Should I bother with insurance for dog

LEJC

actually im going to take a slightly different line and say you dont have to bother with insuring your dog...as long as you can afford to and will pay any bills associated with his health and wellbeing as his life matures.

Wellyboots6

I'm looking to change my insurance policy and am going to insure with the new one and then cancel the old one when the new one has 'kicked in'. I can't find anything that says you can't do this.

Lifeforms

It's the same with any pet.
You have to balance now and future.

If you can comfortably pay for any type of injury as a result of accident then you think I should save the pennies and not insure. BUT the same as humans, it can be prolonged treatment needed, so a break in the leg may need surgery multiple times, as well as the cost of before and after surgery care, even things like physiotherapy. If you can consider finding the potential cost of a house deposit then may be it's not worth it insuring.

Many pets live a long and healthy life, with a few blips along the way, alternatively some pets develop life long conditions either early in life, or later. It's a cash lottery with animals, as humans we're very blessed with free treatment, so even the worry of a trip or fall doesn't come as natural to us, as those who have to pay for treatment.
Should your pet need monthly treatment after an initial large outlay then that can put a serious strain on you/you family, your pets relationship with you, and your wallet. The cost of a few quid a month, if you can afford it, gives peace of mind. Even those saying save the cost of insurance a month in an account will not ever cover the cost of some basic small emergency treatment.

I do not insure my cat however. I really should say that, but he's fairly solid, and being a lazy git, indoor only, moaning sod, he's fairly well low on the list of accidents waiting to happen. BUT i am aware that if he develops something that requires treatment as part of a condition sorts I might be a bit stuffed. He's also getting on, 7 okay, but that is on in regards to insurance and old cat insurance. So it's come to my mind to search something out for him.

As a rescued pet you never know what they've come up against in early life, whether it's poor diet, or accidents previously, and may be at a slightly higher risk of future complications.

Most insurances cover things like specialist foods too, which can be shockingly expensive. We had a rescued cat who got massive, developed reverse insuloma (or something, I was a kid) and needed an extremely specialised diet to be able to live. Thankfully parents insurance covered even that, along side specialist tests, treatments, and diagnosis tests.

Those are the times that it pays off, most people can cope with an emergency trip to a vet once, but not regularly, and then onto dogs, a lot more can go wrong, if only from the daft mutt eating something it really shouldn't have on it's daily trot.

BE AWARE of where you get insurance, as others have said you need to make sure conditions are covered for life, and there is a decent amount to cover accidents when they happen. Try and be over protected, than under. Imagine making the decision of saving a leg over amputation because the insurance pays just enough for one over the other.

The last thing, which no one wants to think about, is a payment on death. This can cover the cost of getting your beloved pet cremated alone, rather than in with a load of other animals, and not knowing what ashes you got back. It's a horrible thing, but at the time of death of our last family dog, we really didn't want to have that thought of is it or isn't it our dog we got back.

End of book

PollyOnAMission

Don't forget to consider the third party liability aspect of insurance too, not just health problems.

What if your dog got loose and caused a car accident with death/injury/damage to other people or their property? I would want third party liability insurance as an absolute minimum.

prestonisidore

Frugal_Dreamer wrote: »

I have a 1 year old rescue dog and the free 4 weeks insurance is about to run out.

Should I get insurance? Should I wait until she is slightly older?

I have sufficient savings for emergencies at the moment.

Absolutely,It is necessary you to have an insurance for some purposes because as far as I know we don't really determine if what happen to your dog. also, having an insurance is considered as one of the most important so that what ever happen you have an insurance and let the insurer would take good care of it.

quietheart

PollyOnAMission wrote: »

Don't forget to consider the third party liability aspect of insurance too, not just health problems.

What if your dog got loose and caused a car accident with death/injury/damage to other people or their property? I would want third party liability insurance as an absolute minimum.

I recommend joining Dogs Trust for that, £25 for a year and you get your 3rd party cover.

quietheart

I currently have pet insurance but am thinking about cancelling it.
We are paying £33 a month with Petplan for a 2 yr old greyhound.
I think pet insurance is a rip off.
If my pet has a horrendous accident, maybe it's best that she doesn't have to have loads of operations and treatment. I don't know if it's fair. Would I keep her alive for my benefit? I have seen elderly relatives be kept alive for years with a poor quality of life and have often thought, it they were a dog they'd be put out of their misery.

gettingready

It is not just a life treatening or accident related issues.

Zara is not even 7 yo yet and her hip replacemet and related tests came to 14k in one year.

I could never pay this without insurance. She had both hips replaced.

birduk

I have pet insurance for my kitties. Absolutely pointless for my old girl as we have to pay £100 excess and then 25% of all other cover. Anything to do with her stomach (which is what she normally goes in for) is not covered as she had problems before she was insured.

Thanks for reminding me to check if it is financially worth it!

For my younger cats though- you just never know what scrapes they get in to and the insurance can pay out for things like lost posters etc.

For a young dog? Would I insure? Probably! You just never know what problems they may have stored up for the future!

lostinrates

gettingready wrote: »

It is not just a life treatening or accident related issues.

Zara is not even 7 yo yet and her hip replacemet and related tests came to 14k in one year.

I could never pay this without insurance. She had both hips replaced.

This is an ideal situation in which to have insurance.

For us the saving on not having insurance for all our pets has been cost effective. Ironically we lost one that was insured a few weeks ago and decided not to have a post mortem (for various practical reasons) so took a heavy loss on the insurance, especially as the treatment she had had in the year before was considered 'unnecessary' so we paid for it ourselves.

Our greyhound has had injuries costing a huge amount (two broken legs) and for us we are lucky enough to have access to that sort of emergency fund......for us it doesn't make financial sense to have them all insured. We do self insure, paying into a reserve for these sorts of emergencies. This is not an option for many people, and if its not then insuring is the wise decision in most circumstances.

Edit....there are some other circa where insurance might not be 'valid'. For example I don't know if its the same now, but we couldn't find pet insurance which would cover the pet if out of uk for more than thirty days. I hope that has changed now though.