurance to pay up.

UKTigerlily

hermoine wrote: »

I have two dogs and they are not insured, I did insure my daughters dog because I did not want her to make a decision to have him put to sleep on financial grounds if the need arose - in the end we did use the insurance for behavioural therapy which just about recouped the premiums spent, but still had £80 excess to pay. We then had to rehome him as he was not suitable for my daughter.

I think that I would have my dogs put to sleep if the bill was going to be high or the treatment prolonged. My girl dog has a skin condition which needs occasional meds and dry eye which I can treat from the chemist - no need to go to the vet and costs about £5 a month in drops.

If they got a cancer or knocked down and seriously hurt I think it would be kinder to have them put to sleep - but that is purely my opinion.

H

My Dog has two Tumours right now that may or may not be Cancerous, however *if* they are she won't need Chemo or Radiotherapy & the one Op should sort it, I could never put her down because I couldn't pay for it! She's only middle aged & in great health. IMO if you take on a Pet, it's for life until the Vet & yourself think it's kinder to be PTS because it's what's best for the animal NOT the Owner.

People wouldn't have their kids PTS because of illness if they'd have a good quality of life after, so why a Pet?

helping_hubby

We insure our 2 rabbits. To me it's a part of the cost of having an animal. We've also made 3 claims on 2 rabbits, and one has a recurring illness (pasteurella) which is insured for as long as we renew each year.

The only downside for rabbit insurance is there are so few companies, so it's hard to get a deal. Costs about £120 a year for each rabbit.

olibrofiz

My dog is 8 and I've never had to claim till recently. After a 3 week stay in the vets, xrays, ultrasounds, etc, etc, she's used up the £6000 insurance limit for the condition (yes, kicking myself the policy wasn't per year) and I'm currently paying over £300 pm for her medication.

She's home now and i am SO glad I had insurance and didn't have to PTS because I couldn't afford the vets fees.

When you think I've paid out about £2100 in insurance premiums over 8 years, and got £6000 worth of treatment, insurance is a must in my opinion.

MrsTinks

I have 2 cats and a dog and I'd never be without insurance - one cat had an argument with a cat (he's a bit dim at times) and cost about £1500. The dog has had multiple things - tummy bug which meant several days in intensive care with a drip, then a growth under her tongue that caught on something and wouldn't stop bleeding, cue emergency vets, then a cut to her pad and a couple of other bits - I think roughly it would take me over 12 years to save up what I have paid out on vets treatments...
A friend of mine is a vet and her 2 dogs are insured - whilst she can obviously treat them herself for most things it's been a good decision - her youngest dog is back and forth to a specialist because of lameness that no-one can find a cause for and has already cost several thousand pounds in consultations...
When we had horses many moons ago one wasn't insured and luck would have it that it broke it's leg out in the field whilst we were away - the vet bill was huge and my parents really struggling as a result. The horse was put down as the cost of transporting her to the nearest equine hospital was just unsurmountable especially with no guarantees that she could recover. If she's been insured they probably would have decided to at least try.

My view is that if you think you can afford £7000 in vets bills in a few months then by all means don't insure... if you can't then either don't have pets or insure them

MrsTinks

hermoine wrote: »

I have two dogs and they are not insured, I did insure my daughters dog because I did not want her to make a decision to have him put to sleep on financial grounds if the need arose - in the end we did use the insurance for behavioural therapy which just about recouped the premiums spent, but still had £80 excess to pay. We then had to rehome him as he was not suitable for my daughter.

I think that I would have my dogs put to sleep if the bill was going to be high or the treatment prolonged. My girl dog has a skin condition which needs occasional meds and dry eye which I can treat from the chemist - no need to go to the vet and costs about £5 a month in drops.

If they got a cancer or knocked down and seriously hurt I think it would be kinder to have them put to sleep - but that is purely my opinion.

H

My mothers GSD had cancer and was operated on a couple of times to remove lumps and still had a great life to a ripe old age. She had a great quality of life despite it all and only when the day arrived that she lost her spark and zest did mum take the view that it was time for her to go - but she didn't allow her to linger - she drove her to the vet the same day. I think she was about 13. If she'd been put down when she first got cancer she'd have made it to 7...

The only time when a pet should be put down is when it's kinder to the animal - not because the owner isn't able to pay or provide for it either through saving or insuring. If you can afford a pet you can afford to pay for the insurance - unless you can ofcourse afford the bill without insurance

Hintza

I aslo think the majority of you are being taken for a ride by your vet. Here are the bills for part of the accident we had. The caveat is the main bill from our horses vet has not arrived yet and I expect their charges to be significantly higher.

Initial call out to RTA (by our main vet):- £21.27
10 x 1ml Croyxin :- £2.88
4 x Equinixin :- £11.50
6 x Danilon :- £4.14
2 x Lectade :- £5.18


So for an emergency call out on a Saturday afternoon total bill (inc VAT) :- £44.97


Weipers Equine Centre (Glasgow Uni) for a 4 day stay plus neurological exam and x-rays:-

Emergency Consultation:- £190
4 days hospitalisation:- £115
4 x large xrays:- £145
1 x Neurological Exam:- £57.50
0.2 Domidine:- £4.50
0.2 Torbugesic:- £3.00
15 x Equipalzone:- £8.30

Total Bill:- £523.30

Bromley86

Hintza wrote: »

I also wonder sometimes when reading these forums whether the amount of money some spend on putting their animals back together can be justified. But I suppose when you are used to lots of animals you can have a slightly different mind set about whether to put the animal down.

There's definitely something to this. My parents had labs when I was a kid and I'm pretty sure that, even if it had been available, they simply wouldn't have considered hip replacements for them. After all, they are just pets. And they were PetPlan insured.

With the first pet I've owned, another lab who's not yet 2yrs, the insurance has already paid out £7k for a hip replacement. They're probably going to get hit for another £5k as the other hip is also dodgy. So I'm a convert to insurance and grateful, but in the back of my mind I can't help but feel that it's an inefficient use of society's resources.

Tribulation

Hintza wrote: »

I know we are very lucky with our vet's charges and am horrified by some of the charges I see on this forum for vets treatement and I can understand that down south especially the fees charged are very high and will reflect

Some of the prices quoted on here are ludicrous and it's obvious that the vets concerned are just after making as much money as they can from the insurance companies.

My vets cares about animals and tells us what's best fro them rather than what's best for the vet to make money, Their prices are also very very reasonable.

I've had at least 2 cats for the last 25 years and have never had any vaccinations or insurance on any of them except for once when we couldn't get anyone to look after them and they had to co in a cattery. The vaccination nearly killed one of our cats.

We lost one of our cats a couple of months ago at the ripe old age of 17, his mother died a couple of years previous and was a year older. We have one 11 year old cat and one 3 yr old cat. All doing fine. Would never consider insuring them.

One of our cats spent 4 nights in the vets just before Christmas 2007, on various meds, drips etc, numerous phone call updates made to us, total cost, a few pound over £200. Judging by some of the prices I've read on here, at other vets it would have run into thousands

I do always insure my dog and vaccinate it though. I only vaccinate as the insurance insists.

stevetodd

M&S have just put my dog's premiums up to £33/month that's with a £70 excess and also introduced a new clause that in 18 months time when he is 9 I also have to pay 20% of the bill. I am serioulsy considering stopping the cover and just taking on the risk, if I did does anyone know what the premiums would be just for 3rd party liability and would it be worth having cover for this?