Pet Insurance? Yea or Nay?

[kristenrice]

We just brought home our new furbaby. She is 10 weeks old and is 1/2 yellow labrador (dad) and 1/2 bullmastiff (mom). The owners said that she has NOT received her shots, but she has started her heartworm prevention and tested negative. I have her first vet appointment scheduled for Monday and I plan on getting her fully evaluated...hips, teeth, vaccines, etc. We are going to get her spayed too, as soon as possible.

I have no experience with pet insurance. Tell me the pros/cons, costs, plans...everything. Obviously, I won't get a policy in place by Monday, but it would be nice to know if there is anything in particular I need to ask the vet.

 

[cyndik1111]

We have priced some policies out before, and each time we came to the same conclusion..... not worth it. They don't cover a lot. And what they do cover, has limitations, copays etc. We just take the amount we would have spent on the policy and put it away in our "doggie fund". Also our vet has discount programs that we take advantage of. (wellness plans, good customer discounts etc.)

We are on our 3rd dog, and looking back, we would not have gotten any use out of the policy. There are lots of websites that let you compare. But I think they are pretty much a waste of money for the majority of dogs.

Perhaps someone else out there has had a good experience with the policies, and they could offer another side to it.

 

[jessrose18]

We too have priced it out and didnt see the benefit. Even the yearly checkup has a copay. We have a dog with addisons disease ($150 shot a month) for the last 6 years and it wouldn't have covered that, and wont after the fact either (no pre existing conditions). We just put some money into saving everymonth and hope that covers it. A doggie yearlyy checkup with blood work etc is around $200-250 at our vet. And of course stuff happens our yoshon got a bot fly last year to the tune of 1,400 of vet visits in 1 summer. Don't want to scare you, but pets can be pricey, but worth it!

 

[Happiest mommy]

have Trupanion insurance best decision I ever made

 

[lindsmom]

We wished we had gotten it for our shih tzu, but by the time we realized what her medical needs would be it was too expensive (premiums go up as they get older) and like a pp mentioned, no pre existing conditions. Next pup we get we will seriously consider insurance.

 

[JessB320]

I spent 10 years working as a vet technician, and I'm a pet owner if you can find a good policy it's worth it. You need to be careful because there a lot of polices that are a waste of money. I wouldn't buy anything that covers or has a "wellness" plan. This includes a yearly exam and vaccines, sometimes a small blood panel. You will spend less just paying the vets fees for that. If you are going to do it, do it now while the pup is young and has no known conditions. Insurance can be helpful if your pup every has a trauma, ie- broken bone, hit by a car, ate a foreign object etc etc . I will say putting money aside in a doggie fund is a great idea, but much harder to do than you may think, that money seems to be easy to spend on other needs. I saw Many many animals with totally fixable issues be euthanized due to cost. A broken leg or exploratory surgery can easily cost $1500-$2500 . So I guess my point is that pets are expensive and insurance can be a great idea, but you have to do some solid research to make sure your getting coverage you will actually use for a reasonable amount. If you do decide to get it, PM me and I can help you find the best policy for your family and new pup. Congrats on the new fur baby !!!!

 

[clm10308]

I have never had pet insurance for my kitties. We just got a shelter dog and I was thinking of insurance, but I am leaning against it.
We use Care Credit for some (people) medical expenses, and I just discovered that we can use the Care Credit at the vet as well. I think we will just put aside a pet fund and use the Care Credit if we ever need to finance a large amount.

 

[Gigi22]

We purchased pet insurance for both our cats. The insurance we got is less expensive because it is designed to cover major illnesses and accidents, not wellness appointments. Coverage is 80% of costs over a yearly base amount, the base increases with the animal's age. To date we have paid out more in premiums than the value of the claims we have made, but we purchased the insurance for peace of mind more than anything. I don't want to ever have to weigh the cost of treatments for my pets against their lives.
We are in Canada, our monthly premium for our 10 year old cat is just over $40 a month.

 

[skatermom]

I have triupanion for my dog. I didn't get it until after he broke his leg and needed all kinds of hardware to put it back together. We have now spent @ 7000.00 on that leg because infection set in and a second surgery was needed to remove that. I wish I had purchased pet insurance before that happened... I would have been reimbursed 90%... Oh well, the rest of his body is covered by insurance!

 

[Dorothy22]

I have a bullmastiff too! I looked into insurance plans for him but they were all too expensive because he had (still has) hip dysplasia, and they wouldn't cover that. Besides for HD-related costs, I didn't expect to have that many bills, and all the policies I looked at all had yearly deductibles too, which means they wouldn't pay a thing until I met the yearly minimum payment out of my own pocket, usually about $250-$500.
We ended up deciding to foot all the bills ourselves, by putting away a little extra money every week. I also have a pet insurance alternative plan through my work called Pet Assure, which is actually a discount program and covers a flat 25% on the bill (and it's actually discounted on the spot, as opposed to filing for reimbursement), so that helps a bunch...
Otherwise I would say unless you're expecting a large accident, insurance will probably not end up paying for itself.

 

[kristenrice]

Thank you, everyone, for your input.

