Just got a sprocker pup and was wondering if its worth getting insurance on him ? been round dogs since i was a kid and we never had any insurance on any of them. so is it worth shelling out or just pay any vets fees that come along.

We won’t be able to help until the mandated puppy picture has been posted. It’s in the rules.

Some self insure by putting money aside. Make sure that any policy you buy covers whole life treatment. Some have limits on how much you can claim per year or condition.

(Apologies for the slight high jack)

Spooky – I’ve just joined the mutt club too and was going to ask what the stw insurer of choice is?

op – an alternative is to put the money to one side each month. There are a few n here that have had long term meds, or expensive injuries that insurance has covered. There will of course be those that have had no issues too. It’s pot luck.

I guess the other reason for insurance would be if you wanted 3P liability cover too I guess. It’s going to come down to whether you want to pay monthly or are happy with a potential unknown and possibly large bill. I haven’t decided yet either

From personal experience I would recommend insurance, but read the small print and go for life cover. Some policies only cover the illness/condition for the year it is diagnosed, life cover covers following years up to a pre defined limit per condition.

Most people recommend Pet Plan, we used Healthy Pets, similar cover but cheaper. They paid the vet direct when we used them, and over the 5 years we we with them we paid between £200 – £300 per year, but claimed for thousands in treatment.

Just get petplan full life insurance. £25 a month, paid out thousands, my dog is five this year.

My Mrs worked for petplan for 15yrs eneded up leaving on bad terms but still insures with them as they are the best,cover for life is the policy to get but check small print as once your dog hits a certain age and depending on breed things will start getting excluded…

Tesco do an A&E cover (I think they call it) which covers you for one off accidents like it getting hit by a car or falling off a cliff and so on, but not long term illness. Thats a fixed premium of £6.25 a month per dog. I’m considering this along with the aforementioned self insuring as a reasonable middle ground – my M&S insurance is now £60 for two dogs.

Or lurcher is up to about £35 a month with M&S, only ever claimed £300 for some stiches. It seems like a lot to me but it does give us peace of mind especially as we don’t have much in the way of savings at the moment.

Yes, Insure.

I use PetPlan for my 5 month old Choc Lab. Due to a trip to the emergency vets on New Year’s Day I have already had more out of them than I’ve paid In

I use animal friends they’ve been good with paying out so far. We have lifetime cover also. A little under 25 a month for a 5 year old black lab.

We were insured with MoreThan but the premiums started shooting up and across two dogs & two cats we were paying nearly £150 per month !

One of the cats had an ongoing kidney problem. MoreThan always paid out for treatment but made a % deduction because of the cat’s age and of course there was an excess too. I think it worked out that we got about half the cost back.

We now have some basic cover for the dogs (can’t remember who with, sorry), nothing for the remaining cat and decided we’d just pay it if anything comes up that’s not covered.

Insure if you can’t afford the one offs and don’t want to face the hard choice that goes with it.
As with all insurance it’s in he details so read the info before making a decision. It’s important if you go with things like whole life cover as they will tie you to that company if you use it.