Pet Insurance?

[Immadismom]

Does anyone have any experience with pet insurance? We recently lost one of our dogs to a disk issue in her back. Surgery was not an option for her, as she was 14 yrs old, and had Cushing‘s Disease. Our vet would not recommend the surgery with her age and health history. So we were forced to put her down. We have another 10 yr old dog, and are considering adopting a puppy soon.

I work in auto insurance, and am a firm believer in protecting yourself from the unknown as best you can. We just never really though about pet insurance until now. If our dog had been younger & healthier, we could have been facing a $10k surgery cost. That’s not exactly pocket change, and I don’t want to be forced to decide on any pet’s life based on cost alone. Especially after seeing the impact this loss has taken on our family.

Please share your experiences with pet insurance & which company if you can. Thanks!

 

[mefordis]

We have ASPCA pet insurance and it has done a great job at paying out 90% (after deductible). My dog had surgery on his skull and they paid almost all of the 10k bill. We pay under $200 a month for both dogs and especially as they get older I feel it's well worth it.

 

[JaxDad]

I went through the same situation with my dog. The vet recommended against procedures that likely would not have made a significant difference and would have cost several thousand dollars. If he (and at least one other vet) had recommended going ahead, I had already decided I would have bitten that financial bullet. I felt like an idiot for not having the insurance. If I get another dog, I will get insurance.

 

[mefordis]

I went through the same situation with my dog. The vet recommended against procedures that likely would not have made a significant difference and would have cost several thousand dollars. If he (and at least one other vet) had recommended going ahead, I had already decided I would have bitten that financial bullet. I felt like an idiot for not having the insurance. If I get another dog, I will get insurance.

Most people don't have pet insurance. I wouldn't feel like an idiot at all for not having it. It's over 2k a year extra (for 2 dogs) out of our budget and a lot of people don't have that.

 

[winterwhite]

Most people don't have pet insurance. I wouldn't feel like an idiot at all for not having it. It's over 2k a year extra (for 2 dogs) out of our budget and a lot of people don't have that.

what on earth company are you with? I don't pay $2k a year for two horses insured for over $30,000 each. The dogs are basically free in comparison.

we got insurance on our dog when he was a year old, have carried it ever since, and it's $35/mo. The coverage has dropped as he's aged, but the premium has not increased. It's paid out a few times for him over the years. We are with Healthy Paws.

OP, be aware that for a 14yo dog, the coverage limits will be so low that of that 10k, you may have only been reimbursed 1 or 2k. It makes sense for a younger dog but the coverage limits on a 14yo would probably max out at 30 or 40% of the bill, after diagnostics and aftercare.

 

[Immadismom]

what on earth company are you with? I don't pay $2k a year for two horses insured for over $30,000 each. The dogs are basically free in comparison.

we got insurance on our dog when he was a year old, have carried it ever since, and it's $35/mo. The coverage has dropped as he's aged, but the premium has not increased. It's paid out a few times for him over the years. We are with Healthy Paws.

OP, be aware that for a 14yo dog, the coverage limits will be so low that of that 10k, you may have only been reimbursed 1 or 2k. It makes sense for a younger dog but the coverage limits on a 14yo would probably max out at 30 or 40% of the bill, after diagnostics and aftercare.

I am seeing this with most of the policies. I don’t expect that we’d have chosen the surgery at that age anyway. But, for a 5 or 6 yr old healthy dog, I don’t want to be forced to put the dog down solely because of the cost factor.

 

[mefordis]

what on earth company are you with? I don't pay $2k a year for two horses insured for over $30,000 each. The dogs are basically free in comparison.

we got insurance on our dog when he was a year old, have carried it ever since, and it's $35/mo. The coverage has dropped as he's aged, but the premium has not increased. It's paid out a few times for him over the years. We are with Healthy Paws.

OP, be aware that for a 14yo dog, the coverage limits will be so low that of that 10k, you may have only been reimbursed 1 or 2k. It makes sense for a younger dog but the coverage limits on a 14yo would probably max out at 30 or 40% of the bill, after diagnostics and aftercare.

ASPCA as I stated above and they already have paid about 15k worth of medical bills and we've been with them for 2 years. They pay up to 20k for each dog per year with a $500 deductible. They paid for a 10k surgery for my then 3 year old. So far we are way ahead of the game, but insurance isn't about breaking even it's about not being blind sided by thousands of dollars in medical bills all at once.

We are looking at about 4k worth of dental bills that they are paying 90% of, too. Well worth it for us.

