Insurance and older dogs, or is my girl now uninsurable?

Ninasmum

Hi, my now nine year old GSD b**ch was barely insured last year with a large excess and an expensive, basic policy.

This year the premium has been- terrifying! I am wondering if I have reached the point where insuring her is just not realistic. I know her breed and the anticipated problems with her back legs etc will be whacking the cost up.

Is there any potential for insurance for just accident and 3rd party liability? I know this is done with horses and am thinking it may be a good idea to look into for her.

rising_from_the_ashes

I think most people eventually get to the point when the insurance costs become excessive when a pet gets to old age - even if ongoing medication for something like arthritis is needed, it's often cheaper to get a prescription & buy online than have the insurance.

I got to this point with Ben - he had reached the point where I wouldn't put him through extensive / difficult treatment (eg an op) due to his age so I put a set amount away each month to cover the odd trip to the vet (he was a nightmare at eating things he shouldn't!).

I got a prescription for his metacam & bought this online - this worked out at £15/month.

Dogs trust membership is £25/year and offers 3rd party liability
http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/default.aspx#.T5z0hXi_OfY

I'm not sure about policies covering accidents only and I guess it's a personal choice of whether you want to continue with the premiums / or whether you'd be able to cover the odd treatment that may be required.

Katiehound

I honestly think you are better to either literally save what the insurance premiums would have cost in a specific savings account or decide that you can afford it, if the worst comes to the worst.

A friend has just paid over £400 for an emergency operation, out of hours, on her 10 year old girl and said "well that wasn't so bad- we would have spent over £800 in insurance over the years and no claims."

I do think that pet insurance helps to boost vet costs (as does car insurance with car claims!) and sometimes people put their pets through all kinds of surgery to prolong their lives. Now that we have the knowledge surgery is much more invasive and perhaps that is not always for the best.

For third party insurance I am a supporter of Dogs Trust and have been for years so that came as a bonus when I wanted to take my last hound into school under the R.E.A.D. programme and needed public liability.

Accident insurance. Maybe that is available as an add-on to your house insurance?

elsien

You may find it useful to chat to your vet as well about future potential costs, and your dog's health in other respects
Mutt is 14 and her premiums were getting ridiculous. So I trundled off to the vet to ask his advice, mutt got a quick once over, and we discovered a heart condition that wasn't there before.
Bottom line in our case - if mutt gets anything serious she will be PTS as her current health won't stand up to any major operations or treatments. Obviously if yours is otherwise healthy, that's a different scenario.
So you maybe need to discuss worst case scenarios and costs with the vet before making a final decision. However it's possible that you might have some sort of accident cover with your household insurance, and it you're worried about legal costs, you can take out stand alone legal expenses cover on your household insurance. So check that out as well.

Ninasmum

Hi all, after some searching I found that Tesco do pet insurance for accident and injury and 3rd party liability so I took that out this afternoon. It was only £70ish for the year. I think it's a good idea to have as her being hit by a car was always one of my biggest fears (people drive like idiots round here, we get lots of boy racers), also as a member of the family is now terminally ill my dog has become very stressed and can be quite aggressive with strangers. Nothing serious but I definitely think 3rd party is not optional!!