Pet Insurance Help - Possible Hip Dysplasia?

whigfield

I have a small dog (S) who is a cavalier king charles & english cocker spaniel cross. He's a very small dog and recently he's started showing signs that I think could point towards hip dysplasia. His hips click when he walks and last night when he got up to go outside for his bedtime wee he limped which was very worrying for us. His back end does tend to sway a little bit when he walks as well. He's only recently (in the past couple of months) started with the clicky hips and the only time he has limped was last night. I can't tell if he's just trying to hide it now because we keep watching him and he knows, but he hasn't really limped much since, but his right hind leg does look stiff and just sort of like it needs to be popped back into his hip more.

He was with tesco pet insurance on the standard cover alongside my other dog & cat but we took him off it today and are shopping around to get new cover that's lifetime. Tesco told us they couldn't just 'upgrade' the policy and that he'd have to be pulled off the other one and a new one initiated, so this is why we've took him off. We currently have a quote for their highest cover - the extra cover at £7500 per condition (with no time limit) - and it's at £14.41 a month, not bad I thought but S is only 3.

John Lewis has given us a quote for £13.81 a month for £12,000 vet fees per year. We've insured before with JL but after the first year their premiums rocketed despite no claims, so I'm worried that it'd be even worse and we'd be locked in with them so to speak.

Are tesco a good option for lifetime cover? Is £7500 good enough, considering it's not time limited (but that's the max they will pay towards a certain condition?)?

Either way there's 14 days where we won't be able to claim but this is fine. I realize that S will likely need x rays for this and I can pay out of pocket for those without needing to claim, but would it be best to wait until the 14 days kick in or go straight away if I'm not going to claim just yet?

Also since it's related - hip dysplasia in general, what should I expect if this is what he has?

gettingready

Has he already seen a vet about this? Is there anything in his notes about this condition? If so - it will be excluded under any new insurance policy you may take.

When you do take him to the vets and the vet asks how long he had the symptoms, again it will be excluded.

krlyr

As above - this will very likely now be considered a pre-existing condition, and as far as I'm aware there aren't any policies that will cover pre-existing conditions (if any do, I imagine it would be at a high cost). Otherwise people would just wait for their pets to get ill before bothering with insurance - it makes no financial sense for insurers to take on pets they know would definately be loss leaders.

You could possibly get away with claiming if you waited a while to see the vet, supposing nothing was on their notes, and by not mentioning any symptoms prior to your new policy - but not only is it dishonest, you are witholding veterinary treatment from a dog that may well be in pain.

However, assuming the cover you have at present isn't lifetime, you're in quite a sticky situation unfortunately. You could try to get Tesco to reinstate it, and persue diagnostics now. Best case, hip dysplasia is ruled out and you've had a lucky escape - worst case, it is hip dysplasia and you only have the remainder of the current policy or the monetary limit to claim for any treatments.

It's a tough lesson to learn, but this is why I wouldn't take anything other than a lifetime policy out (especially not with the conditions my two breeds are prone to, e.g. hip dysplasia)

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_dg_hip_dysplasia may be worth a read

Also, this article is on arthritis but many of the supplements etc. would worth well for HD. It's often the arthritic changes in the joint that cause the pain etc. in cases of HD - http://dogaware.com/health/arthritis.html

gettingready

OP- wish you posted asking for advise before cancelling current policy really.

Now anything you mention to your vet or vet is aware of already - will be excluded. Unless (and I hope you are not planning on doing this) you take the dog to the vets after the initial 14 days of the policy and never mention anything was wrong within the 14 days. But you would not put your dog in this situation, would you?

My dog had hip displasia and her THR on both hips was over 14k in total - all covered by her insurance.

My girl is insured with Argos Platinum, life time policy, 7k per year cover - it is 7 k per year renewable every year and not per condition. IMHO the per condition covers are no good at all as you soon run out of cover is a dog develops something serious. Her hips were just over 7k each so with my 7k cover I could only do one if the cover was per condition. As it is a life time cover, we have done one hip in one insurance year and the other in another insurance year.

