My puppy had continual pet cover but no one will pay. Help!

ArcheryBear

My puppy came with 5 weeks free insurance from Agria to expire 17/3. She was checked by a vet the day after we had her and all was ok. The same day we purchased a Petplan policy to start 2 weeks before the Agria one expired on 1/3, so ensuring (or so we thought) continual illness cover, which began on 15/3.
On 5/3 she had a regular check up, weight check and deworm tablet at the vet, everything was ok. On 7/3 she went off her food for 24hrs. Given her age and recent worm tablet I called the vet just in case and was told it might be teething, or just a fussy pup. She returned to normal eating for 3 weeks (after expiry of the free Agria insurance).
On 27/3 she became very ill and tragically has been diagnosed with renal dysplasia and will not live much longer. We submitted a claim to Petplan who have refused it because they consider my query to the vet on 7/3, which was naturally recorded in her record, to be the first sign of illness. Agria have also refused because they do not consider my puppy was ill during their 5 weeks of cover.
I did everything I could to protect myself from a large vet bill and am now facing in excess of £1000 fees, plus the tragedy of losing a beautiful puppy. This seems so unfair.
Has anyone experienced similar? Any advice?

MayDogsandCoffee

Have you spoken to the breeder? This is a hereditary condition and in some breeds should be health checked before breeding from the !!!!!!. Decent breeders will take the pup back and refund purchase price, but either way they need to know in case the rest of the litter have the same. I would maybe speak to CAB, if it was just a call but no physical examination of pup on the 7th you may be able to argue your case, many new pups have a day off food while settling in - vet should also advise on that. Some cover you need to have in place for a certain period of time before claiming, you have 13 days from start of policy to claim - check the policy but this could be under the time period. Edit I have just googled and you can make claims 14 days after buying the policy. My calc is 13 but math not my strong point - check before or after midnight on payments, you may have purchased on one day but the bank payment didn't go through until the following day.

sheramber

Unfortunately, changing insurance company has caused the problem.

A pre existing condition is anything that showed signs , whether you received treatment or not. Unless Petplan will accept or your vet can confirm that the non eating day is not connected to the condition, then that makes it a pre existing condition for Petplan and it is excluded.

Agria will only cover medical bills incurred while the policy is on force. Once the policy ceased they have no more liability

Agria are not liable for medical bills incurred after the policy ceased.

You can follow the complaints procedure which will be detailed in your Petplan policy document.