Pet insurance - Not enough cover - Any advice

jamieww

Hi,
We currently have 3 dogs, all of which have pet insurance.
unfortunately, our oldest dog, a Jack Russell Terrier is poorly and the vet has referred him to have an urgent MRI & possible spinal surgery... he is not in any major pain at the moment, but if he deteriorates as expected then without surgery he will suffer badly, now he's 11 year old & has never been ill.
The issue i am facing is that the pet insurance covers upto £4000 (with a £100 excess & 20% additional cost due to his age)... We have been told that the MRI itself will cost between £1500-£2000 & if he needs the operation this will be quite a bit more (our local vet said the same operation by itself cost over £4000 10 years ago).. Our insurance has confirmed that there doesn't seem to be any issues for the claim to the policy amounts.
As you can appreciate, if we do find out that he needs surgery we will need to find the £100 excess & £800 (20% of the £4000) plus any additional amount on top... Currently I am disabled, receiving Income based ESA & PIP, with no savings left after being out of work for quite a few years.
PDSA, Dogs trust, RSPCA & Blue cross do not cover our area (we are in South Wales, the referral vet is Langford in Bristol which we will have to take him to) - so no help is available from them.
Our son is autistic & the dog has been there for most of his life, he would struggle to understand if anything happened and the dog had to be put to sleep (which in all honesty is not even a consideration for any of us)...

We are already struggling financially but would gladly sell everything we have to ensure our little dog is better, I have already been told that I can not get a loan from the bank.

Does anyone know how we can go about finding some organisation that may be able to help with some of the extra costs?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
Jamie

EdGasketTheSecond

What about pain killers and other paliative care instead of a major operation? The dog, like us, won't live forever and at some point it is inevitable that your son will have to come to terms with that. You could pay a lot now and the dog might die during the operation anyway; there's no guarantee of success; have you considered that?

dacouch

Is the £4k cover per year?

sheramber

Sorry to read this. I do not know of any organisation that will pay vet bills.

You need to give this some thought.

Is it appropriate to subject an 11 year old dog to spinal surgery?

What is the recovery time and what recuperation is required? . Is this something you can do and something your dog can cope with?

Have you asked what the success rate for such surgery is?

Does your vet recommend you go ahead with this surgery?

Is there any alternative?

We all want the best for our dogs but it must be what is best for the dog , not for us.

Remember, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

suki1964

I have to agree with sheramber, you really need to give serious thought to what is best for the dog

The recovery for a dog after spinal surgery isn't easy. It takes between 6 to 8 weeks in a younger fitter dog, longer for an older dog. Also if this has been going on for a while, the success rate isn't 100%. You also have the costs of physio and possibly hydro on top of the costs of the surgery

I do understand how you feel. I would have sold my soul to the devil to save my first lad. He had a heart murmur which went on to become chronic heart disease which became less and less manageable with medication. So the vet suggested investigation and possible surgery We weren't insured but fortunately we could afford the surgery. However the ultrasound told us surgery wasn't possible. The vet drained the fluid from his lungs and we took him home for the night to say our goodbyes

At the time I was distraught, over time Im glad he didn't go through surgery. At 11 he wouldn't have understood having to be crated, his walks stopped, his life restricted to one room being carried out to go do his business and back in

I know you are concerned as well about your son, but your son does have to come to terms with death as well, you cant protect him from that all his life

Im sorry Im not giving you the answers you want

oscarward

can the pdsa help?

sheramber

oscarward wrote: »

can the pdsa help?

The OP has already said that they cannot help .

PDSA now only treat animals at their own surgeries and you must have previously registered your pet.

jamieww

unfortunately the 4k is per year, PDSA etc have no cover in our area.
The vet has said that due to the speed of the deterioration that the MRI is a must & if there is need for an op it will be classed as an emergency & not something that could wait.
As it starts mid way up his back and they are worried about spinal cord damage, it seems that no intervention will be a very bad thing. But, until we have the mri (hopefully next within next 7days) we do not even know if surgery is going to help, but our own vet said the prognosis (if she has correctly diagnosed) is very good and he will heal & be back to normal after about 4 - 6 weeks of recovery.
There is always a chance that under anesthetic that he could pass away, but other than this he is perfectly healthy and normally the standard type of jack russell that simply does not stop!
We lost our last Jack russell on the 15th Dec last year - so the timing is not great, even now our son talks about her daily...

My worry is that if there is a chance that he can continue to have a good life after having an operation, it would be so difficult to even try to justify having him put to sleep due to lack of money.
This little Jack has been amazing with our son especially before, during & after seizures, he seems to know before anyone else and once we see how he reacts around our son we know its time to make sure he's in a safe place where he can't harm himself during his seizure. The Jack also stays beside him throughout & afterwards even when our on can not even say who we, his parents, are, he always snuggles the dog and gets comfort from him. Our little Jack Russell has been a life saver & also the best recovery partner for our son - strange really as he normally is my wife's pup - never leaves her side.

I've been exploring loans etc, but being long term unemployed due to disability, no-one seems to be able to help.

It's crushing us as a family, but we just want to know where we stand when we go to the referral vet, the mri hopefully will make things clearer and if we can avoid surgery then we will get though it.

Thanks for all your responses..

Much appreciated..

Jumblebumble

jamieww wrote: »

unfortunately the 4k is per year, PDSA etc have no cover in our area.
The vet has said that due to the speed of the deterioration that the MRI is a must & if there is need for an op it will be classed as an emergency & not something that could wait.
As it starts mid way up his back and they are worried about spinal cord damage, it seems that no intervention will be a very bad thing. But, until we have the mri (hopefully next within next 7days) we do not even know if surgery is going to help, but our own vet said the prognosis (if she has correctly diagnosed) is very good and he will heal & be back to normal after about 4 - 6 weeks of recovery.
There is always a chance that under anesthetic that he could pass away, but other than this he is perfectly healthy and normally the standard type of jack russell that simply does not stop!
We lost our last Jack russell on the 15th Dec last year - so the timing is not great, even now our son talks about her daily...

My worry is that if there is a chance that he can continue to have a good life after having an operation, it would be so difficult to even try to justify having him put to sleep due to lack of money.
This little Jack has been amazing with our son especially before, during & after seizures, he seems to know before anyone else and once we see how he reacts around our son we know its time to make sure he's in a safe place where he can't harm himself during his seizure. The Jack also stays beside him throughout & afterwards even when our on can not even say who we, his parents, are, he always snuggles the dog and gets comfort from him. Our little Jack Russell has been a life saver & also the best recovery partner for our son - strange really as he normally is my wife's pup - never leaves her side.

I've been exploring loans etc, but being long term unemployed due to disability, no-one seems to be able to help.

It's crushing us as a family, but we just want to know where we stand when we go to the referral vet, the mri hopefully will make things clearer and if we can avoid surgery then we will get though it.

Thanks for all your responses..

Much appreciated..

I absolutely feel for you as no doubt the little chap is one of your family
You could try negotiating with the vet on price as they may be kind to you once the insurance has run out.

Ben8282

It is very upsetting to read this but I find myself having to agree with those who are questioning the wisdom of subjecting this elderly dog to major surgery.
What exactly would happen if he did not have this spinal surgery?

abz88

Jumblebumble wrote: »

I absolutely feel for you as no doubt the little chap is one of your family
You could try negotiating with the vet on price as they may be kind to you once the insurance has run out.

As well as negotiating on price, you could ask them if they will set up a payment plan for you so you can spread the cost out?

Are there any charities that help autistic children that you could contact given the help your dog gives to your son? Or local charities that could assist with fund raising?