Pet insurance / possible pre existing condition 28 October 2009 at 11:14AM in Pets & pet care 8 replies 1.1K views

aidansmum_2

Really Really need some pet insurance help , general advice

I have two long questions one dog, one cat.

I am currently insured with Sainsbury’s pet insurance on the £7500 vet fees per condition per year policy.

• I have a male Bichon Frise dog (age almost 7) When he was around 5 months old and still uninsured we had to take him to the vet. He was playing on the sofa, jumped off onto the laminate flooring and yelped. Since that day he could never jump up on the sofa again. We took him to the vet who gave him some anti inflammatory meds and thought he had sprained his knee or something similar, nothing major, simple sprain, and noted as a comment a shake in his back legs along with the limp from jumping. This shake his continued to the day, he shakes when he is resting and standing. We can run like the wind but seems to fall over and slide when he runs at full pelt on slippy surfaces at times (when he charges in from being in the rain on the kitchen floor) I really want to get to the bottom of it, I am mortified that I have left it this long. When I have had him at the vet a few years ago I spoke to a vet while in about his legs and the shaking, she said that because it says shaking in his notes that the insurance company could refuse to pay out and he could need an MRI to actually see whats happened to him but she doesn’t actually know. But, no diagnoses has been made ever, just symptoms, he has been given some meticam on some occasions when he was younger when he appeared a little stiff but we stopped that because of it making him stick. I really really want to get him looked at now, but im really frightened to go anywhere near the insurance company because of what has previously been noted down. Do you think this will be a problem with taking it further to get a diagnosis? Where should I go from here??

• Ive just got a kitten, she has gone for her second boosters today and is 12 weeks old. We have had her for 4 weeks. We took her to the vets for an initial check up and all was fine, we didn’t get round to taking out pet insurance immediately, computer at home was down, we have done so now but in the interim we had to take her to the vets for a check up again. She developed a runny nose and eyes and sneezing, she transferred it to our 8 year old cat too. She was treated with Antibiotics for 10 days. No idea if its real cat flu or just an upper respiratory. We also noticed a small lump around her shoulder blade last night, about the size of a corn kernel. We havnt noticed it before now and she has been handled a lot. We are thinking maybe a scratch from the older cat maybe or a lump from the injection site 3 weeks ago.
  When we took out the insurance we obviously remembered all the anxieties of the dog insurance and took out the insurance under a different “cat name”. We are going to visit the vet with the kitten under the new name and start again with a vet check up. We are going to say that the kitten no longer lives with us and we swapped cats with my MIL because “this one” gets on better with out Adult cat. Queue a name change and insurance policy with clean bill of health. It’s the only thing I can think of that’s remotely plausible.

Fire_Fox

Honey, changing the name of your cat to get money out of the insurance company is fraud and you are risking getting the vet investigated too. Worst case scenario the police prosecute you and the vet gets struck off! It's also potentially dangerous for a vet to treat an animal with you hiding part of their medical history.

Are you on a low income, if so can you get free treatment from the PSDA? If not can you honestly afford to keep both of these animals?

aidansmum_2

Thanks for your reply. To put it in perspective, Im talking about a small cold viral infecton that required 10 days worth of Antibiotics, not a triple bypass. I know from this day on in any illness referring to upper respiratory will not be covered, and unfortunately for us the kitten contracted this from her mother before we had her L I think you are being a tad over dramatic though. I don’t see how withholding that she received some Antibiotics for a viral infection would be dangerous. As I originally said, no diagnosis has ever been made for either animal. No, im not on a low enough income to warrant free care but I cannot afford huge vet bills, extra money is very tight, and I work very hard to provide for my children without having the extra financial predicament of astronomical vet fees that could be avoided. Do you suggest I turf them out on the street J :rotfl:

i shall check with the vet re the viral infection and possible exclusions before i make my mind up

Bromley86

>Do you suggest I turf them out on the street J :rotfl:

No. Fire Fox was suggesting that you pay your way and not deliberately defraud the company. Sorry if you think that's harsh, but your moral compass isn't working.

Fire_Fox

aidansmum wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. To put it in perspective, Im talking about a small cold viral infecton that required 10 days worth of Antibiotics, not a triple bypass. I know from this day on in any illness referring to upper respiratory will not be covered, and unfortunately for us the kitten contracted this from her mother before we had her L I think you are being a tad over dramatic though. I don’t see how withholding that she received some Antibiotics for a viral infection would be dangerous. As I originally said, no diagnosis has ever been made for either animal. No, im not on a low enough income to warrant free care but I cannot afford huge vet bills, extra money is very tight, and I work very hard to provide for my children without having the extra financial predicament of astronomical vet fees that could be avoided. Do you suggest I turf them out on the street J :rotfl:

i shall check with the vet re the viral infection and possible exclusions before i make my mind up

I'm not having a pop at you, I'm trying to stop you breaking the law: what you are proposing is fraud however much of a 'white lie' it may seem. You may not think withholding information about the case history is important - I am a qualified pharmacy technician (human) and I can assure you that there are risks. There seems to be more to this than meets the eye as antibiotics are not prescribed for viral infections.

I accept completely it seems very unfair that for a sniffle the insurers will exclude all respiratory conditions for the rest of the kitten's life. I have a rescue cat who I know will have all sorts excluded as he's had ear mites, a serious paw infection, a bad reaction to jabs ... If the kitten contracted a bacterial infection from her mother are you able to claim the costs from the breeder?

lowis

i am pretty sure that your Bichon will have the exclusions on the policy, especially as the accident happened before the policy was taken out and you sought treatment at your vet.

As for the trickery with the cat...well, are you sure your vet won't recognise this kitten if he treated it before?

thesim

Its best to be upfront, like others have said you will get caught, criminal record making it harder to get a job, you can be refused insurance in the furture and if anything futher was to develop as a result of the kittens illness, that wouldnt be cover.

emlou2009

unfortunately thats the way it works - they have an illness, however small, and depending on the cover they will exclude it from being covered in the future.

if it was as easy as "renaming" the cat and getting a new policy each time a pet needed treatment everyone would be doing it instead of paying huge premiums and vets bills!

surely the most important thing here is to get the cat checked, as from your post it would seem that it still has some medical issues?

hethmar

Im worried about your poor dog - it sounds like he has a real problem with his leg there. Im horrified your vet didnt follow up with diagnosis if this happened over 6 years ago. Poor boy may be in real pain.

Id also point out that Sainsburys isnt per condition per year, but just per condition.