Why Get Pet Insurance?

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I decided to post this in the Puppy Madness group because I felt that is the first place that the majority of our new members, as well as the majority of our 1st time dog owners would spend a lot of time learning about the new member of their household.  When we first got our girls in April of 08 I didn't think too much about Pet Insurance.  However, the more I read about health issues here on DK and saw the amount of money it could cost me I started thinking about it.  Because we had two puppies that played really hard it wasn't long before we started to see that in the blink of an eye we could have a serious injury.  Just running through the yard and stepping in a hole could result in a broken leg ... you get the picture.  So, I started looking into different insurance and how much it would cost me.  I wasn't interested in something that was going to pay for the routine things because I knew up front I had to pay for those things and was ok with that.  It was the broken leg or hip dysplasia that was worrying me.  We took out our policy in March of '10 when the girls were two years old.  It was one of those things always on the list of things to do that just never got done.  Then I read a story here about an owner with some serious Vet bills and I stopped what I was doing, started researching insurance and did not stop until I clicked the complete to purchase policy button.  What a relief.  The girls were now covered and I didn't have to worry about it any longer.  So, I'm here today because we have just used our insurance for the first time.  As I was on the site today looking at our claim status I noticed that across the bottom of the screen they show the claims that have been paid recently.  Here is just a sampling:  $829.31, $500.20, $1579.67, $1207.20, $816.61, $1133.73, $1092.00, $629.12, $671.30, $5088.21, $1,000.00, $1,477.30, $3,186.70.  Those numbers in many cases are only a portion of the original charges when you consider deductibles and things like that.  However, a deductible is better than the whole amount.  Those are the claims that they indicate they paid yesterday.  They were for everything from vomiting to tumors to a broken tooth to CCL tear to cancer.  The days of $50 Vet bills are a thing of the past.  The good news is they can save so many of our beloved Pets now that they couldn't in the past, but it comes at a price.  If you don't have this kind of change sitting around that you would like to hand over to your Vet, I urge each of you to consider stopping and investigating Pet Insurance now.  Don't wait until it is too late.  Once a note is made in your Doodles file, it is too late.  Please, stop and think about what you would do if your puppy got seriously sick and the Vet told you it was going to cost $3000 to save them?  Could you write a check?

[Jen St. Louis]

Our vet has referred to us as the poster children for pet insurance.

Our previous pup, Merlin, was a mini-schnauzer, and he had every single thing that could possibly go wrong with a mini-schnauzer. He had eye infections, bladder stones, chronic pancreatitis (one bout of that - including the diagnosis - cost $4,500), cysts that needed to be removed, he went blind, developed diabetes, and, finally, seizures. If we hadn't had pet insurance, we would never have been able to know that we did absolutely EVERYTHING possible to treat all his issues and make him as comfortable as possible, especially during the last year and a bit of his life. When he started losing his sight, we took him to specialists to have him diagnoses. When he developed diabetes and then seizures, we worked with our vet to try every combination of medications possible. Over the last six weeks of his life, we easily spent more than $5,000 on treatments - most of it was covered by insurance. So, when we eventually made the heart-wrenching decision to let Merlin go, we were confident that we'd done everything we could for him. If we hadn't had insurance, we never would've been able to afford to treat him as long as we did.

So, needless to say, when we brought Mindy home, the first thing we did was sign up for pet insurance. I will never - ever - have a pet and not have her or him insured. I'd never be able to live with myself if I had to decide not to treat something curable in my fur baby simply because of the cost.

Insurance can seem expensive - we pay $70/month. But I will always consider it worth every penny if it allows us to get Mindy the treatment she needs, or even save her life.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Wow, you certainly did have to use yours.  Your policy seems a little pricey compared to ours, but possibly in Canada it does cost more!  Even at that you got your money's worth though.

[Jen St. Louis]

We actually got to the point with Merlin where we'd reached the lifetime limit in a few areas. That had nothing to do with our decision to let him go, but... yeah. You've gotta be careful with the company you go with, because there are some that will cut you off after a certain point.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Great reminder.  I'm so thankful that I got insurance for my guys when they were puppies.  With the IBS, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Pancreatitis it has more than paid for itself already.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

On PetPlan the Pancreatitis claims are normally some of the larger ones.

[Leslie and Halas]

I have insurance for Halas, and my mom has insurance for Barley.  Neither one of us has had to use it yet, but it's good to know it's there.  Like you say, with the way the 2 of them play together, it would be easy for one of them to get injured.  And Halas plays flyball, so there are possible sprains and other injuries there.  Barley is a jumper.  After a couple of awkward falls and some training to keep him from jumping, he doesn't do it as often, but there's still always potential for injury there.  Even something minor can cost hundreds of dollars.  And anything involving surgery would run into the thousands.  Even a very healthy dog can have a freak injury, so I like the peace of mind of having the insurance to pay for some of these things should they happen.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I definitely think if I were going to do agility or flyball I would have insurance.  Who knows what can happen.  One of the scariest moments I've had was just in the back yard blowing bubbles for Sophie to chase.  Seemed so innocent, but she jumped up in the air after one and came down wrong and was hoping on 3 legs.  Scared the crap out of me, but fortunately after a day or so she was fine.  I have learned that I don't have to rush to the vet for every limp, but I do have to pay attention to them if they don't get better fairly quickly.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Hopefully he gets a great Employee discount ... lol!

[Diane, Hurley and Sidney]

Out of curiousity which pet insurance did you buy?  There seem to be a few to choose from. 

[Leslie and Halas]

We have Pet Plan.

[Gail and Bailey]

Isn't there a pet insurance company that Doodle Kisses has a connection with and offers an initial discount?  I can't remember which one.  Is it Pet Plan?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, you can enter doodle but with microchipping, spay/neuter etc. You usually have more than you need since the maximum is 3 x 5% discounts.