Dog insurance, pre existing condition - Cruciate Ligament

toniq

My dogs cruciate tear was from chasing pigeons in the garden and splattering himself against the fence!

Thankfully no arthritis showing yet, he is 8 and a half and weighs 7.5 kg a poodle cross.

My boy had the band operation and is only now 12 weeks later totally doing his normal stuff and his limp seems to have gone.

Hope all goes well for you and your new friend.

sheramber

gettingready wrote: »

If one cruciate was done it does not mean the other leg will not be covered by the insurance - unless you got with AF which are ridiculous with denying claims from silly reasons.

Look at PetPlan - always the best.

Zara had one cruciate operated on and the other one went just before 6 months was up. Then about a year later she needed to have a metal plate removed from one as the leg was getting infected.
She is a 40kg o a dog and each cruciate repair cost was over 5k.

Do not mention this to the vet before you get the insurance in place and wait the 2 weeks for it to kick in properly as anything you mention and ends up in dog's notes - will be excluded. It has not happened yet, no reason to mention at this point.

Petplan say

Pre-existing condition:
An injury or illness that:
a) Happened or first showed clinical signs,
b) Has the same diagnosis or clinical signs as an injury, illness or clinical sign your pet had,
c) Is caused by, relates to, or results from, an injury, illness or clinical sign your pet had
• Before your pet’s cover started, or
• Before the section was added to your insurance.
No matter where the injury, illness or clinical signs are noticed or happen in, or on, your pet’s
body. This is regardless of whether or not we place any exclusion(s) for the
injury/illness.

I think a cruciate repair will come under item b Has the same diagnosis or clinical signs as an injury, illness or clinical sign your pet had,

The claim form asks for details of all vets the pet has been registered with so they can contact them all for a medical history.

Petplan will consider covering a condition after 2 years without any symptoms or treatment. You need to discuss this with the underwriters.

gettingready

I am aware of that as got 4 cats with PetPlan and signs may be the same BUT it would be a different leg so should really be covered as if the above was to be taken literally than dog say breaking one leg would leave the other 3 legs uncovered.

Will be interesting to find out.

Zara is no longer insured (separate thread) but her insurance was per year not per condition as the per condition ones have too much room for "it is linked so we will not pay"

sheramber

gettingready wrote: »

I am aware of that as got 4 cats with PetPlan and signs may be the same BUT it would be a different leg so should really be covered as if the above was to be taken literally than dog say breaking one leg would leave the other 3 legs uncovered.

Will be interesting to find out.

Zara is no longer insured (separate thread) but her insurance was per year not per condition as the per condition ones have too much room for "it is linked so we will not pay"

If the break was due to an illness and another leg broke due to the same illness it would not be covrered. IF the break was due to an accident then it would be covered as that is an unconnected condition.

The problem with the cruciate is that there is a 60 a5 likely hood that a weakness that allowed the first leg to be affected would also be present on the other leg, so a linked condition.

Of course this would only apply if you were starting a new policy after the event.

My dog had a skin allergy- found to be caused by eating lamb- but Petplan excluded all further skin problems. So if he had developed a skin cancer, which had connection to his allergy, I would nor have been covered for it.

gettingready

I can see how this can be looked at and especially with cruciate - it seems to be the norm on second going bad within months of the first of course. Zara's both went within 6 months but both were covered by her insurance. She had life cover not per condition though.

Is yours per condition? That skin allergy was excluded? x

sheramber

He was previously insured through a scheme from Jameswellbeloved food. However they stopped the scheme and the the company who took over treated it as a new application so anything the pet had had was a pre existing condition.

So I switched to a Petplan lifelong policy.

Once I discovered it was caused by eating lamb there was never a recurrence as I did not feed him anything with lamb in it. However, Petplan excluded all further skin conditions.

A friend's dog had had a bout if gastro enteritis before she joined Petplan and all further stomach problems were excluded.

Petplan do have a wide exclusion policy but I have read they will now consider removing the exclusion after 2 years with no recurrence or treatment.

Emmazom

Sorry for the delay, I believe the surgery was needed due to an accident not illness, however it seems that the insurance still won't cover the second leg as the first one is weekend.

We pick him up Wednesday so I'll find out for definite with the insurance then, but it seems most likely we'll just have to pay up if the second leg goes

sheramber

Although the rupture was the result of an accident it may be that the ligament had an inherited weakness that allowed it to break. If so, then that weakness would be in the other leg as well.

While the dog is recuperating from a repair op the other leg takes the strain which is another reason why the other ligament may break. That is why the rehab instructions must be followed to the letter to try and protect the other leg.

