Pet Insurance

[CarolW]

Re: Pet Insurance

Natalie, you surely are getting something out of YOUR insurance; do I say, I'm glad, or sorry? (haha)

But. |Pat, that was a very important point you made; people's financial circumstances can and do sometimes changes, sometimes, in catastrophic ways, too. And canceling your insurance would lose you all that premium money paid, as you said - nothing to fall back on for the dog (or cat, etc.)

Whether to take out pet insurance, seems to me, then, depends on a number of factors! This is the frist time in my life it's really made sense to me to do that; after I've faced saying to myself - and my vets I cannot put this dog down just because I don't have money!

But it happens. I've never had to do it.

I'd grin if if were funny! Any grins here are VERY wry.

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:18:50 (PST)

[k9diabetes]

Re: Pet Insurance

Maybe the ideal is to do both, at least at first.

Pay the premiums in the early years in case of a catastrophic illness that you haven't had time to save for and at the same time sock money away. Then eventually you might be able to cancel the insurance.

But some critter in my household is going to have to experience a miraculous and mysterious recovery before there will be any saving of money going on around here...

Natalie

[buddingartist]

Re: Pet Insurance

So Natalie, despite the diagnostic of damaged discs, you were able to insure Jack?

If that is the case, it sure feels like it is much better in the US than it is in Canada. We wouldn't have been able to get insurance before a completel evaluation and a report of their medical condition from the vet.

It was so long ago but I also vaguely remember something about having to microchip as well.

Louise

[k9diabetes]

Re: Pet Insurance

We insured him as soon as we adopted him and as far as we knew at the time, there wasn't a thing wrong with him.

In fact, the insurance took the notes from a very brief exam the vet did when we adopted him and excluded everything that was mentioned! Tarter on teeth - excluded. Slightly soft stools - excluded!

I guess we were "lucky" that we didn't know about any of this stuff at the time.

The first claim was related to his weak pasterns. Vet x-rayed everything from the hips and shoulders down then so we knew he had no dysplasia or other problems in his hips, shoulders, elbows, knees, wrists or ankles.

We didn't find out about the discs until this spring when he had an acute problem with his back and was in obvious pain.

Natalie

[pat3332]

Re: Pet Insurance

I can definitely see both sides of the issue and there are more variables than I had originally thought about.

If I got a new puppy today, I would probably do it, but I just haven't quite decided what to do about my current herd of critters.

Pat

[k9diabetes]

Re: Pet Insurance

He wasn't required to have an extensive exam to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with him. Although even if he'd had one, I don't think these particular problems would have been obvious.

There are also exclusions for known problems by breed. We don't know if he's a purebred border collie or not. He was adopted out to us as a mix.

Natalie

[Jaye]

Re: Pet Insurance

According to Trupanion's website and the info I was told, they don't make exclusions based on typical hereditary problems due to breed (sounds almost too good to be true). I asked specifically about bad teeth, because my little Callie is a poodle and they are notorious for that.

I was told that if I am following the vet's advice on having dentals done and brushing her teeth, I will be reimbursed for items dealing with bad teeth. A routine dental would not be covered, but extractions would. Haven't tested that yet.