Who does and who doesn’t?

I currently do, almost £25 a month for a Jack Russell and a Lab. Which adds up to a lot over the years, but I don’t have £1000s spare if they need something big doing. I don’t think it would be responsible to own them with no means of paying for any veterinary care they might need.

Suppose it boils down to how much one is prepared to take a chance on it. I’ve thought about self insuring, but it wouldn’t be enough for anything big I don’t think.

£25 is not much less than the gym subscription I’ve just cancelled because I walk the dogs instead of going there.

I think I’ve almost answered my own question, but anything I’ve not considered yet?

yeah, if like me you dont have any spare savings at the moment insurance is a good idea IMO.

ygm

oops wrong thread!

Always planned to take it out when I got my old Lab, never sorted it and she got ran over. A £1.5k vets bill to fix her wiped our plan to go to NYC for our honeymoon which would have been 10.9.2001 so worked out ok really.

I got my dog from the Dogs Trust in Leeds. Half Husky, half GSD. He was over 7 when I got him, and had an ear problem, so they gave me a certificate that, when presented to my vet, means that they’ll pay for all his treatment.

Healthiest bloody dog I’ve ever had (touch wood)…!

E & I are pretty competitive as insurance goes. And in the long run, its worth it I reckon; my dog still makes me piss myself with his long list of eccentricities…

Here in Germany 3rd party insurance is compulsory for dogs as well as an extra dog tax which gets progressively more expensive per dog the more dogs you have. 😕

Self insure

Put the £25 into something like Egg Money & use that to pay vet’s bills

Put the £25 into something like Egg Money & use that to pay vet’s bills

£25 Will get you through the door.

Self insure

Put the £25 into something like Egg Money & use that to pay vet’s bills

Which is a good idea but if you dont have a spare couple of grand stashed to start with you could find yourself coming a bit unstuck especially given the lack of O% credit card deals available now (they all have handling fees etc.)

We do, to cover the 3rd party liability in case she escapes and causes an accident.

We self insure for all sorts of things inc. the dogs & cat
in fact everything we can except buildings & contents

Works for us we’ve managed to take a dividend out each year to pay for the family summer holiday

We have 5 labradors and have been lucky so far that only one has needed expensive surgery. Basically we insure them up to the point where the premium gets so high it is not worth it – combination of age plus any other claims.

You can get the cover price lower by accepting terms like higher excesses and non payment for the first £x of drugs etc. Check these carefully in any policy you take out – they vary a lot between insurers

Do any cover broken doggy jaws caused by cyclists?

I used to work on a farm in my youth, the farmer had dog insurance, it was called a 12bore

I’ve only got a Gat gun, so it would take quite a few goes, which some people might consider cruel.

My thoughts…
Do you really want to be put in the position of… I can’t afford all the work to get my dog back to normal, so I’ll have it put down.

We’re got dog insurance for both our dogs. One dog has £6,000 a year spent on her, if she didnt, she would’ve been put down well over 8 years ago.

I know my vet very well and when an animal comes in that needs work.. They see it like this…

vet: has this animal got insurance?
nurse: yes.
vet: right, let’s do x-rays, blood work, some more blood work, blah blah blah

If you don’t have insurance it goes like this:
vet: got insurance?
nurse: no.
vet: oh, we’ll do an x-ray and see what that turns up, then we might need to do some blood. (this all takes longer, poor animal)

Basically if its insured, they throw the book at it, use the best drugs, get all tests done and so on. If its not, its a trade off between what the dog needs and what the owners can afford. Usually this results in longer treatment, and a lot of the time, the animal is put down.. after all they dont wanna pay £12-£30 per month on insurance, they sure as hell don’t want to spend the £700 to get the animal back to normal.

Our youngest dog, had a little problem, and the bill came to well over £1000, thank god we only paid the excess of £50-£100.

BTW: You may struggle getting insurance for an older dog these days, also they will not cover it for anything it has had before… Say you went to the vets about an eye infection or something.. It will not be covered for that.. Get it done ASAP. 😉

I had a client recently who took out dog insurance with M&S and paid 2 months premiums before her new (very young) dog picked up a nasty infection in the local park and required £3000 worth of vet procedures. M&S paid up no problems and she thinks it’s the best money she ever spent!!

