Pet insurance recs?

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Hi all,

Recently, I had a distressing few days with a very sick cat. My cat is fine (he had a urinary tract infection) but my wallet is a little less fine due to vet bills. I was wondering if anyone purchased pet insurance, and if so, what your experiences have been with it (and if you have any insurance providers/programs you'd recommend). Both my cats are 4 and have been perfectly healthy until this episode.

Thanks!

 

[SMC]

Hi all,

Recently, I had a distressing few days with a very sick cat. My cat is fine (he had a urinary tract infection) but my wallet is a little less fine due to vet bills. I was wondering if anyone purchased pet insurance, and if so, what your experiences have been with it (and if you have any insurance providers/programs you'd recommend). Both my cats are 4 and have been perfectly healthy until this episode.

Thanks!

I purchased Petplan for my dog. It was between Petplan and Trupanion for me, and I went with Petplan because they are a bigger company and had slightly better reviews. I use pet insurance like car insurance - it's really only for emergencies. Petplan doesn't cover routine care (wellness exams, shots, dental cleanings) but as a pet owner, you can budget for routine care - what you can't budget for are emergencies like when your dog gets hit by a car or eats a poisonous mushroom. My dog had to see a behavioral therapist for a fear of riding in cars - Petplan covered that too.

The good thing about Trupanion is that premiums apparently don't go up as your pet ages. The caveat is that they can increase the premium if they think that the costs of veterinary care have gone up (so there have been complaints from owners who thought their premiums would never go up).

I think that there are some pet insurances that cover routine care too, but those premiums are generally higher and may not be worth it to you.

If you google "pet insurance reviews" there are a bunch of sites that may help you with your research.

 

[chemgirl]

We use Petsecure and so far so good. The premiums are a bit high and do go up over time, but we have had some large claims and so far they have all been covered.

DH is mad at them at the moment because they have raised the deductible for our male kitty. He has juvenile arthritis and epilepsy so he is very expensive! They have payed out about 4k for his care so far and I understand how they see him as a liability.

Eta: just realized that Petsecure is a Canadian company so doesn't apply here.

 

[dk168]

My experience with pet insurance for my dog is that, I could only make a claim for his first scale and polish and extraction of a tooth 2 years ago, similar issues in the future will be excluded. I had to pay for his recent dental treatment myself, and he is not seven until next June! I have tried harder to keep his teeth healthy since then.

Can't remember exactly what's wrong with him at the time, however, the bill for seeing the vet, plus a course of painkiller and antibiotics came to just over the excess on his policy, so I could not be bothered to make a claim.

I am sceptical about whether pet insurances for my cat and dog are worth it at times, however, it is a peace of mind in case something major does happen to either of them.

DK

 

[TooPatient]

I looked into it a couple of years ago but there was too much fine print for me to want to bother. We don't need anything to cover routine care as that is something we can plan for. Now that we have a few younger animals in the house, I should probably look again to see what new plans are around. It would be nice to have something for major issues.

We've had multiple times where we've had to take one of our animals to the vet and ended up with $2,000+ bills. The thing we keep going back and forth on is if we'd really ever USE the insurance. The big vet bills usually only happen every couple of years or so and we keep savings for such things. If the deductible was large enough to keep premiums low it may not even be worth making a claim.

 

[monarch64]

B.E.G., sorry to hear your kitty was in pain. Here's hoping both cats have many more healthy years ahead of them. I know zero about pet insurance... just wanted to say it's nice to see you posting again and that I hope your beautiful cats (and you) are well.

 

[Luster_girl]

Sorry to hear that you kitty is sick. I have a new kitty that was sick and had to get insurance right away... Not sure where you are located but check out Banfield which is most commonly with Pet Smart.