Spaniel dry eye - insurance claim or not?

licklesnuggle

Just looking for some help please! I've posted in insurance too.

Our spaniel has just been diagnosed with dry eye. She is insured and always has been. The vet told us we'll need to claim as her meds will cost approx 60per mth.

But! Her renewal is due in 2 weeks, we will be continuing her insurance with Axa (current insurer).

As the insurance period is about to end does this mean we'll now get left with the vets bill as it's a pre existing condition when her renewal starts? We haven't claimed yet as we found out today but we're planning to.

So confused.

(Sorry if this is garbled, trying to rock a baby to sleep as I write!)

gettingready

OK - normally, in my experience you pay excess per condition per year so...

Diagnosed now, you will pay the excess and the rest will be paid by the insurance but at reneval you will need to pay another excess (per condition per year) before insurance will start paying.

Your reneval is in 2 weeks time, so looks like 2 excess payments: excess now and excess in the new year before insurance starts paying for the rest of the year (for the same condition).

If your insurance is continuous and the issue happened while the dog was already covered, the condition will be covered, It would only class as "pre existing excluded condition" if you were to change the insurer.

Hope it makes sense?

krlyr

As it has now been diagnosed, you have two options

- continue with AXA. AXA offer a lifetime policy, which means conditions are covered for life, as long as you pay your premiums. So you couldn't, for example, go with another company this year and then go back with AXA the year after and claim for the dry eye. But, if you renewal at your renewal, you can continue to cover for the condition, for as long as you hold a policy. You will have to pay an excesss now, and then a fresh excess on your next claim, so it's a bit unfortunate timing - the excess is per condition, per policy year. But they should continue to pay up to your £7000 claim limit (£7000 for all claims, so if you claim for other conditions this counts as part of this limit)

- go elsewhere, but the dry eye is a pre-existing condition that will be exempt from cover. You may be able to reduce the £60/month bill by getting the vet to write a prescription for the medication and ordering online (vets are entitled to charge a 'reasonable' prescription fee - often £10-20 - but if it's an on-going condition the vet shouldn't mind writing a prescription for 3-6 months for example. Places like VetUK, Animed Direct, Viovet, etc. are good places to order prescription medications at low cost, but do be wary of places that seem too cheap, or that will sell without a prescription. You run the risk of buying from a dodgy company selling counterfeit or outdated products (or no products at all - some companies are just scams).

Have you had your renewal letter through yet? With AXA trying to withdraw from the pet insurance market, you may find the premium rockets more than usual unfortunately. This is where it's worth costing up the medication, either from your vet or using the prescription. For example, if you can source the medication for £25 a month online, and AXA raise the premiums £30 a month, you may be quids in by moving elsewhere and covering the costs for dry eye yourself. However, I'd have a frank conversation with your vet now about the future of the condition - would, for example, surgery be necessary at a later date? It may then be worth paying the increased premium, knowing you may want to claim £1000+ for an operation in 6 months time.

Battybird

My little Dachshund (sadly died 2 years) ago suffered from dry eye. She was born with no blink reflex in one eye. She had dry eye every Spring until Winter, then her eye was not dry over the Wintertime. She did develop a bad ulcer, and became blind in it even though she had an operation.

Over the years, she had lots of different eye drops, as some she seemed allergic to, and made her eye worse.

The eye drops that worked best for her where Acular and my vet wrote me out a prescription for 2 months at a time. (I think he would have put more bottles on the prescription if I'd wanted, but I chose not to in case she suddenly developed an allergy.) I used to take the prescription into Tescos, and I think they cost (2 years ago) about £4.95 per bottle. After a few years my vets started stocking the eye drops, but he advised me to go to Tescos, as they couldn't compete with the price. I've just looked at the price on one of the online pet supplies and they are charging over £23 per bottle! I shouldn't imagine Tesco's price will have jumped up that much in a few years.

At one time my vet gave my dog Viscotears, but after a while her eye seemed to become allergic to it. I think that from my vets it used to cost about £9.50 and it was less than half that price in Tescos. And I think I could just buy it over the counter, didn't need a prescription for it.