pet insurance advice

[4 naving]

Anyone had any experience with pet insurance. I just got a dog and are wondering if I should insure or not.
Any info or experience would be appreciated as I don't have any experience with dogs and vet bills...

 

[OneMofo]

What breed? Would suggest it as vet bills tend to be pretty hefty.

 

[mike1303]

We looked into this as well. There was two main companies which I cannot remember now actually...
One had a $100 excess max which returned 100% of the bill the other was a percentage returned with no excess.

We weighed up the breed vs likeness of accidents etc, being a little dog not active with no known diseases being pedagree we decided against it.

 

[doc]

Tough decision.

I've had dogs all my life, and have only ever had one major expense (that is, outside of vaccinations). That turned out to be nearly 6 grand

If you have a "specialty breed", then the premiums will be dearer. What defines a specialty breed is dependant on the insurer.

When taking costs into account, remember that the Australian Veterinary Association now (since ~2009) recommends 3 yearly vaccination for dogs and cats (not the annual vaccination system used previously).

 

[sparra04]

our mini foxy has cost us nothing in 15 years,
our 16mth old bull terrier is already up to $460
roll the dice
we aren't insured
if the quote is too high then poor spot didn't make it

 

[4 naving]

Its a miniature dachshund. Most cover up to 80% of the regular fees, with or without an excess. some have annual caps. but at around $300/$400 a year im thinking of running the gauntlet. hell be around the house all nearly all the time so I think its safe enough.


Yea sparra, that reminds me of the old joke where 2 mates are in the bush. one gets bitten by a snake on the ass. the other mate rings a doctor on the sat phone and asks him what to do. The doctor said to suck the poison out of the bite. He hung up and his mate said "what did the doctor say" the other mate said "unfortunately your not going to make it"...

 

[tyler-k]

U

I was one that thought what can go wrong with a young dog when I got my Labrador. How wrong I was haha, I never took out insurance as I thought what a waste.

At about 3 years of age she started getting very sick so off the the vets. Long story short it was a 3 month battle to find what was wrong with her and about $2000 - $2500. Ended up being diagnosed as adisons disease in which her body can no longer control electrolytes in her blood and can no longer produce natural steroid.

So now I'm at the vet every 25 days getting an injection that does it for her and at $150 an injection I wish I had got the insurance now haha but would not know she is sick so I just cop it. But if I got a 2nd dog I'm not sure I would get the insurance still.

-Tyler

 

[scottyv21]

my gf n I have this thing for our dogs called "healthy pets plus" we have a maltese poodle and shitzu poodle, yep laugh it up boys, they're cute though. we get free dental checks for the dogs, one free blood test a year, and heaps of other shit its almost like bupa or medicare for ya dogs, you have ya joining fee which ya pay monthly and when it comes time to take them to the vet healthy pets plus pay half or a percentage of what you have to pay, last time we only had to $4 for a consult because HPP paid the rest, decided to get it after the moodle was like 8-10 weeks old n was sucking on a mushroom, she ended up with a terrible gut, vomiting every where and lost a lot of fluid, drooling from the mouth, well worth it considering it almost cost us 500, but with hpp it dropped it to around 300