Is having a pet insurance worth it - for a puppy? I realised that it doesnt cover a lot. Just wanting some advice :)
Pet Insurance
goldfish94 on 07/02/2018 - 11:52
Last edited 07/02/2018 - 12:16
Last edited 07/02/2018 - 12:16
Comments
Probably not.
Depends on your pet breed.
Some breeds (more purebreads and "oodle" mixes) can have more health problems and you could be visiting the vet a few times a year.Some insurance policies cover your yearly vet visits + accidents, and some policies only cover accidents?
Look into your home insurance policy, as you can sometimes add your pet to it's policy without affecting the price too much.
I think it is worth it for the first year of a puppy's life until you get to know it. Some aspects of their behaviour you can influence by training, but they will also have different personalities.
If the dog turns out to be one that keeps testing boundaries, the type of dog to escape if a gate is accidentally left open, or to eat stupid things (after the chewing phase has passed - lots of labradors etc sometimes continue to try to eat stupid things like socks in their older age), then I'd probably keep up pet insurance.
If it is a more sedate kind of dog, personally I would self-insure, just put aside a similar amount each month to build up savings in case something bad happens.
I don't think it will be worth it to recoup normal costs like regular vet visits and tablets. More so you have options if something catastrophic happens and you're faced with a choice between a very expensive vet bill, and putting down a dog you have come to know and love.
What advice you want?
What puppy you got?I have pet insurance with RSPCA. Granted I didn't use it much in the early years, it has paid out thousands over the last year and helped me stay calm when my dog was sick and needed some very expensive tests done.
I recently took it up for my lovely spoodle.
I was worried because I know that I would struggle if he was sick and the cost was $1000s to fix, I don't know what I would do. It would be a really awful situation and I would probably regret any decision just because of the financial impact.
So I took it up and should this happen it's just that peace of mind.
A puppy I would imagine would be inexpensive, or maybe you'd be able to do just the accidental cover (usually the base cover).
Tip: I went with Pet Insurance Australia. Don't buy the day you get a quote, wait a few days and you'll get Facebook retargeted with an extra month free.
If you don't have pet insurance be prepared to put the dog down if things start to get serious. We got pet insurance for our last cat after we racked up a few thousand dollars in bills trying to save her brother. In the last few months of her life her vet costs came to roughly $10,000. Most of this was covered in the Pet Insurance. The problem is that everything with vets is expensive - it can cost you $1000 just to have your pet in an emergency centre on a drip for a weekend, the tablets aren't subsidised so medication is expensive, to determine what is happening with heart, kidney conditions etc they need to do repeated blood tests and might need ultrasounds.
In the case of a dog, if they eat something they shouldn't then you could easily be looking at an operation to remove it from the intestine, if they get out and are hit by a car that is x-rays, bone setting, repeated visits.
The real problem is you aren't thinking entirely rationally whilst your animal is in pain, particularly if it is relatively young and the prospects of recovery are OK or they have a chronic condition that can be managed by tablets.
My current two little kitties have pet insurance but they are Somalis which mean they are intelligent and active so there is no end of ways they could hurt themselves. We have a converted warehouse and they fly around the beams like the monkeys from the Wizard of Oz.
My 2c is if you are going to go down the Pet insurance path then:
a) Cover them for illness and accident cover. Standard vet visit cover isn't worth the extra expense.
b) Get it for at least the first year to start with in case you pet has any inherent issues, otherwise you won't be covered for pre existing conditions that may become obvious when you start looking after the pet. Once in place get the vet to do a good checkup of the pet to see if they can spot any issues.
c) If you don't have pet insurance by the time your pet reaches a cut off age, you won't be able to get it. So if you want to insure for when they get older get in before the cut off date
d) Make sure you get a continuing policy rather than a year to year one, some Pet insurance places decide that once they treat a pet for an issue in one year it becomes an exclusion as a pre existing condition from then on.
e) Make sure you get all your paper work lined up when you put in a claim and make sure your vet is onboard with this - we didn't have any issues with claiming but there are plenty of complaints out there of people not getting their claims paid. A cheap insurance rate is useless if the company doesn't pay out claims.
f) Even with insurance in place try to keep perspective on whether continuing is in the best interests of the pet. We probably should've pulled the plug earlier with our girl but, despite her health issues, she was actually still pretty good in herself until the very end; however pets can be very good at hiding how sick they are. As I said, perspective is hard when you are in the midst and the vets aren't, necessarily, the best at telling you to stop whilst the animal is still, relatively, comfortable but still likely to die soon.The biggest thing is keep on top of your pets health before they turn into an issue. Make sure you get the innoculations, do the tick check when the dog is out, keep the flea treatment up, check regularly to make sure your dog hasn't any lumps, keep an eye out to see if they seem "off". Our vet has us cleaning our cats teeth to try to stop gingivitis, so that is probably worth talking to the vet about. Make sure you dog has been properly trained and is used to being handled. Make sure it is socialised properly.
They cause us no end of trouble but I wouldn't be without my little girls. The insurance gives us the breathing space to be able to make long term decisions without too much financial pain - but the pet insurance costs are not insignificant. As first said - be prepared to put the pet down if they have a serious condition because the vet costs will make the insurance costs look like peanuts.
Probably not for a goldfish ;)