Per year life time cover is better then per condition cover.

My girl is a GS so much bigger than your dog - still, diagnostic alone was expensive with Xrays, MRI etc.

Hope this is not the case with your dog xx

whigfield

Ugh, I wish I had posted before too. Do you think Tesco are likely to reinstate it if I call back? It's only 3000 of cover and it renews in Feb so I really hope that it's not hip dysplasia. As a note though, no, he hasn't seen a vet about this yet and has no other health issues that we know of. Of course I don't want my dog to suffer needlessly though, I just wish he had lifetime cover.

Is it possible to leave current policy on him and take out a lifetime elsewhere and then see where we stand on pre-existing conditions once the lifetime kicks in? If they won't cover it fair enough, but at least it's there and with the original policy running there's a backup?

Edit: they've reinstated it.

krlyr

I would give them a call ASAP to ask about reinstating - you've nothing to lose by asking. That gives you £3000 and 6 months to look into the issue, it means you don't have to delay medical treatment, and you know that, at the very least, the diagnostics will be covered.

Like I say, if you're lucky, it'll be nothing serious or on-going, and you'll have a lucky escape. However, even if it's a one-off condition, e.g. caused by overdoing it or a bit of trauma to the joint, there is still a slight risk that future insurers (or even Tesco themselves) will refuse treatments that relate to that particular joint, as they could say it's related - for example, arthritis in that joint at a later date could have been caused by the earlier trauma.

According to this link - http://www.money.co.uk/pet-insurance/existing-condition-pet-insurance.htm - VetsMediCover will cover if there have been no symptoms for 24 months, but I imagine there are very few insurers that would provide cover for something like hip dysplasia if it were to be diagnosed now. The dog would, I imagine, be considered symptomatic for life, since the dysplasia doesn't just vanish. They might, I suppose, cover a dog that had had the affected hip(s) replaced, but I'm just taking a guess.

Many insurance policies (not just pet) have small print about not providing cover if it is already covered under another insurance policy, so I'm not sure about keeping two policies running. I know I have overlapped policies by a couple of weeks in the past - so that you're covered on the old policy for those 2 weeks they exclude claims on the new one - but that's with the idea of claiming on and keeping the old policy should anything happen in those two weeks, which you obviously can't do if it's not a lifetime policy.

The new insurers will request veterinary notes at the time of a claim and if they find evidence of any pre-existing condition, they will make exclusions based on that. It doesn't matter about whether you've claimed with another company or if you've overlapped the policies - if the symptoms and/or vet treatment (whether you claim for it or not) was prior to the 3rd week of your new policy, it may be deemed a pre-existing condition.

There's nothing you can do now, you cannot rewind time and take out a lifetime policy, your dog has shown symptoms of a condition and you're in the unfortunate position of it possibly being excluded from any future insurance policies. My recommendation would be to try everything you can to get the old policy reinstated, and get your dog the medical attention he needs now - and hope for the best it's not an on-going condition.

If it does turn out to be hip dyplasia, like I say, you do have a fair amount of money and time to persue your options. A smaller breed should cost less in regards to hip replacements - but many dogs manage fine without the replacement for years. It could be that you go with management for now - exhaust the limit on your policy with diagnostics, and then continue with anti-inflammatories, dietary supplements, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy to build the muscles to support the joints and so on, buying you time to save up for the treatment yourself. You could save costs on on-going medication by having a prescription issued and ordering online at a reduced cost, and many hydrotherapy places will do discounts for block bookings.

rising_from_the_ashes

Good news they've reinstated it

I guess your other alternative would be to take out a lifetime policy now - and let it run until the exclusion period is up (and prob a little longer if poss) and then take him to the vet

BUT that is only poss if a) there is nothing already in his notes relating to the condition and b) and just as important - that he's not in pain and is OK to be left a month or so (if there is anything in his notes about it, it would be pre-existing to another insurer & they will not cover it)

If you are changing your pet insurance, never, ever cancel the old policy until the exclusion period has expired on the new one