Hi all - in the past couple of months there have been a couple of questions about Pet Insurance and what kind to get and is it worth it. Just wanted to share an ongoing saga (ongoing because as yet we've not diagnosed the problem). I have both dogs insured with PetPlan - and definitely recommend it. Chelsea (our whippet cross) is on a lower plan and has cover of £4,000 per year per illness which is re-instated each year with only £50 a year in excess per illness. Savannah (purebred) has higher cover - she is covered for £6,000 per year per illness same conditions as above.

Chelsea was showing signs of possible UTI (increased urination, some accidents etc) however there were atypical symptoms as well. Won't go into all the details as that's not really what's important. However, we have ruled out UTI, incontinence, kidney problems, glucose diabetes (she is drinking tons more than normal) and pretty much everything else you can do with urine samples and bloods in the first round or two of tests. All have come back negative and/or well within normal range. So that's good news in that everything so far is fine, but bad news in that there is still no diagnoses - so more tests....

Cost is already in excess of £100 (probably more like £200 when I go to pay today's bill for the labs). Of course we would ALWAYS run whatever tests necessary and do whatever necessary but the fact that we have insurance means that we only pay £50 no matter what we do. We will have an all day set of tests scheduled after the new year and who knows how much they will be. The fact that we have insurance means (especially at this time of year) we can go ahead and not have to worry about where the money will come from. We have been asked to pay up front, but if we couldn't afford it the vet would allow us to defer until the insurance came through - however, they have also said they will make as many little claims as necessary or do one big one whichever. So we're off to send the first claim through - in the past they've paid up within a week generally and 2 weeks over the Christmas period.

Anyway, just wanted to share why it IS a great idea. If it turns out Chelsea will have this for life (whatever it turns out to be) then all meds etc are covered for life minus the excess each year (and we all know how expensive those meds can be) - a LOT of policies just don't have that - they'd only cover for one year period.

Enough babbling - have a great holiday everyone!

Wendy (Chelsea and Savannah)

Wendy how is Chelsea getting on now? Leigh

Leigh

Thanks so much for asking. She seems to be doing better. She finished a course of antibiotics in case there was an underlying cause. We're now monitoring her water intake over the next two weeks then deciding whether to do a test for a water based type of diabetes rather than sugar based. Though I think I might wait on that. She's not back to what she was say six months ago, but she's much better than the past month or two.

I just wrote the above because I know there's been a few questions about pet insurance and thought it was a good case to say that an ongoing thing could cost a LOT over the years (she's only 4) and that Cover For Life (by either of the two companies that provide it) is definitely worth it in our case.

Thanks again for asking.

Wendy

I'm glad she is a little bit better. I hope you can get some answers soon :-) Keep us posted.

Leigh

what is the othe company that does life cover?

Bobby

HI Bobby - I'm not sure - I know if you do a search on the board for the other dog insurance links it should be there. It 'might' be PetPlus or something that sounds like that.

HOpefully someone else will read this and be able to help.

Wendy

Since reading Wendys and others storys about insurance I have been checking mine out and I'm not happy with it as there is a cut off point when the dog reaches 11 and also although they do not put an exclusions on an illness if it is ongoing they do stop paying once you have spent £5000 on treatment for that illness.
I had a look at PetPlan and when we get our pup I was going to insure her with them as well as change Sam onto their policy.
However today I came across this site :vet2pet and they do insurance by Pinnacle Health Care
I have spoken to them to confirm some points - your pet is insured for LIFE but you pay 25% of vets bills + excess for dogs aged 8 and over ( I believe this is the same with PetPlan),cover is £4000 per year ( for all treatment - not per condition) and each year you start again with this amount, excess is £40, they do have some cover in place for holiday cancellation, finding your pet if lost, accidental death of pet etc which the cheaper of the PetPlan policies does not.
Also if you insure multiple pets there is one months policy free per year for each pet ( plus 1st month free when you take out the insurance)
I got a sample quote done and for me in Lincolnshire it would be less than £21 per month to insure 2 Golden Retrievers (before any free months taken off)
I have asked for them to send me FULL policy documents as for the cost it almost seems too good to be true and as an all round package is the best I have seen. I appreciate the PetPlan £17+ for each dog has more benefits (although higher excess) but as an all round policy this appears to be pretty good value.
I will check it out fully and it is horses for courses and I realise that there is always the risk that if you take a policy like this something awful could happen and you need to spend more than £4,000 in a year but I hope to never be in that situation. It is certainly better than my existing policy in that respect as once I'd spent £5000 (even if spread over 3 years) they would not cover anymore for that illness and this excess is £10 less.
If I find some major snag with it I'll let you know but it might be worth some of you multiple pet owners checking it out for yourselves.
If any of you know anything vital about this policy that is a problem and I have missed it please let me know !!!
Sara :)
edited 2.02 p.m. 14th Jan

Sara

It does sound like a great deal. Pet Plan has £4000 per condition so this could work out to a better benefit if you have a couple of ongoing conditions, but I would believe it would be a rare case. Though I learned when I looked that our purebred who I got the better insurance for actually has £6000 per condition!

The rest seems relatively comparative so I think you probably have found a good alternative - particularly in light of the many that stop paying after a year or a max price.

With PetPlan I think with Chelsea (crossbreed) on the Budget Plan and Savannah (purebred) on the premium plan we pay approx £23 per month.

Wendy