Pet Insurance: A Good Idea Or A Waste Of Money?

Feb 28 1011 | Daffy

[Daffynition]

I have considered getting pet insurance on our new pup, but have heard that it is a waste of money because it doesn't cover all that you assume it does.

Does anyone have a pet insurance policy? Have you benefited from having it? Any other suggestions other than insurance?

Thanks in advance.

[Daffynition]

Dogs we’ve had in the past had cancers, bone disease, other life threatening stuff requiring surgeries have cost us a fortune [as any pet owner knows] ...during those years pet insurance was *new* and most vets weren’t on board with it.

Glad your sis had luck with it.

[Daffynition]

Sounds sensible. Thanks.

[Daffynition]

Sounds sensible. Thanks.

[Daffynition]

LOL.... that's after he chews through everything in sight!

[goseminoles]

Labs are prone to dysplasia, torn acls, cancer, and parvo. All very expensive to treat. Your call!!

[doberville]

We have have Dobies for 20 + years. They have many expensive genetic diseases: dilated cardiomyopathy, Wobbler's, Von Willenbrands. . .and as we recently discovered, liver failure.

One day in the emergency pet hospital was $800. Surgery was $3000 and diagnostic tests were extra.

Suffice it to say, I wish I had purchased pet insurance in advance.

[Daffynition]

Thank you. It’s a crap shoot at best. We’ve had those huge bills with past dogs and are trying to access the pros and cons.

[fremont_steve]

I’ve had pet insurance for our beagle for 4 years not and it has paid for itself 3 out of the 4 years, i.e. they paid us more than we paid them!

Typically you’ll get 30% reimbursement on most medical costs except for major stuff. This might be a breed specific as to whether it’s a good idea or not. Beagles seem to be part goat, i.e. they will eat ANYTHING. My Beagle has had to have her stomach opened up twice to remove stuff or she would have died. We didn’t have pet insurance the first time - we did the second!

The average cost of each of these episodes was $2500. The insurance paid for 50%-60% of it! What costs the most in MY area is the actual operation, then the typical 24 hours of observation in a pet hospital. The operation was covered and the the time in the hospital get’s partial coverage if I recall correctly.

So the bottom line is - it takes ONE major incident to make this stuff pay for itself. If you own a Beagle and don’t have it - you’ll go broke - or loose the dog.

[Daffynition]

His name is Winchester. He’s already been to the shooting range twice and is not gun shy...thank goodness... he’s going to be a water dog...hopefully.

[Duchess47]

My son’s pet insurance (purchased via the vet hospital) was $15.95 per month. Can’t convince hubby it’s worth it and have paid thousands of dollars in the past year in vet bills, would have been nice to have insurance to pick up part of that.

[osagebowman]

Liver disease is, IIRC, the 5th leading cause of doggy deaths. We have kept our CAH pup alive with acupuncture and chinese herbs for the past 17 months, don’t think pet insurance would pay for that. However, I wish I had activitated the “Activiate Now, and it’s free for 60 days” policy we got when we rescused her and discovered she had a cancerous mast cell tumor 50 days later :(

LSAggie (posting on hubby’s account)

[PA Engineer]

I NEVER thought I would pay that much just fix up a frikken cat with the best medical care, but dang I found I just could NOT do otherwise.

I know what you mean. We returned from a trip four years ago and found our oldest cat (10) rapidly deteriorating. We took him to the local "top" animal hospital (cash in advance) where he medically crashed upon arrival. He was diagnosed with feline ARDS. We had never heard of it before and told them to do what they could. Poor thing was in an oxygen chamber with IV hoses in every limb. The cost (specifically of the oxygen chamber) were astronomical. The third day we were going to make a decision to continue care. He was strong enough at that time to be removed from the oxygen chamber. It still took weeks of stomach feeding until he recovered.

They told us at the beginning the prognosis was very poor. We read up on ARDS (similar to human SARS) and were shocked about this mystery disease and how low the survival rate was. Had we known at the beginning we may have decided differently. Luckily he was one of the 3% that survived. It was a learning experience for the Vet Hospital (best practice) and us (get the insurance).

The cost was high, but we never regretted the decision. We do regret that we had not taken out insurance. Here is the "Old Man" in post 10.

[Atlas Sneezed]

Insurance always profits the other guy.

But if you can’t afford the cost to give your dog an expensive life-saving treatment, or the cost in heartache of putting him down because you couldn’t afford to save him, then get the insurance.

But for $500 a year, I’d say start a savings account in that amount, and self insure.

[HerrBlucher]

Now that is a wise and experienced "Old Man." Here is Felix getting his wrapping changed, and the external fixator:

[PA Engineer]

Poor little guy. There is just something about Tabbies. He is a beautiful cat.

[Daffynition]

What a beauty! He has the look in his eyes..*I know you are trying to help me...but I look ridiculous in this thing...and I will never never forget.*

[Daffynition]

Thank you. Spoke to the vet we're bringing him to and they recommend VPI insurance and they accept it in the practice. Found this comparison chart

[Daffynition]

We looked into the Banfield plan with PetSmart [we have a store locally] So convenience-wise it’s close and not that expensive. But if we have an emergency of any sort, the dog will not be covered/seen. As a wellness plan, it’s a pretty good deal, as far as I can tell but if there is an emergency, we will not have a rapport with a private vet [which we’d have to see anyway for the crisis management.]

[HerrBlucher]

Thanks!

[Daffynition]