My dog had a repair done three years ago and still does agility. I did start her on a glucosamine product after the op.

Good luck with your dog. Hopefully, you will have many trouble free years with him.

Do insure him for everything else as you never know what might happen.

krlyr

gettingready wrote: »

If one cruciate was done it does not mean the other leg will not be covered by the insurance - unless you got with AF which are ridiculous with denying claims from silly reasons.

Look at PetPlan - always the best.

Zara had one cruciate operated on and the other one went just before 6 months was up. Then about a year later she needed to have a metal plate removed from one as the leg was getting infected.

She is a 40kg o a dog and each cruciate repair cost was over 5k.

Do not mention this to the vet before you get the insurance in place and wait the 2 weeks for it to kick in properly as anything you mention and ends up in dog's notes - will be excluded. It has not happened yet, no reason to mention at this point.

Cruciate disease is considered by many insurers to be a bilateral condition, i.e. incidence in one leg is linked to the other. Therefore it's highly likely that the "healthy"cruciate would be excluded under pre-existing conditions as the first has gone. Covering this up would be insurance fraud, and certainly not something I would recommend.



As others have said, there's a few insurers who may extend cover to this providing the dog is symptom free for their set period of time, so there is some possibility. Of course, no one could say if the cruciate were to go tomorrow, in 5 years, or ever. You could assume that for it to go so young, it was a trauma and would only be limited to the one leg. Or that for it to go so young, the dog has a poor physical confirmation which sped up cruciate disease and is likely to increase the likelihood of the other one going. Couldn't call it either way! A vet examination might reveal some more clues - maybe an assessment from a good physiotherapist?

But, for example, my vet examined my girl in March 15, checked her cruciates out just as an older dog of breeds brone to cruciate ligament tears and commented on how steady they felt to him. September 15, she ruptured one! Touch wood, she's had no problems with the second, though she is less active now she's older (and I don't let her race down the garden to chase squirrels anymore!)

If insurance won't cover, have you considered asking the rescue if they will help out at all? Many rescues have access to lower cost vet treatment as their practice will offer discount - and they may have funds for things like this. Some will rehome dogs with lifelong conditions on the basis that they will cover vet costs if the owner can cover the rest (or some may even cover all costs at their discretion if it gets an oldie/terminal dog into a home for the remainder of its life) so they ma offer some support.

One thing I would suggest is to look at diet and natural supplements that could help with joint health and arthritis. My two are on a raw diet - I know it's not for everyone, but it's easy to include lots of foods full of glucosamine and good Omegas - e.g. chicken carcasses or feet, oily fish, grass-fed beef, etc. Also, grains are thought to have an inflammatory effect, so removing them from the diet is meant to help with inflammatory conditions like arthritis.

As well as the diet, since her arthritis started in her shoulder, I give a couple of supplements for joint health. The one that probably helps the most is turmeric, in the form of golden paste. I even take it myself for a hip condition, I managed to cut out the prescription anti-inflammatories I was on (my stomach was very happy about that!) and my girl went from stiff every day and on-off lameness to running around (a little too much!) and being mistaken for a puppy! It's also a really economical supplement as you can make it yourself - I buy a bag of turmeric from Tesco for £2, coconut oil from Lidl (they do a good organic virgin coldpressed oil) for £2.50, and then just a few teaspoons of ground peppercorns (I bought a huge tub for £3.50 and just whizz up what I need fresh in my processor's spice grinder). For £8, I'll have months and months worth, so it's very reasonable. I make batches and freeze the excess, it lasts about 2-3 weeks in the fridge but indefinitely in the freezer (I tend to make enough for a month or two though so it's fairly 'fresh')
http://turmericlife.com.au/turmeric-recipes-golden-paste/

Since her cruciate op, I also top up with Yumove which is a green lipped mussel based supplement. I find I don't have to give the full dose, as it's just to top up on the golden paste, so that lowers the cost a bit. I also bulk-buy from Fetch when they do promo codes, which makes it a bit cheaper than Amazon's pricing. I've been recommended Riaflex which is a slightly cheaper green lipped mussel supplement, though it doesn't have the extra bits that Yumove does so I've decided to stick to Yumove for now.

The Dog Aware page has a good article on arthritis and the different supplements etc. - http://www.dogaware.com/health/arthritis.html

System

Petplan won't pay on a subsequent repair , my dog had one done and i foolishly changed insurance so he isn't covered now. That said his previous vet [vet4pet] was pushing to have his second leg done but after an issue with them we changed vets who say he doesnt need a second repair his limp at the time was an inflamed muscle. After following their advice he is ok [touch wood !]