We’re 2 weeks into having our lives turned upside down by a working cocker spaniel puppy. He came with 1 month’s insurance (Petplan) but we want to continue get some more permanent insurance in place before it expires. One of his parents has been DNA screened against the usual hereditary conditions but I’m still leaning towards lifetime cover. I’ve used the comparison sites and Animal Friends seemed pretty good value compared to the rest – however a quick Google brings up a lot of disgruntled customers… and they’ve also been featured on Watchdog.

So, who do you use? What level of cover do you have? And if you’ve claimed, how were they at paying out?

Thanks

Have a working Cocker and a working Springer and both have been with PetPlan on a lifetime cover policy for their whole lives. PetPlan might be more expensive, but they have paid up for one big op on each dogs in their lives without quibble.

M&S might be worth a look.

Can I also be the first to demand photos of the new dog??

Petplan all the way. Pay direct into your bank account, most vets do all the paperwork for you and never had a quibble from them about payment. Would definitely get lifetime cover as well.

PetPlan, whatever the most expensive is. We can hit the max cover amount in a year with 2 working dogs. I know some vets that will not accept insurance from certain insurance companies as they will not pay out and the vets are left without the money.

One dog aka Cloud, required major surgery on her knee and was done by the ‘top dog’ 😆 in veterinary surgery and cost over £12k, I think it was nearer £16k, Petplan paid out for that without hesitation. She maxes out the amount most years due to her Addison’s disease and we have never had a problem with Petplan.

Another dog had an even worse problem, I forget what it was, something about the glands destroying the red blood cells. It was my mother’s dog, so I don’t know the ins ‘n’ outs, but again that dog maxed the value every year for the 12 years she lived, not once did Petplan question the claims.

I would never choose anything else. Over the years we have made a lot of claims with dogs and cats.

I’m not sure it Petplan has changed, but with our vet it went like this..

Do you have insurance?

No… Ok we can try this, if that doesnt work, we’ll try this, if that..

Yes… £3k limit… ok we can try this and this, if that doesn’t work we’ll try this.

Yes we have the top Pet Plan.. Ok! We’ll throw everything at it, do all the tests.

The end result it the animal can get diagnosed quicker and treated quicker. Obviously this is all down the complexity of the problem/diagnosis.

BTW: If you dog is more than a year or two old, or you lapse in your insurance, you will struggle to get insurance.

I also have to give you brownie points for getting the DNA screening, as its a cocker I insist you also get the hip dysplasia screening/x-ray done, as its becoming more common in Cockers.

Can I also be the first to demand photos of the new dog??

Will see what I can do…

Thanks, I’ll get a proper quote from Petplan. What are you guys paying if you don’t mind me asking?

What Monde said.

No idea what the price is, I know its a lot. But I don’t care about the cost, we got 12 years out of a dog that would’ve been put down after being 2 years old due to costs. I think most people wouldn’t justify/afford £12k vet bills for a dog and would’ve had it put down.

But I do know the price never goes down!

Yep, PetPlan are great. My boy Frank snapped his ACL and needed specialist surgery, total bill came to over £4k (which was about how much the insurance had cost us over the 9 years) and apart from the excess, not a penny came out of my account, the vets and vet hospital both claimed directly from PetPlan. How the hell PetPlan make in any money is beyond me, but long may they continue!

Dont bother – put a sum of money each month into a ‘vet account’ and let the pool build up for any rainy days

Most vet work comes in just below the standard excess charge (hmmmmmm) so you end up paying most of it anyway.

As above, PetPlan are the bench mark, excellent cover, excellent claims service and often claims dealt with between vets and the insurer.

Have a shop around if you want but use them as a yard stick to compare covers.

We opted for them as you never know what may occur in the first 4 years (often this is when hereditary diseases rear their head) and the life cover becomes invaluable.

We were just about to cancel it and go for a cheaper option when our dog was 6 years old and having never claimed. She then goes and cuts her leg open on some metal while running. Vets dealt with everything, i just popped in, paid the £75 Excess, signed a form and done. Bill would have been £700, eeeeep!

Have now decided to just leave it where it is as i’m more than happy with that kind of service.

awwwwwww, what a cutie!

I agree with teamhurtmore

I put the equivalent payments in an ISA.

It puts me back in control with the vets as I often thought previously that my dogs had been given unnecessary tests as the vets ‘go to town’ when they know insurance will cover the costs. This obviously depends a lot on the quality and scruples of the vets.

That said a 12k bill would obviously lead to be being in deficit. But with three dogs the isa builds up quickly.

With just 2 dogs our claims have come in at a total of approx £252,000 over their lifetimes, one is still going aged 9. An ISA wouldn’t have covered it, but they have been rather special cases. I’m sure I couldn’t have saved £252k in the their lifetimes.

a working Cocker and a working Springer

We’ve that combo too but have insurance for neither, and never have.

The Cocker is 9 y/o and the Springer 3 y/o. All in spend I reckon is in the low hundreds, and the majority of that was when the Springer split the back of his foreleg earlier in the year.

We’ve also horses too, and never had insurance for them either.

All back to risk, and how you want to look at it.

With just 2 dogs our claims have come in at a total of approx £252,000 over their lifetimes, one is still going aged 9

That is a stupid amount of money to spend on 2 dogs!

think we use argos, had tesco before, we usually pick the cheapest. this could be a mistake after reading this thread so ive just tried to get a quote from petplan.
not sure theyll insure him tho as it implies that theyll only insure over 8 weeks old from a petplan approved breeder. that right?
also didnt know what to put under the pedigree/cross section.

we bought him from t’internet locally, no papers, hes a jack russell altho a small one. saw mother, was told father was a jack russell too, but does that mean you can put pedigree?

or should i just forget it if im right about them not insuring unless from an approved breeder?

thanks

Dont bother – put a sum of money each month into a ‘vet account’ and let the pool build up for any rainy days

If we had put aside Huxley’s premium payments for the time we had him we would still have been £2k light for his final work before we had him put down. Vet fees seem to have increased exponentially in the last 5 years or so.