We took Roxy to the vet today and she checked out pretty good. Her fecal test was positive for roundworms but she received her dewormer today so the vet said that should be cleared up by her next visit. The vet said that her left knee has a bit of luxation (it's a little loose and her patella slides a little more than normal) but she believes it will tighten up as she grows.

We were both a little confused about her breed mix...she has fuzzy ears which aren't labrador OR bullmastiff. She is almost colored like a shepherd, she has the black "eyeliner" eyes, and a black muzzle. We were going back and forth, hypothesizing what she is when we decided that we're going to call her "not a purebred". She's our "NAP" dog!

My husband (who was a purebred snob) absoulutely ADORES her and wants to claim her as his own. In fact, he told me that I could go back and buy her little sister too. The owners still have the runt left and she was SO adorable too! Small, but colored very much like a Rottweiler....WTH? I'm a little torn about having two puppies. We did it before with the Rotties (they lived 8 and 9 years) but little Roxy is SO well-behaved and mellow that I do not want to "ruin" her by bringing another puppy into the house so soon. I'd like to get her good habits well-established before we start with another one.

I looked into some of the major pet insurance carriers (Trupanion, VPI, etc) and I came to the conclusion that they are a bit more than I am willing to pay right now. I think I may start the "puppy fund" and use it towards any unexpected emergencies.

 

[Tabetha]

If you can make it work in your budget, it really is a good idea.
Our dog has used close to $10,000 in claims in the last 5 years - cancer (hopefully not common for others), eating a foreign object (super common) and gastroenteritis (also common).
He was in remission for 2 years, and we're just now finishing up a second round of chemo which isn't covered (maxed out his coverage last time) which we never could have afforded if we'd paid for it the first time around...

We bought the insurance after he was hit by a car in 2001 and cost us close to $10,000 - which is also common, and which also would have been covered.

Your dog is going to be big, which means she may have a tendency towards hip displasia later in life (maybe... but hopefully not). That alone, aside from the unpredictability of life and dogs (my dog is, admittedly, a trouble-making jerk of a terrier) would make me lean very heavily towards insurance.

My dad's a vet, and he's a fan of VPI, if that helps.

 

[snowace77]

I will tell you that pet insurance for us was very much worth it. I found a pet insurance (Embrace) that was $31.00 a month for our Great Dane and things that were hereditary are even covered under this plan. Back in the middle of June, our Great Dane had his stomach flip and we had to rush him to the animal hospital and have emergency surgery. The total cost for the surgery and a couple of visits afterwards due to complications, the cost ended up being $7,200.00. Embrace pet insurance covered all of this but $1900.00. This was a blessing not only for peace of mind, but also for my wallet. We are so close to our Great Dane "Jasper", that we would have spent the full amount to get him better. If you never have anything happen, then the money is not worth it, but you have that peace of mind in case something should happen. Like a said before, we are very happy we got this insurance from Embrace pet insurance. This allowed us to keep a family member alive, and we didn't have to stress out financially. From my side having gone through something with my Great Dane, it was very much worth it. I also should state that we only had this insurance 6 months before we had to use it. This insurance company always put us first and understood what we were going through.

 

[MickeyHereWeCome!]

It might be worth it if you started it as a pup and had one animal.

For us, it would cost a fortune each month. We didn't look into it until our animals were 7-8 years old. We've got 3 dogs and 3 cats, and it would cost over $500/month to cover all of them. Looking back on our previous animals, we would not have gotten our money's worth out of the insurance.

We just put some aside each month into our pet fund. That has worked for us.

 

[fakereadhed]

See that you live in MI too. Chances are that you are not too far from a rural area. We drive about 45 min away to a country vet that works primarily on large animals but also has clinic hours for small animals. We have done this in several places we have lived- even another state- so I know it's an option that can usually be found.

Even with the current price of gas, it's much cheaper, and they give great care. For example, total for last round of puppy shots was $16. Total. They are famous for waiving the $20(seriously) office fee if they find you brought your pet in for something they needed. I have never been charged an office fee for a sick pet. Neuter and umbilical hernia repair was $120.

Pretty sure insurance would be more expensive for us!

 

[Debbie Jean]

I purchased pet insurance shortly after I got my sweet little pound puppy 10 years ago when she was about a year old. Within a few weeks she needed a $3000 hip surgery That wasn't covered and the other hip was excluded from the policy. However, my little fur baby later developed seizures and a heart murmur as well as other illnesses that have required ongoing medical testing and care. The policy has paid for itself many times over.

Remember that any medical attention your dog requires, testing, surgery, etc. can be thousands of $$$ which can make for some very difficult decisions when it comes to a much loved member of your family. Even if I had never used the insurance I would still be glad I had it.

Buying pet insurance is only more expensive if you never have to use it! But that's really the nature of any "insurance", isn't it?

 

[RMAMom]

I can't say enough about Petplan Insurance. You can choose which level of coverage and they cover everything, even genetic issues like Hip Dysplasia.

 

[Friendly Frog]

I don't have it for my girls, but I wish I did! Now at 5 years it is too expensive.