What should I look for in dog insurance?

[mojitomax]

Hi all

We've just taken in a rescue dog and are looking for insurance. However there are so many different types, it's a bit baffling.

Is there anything we must have or anything to avoid?

Thanks

[LeftMuffin]

I would recommend a life time policy.
When we got our pup this time last year. We where in the same position. Petplan wanted over £100 a month for their top cover. We ended up going with John Lewis for £48 a month and £10k worth of cover a year

[fistofsteel]

PDSA insurance lifetime policy, 7k limit. Will be pretty cheap for a young crossbred dog. This insurance isn't well publicised as they aren't paying reps to travel the length of the country in 61 plate audis.

[scdan4]

Get a decent level of cover per injury / event as well.

We burnt to the claim limit incredibly quickly - the insurance pretty much just paid for the diagnosis, which then left us having to fork out for the treatment. Vets bills are scary.

If you learn this the hard way (ho hum) then if you want to up your level of cover you have to sacrifice the "for life" element, which is far from ideal!

[zip929]

We spent over 6k on our last dog and this was after the £3.5 k of insurance cover run out.

Get as much cover as possible, the vet bills can be eye watering.

[mojitomax]

Thanks for the help guys

[Xtriple129]

One of your dogs is with Sainsbury's for £12.45 per month and I cannot reccommend them highly enough. When she nearly snuffed it after swallowing the knuckle end of an "indestructable" rubber bone, was operated on to remove and then got peritonitus the bills ran away rapidly.

They coughed up to the limit (£3K) without a murmour and we had to pay the other two grand, but that was our fault for not realising how much the bills could get.

The dog recovered and is fine by the way.

[Defcon5]

What does a lifetime policy policy mean? Fixed price premiums for the lifetime of the animal?

[fistofsteel]

Xtriple129 said:

One of your dogs is with Sainsbury's for £12.45 per month and I cannot reccommend them highly enough. When she nearly snuffed it after swallowing the knuckle end of an "indestructable" rubber bone, was operated on to remove and then got peritonitus the bills ran away rapidly.

They coughed up to the limit (£3K) without a murmour and we had to pay the other two grand, but that was our fault for not realising how much the bills could get.

The dog recovered and is fine by the way.

I had a similar case to this where the manufacturers of the toy paid the difference. Just saying like...

[Piglet]

Full life means that the insurer will pay for the same condition more than once, without it if you're dog develops say epilepsy the insurer will pay once and then exclude the condition so no cover on an ongoing basis.

We have £4k's worth of cover and have maxed it two out of four years so I'd go higher to start with (once your dog has preexisting conditions you will be stuck on that policy as we discovered)