 

[monsterkitty]

After we lost a dog to cancer, we bought pet insurance for the puppy we got after we lost the other. Best investment we've ever made!

When Sharkie was about 7 months old, he ate a foreign object and had to have surgery. Then that got infected so he had to have a second surgery. Total for both surgeries was around $16,000 because you know this always happens on the weekends or after hours when they have to call people in.

Almost exactly one year later, Sharkie did the same thing. This time the object was in his stomach so it wasn't as bad. Or so we thought. There was a squeaker from a toy that wasn't able to be seen on the x-rays because it was stuck in the scar tissue of his surgery the previous year. So he got to have surgery again. Unfortunately, he got sepsis again and they could have done another surgery but he only had a 30% chance of survival and at this point he'd lost too much of his intestines so we made the incredibly difficult choice and had him euthanized.

With all these surgeries, the cost was over $31,000. We paid 6k.

Healthy Paws will forever be our carrier for our new puppy.

 

[mefordis]

After we lost a dog to cancer, we bought pet insurance for the puppy we got after we lost the other. Best investment we've ever made!

When Sharkie was about 7 months old, he ate a foreign object and had to have surgery. Then that got infected so he had to have a second surgery. Total for both surgeries was around $16,000 because you know this always happens on the weekends or after hours when they have to call people in.

Almost exactly one year later, Sharkie did the same thing. This time the object was in his stomach so it wasn't as bad. Or so we thought. There was a squeaker from a toy that wasn't able to be seen on the x-rays because it was stuck in the scar tissue of his surgery the previous year. So he got to have surgery again. Unfortunately, he got sepsis again and they could have done another surgery but he only had a 30% chance of survival and at this point he'd lost too much of his intestines so we made the incredibly difficult choice and had him euthanized.

With all these surgeries, the cost was over $31,000. We paid 6k.

Healthy Paws will forever be our carrier for our new puppy.

I'm so sorry about your dog. My dog almost ate an airpod yesterday!! That was such a close call.

 

[mrsstats79]

We adopted 2 dogs last year. We have had dogs for 40 years and never took insurance. However, our last dog was diabetic and we had bills of over $7,000 when he had pancreatitis. This time we decided to take the insurance and boy are we glad we did. One of the dogs got sick and we had a bill of about $8,000. We had to pay 10% and the deductible but it was well worth it. We have Healthy Paws but I would shop around.

 

[dclpluto]

I have pet insurance on one dog got two dogs.
the one we have pet insurance for is for the older dog. She’s 10 and a half. I will never get pet insurance again. They paid out great for our one dog that died last year. You are most likely better off putting the money into a savings account for the money that you will be spending on the pet insurance. Most times you will come out ahead. I’m not going to stop it on the older dog but will never get it again.

 

[dvcgirl67]

We have ASPCA pet insurance and it has done a great job at paying out 90% (after deductible). My dog had surgery on his skull and they paid almost all of the 10k bill. We pay under $200 a month for both dogs and especially as they get older I feel it's well worth it.

I've never carried health insurance on my dogs, but sure wish I had for the last two years. I'm looking at it currently for our 3rd dog who is three years old. We've spent 10 grand in the last couple of months just on my 9 year old Airedale who had an issue with her spine and needed an MRI (thankfully she's going to be ok), and my almost seven year old schnauzer who needed her teeth cleaned, but had to have special monitoring because of a rare autoimmune issue she has. I'm not sure if insurance would cover the on-going issues with her...she's diabetic now and needs frequent visits, lab tests, meds..etc.

We have the three dogs now, but are going to "downsize our pack" as they move on, hopefully several years from now. We plan to have one small dog in the future...which will not only be cheaper, but the plan is to take the pooch with us when we travel to many destinations. This latest run of health issues is for sure the most expensive period we've had with any of our dogs.

 

[tasha99]

We have Embrace pet insurance on my two cats, but with a $1000 deductible to keep the costs down. It's $10 per cat, per month with a USAA discount and paying the premiums annually. I think it's worth it even though they're indoor cats, because if a cat eats a string or a hairband, it can cost thousands. I like it that the deductible is high enough to make it so we won't likely need to use it--I hate paperwork and would rather just have it for an emergency. We likely won't keep it once the premiums go up, because their risk of accident will go down as they get older. I've had old, sick cats before, and cost wasn't the limiting issue with treatment--it was that the treatment seemed cruel for an elderly cat who wouldn't understand a surgery that wasn't likely to be fully successful. Sooo . . . we have it it for the young, accident prone years.