It’s like all insurance though, worthless to most but incredibly valuable to those that do have to make a claim. Insurance is just peace of mind at the end of the day.

Do you really want to be put in the position of… I can’t afford all the work to get my dog back to normal, so I’ll have it put down.

No. Not one bit. They’ve both been insured since 8 weeks so it’s already in place.

Basically if its insured, they throw the book at it, use the best drugs, get all tests done and so on

Hadn’t thought of that.

Really, I just needed convincing that it’s not a complete waste of money. Which I suppose you don’t know until afterwards.

It’s M&S that ours are insured with. That moneysavingexpert chap reckoned they were one of the best.

if something goes wrtong, how much will a new dog cost?

if something goes wrtong, how much will a new dog cost?

For a Lab with good pedigree upto £750 and more if it’s from good gun dog strain.

I suppose it depends on whether your dog is a member of your family or an animal that you like to have around. If the former then it makes sense to pay thousands to ensure that it receives better medical care than many children do. If the latter then it can take its chances, you can always buy another that will be just as good.

😐

If the latter then it can take its chances, you can always buy another that will be just as good.

Very unlikely to be as lucky to get one as good as our Lab in a hurry. She was a fantastic Gun dog until her accident which meant she could only do half days, she is however incredibly soft never snarled, growled or showed aggression at anyone. The kids sit on her, pull her ears, poke her in the eyes and pull her tail half the time she won’t even twitch.

if something goes wrtong, how much will a new dog cost?

Ours cost £700 I think.. Put the price of vacinations, dog training and the such like, and you are looking at well over £2,000.

I think the average dog owner will spend more than £2,000 at a vets over the lifetime of a dog, really does depend on the dog though, Spaniels, Labs love getting into trouble! Although I’m not a vet!

‘pedigree’ saw a program on the box not long ago about pedegree’s…mmmm looked like a nice way to mess up the breeds….

amazes me that farmers fields get trashed if they plan GM crops but no-one goes round lopping the heads off those crazy looking wrinkly dogs that some dodgy breeder has produced…IMO

Got ours insured through Petplan and they’ve been fantastic. Currently costs about £28 a month but they pay out over £180 a month in medication (no, we’re not being cruel, it’s to manage a perfectly liveable with condition) and they don’t complain.

The excess goes up a little every year but it still works out in the dogs favour to have the insurance.

In December she needed emergency surgery on a ligament and joint that shredded itself – we thought her hip had dislocated until we got the call from the vet to say it was going to cost best part of £4k to get her fixed “But not to worry because Petplan have already agreed to pay”.

They also cover pre-existing conditions which a lot of insurance Companies won’t and they don’t just cover you for a single treatment for a condition they cover ongoing treatment as well even if it goes into another policy year.

I wouldn’t go anywhere else for Pet insurance.

oh, forgot to add, “6 grand a year on a dog……..”

pedigree’ saw a program on the box not long ago about pedegree’s…mmmm looked like a nice way to mess up the breeds….

You seen what the programme wanted you to see, I know several dog breeders and all were extremely annoyed by that programme. While it does go on it’s not all pedigree breeders, it’s like claiming all mountain bikers deliberately destroy trails to improve them for their selves.

Our boxer has had a few ops in her time so far, releiving a trapped nerve in her spine, removing growh on her gums, eye surgery, and a knee rebuild.

All in all its cost about £10k, and cost us about £3.5k in premiums over 10 years.

I dont regret paying for insurance at all.

However….. I do think vets are try and fleece you for as much money as they can. Our dog takes a small Anti-inflammatory tablet everyday. The local vet charges £1 per tablet, on the web you can get them 75% less per tablet. Also they tend to prescribe drugs that the nice drug rep sells them ie bloody expensive, when you can get a generic drug which is just as good.

We do, to cover the 3rd party liability in case she escapes and causes an accident.

and, let’s be honest, with Solo that’s money well spent.:-)

I do think vets are try and fleece you for as much money as they can.

They do when you’ve got insurance, same as garages, if it’s an insurance job the price goes up, if it’s not the cost stays down. Never had insurance for my dogs and never had any concerns about standard of care from the vet. But, I’ve been fortunate that when cruciate ligaments have torn and those £800 operations were needed the credit card could take care of it.